‘Green News Report’ – June 14, 2022

Follow @GreenNewsReport…

(Or use “Click here to listen…” link below.)

IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Another early extreme heat wave shatters records across the U.S.; Yellowstone National Park closed due to catastrophic flooding; Explosion at Texas LNG facility further tightens global supplies; Biden unveils first-ever standards for national EV charging network; PLUS: Gasoline prices and profiteering at new record highs… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)…

Link:
Embed:

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): The race against time to breed a wheat to survive the climate crisis; How fashion giants recast plastic as good for the planet; Wind and solar power are ‘bailing out’ Texas amid record heat and energy demand; Car tires produce vastly more particle pollution than exhausts, tests show; Flagstaff wildfire forces evacuations as it steadily grows; Southern Company knew about climate change for decades while funding climate denial; Sky News Australia is a global hub for climate disinformation… PLUS: Chemical pollutants linked to declining sperm quality in new research… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Yellowstone National Park closed indefinitely due to flood damage:
• Yellowstone shuts down after record rainfall ravages roads (Washington Post)
• All entrances to Yellowstone National Park temporarily closed amid flooding and rockslides (KFYR-TV Minot)
• Yellowstone floods wipe out roads, bridges, strand visitors (AP):
  Massive floodwaters ravaged Yellowstone National Park and nearby communities Monday, washing out roads and bridges, cutting off electricity and forcing visitors to evacuate parts of the iconic park at the height of summer tourist season.
• Tourists stranded inside, outside Yellowstone amid record floods (Casper Star-Tribune)
• Dangerous extreme heat wave spreads across U.S.:
• Record-breaking heat wave envelops nearly 130 million in U.S. (Axios)
• US temperatures hit record levels as south-west bakes in heatwave (Guardian UK)
• ‘Vomiting. The loss of strength’: Southwest heat drives health fears (Washington Post)
• Wildfires ignite in Southwest as record heat wave threatens U.S. (Axios)
• Extreme weather slams the U.S., from flooding to fires (Axios)
• How Extreme Heat Kills, Sickens, Strains and Ages Us (NY Times)
• Energy experts sound alarm about US electric grid: ‘Not designed to withstand the impacts of climate change’ (CNN)
• U.S. gas prices hit new record high, Biden pushes back on gas attacks:
• Biden Has ‘Only Bad Options’ for Bringing Down Oil Prices (NY Times)
• VIDEO: Biden: Exxon ‘Made More Money Than God’ This Year (Bloomberg)
• Why US gas prices are at a record, and why they’ll stay high for a long time (CNN)
• Gas prices are at 7-year highs, and Biden can’t do much about it (CNN)
• ‘Exxon made more money than god’: Biden rips high gas prices (AFR)
• Why Gas Prices Are So High (NY Times)
• 4 reasons high gas prices aren’t Joe Biden’s fault—and one critical way he’s adding to the problem (Fortune)
• Exxon Mobil Shares Hit All-Time High As Oil And Gas Prices Keep Surging With No End In Sight (Forbes)
• Explosion at LNG export facility exacerbates fossil energy supply woes:
• Freeport LNG extends outage after fire, targets year end for full operations (Reuters)
• Explosion at Texas LNG plant puts added strain on global energy market (Washington Post)
• Freeport LNG explosion raises risk of European winter energy crisis (CNN)
• Explosion at US natural gas plant raises risk of shortages in Europe (Guardian UK)
• Fertilizer Shortage Will Drive Global Food Prices Higher as Ukraine War Drags On (Truthout)
• Global reaction to energy crisis risks zero carbon transition (Climate Action Tracker)
• Russia pulls in record revenue on fossil fuel exports:
• Russia’s Oil Revenue Soars Despite Sanctions, Study Finds (NY Times/Yahoo News):
  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered global condemnation and tough sanctions aimed at denting Moscow’s war chest. Yet Russia’s revenues from fossil fuels, by far its biggest export, soared to records in the first 100 days of its war on Ukraine, driven by a windfall from oil sales amid surging prices, a new analysis shows.
• EU bites Apple, mandating single charger standard:
• EU agrees single charger standard, in blow to Apple (AFP):
  EU member states and MEPs believe a standard cable for all devices will cut back on electronic waste…Imposing a charger standard, [Apple] argued, would stifle innovation and “reduce European consumer choice by removing more affordable older models from the market”.
• The EU’s new universal charger policy claims to tackle e-waste – will it? (The Verge):
  The most desirable material to be found in chargers, Kuehr says, is copper. And if recyclers decide to prioritize recycling chargers, standardization might make it easier for them to build up the infrastructure to sort out chargers and improve the quality of material recovered from them.
• Biden Administration unveils first-ever rules for a national EV charging network:
• Biden announces standards to make electric vehicle charging stations accessible (CNBC)
• More DC fast charging, no app sign-ups under White House’s new EV charging rules (The Verge):
  The new standards give states guidelines on awarding contracts for EV charging projects, directing the companies who get them to build chargers that are convenient, affordable, and accessible to the broadest number of people. And they outline the types of projects that won’t receive federal money, including proprietary charging stations that can only be accessed by one company’s vehicles, like Tesla’s Supercharger network.

‘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 race against time to breed a wheat to survive the climate crisis (Guardian UK)
• How Fashion Giants Recast Plastic as Good for the Planet (NY Times)
• Wind and solar power are ‘bailing out’ Texas amid record heat and energy demand (CNN/MSN)
• Car tyres produce vastly more particle pollution than exhausts, tests show (Guardian UK)
• Flagstaff wildfire forces evacuations as it steadily grows (Yahoo News)
• White House climate adviser says misinformation ‘absolutely’ a public health issue (The Hill)
• Southern Company Knew About Climate Change for Decades While Funding Climate Denial, Report Finds (Earther)
• How heat damages the DNA of endangered purple-crowned fairy wrens (Guardian UK)
• Huy Fong sriracha sauce in short supply amid chili pepper shortage (Axios)
• Biden Admin Proposes Standards To Increase Home Heating Efficiency (The Hill)
• Sky News Australia Is A Global Hub For Climate Misinformation: Report (Guardian UK)
• Aging Dams Could Soon Benefit From $7B Federal Loan Program (AP)
• Chemical Pollutants Linked To Falling Sperm Quality In Research (Guardian UK)
• Cambridge Engineers Develop Zero Carbon Cement (Treehugger)
• Four solutions to mitigate climate change, from the IPCC (Dr. Michael Mann, Penn Today)
• UN warns Earth ‘firmly on track toward an unlivable world’ (AP)
• Environmental Sacrifice Zones: 8 Places We’ve Given Up-Probably Forever (Environmental Health Network)
• “Rare Earths” from Coal Waste (Climate Crocks)
• 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.