‘Green News Report’ – October 21, 2021

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Fossil fuel production ‘dangerously out of sync’ with global climate targets, U.N. warns; Failure to act on climate change imperils millions of lives, new report finds; California expands emergency drought declaration; PLUS: New study finds cutting U.S. emissions is difficult, but doable, and will lower consumers’ energy bills… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): What if Build Back Better builds back worse?; Summer 2021 sets new high for average land temperature; If the U.S. spends big on climate, the rest of the world might follow; COP26: Document leak reveals nations lobbying to change key climate report; Is the UK’s green plan enough to halt climate change?; Wildland firefighters struggle with homelessness; Wildfire smoke harms more people in the Eastern U.S. than in the West; How big chemical companies avoid paying for pollution… PLUS: Dammit, coal is back… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• CA Gov. Newsom expands emergency drought declaration:
• Newsom expands CA drought emergency (E&E News):
  Newsom added eight counties not previously included in his drought emergency orders, including many of the state’s most populous, like Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. The proclamation also grants regulators like the State Water Resources Control Board the ability to ban wasteful practices such as using potable water to clean sidewalks and driveways…Federal forecasters have also recently warned that a La Niña weather pattern is materializing in the Pacific Ocean, which is associated with drier conditions in the Southwest, potentially further exacerbating water shortages.
• Strong storms are heading toward drought-parched California (NPR):
  “Rainfall that would normally be absorbed will run off extremely quickly after a wildfire, as burned soil can be as water repellant as pavement. As a result much less rainfall is required to produce a flash flood,” the National Weather Service cautions.
• Extreme atmospheric rivers to bombard California with beneficial precipitation (Washington Post)
• UNEP report shows fossil fuel production ‘dangerously out of sync’ with climate goals:
• 2021 Production Gap Report (United Nations Environment Programme)
• Fossil fuel production ‘dangerously out of sync’ with global climate targets, UN warns (CNBC):
  The United Nations Environment Programme’s annual production gap report found governments were on track to produce more than twice the levels of fossil fuels in 2030 than would be needed to keep rising global temperatures to below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
• Fossil fuel production set to soar over next decade (BBC)
• VIDEO: UN Report: World fossil fuel usage headed in the wrong direction (CNN International)
• Plans for global fossil fuel production wildly out of step with climate limits (The Weather Network)
• The Lancet reports global warming is now world’s greatest threat to human health:
• Inaction on climate change imperils millions of lives, doctors say (Washington Post/Yahoo News):
  Climate change is set to become the “defining narrative of human health,” a top medical journal warned Wednesday – triggering food shortages, deadly disasters and disease outbreaks that would dwarf the toll of the coronavirus. But aggressive efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions from human activities could avert millions of unnecessary deaths, according to the analysis from more than 100 doctors and health experts.
• Study: More infectious diseases inevitable due to climate change (Axios/Yahoo News)
• Report warns of climate change’s ‘code red’ impact on health (CNN International):
  Droughts will hurt food production, rising temperatures will encourage the spread of dangerous pathogens such as malaria and cholera and current climate trends indicate a “code red” for future health, the new report in The Lancet medical journal predicts.
• Reports: Health Problems Tied To Global Warming On The Rise (AP):
  This year’s reports — one global, one just aimed at the United States — called ‘“code red for a healthy future,” highlight dangerous trends…
• Reaching US emissions goals is doable, but difficult, without CEPP:
• Pathways to Paris: A Policy Assessment of the 2030 US Climate Target (Rhodium Group)
• Weaker climate bill could undermine Biden regulatory push (E&E News):
  Analysis released today by the Rhodium Group, the consultancy, found that passing climate policy would still leave Biden relying on regulatory authorities that “have been used infrequently over the 40+ years that the Clean Air Act has been in place.”
• AUDIO: ‘Despair is Not an Option’ After Manchin Tanks Biden’s Landmark Climate Change Proposal: ‘BradCast’ 10/19/2021
  (The BRAD BLOG):
  “Do not lose hope. People should keep the pressure up. If those listening want to get involved, there’s a website called Call4climate.com, Call4climate.com, It has a phone number that will patch you through to your senators, and your representatives, give you a script for what to ask for. That’s a way you can get involved in this moment. Despair is not an option.”
• Biden’s climate targets are possible without clean energy program, but will need tax credits and regulations (CNN/MSN):
  Even if Democrats’ cornerstone climate policy — a clean electricity program — is stripped out of their budget bill, an independent analysis estimates President Joe Biden can still meet his climate goals.
• Air pollution is much worse than we thought (David Roberts, Vox):
  Ditching fossil fuels would pay for itself through clean air alone.
• Big Business Is Bankrolling an Effort to Kill the Democratic Climate Bill (The Atlantic):
  The trade group that represents Apple, Walmart, Nike, and dozens of other companies is trying to kneecap the U.S.’s final chance to meet its 2025 climate goals.
• Manchin throws ‘hand grenade’ at Biden’s climate change agenda for Glasgow (Yahoo News)
• EPA head says he’ll act on climate even if Congress doesn’t (Washington Post/Yahoo News)
• Biden Administration acts to protect Boundary Waters wilderness:
• Biden shields Boundary Waters, deals blow to copper mine (E&E News):
  The Interior and Agriculture departments today announced plans to protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and its surrounding watershed in northern Minnesota, saying that concerns abound about the potential effects of mining in the wilderness area that spans more than 1 million acres. Specifically, the two agencies launched a process that bars the issuance of new prospecting permits or leases for mining-related activities in the area, but the move doesn’t affect existing rights or activities on private lands.
• Feds hit brakes again on copper mining near Boundary Waters (Minneapolis Star-Tribune/,SM):
  The Biden administration is seeking a 20-year moratorium on copper mining in Superior National Forest near the Boundary Waters National Canoe Area Wilderness, repeating a process that started, and stopped, under previous administrations.
• Biden Administration Moves To Block Mining Near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters (Huffington Post)

‘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

• What If Build Back Better Builds Back Worse? (The American Prospect)
• State of the climate: Summer 2021 sets new high for average land temperature (Carbon Brief)
• If the U.S. Spends Big on Climate, the Rest of the World Might Follow (Time)
• COP26: Document leak reveals nations lobbying to change key climate report (BBC)
• Weaker climate bill could undermine Biden regulatory push (E&E News)
• Is the UK’s green plan enough to halt climate change? (BBC)
• Fossil fuel use ‘will peak by 2025’ if countries meet climate pledges, says IEA (Carbon Brief)
• ‘Nobody cares I have nowhere to live’: wildland firefighters struggle with homelessness (Gaurdian UK)
• Gas Prices will Spike? How High? (Climate Crocks)
• U.S’’s Best Hope For Real Climate Policy Is Fizzling. What Happens Now? (Huffington Post)
• Wildfire Smoke Harms More People In The Eastern U.S. Than West: Study (Washington Post)
• In Harm’s Way: Our Actions Put People And Wildlife At Risk Of Disease (Mongabay)
• Salmon Need Trees: “A new study stands as a striking reminder that logging watersheds has an outsized impact on salmon and trout.” (Hakai Magazine)
• Dammit, Coal’s Back (Earther)
• 99.9 percent Of Scientists Agree Climate Emergency Caused By Humans (Guardian UK)
• How Chemical Companies Avoid Paying for Pollution (NY Times)
• Joe Manchin leads opposition to Biden’s climate bill, backed by support from oil, gas and coal (Guardian UK)
• An Empire of Dying Wells: Old oil and gas sites are a climate menace. Meet the company that owns more of America’s decaying wells than any other. (Bloomberg)
• Tracking the Big Climate Bills – An Infrastructure/Reconciliation Breakdown (Society of Environmental Journalists)
• Will this metal recycling startup revolutionize the battery and clean energy sectors? (Electrek)
• 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.