‘Green News Report’ – January 23, 2025

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Unprecedented blizzard warning and record snowstorm shuts down the South; New wildfire and evacuations in L.A. County; Donald Trump spews delusional lies about California’s water; PLUS: Last year, the U.S. saw 27 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Fossil fuel companies use Twitter/X social media to block climate progress; Analysis: How Trump-proof is Biden’s environmental legacy?; Illegal turn: Will Trump’s ‘energy emergency’ work?; Trump’s end to “EV mandate” could weaken automakers against China; Not even sea life is safe from the L.A. fires… PLUS: L.A. fires: the incarcerated firefighters battling blazes… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Unprecedented blizzard warnings and record snow hits the South::
• Winter storm that dropped record-breaking snow in New Orleans spreads into Florida and the Carolinas (AP)
• Historic winter storm hits Gulf Coast as Calif. fire risk continues (Axios):
  Over longer timescales, studies suggest polar vortex shifts may be more likely due to human-caused climate change, but this is an area of active research.
• UCLA climate scientist Dr. Daniel Swain on NOLA snowstorm: (Dr. Daniel Swain/Bluesky):
  Big snowstorms, like the astonishing & historic one today along the Gulf Coast today, are not just a function of cold air: they also require ample moisture and upward motion in the atmosphere. Very warm oceans contribute both, and when a rare Arctic airmass comes along…poof!
• Which Southern cities had the most snow? Here are the biggest snow totals by state. (Washington Post)
  Meteorologists were left speechless Tuesday as record amounts of snow fell along the Gulf Coast. Here’s why it was so snowy.
• Another Polar Vortex Is Blasting the U.S. With Harsh Winter Weather. So How Is Climate Change Involved? (Inside Climate News)
• Forecasting Our Future: Here’s why big snowstorms will still happen as Earth warms (KCRA-Sacramento)
• Hughes Fire explodes in L.A. County:
• Hughes Fire burning at rate of over 30 acres a minute (KABC-Los Angeles)
• Over 50,000 under evacuation orders or warnings as wildfire imperils homes north of Los Angeles (AP)
• As Another Fire Explodes, Weary Californians Decide: Stay or Go? (NY Times):
  “What happened in Altadena and the power of the wind in the Palisades – I’ve never seen anything like that in California,” he said.
• California wildfires: What we know about L.A.-area fires, what caused them, who is affected and more (NBC News)
• The 2025 Los Angeles wildfires and the role of climate change (Carbon Brief)
• New study finds intensifying ‘weather whiplash’ in Southern California:
• Whiplash: How Big Swings in Precipitation Fueled the L.A. Fires (Yale e360):
  Climate scientist Daniel Swain says that two very wet years followed by a very dry one helped to turn the Los Angeles wildfires into raging infernos. This phenomenon of “hydroclimate whiplash,” he says, is expected to occur in more and more places as the world warms.
• Why a wetter atmosphere is making California’s fires worse (Washington Post):
  Whiplash between torrential wet seasons and devastating dry seasons is exacerbating wildfires.
• Hydroclimate volatility on a warming Earth (Nature)
• Trump issues executive order interfering with California’s water management:
• Trump takes step to overhaul Delta water deliveries to farms, cities (Cal Matters):
  Because the two systems harm salmon and other protected fish, the regulations have been highly contentious and debated among federal and state officials, environmentalists, farm groups, tribes and scientists for decades…She said the rules from the Biden and Newsom administrations are the product of a three-year, labor-intensive process “to balance the needs of tens of millions of Californians, businesses, and agriculture while protecting the environment.”
• Putting People over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California (Trump White House)
• VIDEO: Trump spews delusional nonsense over CA water infrastructure (Aaron Rupar/Bluesky)
Los Angeles has massive amounts of water available to it. All they have to do is turn the value, and that’s the valve coming back from and down from the Pacific Northwest.
• VIDEO Gov. Gavin Newsom SMACKS DOWN Trump & Elon Musk over fire lies (Brian Tyler Cohen/YouTube)
• Trump says he may withhold federal aid for Los Angeles if California doesn’t change water policies (AP):
  In a Fox News interview, Trump repeated false claims that the state’s fish conservation efforts in the northern part of the state are responsible for fire hydrants running dry in urban areas…Trump in the interview also called for reform of the Federal Emergency Management Agency…”I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems,” he said.
• U.S. saw 27 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2024:
• VIDEO: These are the billion-dollar disasters of 2024: Why analyzing them matters (ABC News):
  Scientists and emergency managers are trying to learn from disasters past.
• Science Agency Confirms Grim Economic, Human Toll of 2024 US Extreme Weather, Climate Disasters (Union of Concerned Scientists)
• 2024: An active year of U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters (NOAA):
  In 2024, there were 27 individual weather and climate disasters with at least $1 billion in damages, trailing only the record-setting 28 events analyzed in 2023. These disasters caused at least 568 direct or indirect fatalities, which is the eighth-highest for these billion-dollar disasters over the last 45 years (1980-2024). The cost was approximately $182.7 billion.
• Overview: Billion-dollar weather disasters (NOAA)
• 2024 was nation’s warmest year on record (NOAA)
• U.S. Supreme Court allows Honolulu’s Big Oil climate lawsuit to go forward:
• Supreme Court Clears a Path for Climate Lawsuits to Proceed (NY Times):
  The high court declined to hear a challenge to a major case in which Honolulu is suing energy companies over climate change.
• US Supreme Court rejects bid by oil companies to toss Honolulu’s climate suit (Reuters)

‘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

• How Trump-proof is Biden’s environmental legacy? See our analysis (Washington Post)
• Illegal Turn: Will Trump’s “Energy Emergency” Work? (This Is Not Cool blog)
• LA Wildfires: The Incarcerated Firefighters Battling Blazes (Thompson Reuters Foundation)
• Trump’s end to “EV mandate” could weaken automakers against China (Axios)
• What Biden Rules Could Congress Unplug With Review Act? (Society of Environmental Journalists)
• Not even sea life is safe from the L.A. fires (Washington Post)
• Fossil fuel companies use Twitter/X social media to block climate progress (Grist)
• EPA Moves To Withdraw Decision On Paraquat, Delays Report On Risks (The New Lede)
• Two Industry Officials Expected to Help Oversee E.P.A. Chemical Rules (NY Times)
• Trump’s No. 2 Pick for EPA Represented Companies Accused of Pollution Harm (Pro Publica)
• Can we avoid the enshittification of clean-energy tech? (David Roberts, Volts)
• Stop emissions, stop warming: A climate reality check (Dr. Andrew Dessler, Climate Brink)
• The Climate Fight Will Continue (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Who Will Care for Americans Left Behind by Climate Migration? (Pro Publica)
• Is the Atlantic Overturning Circulation Approaching a Tipping Point? (The Oceanography Society)
• How Oil Companies Manipulate Journalists (Drilled)
• Abrupt reduction in shipping emission as an inadvertent geoengineering termination shock produces substantial radiative warming (Nature)
• How To Spot 5 Of The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Biggest Disinformation Tactics (Guardian)
• The Oceans We Knew Are Already Gone (The Atlantic)
• Plug-in hybrids vs. electric cars: We did the math on which is better for you (Washington Post)
• How to electrify your life when you rent (The Verge)
• Complete Series: Farmers Under Attack for Supporting Clean Energy (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Feeling Overwhelmed About Going All-Electric at Home? Here’s How to Get Started (Inside Climate News)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration (Pro Publica)
• Exxon’s Snake Oil: 100 years of deception (Columbia Journalism Review)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)