‘Green News Report’ – February 21, 2023

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Rising seas set to displace nearly a billion people in coming decades, U.N. warns; Ice coverage on the Great Lakes hits record low; PLUS: Biden EPA restores limits on toxic mercury pollution rolled back by Trump… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Madagascar, Mozambique brace for ‘dangerous’ Cyclone Freddy; ‘No Excuse’: IEA tells fossil fuel industry as methane emissions rise; Another whale found dead in NY with signs of vessel strike; Groups call on Sec. Buttigieg to restore Obama-era train brake rule; FERC approves power plant rules to fight extreme weather; Weather Whiplash: How climate change killed thousands of migratory birds … PLUS: How Russia’s war shattered global energy routes… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• UN: Sea level rise a ‘threat multiplier’ set to displace nearly a billion people in coming decades:
• Rising seas risk climate migration on ‘biblical scale,’ says U.N. chief (Washington Post):
  “Around the world, a hotter planet is melting glaciers and ice sheets,” Guterres said Tuesday. He noted that already, melting glaciers in the Himalayas have worsened flooding in Pakistan. In time, he warned, rising sea levels and the intrusion of saltwater will make large parts of huge deltas across Asia uninhabitable.
• VIDEO: UN Secretary-General on Sea-level Rise, Climate Action, UN Security Council (United Nations Youtube Channel)
• UN chief: Rising seas risk ‘death sentence’ for some nations (AP)
• Sea Level Rise Could Drive 1 in 10 People from Their Homes, with Dangerous Implications for International Peace, UN Secretary General Warns (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: Billions at ‘unthinkable’ risk if sea levels continue to rise: UN (ABC News)
• New studies warn sea level rise is accelerating:
• Drastic emissions cuts needed to avert multi-century sea level rise, study finds (Axios):
  The study…utilizes multiple simulations from what are known as “coupled” computer models in which the interactions between the atmosphere, ocean, ice sheets and ice shelves are included and capable of influencing one another over time.
• Twice as Much Land in Developing Nations Will be Swamped by Rising Seas than Previously Projected, New Research Shows (Inside Climate News):
  Rising seas will swamp farmlands, pollute water supplies and displace millions of people much sooner than expected, scientists said last week, as they released new research that accurately calculates the vulnerability of coastal areas, especially in developing countries that have not had access to expensive coastal mapping technologies.
• Future sea-level projections with a coupled atmosphere-ocean-ice-sheet model (Nature Communications)
• New LiDAR-Based Elevation Model Shows Greatest Increase in Global Coastal Exposure to Flooding to Be Caused by Early-Stage Sea-Level Rise (American Geophysical Union)
• Thwaites: Warming seas are carving into glacier that could trigger sea level rise (Washington Post):
  If the remaining shelf is further undermined, Thwaites Glacier will flow into the ocean faster and boost global sea levels on a large scale.
• Brazil: record rainfall causes widespread devastation in Sao Paulo:
• Death toll from Brazil rains hits 40; Lula calls for safer housing (Reuters/MSN)
• Heavy rains leave 36 dead in Brazil, cities cancel Carnival (AP):
  The cities of Sao Sebastiao, Ubatuba, Ilhabela and Bertioga, some of the hardest hit and now under state of calamity, canceled their Carnival festivities as rescue teams struggle to find missing, injured and feared dead in the rubble. “Our rescue teams are not managing to get to several locations; it is a chaotic situation,” said Felipe Augusto, the mayor of Sao Sebastiao.
• Great Lakes hit record low ice coverage, amid long-term ice decline:
• Great Lakes ice cover plummets to record mid-February low
  This winter’s lack of ice — part of a longer-term decline in Great Lakes ice coverage tied to human-caused climate change — could have implications across and downwind of the lakes not just for the rest of this winter and the coming spring and summer, but all the way into next winter.
• Great Lakes reach record lowest ice extent for this time in the season (ABC News)
• IEA: Fossil fuel industry received a record $1 trillion in government subsidies in 2022:
• Energy crisis: Governments spent more than €900 billion on fossil fuel subsidies in 2022 (Euronews/MSN):
  To shield consumers, governments poured money into fossil fuel subsidies like petrol price caps, policies which see governments limit the price fuel companies can charge for petrol – and pay these companies the difference.
• Governments Spent Record $1 Trillion Subsidizing Fossil Fuels Last Year (Yale e360):
  Oil subsidies rose 85 percent between 2021 and 2022, while subsidies for natural gas and electricity more than doubled year on year, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency. The analysis only accounts for direct fossil subsidies. It does not account for the high cost of pollution or climate disasters, which are borne by the public but not included in the price of fossil fuels…”[W]hile they may have partially protected customers from skyrocketing costs, they artificially maintained fossil fuels’ competitiveness versus low-emissions alternatives.”
• Biden EPA reinstates mercury pollution limits rolled back by Trump:
• Biden E.P.A. Reinstates Mercury Limits Weakened Under Trump (NY Times):
  The Biden administration will now return to an Obama-era method of calculating the impact of regulation in a way that considers collateral benefits, such as reducing fine particulate matter and smog, when estimating the gains expected from lower mercury emissions. Using that method would enable the E.P. A. to conclude that the public health benefits of limiting mercury, such as prevention of disease and premature deaths, outweigh the costs to industry. That would provide the legal justification to enforce the existing mercury regulations.
• Biden administration restores Obama-era mercury rules for power plants, eyes more regulations in coming months (CNN)

‘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

• ‘No Excuse’: IEA Tells Energy Firms As Methane Emissions Rise (Reuters)
• Methane emissions are stubborn and that’s not good (Axios)
• Another whale found dead in NY with signs of vessel strike (AP)
• Green Groups Call On Buttigieg To Restore Obama-Era Train Brake Rule (the Hill)
• Madagascar, Mozambique Set For “Dangerous” Cyclone Freddy (AP)
• FERC Approves Power Plant Rules To Fight Extreme Weather (E&E News)
• Weather Whiplash: How Climate Change Killed Thousands of Migratory Birds (The Revelator)
• Biggest Calif. Environmental Cleanup Leaves Lead Contamination, Angst (LA Times)
• How Russia’s War Shattered Global Energy Routes (E&E News)
• Four Rail-Borne Risks Moving Through American Communities (The Hill)
• State And Federal Funds Fuel More Wildlife Crossings (E&E News)
• 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)
• 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.