‘Green News Report’ – October 24, 2023

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Rising sea levels threaten Florida property values and its economy; ‘Superfog’ triggers massive, deadly vehicle pileup in Louisiana; New study confirms hurricanes really are undergoing rapid intensification more frequently, due to global warming; PLUS: Melting of the huge West Antarctic Ice Sheet may have already passed the point of no return… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Gaza’s limited water supply raises concerns for human health; How the Israel-Hamas War imperils action against global warming; Forecast predicts an El Nino winter. What does that mean?; Drought and rising temperatures drive millions of Somalis from their homes; Climate ‘loss and damage’ talks end in failure; Africa and India push rich nations to phase out fossil fuels faster; Tropical Cyclone Tej to inundate Yemen…PLUS: The slow death of a desert giant… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• ‘Superfog’ of wildfire smoke and fog causes massive, deadly 158-vehicle pileup:
• ‘Superfog’ near New Orleans blamed for highway crashes that killed at least 7 (AP)
• Why does the swamp fire smoke smell bad in New Orleans? Here’s what a firefighter says (NOLA):
  “Your usual marsh fire is on dry brush and grass, and it burns fast and has a sweet smell,” said Chris Mickal, a district chief with the New Orleans Fire Department. “But when (the fire) gets into that stuff underground, that’s rotting vegetation. And, yes, it starts stinking.”…The NOFD isn’t sure how big the fire is or what caused it.
• I-55 closed for ”foreseeable future’ after deadly pileup involving at least 158 cars (NOLA)
• The smell of area fires returns to New Orleans Sunday, hampering breathing, visibility (NOLA)
• What is super fog? (National Weather Service)
• October 2023 on track to be the hottest October on record:
• State of the climate: Global temperatures throughout mid-2023 shatter records (Carbon Brief):
  October is likely to be extremely warm based on daily data so far, though not quite as unusual as September…Global temperatures are closely aligned with the projections from climate models.
• A sudden spike in global warmth is so extreme, it’s mysterious (Washington Post)
• I Study Climate Change. The Data Is Telling Us Something New. (Zeke Hausfather, climate scientist, NY Times op-ed):
  Amazingly enough, this acceleration quite closely matches what climate models have projected for this period. In other words, scientists have long foreseen a possible acceleration of warming if our aerosol emissions declined while our greenhouse gas emissions did not. That’s what we’re now seeing. This may not make you feel much better about the future of warming but should at least make you feel better about our models and the power of science to prepare us for what’s to come.
• Record-warm global oceans still generating powerful storms into October
• Tropical storms and hurricanes still roam the Atlantic and Pacific (Washington Post):
  Barely a day and a half after Norma socked Cabo San Lucas, a new storm is brewing off the Mexican coastline…Forecasters are monitoring Hurricane Tammy in the Atlantic while Otis is set to become the fourth tropical storm to make landfall in Mexico this month in the Pacific.
• Norma downgraded to a tropical storm in Mexico as Hurricane Tammy leaves Barbuda (AP)
• Tropical Storm Otis forecast to strengthen to hurricane before landfall near Mexico’s Acapulco (AP)
• Tropical cyclones we’re watching: Tammy, Norma, Otis, Tej, 95L, 06B, and Lola (Yale Climate Communications):
  Record-warm global oceans are keeping the tropics humming into late October.
• Atlantic hurricanes are getting more intense, and intensifying faster:
• Hurricanes are now twice as likely to zip from minor to whopper than decades ago, study says (AP):
  With warmer oceans serving as fuel, Atlantic hurricanes are now more than twice as likely as before to rapidly intensify from wimpy minor hurricanes to powerful and catastrophic, a study said Thursday.
• Atlantic Hurricanes Are Getting Stronger, Faster, Study Finds (NY Times):
  The chance that a storm will get much more dangerous in less than a day has more than doubled over the past few decades.
• Observed increases in North Atlantic tropical cyclone peak intensification rates (Nature)
• Scientist: rapidly intensifying hurricanes ‘particularly concerning’ for coastal communities (Fort Myers News-Press)
• West Antarctica may have already reached irreversible tipping point:
• Unavoidable future increase in West Antarctic ice-shelf melting over the twenty-first century (Nature)
• Rapid melting in West Antarctica is ‘unavoidable,’ with potentially disastrous consequences for sea level rise, study finds (CNN):
  Rapid melting of West Antarctica’s ice shelves may now be unavoidable as human-caused global warming accelerates, with potentially devastating implications for sea level rise around the world, new research has found.
• Sea-level rise: West Antarctic ice shelf melt ‘unavoidable’ (BBC)
• Florida’s real estate-based economy faces rising seas, fiscal disaster:
  • AUDIO: New study projects sea level rise to drain Florida’s financial future (NPR)
  • Climate change is a fiscal disaster for local governments – our study shows how it’s testing communities in Florida (The Conversation):
    Almost 30 percent of all local revenues currently generated by these 211 municipalities come from buildings in areas that will become chronically flooded…Yet, planners and managers remain largely unaware of how much climate change will affect local fiscal health. Some communities with the most at risk are doing the least to prepare.
  • Can Florida’s Coast Survive Its Reliance on Development? Fiscal Vulnerability and Funding Woes Under Sea Level Rise (Taylor and Francis Online)
  • In Florida: The Insurance-Driven Exodus Begins (Climate Crocks)

‘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

• Gaza’s Limited Water Supply Raises Concerns For Human Health (AP)
• Forecast predicts an El Nino winter. What does that mean? (AP)
• EPA Proposes Ban On Carcinogenic Cleaning Chemical TCE (The Hill)
• How the Israel-Hamas War Imperils Action Against Global Warming (NY Times)
• Drought And Rising Temperatures Drove Millions Of Somalis From Homes (Yale Climate Communications)
• Climate ‘Loss And Damage’ Talks End In Failure (AFP)
• Autopsies confirm 5 died of chemical exposure in tanker crash (AP)
• Weather tracker: Tropical Cyclone Tej approaches Yemen (Guardian)
• Africa and India push rich nations to phase out fossil fuels faster (Climate Home News)
• Concentration of asset owners exposed to power sector stranded assets may trigger climate policy resistance (Nature)
• Louisianans Near Gulf Struggle As Drinking Water Crisis Persists (Guardian)
• FERC OKs Natural Gas Pipeline Expansion In Pacific Northwest Over Protests (AP)
• FWS Proposes Sprawling Conservation Area in Everglades Watershed (Inside Climate News)
• The Slow Death Of A Desert Giant (Yale Climate Communications)
• 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.