‘Green News Report’ – November 24, 2020

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: President-elect Joe Biden selects former Sec. of State John Kerry as special Climate Envoy, elevates role to National Security Council; GM ditches Trump and goes big on electric vehicles; Trump rolls back Arctic drilling safety rules, denies disaster aid to Pennsylvania; PLUS: No, we have not reached the ‘point of no return’ on climate… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): 10 Steps That Can Restore Scientific Integrity in Government; China-led shift to electric vehicles to help end ‘oil era’; Tuscon Tries to Save Itself With Rain; How the Roadless Rule helps keep millions of acres of forest safe for Indigenous peoples and away from industry; Farmers Are Warming Up To The Fight Against Climate Change; Bailed Out & Propped Up: The fossil fuel industry; Fossil Fuel Industry Wants You To Believe It’s Good For People Of Color… PLUS: In Search of a ‘Regenerative’ Thanksgiving Turkey… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Biden selects former Sec. of State John Kerry for Climate Envoy:
• Biden names John Kerry as presidential climate envoy (Washington Post):
  ‘America will soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent national security threat it is,’ Kerry tweeted after the announcement.
• ‘World War Zero’: Biden names John Kerry as US climate envoy (Al Jazeera):
  While secretary of state under former President Barack Obama, Kerry, 76, called climate change ‘the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction’.
• Unpacking Joe Biden’s decision to tap John Kerry as his climate envoy (Axios):
  Biden’s climate plans aim to marshal a wide-ranging federal approach that involves many agencies, which increases the importance of having some kind of coordinating official.
• With John Kerry Pick, Biden Selects a ‘Climate Envoy’ With Stature (NY Times)
• Biden picks John Kerry for climate envoy on National Security Council (Independent UK)
• Trump Admin. rolls back Arctic drilling rules, increase damage on the way out:
• U.S. moves to loosen safety rules for Arctic Ocean oil drilling (Reuters)
• Trump pushes new environmental rollbacks on way out the door (AP)
• EPA finally ditches toxics rule, industry [mostly] shrugs (E&E News):
  [T]he Environmental Integrity Project, a watchdog group that opposed the rollback…questioned the accuracy of EPA’s numbers. Regardless, Schaeffer said in an email, hazardous pollutants don’t travel far. Even if the agency’s figures are good, “it’s small comfort for those communities to hear that 97% of the facilities in other neighborhoods didn’t take advantage of this gift from the Trump administration.”
• Transition or tropics? EPA chief looks at final trips abroad (AP)
• Biden vowed to ban new drilling on public lands. It won’t be easy. (Washington Post):
  In a recent interview, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said that Biden would not be able to halt new drilling on public lands and waters until his first term ends. “If their intention is to end all leasing and permitting, they will find that that’s rife with conflicts, opposed by Democratic governors, and not perpetually legally sustainable.”
• Trump retaliates denies disaster aid to Pennsylvania:
• Trump Sinks Weather-Disaster Aid to “Bad” Governor (Climate Crocks):
  President Trump has denied federal disaster aid to Pennsylvania for Tropical Storm Isaias. The denial was issued three weeks after Trump vowed retribution against the state’s Democratic governor for imposing restrictions to contain the pandemic.
• VIDEO: Donald Trump Rally Speech Transcript Allentown, PA October 26 (Rev.com)
• Doomed? No, we have not reached “point of no return” on climate:
• Climate Scientists Debunk ‘Point of No Return’ Paper Everyone’s Freaking Out About (Earther):
  “To be frank, the paper is crap that should not have passed any competent peer review,” Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist and energy systems analyst, said…“I want to be clear: thawing permafrost is likely to result in a net increase in atmospheric methane concentrations. And methane is a potent greenhouse gas. But methane concentrations are increasing sharply right now, and it’s not because of permafrost,” she said. “It’s because of the oil and gas industry and large-scale agriculture.”
• Doomsday climate study debunked by researchers (E&E news):
  No, we haven’t reached a climate “point of no return.”
  That’s the overwhelming message from climate scientists in response to an alarming climate study that many experts described as flawed when it splashed across social media last week. Yes, there’s still hope to prevent catastrophic global warming. And yes, reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero could still halt climate change, they said.
• Why ‘doomism’ is part of the latest frontier in the climate wars (Sydney Morning Herald, 10/19/2019)
• GM ditches Trump’s lawsuit against CA’s stricter auto standards:
• GM hits reverse on Trump effort to bar California emissions rules (Reuters):
  General Motors said on Monday it was reversing course and will no longer back the Trump administration’s effort to bar California from setting its own emissions rules in an ongoing court fight.
• GM flips to California’s side in pollution fight with Trump (AP)
• GM announces plans for 30 new EVs by 2025
• GM says its moving faster and further in electric vehicles (CNN)
• GM gives ultimatum to Cadillac dealers who don’t want to sell electric cars (Electrek)
• GM: New batteries cut electric car costs, increase range (AP)
• GM Expects Electric Cars To Cost Same As Gas Cars (WWJ-TV CBS-Detroit)
• VIDEO: GM CEO Mary Berra unveils EV plan (Barclays Global Automotive Conference)
• GM Boosts Investment, Grows Electric Portfolio to Lead in EV Race (press release, General Motors)
• 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.

‘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

• 10 Steps That Can Restore Scientific Integrity in Government (Scientific American)
• In Search of a ‘Regenerative’ Thanksgiving Turkey (Civil Eats)
• Interior Dept. contender says Biden would target Trump Arctic drilling push on first day (Reuters)
• China-led shift to electric vehicles to help end ‘oil era’ – study (Reuters)
• A Desert City Tries to Save Itself With Rain (Bloomber CityLab)
• More national forest logging expected from last-minute environmental rule change (Oregon Public Radio)
• America’s Roadless Wilderness: The Roadless Rule helps keep millions of acres of forest safe for Indigenous peoples and away from industry (Atmos)
• Commuter Rail’s Mask-Optional ‘Dumb Ass Car’ Emblematic of U.S.’s COVID-19 Response (Vice)
• Bailed Out & Propped Up: The fossil fuel industry received between $10.4 billion and $15.2 billion in direct economic relief from federal efforts under President Donald Trump (Bailout Watch/Public Citizen )
• Farmers Are Warming Up To The Fight Against Climate Change (NPR)
• Half of child psychiatrists surveyed say patients have environment anxiety (Guardian UK)
• Fossil Fuel Industry Wants You To Believe It’s Good For People Of Color (LA Times)
• Trump Officials Rush To Mine Desert Haven Native Tribes Consider Holy (Guardian UK)
• China and Japan Race to Dominate Future of High-Speed Rail (Bloomberg)
• US Judge Voids Permits For Columbia River Methanol Plant (AP)
• DOE advances Trump order to dismantle ‘deep state’ (E&E News)
• Trump Tried and Failed to Scoop Up a Popular Birding Preserve for His Border Wall, Because You Don’t Mess With Birders (Earther)
• 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).