‘Green News Report’ – October 10, 2023

Follow @GreenNewsReport…



(Or use “Click here to listen…” link below.)

IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Big victory for striking auto workers demanding a just transition to electric vehicles; Glacial outburst flood in India kills dozens, damages significant infrastructure; Millions of children displaced every year due to extreme weather disasters; PLUS: Climate change is coming for your olive oil… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)…

Link:
Embed:

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Deadly humid heat could hit billions, spread as far as US Midwest; Pacific coast of Mexico preps for a one-two punch from Max and Lidia; Heat, high water, hurricanes: schools are not ready for climate change; Rich, white communities most likely to oppose wind farms, study finds; How incarcerated people are helping to restore a fragile ecosystem; Mega CAFOs on the Chesapeake… PLUS: ‘Without water, there is no life’: drought in Brazil’s Amazon… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Oil prices spike amid Israel-Hamas war:
• Israel-Hamas war causes oil prices to spike. Here’s what drivers in the U.S. need to know (CNBC/MSN)
[N]either Gaza nor Israel produce much petroleum, so the overall effect on oil and gas prices is likely to remain limited — as long as no third parties from in or outside the region become involved, according to industry experts.
• ‘Knee-jerk surge’: Oil experts predict market impact of Israel-Hamas conflict (CNBC)
• Conflict fears push up oil prices (UBS Insights)
• Saudi Arabia says it will maintain production cuts that have helped drive oil prices up (AP)
• Glacial Outburst Flood kills dozens in India:
• GLOF: Lake Outburst Shows Increasing Flash Flood Dangers for India (Climate Crocks)
• Sikkim flash flood death toll increases to 54 including 8 Army soldiers (Economic Times of India):
  At least 54 people have died from flash floods in Sikkim and West Bengal. The death toll includes eight Indian Army soldiers in Sikkim, while 27 bodies were recovered in West Bengal over the last three days. More than 140 people are still missing.
• Glacial lake outburst floods in Alaska and the Himalayas show evolving hazards in a warming world (The Conversation/MSN)
• UNICEF: Millions of children displaced every year due to extreme weather disasters:
• Weather-related disasters displace 43.1 million children in six years, UNICEF reports (United Nations News)
• Extreme weather displaced 43m children in past six years, Unicef reports (Guradian):
  At least 43 million child displacements were linked to extreme weather events over the past six years, the equivalent of 20,000 children being forced to abandon their homes and school every single day, new research has found.
• Millions of children are displaced due to extreme weather events. Climate change will make it worse (AP)
• Europe’s October starts with record heatwave:
• Historic warmth grips Europe as summerlike weather refuses to relent (Washington Post):
  Weather historian Maximiliano Herrera described the early October heat as “one of the most extreme events” in the continent’s history based on the “quantity of records,” the size of the area affected and the “insane” margins by which records were surpassed.
• Why is it so effing hot? Europe’s heat wave explained (Politico)
• VIDEO: October heatwave expected in parts of Europe after countries record hottest ever September (EuroNews)
• Climate change is coming for your olive oil:
• Olive oil prices reach record highs as Spain’s harvest is halved (Washington Post):
  Extreme weather decimates major producers’ yields and some countries ban exports.
• Olive Oil Prices Are At An All-Time High And May Get Higher (Food Republic/MSN)
• Olive oil is in trouble as extreme heat and drought push the industry into crisis (CNN)
• UAW workers win key demand for a just transition to electric vehicles:
• Striking UAW workers win key battery plant concession from General Motors (Ars Technica)
• GM Battery Workers Will Be Union (The American Prospect)
• UAW Makes the Brave New Economy a Lot More Worker-Friendly (The American Prospect):
  GM’s promise to cover its EV battery factories under the national master agreement gives workers a share of the gains from going electric.
• The future of electric cars becomes ‘make-or-break issue’ as U.S. autoworkers’ strike continues (AP)
• Anyone Who Tells You to Choose Between Jobs and the Environment Is a Scumbag (Hamilton Nolan/Substack):
  In this case, the same interests responsible for keeping people poor enough to fear financial ruin are also going to poison them with environmental degradation on the back end…This connection between poverty-induced fear and exploitation of natural resources keeps the whole game going. In order for the con to be successful, workers must never gain enough economic breathing space to be able to think about the more long term issues. They must always be kept close to the edge of survival.
• GM offers improved version of COLA, 401(k) contribution increase in latest to proposal UAW (Detroit Free Press)
• VIDEO: Donald Trump goes on nonsensical rant about electric cars: ‘We need to get rid of them’ (Electrek)
• Study: EVs require more workers to build, not fewer, than ICE vehicles:
• The Myth of EV Manufacturing Simplifying Labor Demands (USA Now)
• Auto workers worry it takes less labor to build electric cars. Maybe not, some researchers say (CNN):
  People assume those estimates are true, said researcher Turner Cotterman, because they’re based largely on the number of moving parts in an EV. Since there are fewer parts in electric cars than in gas-powered ones, people figure that they’re less work to manufacture…But making the powertrain of electric vehicles – the batteries, electric motors and power management systems – requires more total labor, not less, than that involved in making engines and transmissions.
• What the electric car transition really means for autoworkers (Axios):
  A big sticking point in contract talks between Detroit automakers and the United Auto Workers union is the popular assertion that it takes fewer workers to manufacture electric vehicles (EVs) than conventional cars. In fact, the opposite may be true: Researchers at Carnegie-Mellon University recently found that EVs require more labor hours, primarily to produce battery cells.

‘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

• Deadly humid heat could hit billions, spread as far as US Midwest, study says (Reuters)
• Pacific coast of Mexico preps for a one-two punch from Max and Lidia (Yale Climate Connections)
• Heat, High Water, Hurricanes: Schools Are Not Ready for Climate Change (NY Times)
• Rich, white communities most likely to oppose wind farms, study finds (CNN)
• How Incarcerated People Are Helping To Restore A Fragile Ecosystem (Yale Climate Connections)
• EPA Refuses To Examine Toxicity Of ‘Inactive’ Pesticide Chemicals (Guardian)
• Food Industry Influence Could Cloud the U.S. Dietary Guidelines: Report (NY Times)
• Chicago Environmental Activists Demand Faster Removal of Lead Water Pipes (Inside Climate News)
• ‘Without Water, There Is No Life’: Drought In Brazil’s Amazon (AP)
• Cleveland Accelerates Its Ambitions for Hitting Net Zero Energy (Inside Climate News)
• Uncontrolled Logging Puts New Sahel Reforestation Projects At Risk (Mongabay)
• Newsom Signs First-In-The-Nation Corporate Climate Disclosure Bills (Politico)
• EPA Objects To Air Quality Permit Issued To US Steel’s Clairton Coke Works (NPR/State Impact)
• Gas Storage Plant and New Pipeline Disrupt Life for Texas Black Community (Capital B News)
• In Baltimore, Yellow Buses Are Going Green (Grist)
• Mega CAFOs on the Chesapeake (Sierra Magazine)
• 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.