‘Green News Report’ – August 26, 2021

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Crunch time for climate action, as House Dems advance landmark budget reconciliation blueprint; Yep, man-made global warming made Europe’s catastrophic flooding much more catastrophic; Biden nominates first-ever Native American to lead National Park Service; PLUS: Good news for breathers in Louisiana — federal officials put brakes on construction of massive plastic factory… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Many measures of Earth’s health are at worst levels on record, NOAA finds; Global electric power demand, emissions return to pre-pandemic levels; California’s water and power supply is under threat from wildfires; MN Supreme Court delivers blow to Line 3 opponents; Nation’s 1st hydrogen-powered ferry launches in Bellingham; Fossil fuel and mining groups pressured regulators blame Asia for ozone violations in Salt Lake City; Why 3.5 million pounds of nuclear waste is buried on a popular CA beach… PLUS: ‘Unprecedented’: Madagascar on verge of world’s first climate-fueled famine… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Crunch time for climate action as House Democrats write budget blueprint legislation:
• House passes $3.5 trillion budget plan, aims to vote on infrastructure package by late September (Washington Post/MSN)
• House Democrats pass $3.5 trillion budget resolution (Axios)
• Schumer Says Infrastructure Bills Would Cut Emissions By 45 Percent (The Hill)
• AUDIO: David Roberts, Progressive Climate Journo. Warns Progressives: This Is Our Last Chance (The BRAD BLOG)
• Crunch time: this is America’s last chance at serious climate policy for a decade (David Roberts, Volts)
• CEPP: What is the Clean Electricity Payment Program? (Renewable Energy World)
• Study: Climate change made catastrophic European floods much worse:
• Heavy rainfall which led to severe flooding in Western Europe made more likely by climate change (World Weather Attribution)
• In a Summer of Deadly Deluges, New Research Shows How Global Warming Fuels Flooding (Inside Climate News)
• Europe’s July floods: So rare and extreme, they’re hard to study (Ars Technica):
  [H]ere, the answer was a lot more complicated. The floods hit a small area and were extreme enough that they destroyed some of the monitoring equipment that would otherwise have told us just how bad they were. Nevertheless, the team found that climate change likely boosted the chances of an event like that in northwestern Europe.
• Wildfires close public lands in U.S. West:
• 9 National Forests In Northern California Closed Through Labor Day Due To Wildfires, Dry Conditions (CBS News)
• Caldor Wildfire Is Heading For Lake Tahoe, Sending Ash Raining Down On Tourists (NPR)
• More than 42,000 Californians evacuate as state battles out-of-control wildfires (CNN)
• Boost in Pay Coming for 14,000 Federal Wildland Firefighters (Fed Week)
• Biden approves major disaster declaration for wildfires burning in California (KRON-TV San Francisco)
• 13,500+ Firefighters Battle To Contain A Dozen Large Wildfires In Calif. (AP)
• Minnesota wildfires force evacuations of Boundary Waters:
• A wildfire in Minnesota is behaving like a ‘freight train,’ a fire official said. (NY Times)
• VIDEO: Minnesota wildfire doubles in size, creates its own weather (NBC News):
  A wildfire in northeastern Minnesota more than doubled in size Tuesday, growing to more than 19,000 acres, after it produced pyrocumulous clouds that generated lightning and even raindrops, fire officials said.
• Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Closed For 1 Week Due To Wildfires (CBS Local)
• A dozen homes destroyed in Greenwood Fire, feds extend land closures (Minnesota Public Radio)
• FAA issues grants to help airports decarbonize:
• First look: FAA’s new grants would electrify airports (Axios):
  While next-wave, future aviation/aircraft tech gets lots of attention, nuts and bolts equipment at airports is decidedly low-tech (think diesel generators and dirty shuttle buses) and ripe for the deployment of existing and mature low-emissions systems.
• FAA Awards $20.4M to Reduce Airport Emissions, Purchase Zero-Emission Vehicles (press release, FAA)
• Biden nominates first-ever Native American to lead National Park Service:
• ‘Coming full circle’: Native tapped to lead national parks (Indian Country Today)
• President Biden Nominates Umatilla Tribal Citizen, Charles F. Sams III, for Director the National Park Service (Yakima Herald)
• Army Corps puts the brakes on massive proposed plastic manufacturing plant:
• Army Corps will take closer look at Formosa plant’s impact on environment, minority residents in St. James (The Advocate)
• Multibillion-dollar Louisiana plastics plant put on pause in a win for activists (Guardian UK):
  The 14 separate plastic plants, spread over a gargantuan 2,300 acres of land in St James Parish, could also emit up to 15,400 pounds of the cancer causing chemical ethylene oxide…[T]he US Army Corps of Engineers.announced it would commission a full environmental impact statement, which advocates say could delay future construction for a number of years.
• Huge plastics plant faces calls for environmental justice, stiff economic headwinds (Washington Post):
  [L]ocal landmarks began to disappear. Woodrow’s grocery closed down. The St. James sugar co-op ground to a halt. The cleaners and post office shut their doors for lack of business. Heavy manufacturing moved in…
  [M]any parish residents feared they had no prayer of stopping a $9.4 billion plastics complex that the Formosa Plastics Group proposed in the district on strips of flat sugar cane fields. Wedged in between other industrial sites along the Mississippi River, the facility would cover an expanse big enough for about 1,200 football fields, while discharging massive amounts of toxic emissions into the air.

‘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

• Dixie Fire isn’t just destroying towns. California’s water and power supply is under threat (Sacramento Bee)
• Many measures of Earth’s health are at worst levels on record, NOAA finds (Washington Post)
• Minnesota Supreme Court Delivers Blow To Line 3 Opponents (AP)
• Nation’s First Hydrogen-Powered Ferry Launches In Bellingham (KUOW)
• Questions trail big business’ ‘water positive’ pledges (E&E News)
• ‘Unprecedented’: Madagascar on Verge of World’s First Climate-Fueled Famine (EcoWatch)
• When we talk about emissions, we need to talk more about methane (Fast Company)
• ‘Hijacked by polluters’: Fossil fuel and mining groups pressured regulators to blame Asia for ozone violations in Salt Lake City, emails show (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Extreme heat is here, and it’s deadly (High Country News)
• Why 3.6M Pounds Of Nuclear Waste Is Buried On A Popular California Beach (Guardian UK)
• Agriculture Officials Really Want Those Spotted Lanternflies Gone (NPR)
• Global Electric Power Demand Returns To Pre-Pandemic Levels (Washington Post)
• 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 9 Years) Really Mean? (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (The Intercept)
• 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.