‘Green News Report’ – September 21, 2023

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: World nations grapple with climate change at U.N. General Assembly; DeSantis vows to unleash fossil fuels, while downplaying climate change; Conservative U.K. Prime Minister weakens Britain’s climate policies; PLUS: President Biden launches first-ever American Climate Corps… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): At a summit on climate ambition, the U.S. and China end up on the B list; U.N. High Seas Treaty moves closer to reality with first signatures; Revealed: Almost everyone in Europe is breathing toxic air; Climate risks place 39 million U.S. homes at risk pf losing their insurance; Climate change made Libya’s deadly rainfall up to 50 times more likely; Road hazard: Evidence mounts on toxic pollution from tires… PLUS: “X” (Twitter) ranks last on climate change misinformation scorecard… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Austalia slammed by record-shattering Spring heat wave:
• Strong winds fan bushfires as Australia battles intense spring heatwave (Reuters)
• Australia swelters in spring heat wave, temperatures set to break records (Reuters/MSN)
• Sydney Marathon runners hospitalized as Australia swelters in unusual spring heat wave (CNN)
• Fire authorities in Queensland, NSW and Tasmania on high alert as Australia’s east coast hit with record September temperatures (ABC Australia)
• 2024 Republican presidential Ron DeSantis unveils his ‘energy agenda’:
• DeSantis unveils energy agenda while downplaying threats of climate change (CNN):
  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday shared a vision for America’s energy sector, leading with a pledge to unravel President Joe Biden’s ongoing efforts to fight climate change while dismissing threats from intensifying weather events as “fear tactics.”…DeSantis vowed to withdraw the United States from global climate change pacts and end all commitments for the country to cut net greenhouse emissions to zero..roll back subsidies for electric vehicles…eliminate the Department of Energy and would withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement…
• VIDEO: DeSantis unveils energy plan in Texas, aims to lower price of gas to $2 per gallon (CBS News)
• World nations grapple with with climate change at U.N. General Assembly:
• UNGA Briefing: Security Council, climate summit and what else is going on at the United Nations (AP)
• UN chief warns of ‘gates to hell’ in climate summit, but carbon polluting nations stay silent (AP/MSN)
• Biden Warns ‘What Awaits Us’ Without Climate Action (E&E News):
  President Joe Biden issued a warning to international leaders on Tuesday about the global perils that lie ahead if nations don’t work together to slash emissions from fossil fuels…”Together,” Biden said, “these snapshots tell an urgent story of what awaits us if we fail to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and begin to climate-proof the world.”
• Leaders of world’s biggest polluting countries skipping UN climate summit (Guardian)
• VIDEO: ‘Reform or rupture’ says Guterres, calling for multilateralism to be remade for the 21st century (United Nations)
• Transcript: Secretary-General’s address to the General Assembly (United Nations)
• VIDEO: President Biden’s full address to the U.N. General Assembly (NBC News)
• Transcript: Remarks by President Biden Before the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (White House)
• Gavin Newsom joins world leaders at U.N. climate summit; Biden absent (E&E News)
• Transcript: Secretary-General’s Closing Remarks at the Climate Ambition Summit (United Nations):
  Now, it’s not going to be easy.
  But everything that really matters needs a lot of fighting to be able to get there.
  So, to all the first-doers that are here today, and I think now it’s a matter of doing, I’d say:
  Scale up.
  Bring together all those that you can bring together with you.
  Go for it.
  Take no prisoners.
• VIDEO: Climate Ambition Summit 2023 (UN Web TV)
• Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rolls back U.K. climate policies:
• Live updates: ‘Wishful thinking’ for Sunak to say UK on course to meet emissions targets, says Climate Change Committee boss (Guardian/MSN)
• Sunak announces U-turn on several UK net zero policies (Al Jazeera):
  The UK will water down policies aimed at achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and instead pursue a “pragmatic” approach to hitting the target, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said. “We can adopt a more pragmatic, proportionate and realistic approach to meeting net zero,” Sunak told a news conference on Wednesday, saying a ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars would be pushed back from 2030 to 2035.
• VIDEO: Rishi Sunak pushes back ban on new petrol and diesel cars to 2035 (BBC)
• Analysis: UK government’s climate U-turns put legally binding targets in jeopardy (Carbon Brief)
• Biden launches first-ever American Climate Corps:
• Biden uses executive power to create a New Deal-style American Climate Corps (AP)
• Biden administration launches first-of-its-kind American Climate Corps program (CNN):
  President Joe Biden’s administration is launching the first-ever American Climate Corps Wednesday, the White House said, a workforce training and service initiative aimed at preparing American youth for jobs in clean energy and climate resilience.
• Biden is unveiling the American Climate Corps, a program with echoes of the New Deal (Oregon Public Radio)
• Biden launches paid program for 20,000 young people to train for green jobs (CNBC)
• FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Launches American Climate Corps to Train Young People in Clean Energy, Conservation, and Climate Resilience Skills, Create Good-Paying Jobs and Tackle the Climate Crisis (White House)

‘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

• At a Summit on Climate Ambition, the U.S. and China End Up on the B List (NY Times)
• U.N. High Seas Treaty moves closer to reality with first signatures (AFP/Yahoo News)
• Revealed: Almost Everyone In Europe Is Breathing Toxic Air (Guardian)
• Climate Risks Place 39 Million U.S. Homes At Risk Of Losing Their Insurance (Grist)
• Climate Change Made Libya’s Deadly Rainfall Up To 50 Times More Likely (Reuters)
• Road Hazard: Evidence Mounts on Toxic Pollution from Tires (Yale e360)
• DOE Announces $400M To Help States Adopt Climate-Friendly Building Codes (The Hill)
• Chicago Mayor Unveils Reforms to Fight Environmental Racism (Chicago Sun-Times)
• Wind Opponents Spread Myth About Dead Whales (Yale Climate Connections)
• High court won’t hear appeal in Flint cases, upholds dismissal of cases against 7 officials (Detroit News)
• X Ranks Last On Climate Change Misinformation Scorecard (The Hill)
• Black Community in WV Sues EPA to Spur Action on Toxic Air Pollution (Mountain State Spotlight)
• United Nations Seems to Boost Plastics Industry Interests, Critics Say (Pro Publica)
• Wildfire Smoke Is Erasing Years Of Progress Toward Cleaning Up America’s Air (NPR)
• “I’m Not a Criminal… Enbridge Is”: Charges Tossed Against Winona LaDuke & Others for Pipeline Action (Democracy Now!)
• Exxon Knew: Inside Exxon’s Strategy to Downplay Climate Change [no paywall] (Wall St. Journal/MSN)
• The Summer From Hell Was Just A Warning (E&E News)
• Rising Temperatures Are Wreaking Havoc Year-Round (gift link, Bloomberg)
• 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.