‘Green News Report’ – November 19, 2020

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: U.K. accelerates phase-out of gasoline and diesel cars to 2030; U.S. carmakers knew 50 years ago that burning fossil fuels causes global warming and then lied about it; Trump Interior Department allows states to veto federal conservation projects; October 2020 only the fourth hottest October on record; PLUS: San Francisco upgrades building codes to phase out fossil fuels… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Iota’s devastation comes into focus in storm-weary Nicaragua; GM announces plans for 30 new EVs by 2025; An Unlikely Alliance of Farm and Environmental Groups Takes on Climate Change; No Senate? No problem, progressive group New Consensus tells Biden; Amazon road-building could deforest millions of hectares: report; Trump pushes new environmental rollbacks on way out the door; Loeffler-Warnock Ga. Senate Runoff Offers Extreme Contrasts on Climate; Klamath: Historic Deal Revives Plan For Largest US Dam Demolition… PLUS: RoboCop Sets Sail: A new generation of autonomous vessels is looking to catch illegal fishers in the act… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• October 2020 only the fourth warmest October on record globally:
• October 2020 was fourth-warmest October on record, NOAA and NASA report (Yale Climate Connections):
  The month’s billion-dollar disasters included flooding in France, Italy, and India, Hurricanes Delta and Zeta, and the Beachie Creek Fire in Oregon.
• October 2020: “Only” the fourth-warmest October on record (NOAA):
  October kept alive 2020’s streak of having every month fall in the top-five hottest on record, according to the latest monthly summary from the National Centers for Environmental Information. Being the fourth-hottest October on record made it the “coolest” month of the year so far, as every other month to date was in the top three warmest on record.
• Trump Interior Sec. Bernhardt restricts Land and Water Conservation Fund:
• Bernhardt order gives states veto authority over LWCF (E&E News):
  The Interior Department is seeking to make sweeping changes to how Land and Water Conservation Fund dollars can be spent in what critics say is tantamount to a rewrite of the Great American Outdoors Act…”A written expression of support by both the affected Governor and local county or county government-equivalent (e.g. parish, borough) is required for the acquisition of land, water, or an interest in land or water under the Federal LWCF program,” the order reads.
• Lawmakers, advocates blast Bernhardt’s LWCF order (E&E News):
  Many critics said Bernhardt had always been sympathetic to proponents of selling off public lands and that it was never his plan to implement the Great American Outdoors Act as the law intended…. “This administration can’t resist the urge to break the law, and this order is a perfect example of why they can’t be trusted…They’re just trying to smash and grab whatever they can on their way out the door when they should focus on working with the Biden transition team,” [Rep. Raúl] Grijalva (D-Ariz.) added.
• NYT: Biden transition team already preparing to undo Trump’s environmental rollbacks:
• Biden Plans to Move Fast With a ‘Climate Administration.’ Here’s How. (NY Times):
  Transition team members have been instructed to identify policies that can improve pollution levels in Black and Latino communities. And one of Mr. Biden’s early executive orders is expected to require that every federal agency, department and program prepare to address climate change.
• Biden stocks landing teams with climate experts (E&E News)
• Biden taps climate, environment hands for transition teams (Politico)
• Biden Plans to Move Fast With a ‘Climate Administration.’ Here’s How. (NY Times)
• VIDEO Q&A: What Joe Biden can do to “reverse the trajectory” of the U.S. on climate change (CBS News)
• Can Biden’s green agenda break the ‘brown blockade’? (CNN)
• 75 ways Trump made America dirtier and the planet warmer (Guardian UK)
• G.M., Ford knew since 1960s that their products cause man-made global warming:
• Exclusive: GM, Ford knew about climate change 50 years ago (E&E News):
  Researchers at both automakers found strong evidence in the 1960s and ’70s that human activity was warming the Earth…But in the following decades, both manufacturers largely failed to act on the knowledge that their products were heating the planet. Instead of shifting their business models away from fossil fuels, the companies invested heavily in gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs. At the same time, the two carmakers privately donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups that cast doubt on the scientific consensus on global warming.
• Ford and GM knew about climate change — and covered it up for decades (Grist):
  Ford and GM chose not to heed their in-house scientists’ warnings about climate change. Until the turn of the century, the auto companies were part of climate denial groups like Global Climate Coalition, which lobbied against climate action at the Rio Earth Summit and the Kyoto Protocol. And between 1985 and 2008, Ford and GM gave more than $3 million to conservative, anti-climate groups like the American Enterprise Institute.
• A Woman Warned GM about Warming, But Men Didn’t Listen (E&E News):
  A General Motors scientist who conducted pioneering research on climate change in the 1960s says she faced sexism that made it difficult to do her job. Ruth Reck’s allegations raise questions about whether GM executives dismissed or downplayed her findings on global warming because of her gender.
• U.K. acclerates phase-out of gasoline, diesel cars to 2030:
• VIDEO: Ban on new petrol and diesel cars in UK from 2030 under PM’s green plan (BBC):
  New cars and vans powered wholly by petrol and diesel will not be sold in the UK from 2030, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said. But some hybrids would still be allowed, he confirmed. It is part of what Mr Johnson calls a “green industrial revolution” to tackle climate change and create jobs in industries such as nuclear energy. Critics say the £4bn allocated to implement the 10-point plan is far too small for the scale of the challenge.
• This is the EV part of the UK’s ‘green industrial revolution’ plan (Electrek)
• Petrol and diesel car sales ban brought forward to 2035 (BBC)
• The UK plans to ban sales of diesel and petrol cars from 2030 (CNBC)
• San Francisco goes all-electric, phasing out fossil fuels in new building construction:
• San Francisco Becomes the Latest City to Ban Natural Gas in New Buildings, Citing Climate Effects (Inside Climate News):
  The city cited cost savings, public health benefits and the urgent need to wind down greenhouse gas emissions to help curb the rapidly warming climate for the move…That’s why San Francisco moving forward with a ban is a big deal, said Amanda Myers, a senior policy analyst for Energy Innovation, a think tank that promotes clean energy. If cities in California continue to rely on gas to heat new buildings through the next decade, Myers said, it will become increasingly difficult—if not impossible—for the state to meet its binding climate target of reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
• San Francisco Commits to All-Electric New Homes and Buildings as Movement Gains Steam (Earth Justice)
• San Francisco’s gas ban on new buildings could prompt statewide action (Smart Cities Dive):
  he vote adds San Francisco to the growing list of nearly 40 California cities to pass such ordinances since Berkeley’s historic ban in July 2019.
• Natural gas stoves can generate unsafe levels of indoor air pollution (Vox)

‘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

• Iota’s devastation comes into focus in storm-weary Nicaragua (AP)
• GM announces plans for 30 new EVs by 2025 – some to be unveiled today? (Electrek)
• An Unlikely Alliance of Farm and Environmental Groups Takes on Climate Change (Inside Climate News)
• No Senate? No problem, progressive group New Consensus tells Biden. (Politico)
• Amazon road-building could deforest millions of hectares: report (Reuters)
• Trump pushes new environmental rollbacks on way out the door (AP)
• U.S. court allows Equitrans to keep building Mountain Valley natgas pipe (Reuters)
• Tribes Sue Interior for Approving Keystone XL Pipeline Route (Blomberg)
• Loeffler-Warnock Ga. Senate Runoff Offers Extreme Contrasts on Climate (Inside Climate News)
• Flint, Other Defendants Agree To Settle Water Lawsuit For $641.2 Million (Detroit Free Press)
• Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Advisers Quit Over Pipeline Permit (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
• RoboCop Sets Sail: A new generation of autonomous vessels is looking to catch illegal fishers in the act (Hakai)
• Klamath: Historic Deal Revives Plan For Largest US Dam Demolition (AP)
• Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration (Pro Publica)
• 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).