‘Green News Report’ – July 22, 2021

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Deadly, catastrophic floods inundate central Chinese province; Smoke from massive wildfires in U.S. West trigger health alerts as far as the East Coast; Madagascar tips into famine due to drought; PLUS: Utility giant PG&E finally pledges to bury its power lines… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): The Northern Hemisphere has a punishing heat wave infestation; The current drought is worldwide. Here’s how different places are fighting it; Struggling global covid-19 response dims hopes for climate change action; A Drought So Dire That a Utah Town Pulled the Plug on Growth; As the Arctic warms, scientists wrestle with its climate ‘tipping point’; Northern California Requires Oil Refiners To Slash Air Pollution… PLUS: ‘It Is All Connected’: Extreme Weather in the Age of Climate Change… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Extreme, torrential rains set new records around the world:
• In summer of apocalyptic weather, concerns emerge over climate science blind spot (Axios)
• New Zealand west coast hit by heavy floods after month of rain falls in one weekend (Guardian UK)
• ‘The desert is covered in rivers’: Severe flooding in Oman causes evacuations and widespread damage (Independent UK)
• Flood wreaks havoc in Ekiti, Nigeria – scores displaced, properties destroyed (Nigeria Pulse)
• Germany approves $644m relief package for flood recovery (Straits Times)
• VIDEO: Floods, Fires & Heat Waves: Michael Mann on “The New Climate War” & the Fight to Take Back the Planet (Democracy Now!):
  There is still time. Don’t let the doomers convince you it’s too late to do anything about climate change…It isn’t too late, but we have to act, and we have to act now.
• ‘No One Is Safe’: Extreme Weather Batters the Wealthy World (NY Times):
  The extreme weather disasters across Europe and North America have driven home two essential facts of science and history: The world as a whole is neither prepared to slow down climate change, nor live with it.
• Biblical rains, catastrophic floods pummel central China:
• Deadly Flooding Hits Central China, Affecting Tens Of Millions (Guardian UK)
• China flooding: Tens of thousands evacuated as death toll rises to 33 (Independent UK)
• Death toll rises as passengers recount horror of China subway floods (CNN)
• Eight inches in one hour: How a deadly downpour flooded Zhengzhou, China (Washington Post)
• ‘Extraordinary Rainfall’ Drops Year’s Worth In Just 3 Days On China’s IPhone City (Forbes)
• China blasts dam to divert floods that killed at least 25 (AP)
• A dozen cities in China’s Henan province flooded as river banks burst (Channel News Asia)
• China floods: Dramatic video shows explosion at aluminum factory after it became inundated with floodwater (Independent UK)
• VIDEO: At least 25 dead as torrential rain floods Chinese city, trapping commuters in chest-high water inside a train (CBS News)
• This is a new record for all 2418 national stations in mainland China and possibly the largest downpour in human history (Minghao Zhou/Twitter)
• Drought tips Madasgascar onto hunger and famine:
• Madagascar famine becomes first in history to be caused solely by climate crisis (Independent UK):
  The UN food agency has warned that thousands of families in southern Madagascar are on the edge of starvation as the country faces its worst drought in four decades…More than 1.14 million people are food insecure as severe droughts in Madagascar have led to an almost total disappearance of food sources and pushed communities to the brink of starvation. “This is not because of war or conflict, this is because of climate change,” [World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David] Beasley said.
• Madagascar is on the brink of a famine it played little part in creating (ITV)
• U.K. hit with another yet extreme heat wave:
• UK weather: heatwave health alert for England extended to Friday (Guardian UK)
• Met Office issues first ever extreme heat warning for UK (Guardian UK)
• Northern Ireland records its highest ever temperature as UK bakes (Guardian UK)
• Smoke from Western wildfires spreads to East Coast:
• Wildfire Smoke Clouds Sky, Hurts Air Quality On East Coast (AP)
• VIDEO: Wildfires scorching the West Coast create nationwide air pollution (CBS News):
  A study from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego found that smoke from fires becomes nearly four times more toxic the farther it travels because of a chemical reaction that occurs in the atmosphere. Doctors say one simple way to protect yourself is by wearing an N-95 mask.
• VIDEO: Gov. Kate Brown – ‘This is not going to return to normal anytime soon’: Lightning could further fuel Oregon’s active fire season (Oregon Public Radio)
• Fine Particulate Matter from Wildfire Smoke More Harmful Than Pollution from Other Sources (Scripps Instituion of Oceanography)
• 80 large fires have consumed more than 1 million acres across western parts of the US (CNN)
• Size of Oregon wildfire underscores vastness of the US West (AP)
• The Age of Megafires: The World Hits a Climate Tipping Point (Yale e360)
• Pacific Gas & Electric pledges to bury power lines that spark deadly wildfires:
• PG&E Aims to Curb Wildfire Risk by Burying Many Power Lines (NY Times):
  This year the company is putting 70 miles of lines underground, so increasing the work to 1,000 miles a year would be a leap. …By comparison, President Biden’s infrastructure proposal calls for $73 billion to improve the nation’s power grid…Mark Toney, executive director of the Utility Reform Network, which represents consumers before the California Public Utilities Commission and has often been a PG&E adversary, said that reducing wildfire risk was a priority but that the utility must develop a plan that would fund the huge project without overburdening ratepayers.
• California utility PGE says its equipment may be linked to fire (AP)
• PG&E likely sparks another massive fire, pledges to bury 10,000 miles of power lines (Ars Technica):
  For over a decade, PG&E’s safety record has been spotty at best. In 2008, a gas explosion in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova killed a 74-year-old man. In 2010, one of PG&E’s gas pipelines exploded in San Bruno, just south of San Francisco, killing eight. An investigation by regulators caught the company falsifying safety records for gas pipelines. Between 2014 and 2017, PG&E’s electrical equipment started 1,550 fires.

‘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

• The Northern Hemisphere has a punishing heat wave infestation (Washington Post/MSN)
• ‘It Is All Connected’: Extreme Weather in the Age of Climate Change (NY Times/Yahoo)
• The current drought is worldwide. Here’s how different places are fighting it (Phys.org)
• Struggling global covid-19 response dims hopes for climate change action (Washington Post/MSN)
• A Drought So Dire That a Utah Town Pulled the Plug on Growth (NY Times)
• As Arctic Warms, Scientists Wrestle With Its Climate ‘Tipping Point’ (Mongabay)
• Judge To Rule By July 29 On Request To Block Lithium Americas Mine (Reuters)
• Northern California Requires Oil Refiners To Slash Air Pollution (Reuters)
• US Pushes China To Make Faster Carbon Cuts (BBC)
• Climate Activists Pan Carbon Capture Plans (Daily Climate)
• Exclusive: White House details environmental justice plans (E&E News)
• ‘Reckless’: G20 States Subsidised Fossil Fuels By $3tn Since 2015: Report (Guardian UK)
• House Passes Bill Requiring EPA To Regulate PFAS In Drinking Water (The Hill)
• House Passes Host Of Bills To Strengthen Cybersecurity After Attacks (The Hill)
• Crushing climate impacts to hit sooner than feared: draft UN report (AFP/France 24):
  Climate change will fundamentally reshape life on Earth in the coming decades, even if humans can tame planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, according to a landmark draft report from the UN’s climate science advisors obtained by AFP. Species extinction, more widespread disease, unliveable heat, ecosystem collapse, cities menaced by rising seas — these and other devastating climate impacts are accelerating and bound to become painfully obvious before a child born today turns 30.
• Nations Must Drop Fossil Fuels, Fast, World Energy Body Warns (NY Times)
• Electric cars: What will happen to all the dead batteries? (BBC)
• Climate Fund Choices for Investors Are Multiplying (Bloomberg/Yahoo)
• How climate change could undo 50 years of public health gains (Grist)
• 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).