‘Green News Report’ – August 18, 2011

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Extreme weather in 2011 breaking records for record-breaking; Civil disobedience coming to the White House over Canada’s Keystone XL pipeline; PLUS: TX Gov. Rick Perry thinks he knows more about climate science than climate scientists do…and the GOP candidates’ attacks on the EPA may be costly … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): ‘Every farmer in the world will be affected by climate change’; Wal-Mart Going 100% Renewable – in Canada; Op-ed: No to Arctic Drilling; Koch Brothers Fund Bogus Study Bashing Offshore Wind in New Jersey; Melting Arctic sea ice drives walruses onto land; Famine-struck Somalia faces cholera outbreak; EPA’s Planned Phaseout of Harmful Refrigerant Hits Snag; Human Excrement to Blame for Coral Decline; Obama administration moves against ANWR oil drilling; Public’s ideas for BP oil spill restoration projects; Otters are back in England; U.S. bans Syrian oil imports; Myth: smaller, fuel-efficient cars increase traffic deaths; Army Corps re-calibrating ’500-Year Flood’ standard; Fukushima’s meltdown: reactors were doomed to fail” … PLUS: Living beyond our means: How our indulgent economic and environmental models threaten future generations …

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

• Oil-funded Gov. Rick Perry Knows Better Than Scientists:
• Rick Perry: Climate Change Is A Hoax Drummed Up By Scientists Looking To Make Money (Talking Points Memo):
  Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a conservative Republican, and as such he does not believe that climate change is caused by human activity. But Perry went one step further than most in the mainstream climate change denier community on the presidential campaign trail in New Hampshire Wednesday, stating flatly that scientists drum up phony climate change data to make a buck.
• Rick Perry gets four Pinocchios for his climate change conspiracy theories. (Washington Post)
• Denier Rick Perry Takes $11 Million from Big Oil, Then Claims Climate Scientists ‘Manipulated Data’ For Money (Climate Progress)
• Our Reading Guide on Gov. Rick Perry and His Record (Pro Publica)
• Bachmann Promises $2 Gas Like We Had During Global Recession (Think Progress)
• Perry faces some jeers, pointed questions in NH appearance (The Hill)
• Huntsman camp knocks Perry on climate science: “Science clearly was not a mandatory course for Gov. Perry.” (The Hill)
• Politifact: Do scientists disagree about global warming? [No.] (Politifact)
• Rick Perry’s environmental record (Washington Post)
• PolitiFact counters GOP claim, says ‘little dispute’ on science of climate change (The Hill)
• Rick Perry Was Al Gore’s Texas Campaign Chairman in 1988 (EnviroKnow)
• Rick Perry thinks Texas climate scientists are in a ‘secular carbon cult’ (Think Progress Green)
• Conservative, white men most likely to be climate change sceptics, study shows (Guardian UK):
  The demographic was more than twice as likely than other adults to say the media exaggerated seriousness of climate change.
• Bashing E.P.A. Is New Theme in G.O.P. Race (NY Times)
• Gee, Why Are Climate Scientists So Perturbed? (NYT Green)
• Sorry Deniers, the Oceans are Still Warming as Predicted (Skeptical Science)

• The ‘New Normal’: 2011 Breaking Record for Record-Breaking
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief warns of further extreme weather (Denver Post):
  Extreme weather is becoming the new normal, with tornado, flood, wildfire and drought records broken and $35 billion in damages this year, the National Weather Service said Wednesday in launching a new readiness campaign.

  As part of the announcement, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco came to Denver to warn that that failure to upgrade a key polar-orbiting satellite will lead to an 18-month gap in critical data needed for forecasting.

• Weather Alerts Are Imperiled, NOAA Warns (NYT Green)
• U.S. suffers record losses from extreme weather (Scientific American):
  The United States has already tied its yearly record for billion-dollar weather disasters and the cumulative tab from floods, tornadoes and heat waves has hit $35 billion, the National Weather Service said Wednesday.
• Heat and drought across U.S. may lead to price spikes for pasta, meat, vegetable oil (Climate Reality)
• Get Arrested!: Civil Disobedience Protests Planned Against Keystone XL Pipeline:
• GET MORE INFO: Tar Sands Action.org:
  Join us this summer

  From August 20th – September 3rd we’re planning a peaceful protest in Washington DC to defuse the largest carbon bomb in North America.

  With people power and time-tested tactics of civil disobedience – join thousands of people from across the continent in a wave of sustained sit-ins. Together we’ll amplify our voices and escalate the movement and stop the Keystone XL pipeline to the Canadian tar sands

• Climate scientist willing to face arrest at tar sands pipeline protest: Climate scientist Jason Box says oil sands are a moral issue that he feels compelled to address at Keystone XL pipeline protests (Guardian UK)
• After 12 Oil Spills in One Year, TransCanada Says Proposed Keystone XL Pipeline Will Be Safest in U.S. (Climate Progress)
• Letter from Scientific Experts to President Obama Regarding Authorization of the Keystone XL Pipeline (TarSandsAction.org):
  When other huge oil fields or coal mines were opened in the past, we knew much less about the damage that the carbon they contained would do to the Earth’s climate system and to its oceans.

  Now that we do know, it’s imperative that we move quickly to alternate forms of energy. As scientists, speaking for ourselves and not for any of our institutions, we can say categorically that [the pipeline is] not only not in the national interest, it’s also not in the planet’s best interest.

• VIDEO: Sen. Bernie Sanders: Building Tar Sands Pipeline “Will Keep America Addicted to Oil” (Treehugger):
  Sanders is absolutely right when he says the following: “Building this pipeline will keep America addicted to oil, and while it might be a good idea for Koch Industries, which supplies and refines large volumes of Canadian tar sands oil, it is a bad deal for our country.”

  He also happens to be right that our nation’s top scientists say that evidence for human-caused global warming is “unequivocal”, and that approving this pipeline will both symbolically and literally tether our fate to a fossil fuel-dependent economy for the foreseeable future.

• Climate Scientists Joins Tar Sands Protest: It’s unethical for us to stand by while the greed of others results in the destruction of our biosphere
  (SolveClimate)
• VIDEO: Mark Ruffalo rallies opposition to Keystone XL tar sands pipeline: The actor talks about why he’s opposing the Canada-US tar sands pipeline, and calls on people to join him at a series of ‘sit-ins’ at the White House from 20 August (Guardian UK)

‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…

• ‘Every Farmer in the World Will Be Affected by Climate Change’ (Think Progress Green)
• Wal-Mart Going 100% Renewable – in Canada (EcoGeek):
  Wal-Mart Canada has revealed that they’re working towards getting 100 percent of their electricity from renewable energy.

  To meet that goal, two large Canadian stores have been outfitted with rooftop solar panels and wind turbines, with other major projects on the way. The retail store intends to generate enough renewable energy to sell some back to the grid.

• Op-ed: No to Arctic Drilling (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  The administration should put on the brakes. This is a reckless gamble we cannot afford. We can’t prevent an Arctic blowout any more than we can avert disaster in the Gulf of Mexico or the North Sea. We don’t have the infrastructure, the knowledge or the experience to cope with one if it occurs. It’s irresponsible to drill in these waters unless we have those capabilities.

  When the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, appointed by President Obama in May 2010, reported our findings and recommendations earlier this year, we specifically cited the need to address these shortcomings before exposing Arctic waters to this kind of risk.

• Koch Brothers Fund Bogus Study Bashing Offshore Wind in New Jersey (Think Progress Green)
• Melting Arctic sea ice drives walruses onto land (Reuters)
• Research Roundup: Wandering Storms, Arctic Ozone Loss, and More (NOAA.gov)
• Famine-struck Somalia faces cholera outbreak (AP)
• Interior Watchdog Sees Potential Conflict in Suspended Biologist’s Role Vetting Polar Bear Study (NY Times)
• EPA’s Planned Phaseout of Harmful Refrigerant Hits Snag (NYT Green)
• Human Excrement to Blame for Coral Decline (Scientific American)
• Obama administration moves against Alaska oil drilling (Grist)
• NOAA still at work in Gulf: Check out public ideas for BP oil spill restoration projects (NOAA.gov)
• The great oyster crash (Grist)
• Otters are back – in every county in England (Guardian)
• U.S. bans Syrian oil imports (Reuters)
• It’s a Big Oil myth that smaller, fuel-efficient cars increase traffic deaths (Grist)
• Army Corps Admits Their ’500-Year Flood’ Standard Is Meaningless (Think Progress Green)
• The Explosive Truth Behind Fukushima’s Meltdown (Independent UK):
  Japan insists its nuclear crisis was caused by an unforeseeable combination of tsunami and earthquake. But new evidence suggests its reactors were doomed to fail.
• Living beyond our means: How our indulgent economic and environmental models threaten future generations (Yale 360):
  A Planetary Crisis Is A Terrible Thing to Waste

  There are striking similarities between the current economic and ecological crises — both involve indulgent over-consumption and a failure to consider the impacts on future generations. But it’s not too late to look to new economic and environmental models and to dramatically change course.
  …
  The Ponzi scheme of hyper-consumerism is approaching the equivalent of the Lehmann collapse.