‘Green News Report’ – August 3, 2023

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Man-made climate change made record hot July three times more likely, new study finds; Extreme heat is extremely costly for small businesses; Record high temps ironically force oil refineries to curtail production; PLUS: America’s first new nuclear reactor in years finally starts operations in Georgia…with higher cost for ratepayers… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Former DOJ Environment Chief Described As Co-Conspirator in Indictment; For Florida Keys coral, climate change is the difference between life and death; Underground Climate Change Poses A Risk To A City’s Infrastructure; Experts call for above-average hurricane season with peak weeks ahead; 6 Months After E. Palestine Derailment, Congress Is Deadlocked On Safety; California’s Joshua Trees Are Burning Up, May Be Impossible To Replace… PLUS: Why sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere can’t undo all the effects of climate change… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Climate change made record July heat three times more likely:
• Worldwide daily fingerprints of climate change during Earth’s hottest month [PDF] (Climate Central)
• Climate change made July hotter for almost every human on Earth (AP):
  Human-caused global warming made July hotter for four out of five people on Earth, with more than 2 billion people feeling climate change-boosted warmth daily, according to a flash study…For 2 billion people, in a mostly tropical belt across the globe, climate change made it three times more likely to be hotter every single day of July. Those include the million-person cities of Mecca, Saudi Arabia and San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
• Heat that hit over 80% of the world’s population in July unlikely without climate change, analysis shows (NBC News)
• VIDEO: July heat and how much more likely it was made by climate change (Jeff Berardelli, WFLA)
• State of the climate: 2023 now likely hottest year on record after extreme summer (Carbon Brief)
• July 2023 Is Hottest Month Ever Recorded on Earth (Scientific American)
• It’s Not Just Hot. Climate Anomalies Are Emerging Around The Globe. (Washington Post)
• South America hit with extreme heat – in winter:
• It’s midwinter, but it’s over 100 degrees in South America (Washington Post/MSN):
  It’s the middle of winter in South America, but that hasn’t kept the heat away in Chile, Argentina and surrounding locations. Multiple spells of oddly hot weather have roasted the region in recent weeks. The latest spell early this week has become the most intense, pushing the mercury above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, while setting an August record for Chile.
• Beijing hit by record-shattering rain, floods:
• Beijing records heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years, causing severe flooding and 21 deaths (AP)
• Heaviest rainfall in 140 years drenches Beijing while Typhoon Khanun hits Japan’s Okinawa (CNN)
• Extreme weather is extremely expensive:
• First half catastrophes “much higher than the 10-year average” (Munich Re)
• Munich Re publishes global loss figures for the first half of 2023 (Insurance Portal):
  “Overall losses were US$42-billion, of which approximately US$32-billion was insured – a reflection of the region’s high insurance penetration for thunderstorm losses, motor own damage in particular,” they write.
• Natural disasters in the first half of 2023 [PDF] (Munich Re)
• Extreme heat is extremely costly for small businesses:
• Extreme heat cuts into US small business, worker hours in July, report shows (Reuters)
• Record heat waves have come at a cost for US workers and small businesses (Quartz/MSN):
  riple-digit temperatures made it too hot for many to go outside, let alone work. With consumers sheltering indoors, there has been a marked reduction in spending on Main Street.
• VIDEO: How hot weather affects worker productivity — and what that means for the economy (CBS News/YouTube)
• Heat Is Costing the U.S. Economy Billions in Lost Productivity (NY Times):
  From meatpackers to home health aides, workers are struggling in sweltering temperatures and productivity is taking a hit.
• Extreme Heat Could Cost The U.S. Economy $100 Billion A Year – Here’s How (Forbes)
• Big Business Lobbies Against Heat Protections For Workers As US Boils (Guardian)
• Oil refineries forced to curtail production due to extreme heat:
• Scorching Summer Heat Is Curbing Gasoline Output and Adding Pain at the Pump (Bloomberg)
• Gas prices hit their highest level this year as heat hampers refineries (Washington Post):
  Refineries aren’t designed to operate in temperatures above 95 degrees, so companies scale back production during heat waves as a safety and efficiency measure. Much of the country’s refinery capacity is in areas of Texas and Louisiana where the average daily maximum temperature in July has been at least 95 degrees.
• Federal oil lease sale in Nevada is a bust:
• Zero Oil Companies Bid In BLM’s Nevada Lease Sale (E&E News):
  “The bust amplified conservationists’ calls to turn away from oil production in the state, where 95 percent of acres leased for oil development are nonproducing.”
• Georgia’s troubled, costly Vogtle new nuclear reactor begins operations:
• America’s first new nuclear reactor in nearly seven years starts operations (CNBC)
• What Vogtle’s stumbling finish means for U.S. nuclear energy (E&E News)
• Georgia Power customers to see rate increase with Plant Vogtle Unit 3 now operational (Augusta Chronicle/MSN)
• VIDEO: Georgia Power customers worry about rate hike due to Vogtle (WALB-Albany)

‘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

• Former DOJ Environment Chief Described As Co-Conspirator in Indictment (Washinton Post)
• For Florida Keys coral, climate change is the difference between life and death (Jeff Berardelli, WFLA)
• Why sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere can’t undo all the effects of climate change (The Verge)
• Underground Climate Change Poses A Risk To A City’s Infrastructure (Forbes)
• Experts call for above-average hurricane season with peak weeks ahead (Washington Post)
• 6 Months After E. Palestine Derailment, Congress Is Deadlocked On Safety (AP)
• A Look at How Much Less Antarctic Sea Ice There Is This Year (NY Times)
• ‘Narco-Deforestation’ In Focus At Upcoming Summit Of Amazon Nations (Reuters)
• Supreme Court Wetlands Ruling Imperils Waters on Public Lands (Bloomberg)
• California’s Joshua Trees Are Burning Up, May Be Impossible To Replace (LA Times)
• Norfolk Southern changes policy on overheated bearings, months after Ohio derailment (AP)
• Rough years ahead [as new El Nino arrives] (Nature)
• Complete Series: Farmers Under Attack for Supporting Clean Energy (Climate Crocks)
• These are the places most at risk from record-breaking heat waves as the planet warms (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)
• 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)
• 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.