‘Green News Report’ – October 31, 2023

Follow @GreenNewsReport…



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

IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Striking UAW workers reach historic deal with Big 3 automakers, including on EVs!; Staggering loss and damage from Hurricane Otis in Acapulco; PLUS: America now has a new EV battery recycling industry… 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): Unchecked climate change will bring storms beyond imagination; Florida is booming and burning more trash. Residents say it’s making them sick; U.N. farming unit FAO stifled, censored methane research; How the I.R.A. is playing in 7 swing states; Tesla’s Cybertruck will test America’s great partisan divide… PLUS: solar could become a model for sectoral bargaining… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Staggering damage and loss from Hurricane Otis:
• Hurricane Otis: Photos show devastation in Acapulco after Category 5 storm leaves 47 dead (USA Today)
• Two hours of terror and now years of devastation for Acapulco’s poor in Hurricane Otis aftermath (AP/MSN):
  “The government doesn’t even know we exist,” Sandoval said. “They’ve only ever taken care of the resort areas, the pretty places of Acapulco. They’ve always forgotten us.”
• The costly aftermath of Hurricane Otis (Axios)
• CoreLogic pegs Hurricane Otis insurable loss at $10bn to $15bn (Reinsurance News)
• Hurricane Otis strikes Acapulco as one of the strongest storms ever to hit Mexico (USA Today)
• Why did Hurricane Otis get so strong, so fast? (Yale Climate Communications)
• Extreme weather disasters wreaking havoc in global agriculture sector:
• The Impact of Disasters on Agriculture and Food Security (UN Food and Agriculture Organization)
• Disasters cause $3.8 trillion in crop losses over 30 years: FAO (AFP):
  This is the first time the UN body has tried to compile such an estimate, with the aim of putting into context the scale of the cost of disasters on both a global and personal scale.
• FAO: Loss of crops and livestock in last 30 years worth $3.8 trillion (Agriland)
• UAW reaches historic agreement with Big 3 automakers:
• UAW Settles With Big 3 U.S. Automakers, Hoping to Organize EV Battery Plants (Inside Climate News):
  GM agreed to pay raises of 25 percent over five years, powered by hefty federal investments in EV manufacturing. The UAW’s president says the union refused “to pick between good jobs and green jobs.”
• VIDEO: UAW and General Motors reach tentative agreement (WXYZ-Detroit)
• UAW contract breakdown: Here’s what union members are getting (Yahoo Finance)
• Audio: UAW strike ends: The Big Three, electric vehicles and the future (WBUR)
• Bumpy stretch of road ahead for EV transition:
• EVs, like everything else, are political (Axios):
  EVs could become even more intertwined with political views. Donald Trump and other GOP candidates are bashing President Biden’s policies, arguing they’ll boost reliance on Chinese tech and materials and defy consumer preferences.
• 40 percent of Americans say they’ve never heard of Biden’s $7500 EV tax credits (Axios):
  Consumer knowledge gaps could undercut the substantive and political impact of the 2022 climate law, which provides tax breaks for home efficiency retrofits, EVs, green appliances, and much more.
• Bill Ford Says Electric Vehicles Are Being Politicized Like the Vaccine (Bloomberg/Yahoo News):
  “Some of the red states say this is just like the vaccine, and it’s being shoved down our throat by the government, and we don’t want it. I never thought I would see the day when our products were so heavily politicized, but they are.”
• GM Say EV Demand Is Shrinking, but Data Shows a Complex Market (AutoWeek)
• Factcheck: 21 misleading myths about electric vehicles (Carbon Brief)
• America now has a new electric vehicle battery recycling industry:
• VIDEO: Startup Ascend Elements gets federal supercharge for battery recycling (CNBC)
• VIDEO: EV Battery Recycling Goes Mainstream (Climate Crocks)
• Warning Light? GM Will “Moderate” EV Push. (Climate Crocks)
• Stellantis and Orano To Enter EV Battery Recycling Joint Venture (Investopedia/MSN)
• Panasonic announces game-changing plan to give old EV batteries new purpose: ‘It would be a big step toward winning in the EV battery market’ (The Cool Down)

‘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

• VIDEO: Unchecked Climate Change Will Bring Storms Beyond Imagination (Climate Crocks)
• Florida is booming and burning more trash. Residents say it’s making them sick. (NBC News)
• UN Farming Unit Stifled Methane Emissions Research (Mother Jones)
• Solar Could Become a Model for Sectoral Bargaining (The American Prospect)
• Tesla’s Cybertruck Will Test America’s Great Political Divide (Bloomberg/Yahoo News)
• ‘Prudence demands we act’: Bank regulators unveil climate rules (E&E News)
• How the IRA is playing in 7 swing states (E&E News)
• The 5 Best EVs on the Market Right Now, Plus a Cheaper One You’ll Have to Wait For (Inside Climate News)
• The trillion-dollar quest to make green steel (Canary Media)
• 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.