‘Green News Report’ – February 10, 2022

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Climate scientists rebuke Big Oil’s decades of denial during House Oversight hearing; Disturbing new studies find hot oceans are our ‘new normal’; One third of Americans already facing above-average warming; PLUS: Biden White House announces another major new EV manufacturing plant for the U.S…. All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Is the CA coalition fighting subsidies for rooftop solar a fake grassroots group?; Why this could be a critical year for electric cars; The slides that shook Boris Johnson out of climate change denial; With new climate strategy, Army aims to prepare soldiers for harsher environments; Comedian Dave Chappelle forces town to abandon affordable housing plan; Feds will spend $1 billion to spur farmers and ranchers to fight climate change; Millions facing severe hunger in Horn of Africa; How billions in infrastructure spending could worsen global warming… PLUS: Nuclear fusion heat record a ‘huge step’ in quest for new energy source… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Climate scientists rebuke Big Oil’s deception during House Oversight Hearing:
• ‘Denial and delay’: Big Oil rebuked in US Congress (AFP)
  US climate scientists accused four of the world’s largest oil companies Tuesday of lying about the harms linked to their industry and trying to delay the switch to cleaner fuel.
• Big Oil climate pledges fall short of global warming reduction goals, experts say (UPI)
• Experts Debunk Big Oil Climate Pledges at Oversight Hearing: CCI Statement (Center for Climate Integrity/Common Dreams)
• VIDEO: Dr. Mike Mann’s Sworn Testimony (Climate Crocks)
• VIDEO: Fueling the Climate Crisis: Examining Big Oil’s Climate Pledges (House Committee on Oversight and Reform)
• At Hearing, Climate Experts Expose Inadequacies of Big Oil’s Climate Pledges (House Committee on Oversight and Reform)
• Top corporations have vowed to fight climate change. Researchers say their plans fall short. (Washington Post)
• Broad swaths of U.S. have already breached 1.5C warming in Paris Agreement:
• A third of Americans are already facing above-average warming (Guardian UK):
  At least 499 U.S. counties have already reached +1.5C warming…Though the climate crisis is convulsing the US, it is doing so unevenly. Hotspots of extreme warming have emerged in many of America’s largest cities, and places as diverse as California’s balmy coast to the previously frigid northern reaches of Minnesota, while other places, particularly in the south, have barely seen their temperatures budge.
• Disturbing new studies warn ocean heat is the ‘new normal’:
• After Passing ‘Point of No Return’ in 2014, Hot Oceans Are Now ‘New Normal’ (Common Dreams):
  A study published Tuesday revealed that ocean heatwaves fueled by human-caused climate change passed the “point of no return” in 2014 and have become the “new normal.”…”Climate change is not a future event,” stressed the co-author of a new study. “The reality is that it’s been affecting us for a while.”
• Extreme heat driven by climate change is ‘new normal’ for oceans, study finds (CNBC)
• Warming Ocean Leaves No Safe Havens for Coral Reefs (Inside Climate News):
  In the race to save at least some remnants of the world’s coral reefs, a new study shows only one thing really matters—capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
  Even at only that level of warming, more than 99 percent of areas previously seen as potentially safe havens for coral will disappear. Warming of 2 degrees C would wipe out all the “reef refugia” where corals might survive relentlessly warming oceans.
• Biden White House announces another major EV manufacturing plant in U.S.:
• Biden touts Australian company’s new electric vehicle charging plant in Tennessee (CNN)
• President Biden Praises Tritium EV Charger Factory Plans (AutoWeek):
  Australian EV charger company Tritium plans Lebanon, Tennessee, manufacturing facility capable of producing up to 30,000 chargers a year. Founded in 2001, Tritium makes multiple EV chargers, include DC fast-chargers, used by EV station builders and operators.
• VIDEO: Biden White House announces launch of a new EV charger manufacturing facility
  (WGLT-Illinois State University)
• Tritium Adds EV Charger Plant in U.S. as Biden Pushes Production (The Street)
• Biden finally acknowledges Tesla’s EV leadership after a year of silence (CNBC)
Musk has vociferously opposed unions throughout his career as the CEO of Tesla..
• In Rust Belt, Battery Plants Spark Jobs (Climate Crocks)

‘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

• Is the California Coalition Fighting Subsidies For Rooftop Solar a Fake Grassroots Group? (Inside Climate News)
• Why This Could Be a Critical Year for Electric Cars (NY Times)
• The Slides that Shook Boris Johnson Out of Denial (Climate Crocks)
• VIDEO: Yellow Springs kills affordable housing plan after Dave Chappelle threatens to withdraw $65 million investment (Dayton Daily News)
• With new climate strategy, Army aims to prepare soldiers for harsher environments (Defense One)
• Feds will spend $1 billion to spur farmers and ranchers to fight climate change (CNBC)
• Millions Facing Severe Hunger In Horn Of Africa – U.N. Food Agency (Reuters)
• How Billions in Infrastructure Funding Could Worsen Global Warming (NY Times)
• Nuclear Fusion Heat Record A ‘Huge Step’ In Quest For New Energy Source (Guardian UK)
• Oil Firms Suffer Major Setback In Colo. Climate Lawsuit (E&E News)
• 1 in 3 Americans Have Detectable Levels Of Toxic Weedkiller: Study (Guardian UK)
• How Manchin used politics to protect his coal company (E&E News)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• Green Upheaval: The New Geopolitics of Energy (Foreign Affairs)
• VIDEO: 2050: what happens if we ignore the climate crisis (Guardian UK)
• Guilt, grief and anxiety as young people fear for climate’s future (Reuters)
• 99.9 percent Of Scientists Agree Climate Emergency Caused By Humans (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)
• 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.