‘Green News Report’ – July 16, 2009

IN TODAY’S AUDIO REPORT: End of the ‘free ride’ for mining companies?; Swine flu surges again…. PLUS: Sarah Palin was for ‘Cap-and-Trade’ before she was against it… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (links below): The incandescent bulb is back; Nanotechnology literally carpets solar panels in 3-D efficiency; Discarded food finds new life as electricity … PLUS: The world surges ahead of the U.S. in the Green Energy Revolution…

Info/links on those stories and all the ones we talked about on today’s episode follow below…

• EPA to develop rule to ensure hardrock miners will pay for environmental cleanup (LA Times)
• OFFSHORE DRILLING: Senate panel votes to repeal mandatory royalty waivers (Greenwire.com)
• Obama Warns of Return of Swine Flu in the Fall (NY Times)
• UK: Swine flu cases soared sixfold last week, NHS figures reveal (Guardian UK)
• Swine flu is more dangerous than regular flu, UW-Madison study finds
• Personal Pandemic Preparedness Resource List (University of Minnesota)
• Flu strains circulate for years before becoming a pandemic (USA Today)
• DEBUNKING SARAH
• Palin’s op-ed: The ‘Cap And Tax’ Dead End (Washington Post)
• Thank You Sarah Palin
• Palin eschews facts and economics in blasting cap-and-trade bill (Grist.org)
• Sen. John Kerry: What Palin Forgot (Huffington Post)
  Yes, she manages to write about the climate change action in Congress without ever mentioning the reason we are doing this in the first place. It’s like complaining about the cost of repairing a roof without factoring in the leaks destroying your home.
• Study Cites Strong Green Job Growth (Green Inc.)
• Palin’s recipe for Baked Alaska (Grist.org)
• New Calculator Lays Out Job-Creation Benefits of Stimulus Projects (Greenbiz.com)
• Kit Bond (R-MO) Cites Junk Report To Claim Clean Energy Will Hurt Missouri Farmers (Think Progress)
• Washington Post, Fred Hiatt turn op-ed page into a “joke” with yet another falsehood-filled piece attacking climate action and clean energy — by GOP quitter-in-chief Sarah “Four Pinocchios” Palin! (Climate Progress.org) [emphasis added]:
  Let’s set aside the rather obvious fact that the bill that doesn’t even start imposing a cap until 2012, so it’s absurd to assert it will “undermine our recovery over the short term.” The reverse case is, in fact, stronger — see “Nobelist Krugman attacks ‘junk economics’: Climate action ‘now might actually help the economy recover from its current slump” by giving ‘businesses a reason to invest in new equipment and facilities.’”

  Moreover, even in 2012, the total value of the allowances will be under $50 billion (in a $15 trillion economy) and all that money is going to be returned to the economy, so again, like all economic models show, the bill will have no significant negative impact.

• Well This Is The Last Thing Kashmir Needs (The New Republic) [emphasis added]:
  [C]limate change could—let’s put this diplomatically—further complicate the already tense relationship between India and Pakistan. The potential flashpoint here is that Pakistan may run out of water in the next two decades, as rising temperatures chew away at glaciers in the Himalayas…
• The Last Straw: If you think these failed states look bad now, wait until the climate changes. (Foreign Policy Magazine)
• Reduced Dominance Is Predicted for U.S.; Analyst Previews Report to Next President (Washington Post, 9/10/2008) [emphasis added]:
  An intelligence forecast being prepared for the next president on future global risks envisions a steady decline in U.S. dominance in the coming decades, as the world is reshaped by globalization, battered by climate change, and destabilized by regional upheavals over shortages of food, water and energy.
  …
  [The] “Global Trends 2025” report … assesses how international events could affect the United States in the next 15 to 17 years.
  …
  The predicted shift toward a less U.S.-centric world will come at a time when the planet is facing a growing environmental crisis, caused largely by climate change, Fingar said. By 2025, droughts, food shortages and scarcity of fresh water will plague large swaths of the globe, from northern China to the Horn of Africa.

‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’: More green news not covered in today’s audio report… See below!

• Nanotechnology breakthrough promises cheaper, more efficient solar cells (Gizmag.com)
• Incandescent Bulbs Return to the Cutting Edge (NY Times)
• Discarded Food Finds New Life as Electricity (GreenBiz.com)
• UK Orders Green Energy Revolution (Guardian UK)
• Asian Nations Could Outpace US in Clean Energy (Washington Post)