‘Green News Report’ – January 17, 2023

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: As California recovers from epic storms, the fight for water is just beginning in the U.S. West; Massive boost to U.S. solar manufacturing arrives thanks to the Joe Biden and the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act; PLUS: Exxon scientists in the 1970s accurately predicted today’s climate warming levels and weather disasters… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Fukushima water to be released into ocean in next few months; Gas and coal plant failures widespread as largest grid operator struggled to manage winter storms; Davos 2023: Big Oil in sights of climate activist protests; Nevada: Feds offer $700M to lithium project at heart of ESA dispute; Death by clear-cut: Canada’s unique deep-snow caribou are vanishing; Sweden finds rare earth deposits that could benefit Western consumers; PLUS: Climate gentrification is coming to hurricane-wrecked Florida… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• California begins recovery from epic storms, but historic drought persists:
• California Death Toll Reaches 20 as Last of Atmospheric River Storms Finally Ends (Times of San Diego/MSN)
• California has been hammered with rain. It may not be enough to reverse its drought. (NBC news)
• California storms: The damage and the amazing deluge, by the numbers (Red Bluff Daily News/San Jose Mercury News)
• What is California doing about wasted stormwater? (LA Times)
• Governor Newsom Announces Water Strategy For a Hotter, Drier California (Gov. Gavin Newsom, 8/11/2022)
• VIDEO: UC Davis Paul Ullrich, Atmospheric Rivers ‘Certainly Helping With Drought’ In CA, Professor Says (Fox Weather)
• Arizona: Era of water competition begins in earnest:
• Arizona city cuts off a neighborhood’s water supply amid drought (Washington Post/MSN):
  On Jan. 1, the city of Scottsdale, which gets the majority of its water from the Colorado River, cut off Rio Verde Foothills from the municipal water supply that it has relied on for decades. The result is a disorienting and frightening lack of certainty about how residents will find enough water as their tanks run down in coming weeks, with a bitter political feud impacting possible solutions.
• Skipped Showers, Paper Plates: An Arizona Suburb’s Water Is Cut Off (NY Times/MSN)
• VIDEO: Arizona town to cut off water to Rio Verde Foothills amidst western water crisis (CBS News, 11/19/2022)
• Officials fear ‘complete doomsday scenario’ for drought-stricken Colorado River (Washington Post)
• Saudi water deal threatening water supply in Phoenix (Arizona PBS, 6/23/2022)
• UK Met Office: Expect El Nino later this year:
• Global temperatures could rise ‘off the chart’ with return of El Nino this year, scientists warn (Irish Times)
• Warning of unprecedented heatwaves as El Nino set to return in 2023 (Guardian UK):
  This year is already forecast to be hotter than 2022, which global datasets rank as the fifth or sixth hottest year on record. But El Niño occurs during the northern hemisphere winter and its heating effect takes months to be felt, meaning 2024 is much more likely to set a new global temperature record.
• 2022 was the warmest La Niña year on record. Scientists say this year will be warmer (CNN):
  Twin reports released Thursday by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found the last nine years were the hottest nine on record, with 2022 being the warmest La Nina year ever recorded. That’s significant, scientists said, since the La Nina phenomenon typically has a cooling effect on global temperatures.
• Exxon Mobil’s scientists in the 1970s nailed today’s global warming projections:
• Exxon’s models predicting climate change were spot on — 40 years ago (Grist)
• Study: Exxon Mobil accurately predicted warming since 1970s (AP):
  The study in the journal Science Thursday looked at research that Exxon funded that didn’t just confirm what climate scientists were saying, but used more than a dozen different computer models that forecast the coming warming with precision equal to or better than government and academic scientists. This was during the same time that the oil giant publicly doubted that warming was real and dismissed climate models’ accuracy. Exxon said its understanding of climate change evolved over the years and that critics are misunderstanding its earlier research.
• VIDEO: AOC grills former Exxon scientists on oil giant’s climate denial in House hearing (Prof. Ray Willis, Twitter):
  Decades of obfuscation: fossil fuel lobby. @AOC asks former Exxon scientist James Black to recall in 1977 “general scientific agreement that … mankind is influencing the global climate is through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels.
• Exxon Scientists Predicted Global Warming, Even as Company Cast Doubts, Study Finds (NY Times)
• Huge boost to U.S. solar manufacturing, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act:
• Korean Solar Company Plans to Build $2.5 Billion Plant in Georgia (NY Times):
  Hanwha Qcells expects to make solar panels and their components in the United States to take advantage of President Biden’s climate policies.
• Qcells to invest $2.5B in Georgia solar panel production facility (UPI)
• Qcells to invest $2.5B in building out US solar supply chain (Canary Media):
  Inflation Reduction Act tax credits spur Qcells to make a major investment in Georgia solar factories and to expand its U.S. polysilicon supply.

‘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

• Fukushima water to be released into ocean in next few months, says Japan (Guardian UK)
• Gas and Coal Failures Widespread as Largest Grid Operator in U.S. Struggled to Manage ‘Winter Storm Elliott’ (EcoWatch)
• Davos 2023: Big Oil In Sights Of Climate Activist Protests (Reuters)
• Nevada: Feds Offer $700M To Lithium Project At Heart of ESA Dispute (E&E News)
• ‘Death By 1,000 Clearcuts’: Canada’s Deep-Snow Caribou Are Vanishing (The Narwhal)
• Sweden finds rare earth deposits that could benefit Western consumers (Washington Post)
• Climate Gentrification Is Coming to Hurricane-Wrecked Florida (Gizmodo)
• Road Salts Wash Into Mississippi River, Damaging Ecosystems and Pipes (Inside climate News)
• Ocean heat hit another record high in 2022, fueling extreme weather (CNN)
• Building Steam in Lithium Valley (The American Prospect)
• Feeling Overwhelmed About Going All-Electric at Home? Here’s How to Get Started (Inside Climate News)
• Focusing on the climate actions that can make a real difference (David Roberts, Volts)
• VIDEO: See what three degrees of global warming looks like (The Economist/YouTube)
• The 7 climate tipping points that could change the world forever (Grist)
• The 1977 White House climate memo that should have changed the world (Guardian UK)
• 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)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• VIDEO: 2050: what happens if we ignore the climate crisis (Guardian UK)
• 99.9 percent Of Scientists Agree Climate Emergency Caused By Humans (Guardian UK)
• 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)
• 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.