‘Green News Report’ – August 6, 2020

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Yo, Semite! Trump signs major land conservation bill; Chemical fertilizer behind catastrophic Beirut explosion; Pandemic electricity shutoff moratoriums end as summer heat builds; Extreme heat could soon cause as many deaths as all infectious diseases combined; Shell Oil building offshore wind-solar-hydrogen farm; PLUS: Major side benefit of Northeast’s climate pact: healthier kids… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Death toll rises, power outages persist after Hurricane Isais destruction; New global standards for mine waste won’t prevent dam failures; Destruction of nature helps deadly diseases from wildlife thrive; Alaska Native Tribes petition to preserve roadless rules in Tongass Forest; Court striked down Trump Admin. plan to allow floating fish farms in Gulf of Mexico… PLUS: How to drive fossil fuels out of the US economy, quickly: The US has everything it needs to decarbonize by 2035…. and much, MUCH more! …

STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…

• Trump mispronounces ‘Yosemite’ as he signs permanent funding legislation for LCWF:
• VIDEO: President Trump Signs Great American Outdoors Act (C-SPAN)
• Public lands package may not save Daines, Gardner (E&E News)
• Port of Beirut, Lebanon destroyed in chemical explosion:
• The Beirut explosion was six years in the making and hit a country on its knees (NBC News):
  The disaster appears to have been caused by the very forces of negligence and perhaps corruption that had already brought the country to its knees.
• Negligence probed in deadly Beirut blast amid public anger (AP):
  Public anger mounted against the ruling elite that is being blamed for the chronic mismanagement and carelessness that led to the disaster. The Port of Beirut and customs office is notorious for being one of the most corrupt and lucrative institutions in Lebanon…Losses from the blast are estimated to be between $10 billion to $15 billion…nearly 300,000 people are homeless…Food security is a worry, since the country imports nearly all its vital goods and its main port is now devastated…Estimates suggested about 85% of the country’s grain was stored there.
• Chants of ‘revolution’ on streets of devastated Beirut as France’s Macron is mobbed by angry crowds (CNN):
  “This aid, I guarantee it, won’t end up in corrupt hands. I will speak to all political forces to ask for a new pact,” Macron said, adding: “I am here today to propose a new political pact. If they [the political forces] are not able to keep this pact, I will take my responsibilities.”
• Beirut Faces Crisis As Explosion Comes Amid Food Shortages, Economic Struggle (NPR)
• Beirut explosion: How ship’s deadly cargo ended up at port (BBC)
• Esper says ‘most believe’ Beirut explosion ‘was an accident’ after Trump claimed it was an attack (CNN)
• White House chief of staff defends Trump’s description of Beirut ‘attack’ (Politico)
• Beirut deadly blast: What makes ammonium nitrate so dangerous? (Deustche-Welle):
  Ammonium nitrate in its pure form is not dangerous. It is, however, heat sensitive. At 32.2 degrees Celsius (89.96 degrees Fahrenheit), ammonium nitrate changes its atomic structure, which in turn changes its chemical properties. When large quantities of ammonium nitrate are stored in one place, heat is generated. If the amount is sufficiently vast, it can cause the chemical to ignite
• Baghdad soars to 125 blistering degrees, its highest temperature on record (Washington Post):
  Extreme heat hits the Middle East, with records falling in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Syria…Record high temperatures have been plaguing the Middle East, the mercury soaring to extreme levels during a blistering and unforgiving heat wave. Baghdad surged to its highest temperature ever recorded Tuesday.
• Study: Extreme heat deaths will rise with man-made global warming:
• Valuing the Global Mortality Consequences of Climate Change Accounting for Adaptation Costs and Benefits (Climate Impact Lab/National Bureau of Economic Research)
• Rising temperatures will cause more deaths than all infectious diseases – study (Guardian UK):
  Poorer, hotter parts of the world will struggle to adapt to unbearable conditions, research finds.
• Extreme Heat Could Cause as Many Deaths as All Infectious Diseases Combined (Earther):
  If the world does not curb the rate at which it spews out climate-warming greenhouse gases, the death toll from extreme heat could nearly meet the current death rate of all infectious diseases combined…Heat waves are the deadliest form of extreme weather on the planet. Yet because individual deaths are infrequently attributed to surging temperatures, their impact is far less widely recognized than that of hurricanes or tornadoes.
• Heat-Related Deaths Have More Than Tripled in Some States. A New Report Blames Underfunding and Climate Change Denial (Weather Channel)
• Pandemic power shutoff moratoriums end as summer heat builds:
• Congress under pressure as states lift electricity shut-off bans during coronavirus crisis (Washington Post):
  “This is the worst possible time for a family to lose access to electricity,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who is sponsoring separate legislation for a federal ban on electricity and water shut-offs but hopes the restrictions will be included in the broader aid bill… But for months, investor-owned power companies have lobbied against federal intervention, arguing that it would be better for them to work with local regulators to respond to a viral outbreak that is hitting each state differently.
• AUDIO: ‘Tidal Wave’ Of Power Shut-Offs Looms As Nation Grapples With Heat (NPR)
• Los Angeles Mayor Says City May Shut Off Water, Power At Houses Hosting Large Parties (NPR)
• Deustche Bank ditches new Arctic oil projects, fracking:
• Deutsche Bank says it will no longer invest in fracking or Arctic oil as banks turn away from fossil fuels (Business Insider):
  The German lender is cutting ties with fracking projects in countries with scarce water supply, and aims to end business activities in coal mining by 2025.
• Deutsche Bank calls an immediate halt to future Arctic oil and gas investments (Arctic Today)
• General Motors teams up with EVgo to expand EV charging in U.S.:
• GM, EVgo to install 2,700 electric-vehicle charging stations (Detroit News):
  The installation, which will take place in the next five years, will triple the size of EVgo’s charging network with charging stations being added in 40 metropolitan areas to provide charging access to potential electric-vehicle drivers who rent their homes and can’t install chargers, who live in apartments or condos, or who don’t have charging stations at work.
• General Motors Partners With EVgo To Install 2,700 Fast Chargers Across US (Clean Technica)
• GM makes huge effort to increase fast-charging stations for electric vehicles (Detroit Free Press):
  The chargers are open to all EV drivers, not just GM vehicles, Barra said. The cost will be $5 to $15 to recharge, said Zoi.
• Cost of Charging the Chevy Bolt EV on Three Public Fast Charging Networks (Torque News)
• Shell Oil to build ‘super-hyrbid’ offshore wind farm:
• Super-Hybrid: Dutch Offshore Wind Farm to Include Floating Solar, Batteries and Hydrogen (GreenTech Media):
  Shell is chasing carbon-neutrality. A new project in the Netherlands offers a glimpse into how it may get there…The wind farm will be paired with a floating solar facility and a short-duration battery. It will also generate green hydrogen via an electrolyzer that CrossWind says will be used as a “further storage technique.”
• This hybrid offshore wind farm will be a green energy ‘supergroup’ (Electrek):
  Shell’s earnings report today was dire: The company’s profits plummeted 82% in the second quarter…So if it wants to survive, it must reposition itself quickly, and this is what it’s doing here with this new offshore wind project and plans for green hydrogen. But a truly credible transition plan from Shell would mean that it stopped drilling for oil and gas entirely.
• Northeast climate pact resulting in healthier children:
• Co-Benefits to Children’s Health of the U.S. Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (Environmental Health Perspectives)
• A Northeast US climate initiative has had a major side benefit-healthier children (Daily Climate):
  A climate change initiative in the Northeastern U.S. designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions has also greatly reduced harmful air pollution and related impacts to kids’ health, such as asthma, preterm births and low birth weights, according to a new study.
• Regional Emissions Pact Has Big Health Benefits For Kids, Study Finds (WBUR):
  “What makes this study particularly important is that it shows how we have so absurdly undervalued the welfare of our children in how we approach our public policies”…Perera estimated the cost savings from these avoided childhood illnesses to be between $191 and $350 million…”The cost estimates are conservative,” she said. That’s because severe diseases children “play out over their entire lifetimes, and they affect not just the child, but the families.”
• EPA’s Plan to Ignore Co-Benefits will Cost American Lives (Union of Concerned Scientists)

‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…

For a comprehensive roundup of daily environmental news you can trust, see the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Daily Headlines page

• Death Toll Rises, Mass Power Outages After Isaias Storm Destruction (AP)
• Court Allows Dakota Access Pipeline To Stay Open; Permit Status Unclear (Reuters)
• New Global Standards For Mine Waste Won’t Prevent Dam Failures: Critics (The Narwhal)
• Deadly Diseases From Wildlife Thrive When Nature Is Destroyed: Study (Guardian UK)
• Edenville Dam Owner Files For Bankruptcy (MLive)
• Alaska Tribes Petition to Preserve Tongass Forest Roadless Protections (Inside Climate News)
• The Politicians in FirstEnergy’s Pocket (Heated.World)
• Mine Consultant Agreed Nevada Lithium Plant In Danger (AP)
• Plan To Allow Floating Fish Farms In Gulf Of Mexico Struck Down In Court (NOLA)
• How to drive fossil fuels out of the US economy, quickly: The US has everything it needs to decarbonize by 2035. (David Roberts, Vox)
• Exxon’s Snake Oil: 100 years of deception (Columbia Journalism Review)
• What Does ’12 Years to Act on Climate Change’ (Now 11 Years) Really Mean? (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (The Intercept)
• SEJ Backgrounder: Green New Deal Proposes Sweeping Economic Transformation (Society of Environmental Journalists)
• Explainer: The ‘Green New Deal’: Mobilizing for a just, prosperous, and sustainable economy (New Consensus)
• What genuine, no-bullshit ambition on climate change would look like: How to hit the most stringent targets, with no loopholes. (David Roberts, Vox)
• A Global Shift To Sustainability Would Save Us $26 Trillion (Vox)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)
• An Optimist’s Guide to Solving Climate Change and Saving the World (Vice)
• The great nutrient collapse: The atmosphere is literally changing the food we eat, for the worse. And almost nobody is paying attention. (Politico)
• The world’s bleak climate situation, in 3 charts: We’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there. (Vox)
• The Climate Risks We Face (NY Times):
  To stabilize global temperature, net carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced to zero. The window of time is rapidly closing to reduce emissions and limit warming to no more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the goal set in the Paris climate accord. The further we push the climate system beyond historical conditions, the greater the risks of potentially unforeseen and even catastrophic changes to the climate – so every reduction in emissions helps.
• The Uninhabitable Earth: When will climate change make earth too hot for humans? (New York Magazine):
  Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak – sooner than you think.
• A beginner’s guide to the debate over 100% renewable energy (Vox):
  Clean-energy enthusiasts frequently claim that we can go bigger, that it’s possible for the whole world to run on renewables – we merely lack the “political will.” So, is it true? Do we know how get to an all-renewables system? Not yet. Not really.

FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page

• NASA climate change video: This is the U.S. in 2100 (NASA).