‘Green News Report’ – April 18, 2023

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Treasury Department unveils new rules for Electric Vehicle tax credits; Extreme weather weekend wreaks havoc around the world; As the world gets warming, ‘flash droughts’ are coming on faster; PLUS: Germany shuts down the last of its nuclear power plants… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Climate change, disease imperil North American bats; GOP lawmakers kill funding for Wisconsin’s largest conservation project; As the climate suffers, enforcement needed for corporate green pledges; Water rule injunction adds confusion to Biden’s protection plan; Insurance woes plague efforts to cut growing wildfire risks; Slow start on World Bank reform angers climate-hit countries; Court throws out Berkeley, California’s ban on natural gas… PLUS: Greenland’s melting ice could be changing our oceans. Just ask the whales… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Earth Day 2023: Growing the movement since 1970. Earth Day Every Day (Earth Day)
• Extreme rainfall cripples Ft. Lauderdale, FL:
• Fort Lauderdale Was Inundated With 1/3 Of Its Annual Rainfall Within Hours (Washington Post):
  The city’s main hospital was knocked offline for all but emergency procedures. Floodwaters shorted out the electrical equipment and generators at City Hall. And for the second straight day, one of the nation’s busiest airports was closed, stranding tens of thousands of travelers…Throughout the region, residents grappled with the impacts of the record-breaking storm, which sat over Fort Lauderdale and its 300 miles of coastal canals Wednesday. The rain sent water surging through city streets, flooding hundreds of homes and vehicles, damaging critical infrastructure and leaving brackish water to stagnate under Florida’s April sun.”
• Here’s why downpour in Florida just wouldn’t stop (AP)
• Climate change could make freak events like Fort Lauderdale’s rain bomb more common (Miami Herald)
• Fort Lauderdale saw 2 feet of rain in a day. How on Earth is that even possible? (USA Today)
• Weather alert: Fort Lauderdale airport resumes flights as flood recovery begins (Miami Herald/MSN)
• 279 homes suffer major damage in Fort Lauderdale neighborhood (CBS News)
• Fear of flooding in Fort Lauderdale: ‘Think I’ll sell it and walk away. I’m too old for this.’ (Sun-Sentinel/MSN)
• In photos: Scenes of flooding in Fort Lauderdale and other parts of South Florida following record-breaking storm (Washington Post/MSN)
• Extreme weather wreaks havoc around the world:
• Several Northeast Cities Set New Record Temperatures Amid Heat Wave (NY Times)
• Cyclone Ilsa sets a new wind record as it smashes into Australia’s western coast (CNN)
• Historic Asia heat breaks hundreds of records, with extremes in Thailand and China (Washington Post)
• Sprawling heat wave envelops large swath of Asia (Axios):
  On Monday, Prayagraj in India reached 44.6°C (112.3°F). Bangladesh also saw temperatures exceeding the 40°C mark, with weather historian Maximiliano Herrera warning, “It will just get worse.” …On April 15, Thailand set its highest temperature on record for any month, marking the first time the country has exceeded 45°C (113°F) when Tak, in the country’s northwest, rose to 45.4°C (113.7°F).
• Spain’s Barcelona faces drought ’emergency’ in September (AP)
• As world warms, flash droughts are increasing:
• As Earth warms, more ‘flash droughts’ suck soil, plants dry (AP)
• As World Warms, Droughts Come On Faster, Study Finds (NY Times):
  When rains fail unexpectedly, higher temperatures can more rapidly parch the ground, to devastating effect.
• A global transition to flash droughts under climate change (Science)
• Germany shuts down the last of its nuclear plants:
• Germany shuts down its last nuclear power stations (Deutsche-Welle News)
• Germany’s final nuclear power plants come to a close, causing division worldwide (ABC Australia)
• Over and out: Germany switches off its last nuclear plants (AP)
• ‘A new era’: Germany quits nuclear power, closing its final three plants (CNN)
• Q&A: Why is Germany phasing out nuclear power – and why now? (Clean Energy Wire)
• Study: Shutting down nuclear power could increase air pollution (MIT News)
• Is There a Nuclear Option for Stopping Climate Change? (NY Times, 4/26/2021)
• Germany votes to end nuclear power by 2022 (AP, 6/11/2011)
• Treasury Dept. unveils new rules for EV tax credits:
• Only 10 Electric Vehicles Qualify for Full $7,500 US Tax Credit (Bloomberg)
• These are the electric vehicles that qualify for a $7,500 tax credit (CBS News/MSN)
• Here are the EV models eligible for new tax credits up to $7,500: What you need to know (CNN)
• BMW, Rivian, Hyundai, Volvo lose access to EV tax credit (Tech Crunch/MSN)
• Treasury cuts list of EVs that qualify for tax credits (E&E News)
• Manchin pushes for delay on electric vehicle tax credits (AP, 1/25/2023)
• Manchin agrees to extension of tax credit for electric vehicle purchases in reversal (Fox Business, 7/28/2022)
• Chart: Here’s the shortlist of $7,500 US tax credit eligible EV and hybrids (Ed Ludlow, Twitter)
• Cheap EVs arriving soon:
• The $25,000 electric vehicle is coming, with big implications for the auto market and car buyers (CNBC):
  The rise of the mass-market EV will be a milestone — environmentally, economically, financially and even politically. And as the Biden administration pushes changes that seek to aggressively remake the car market in favor of EVs more quickly than previously anticipated.
• Buy an electric vehicle now or wait? Here’s how to decide. (Washington 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

• Report: Climate Change, Disease Imperil North American Bats (AP)
• As the climate suffers, enforcement needed for corporate green pledges (Thompson Reuters Foundation)
• GOP lawmakers kill funding for Wisconsin’s largest conservation project (AP)
• Water rule injunction adds confusion to Biden’s protection plan (Bloomberg)
• Fossil Fuels Find a Loophole in the Latest G-7 Climate Pledge (Bloomberg)
• Insurance woes plague efforts to cut growing wildfire risks (Thompson Reuters Foundation)
• Slow start on World Bank reform angers climate-hit countries (AP)
• Greenland’s melting ice could be changing our oceans. Just ask the whales (NPR)
• Dozens of climate activists arrested after shovelling coal from train bound for Newcastle (Guardian)
• DeSantis takeover of wetland permits erects new building hurdles (Bloomberg)
• Court throws out Berkeley, California’s ban on natural gas (AP)
• New climate paper calls for charging big US oil firms with homicide (Guardian)
• Why It’s Time to Officially Get Over Your EV Range Anxiety (Inside Climate 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.