‘Green News Report’ – October 25, 2012

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Hurricane Sandy threatens East Coast, as new study shows increase in big U.S. hurricanes; Koch Bros, Big Oil trying to kill wind industry; Judge rules: no mutants in national forests (for now); Plastic pollution, now in the Arctic; Ozone hole shrinks; PLUS: Time is running out for the Great Barrier Reef – half has been lost in just 30 years … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): US gov downplayed effect of Deepwater oil spill on whales; Cute Solar Charging Canopies charge while parked; Did the climate deniers win?; US politicians duck climate change because of cost; US to study cancer risks near nuclear sites; Methane destabilizing off East coast? … PLUS: Renewable energy: Mandate it in the constitution? … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• VIDEO: Bill Maher’s New Rule For Climate Change Scientists (Huffington Post Green):


• Judge: NO GMOs in Wildlife Refuges:
• Judge bans GMOs in national wildlife refuges (Grist) [emphasis added]:
  Why are people allowed to plant crops in wildlife refuges at all? I know farmland isn’t cheap, but it seems like driving tractors and harvesters around might make an area a bit less hospitable to wild animals.
• GMO Crop Planting In National Wildlife Refuges Rejected By U.S. Judge (AP):
  “Plaintiffs allege harms that are currently occurring and will continue throughout 2012,” wrote Boasberg, an appointee of President Barack Obama. “Waiting for 2013 is not good enough.” He set a hearing for Nov. 5 to determine appropriate relief, but also encouraged both sides to meet to see if they could agree on at least some remedies.
• UPDATE: GMOs are OK for the Midwest: Judge OK’s genetically modified crops on national wildlife refuges in Midwest (MN Public Radio)
• Koch Bros, Big Oil Try to Strangle US Wind Energy:
• Koch Brothers Goal: Defeat the Wind Tax Credit (EcoWatch) [emphasis added]:
  [W]ith Koch Industries and fossil fuel groups mobilizing to defeat the [wind energy production tax] credit, its future after 2012 is uncertain. The American Energy Alliance, which has Koch ties, told Politico Pro this week that it aims to make the credit a toxic issue for House Republicans: “Our goal is to make the PTC so toxic that it makes it impossible for John Boehner to sit at a table with Harry Reid and say, ‘Yeah, I can bend on this one,’” said Benjamin Cole, spokesman for the American Energy Alliance.
• Fossil Fuel Industry Ads Dominate TV Campaign (NY Times):
  “These are companies and industries that clearly feel threatened,” said Ken Goldstein, president of Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group. “And when companies and industries with resources feel threatened, they air advertisements.”
• Conservative thinktanks step up attacks against Obama’s clean energy strategy (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  Confidential memo seen by Guardian calls for climate change sceptics to turn American public against solar and wind power. … Now a confidential strategy memo seen by the Guardian advises using “subversion” to build a national movement of wind farm protesters.
• Hurricane Sandy: A Frankenstorm for Halloween?:
• Sandy slams Cuba, could hit US as ‘Nor’easter on steroids’ (MSNBC):
  Nor’easters are powerful storms that come up along the East Coast from the south and then increase in volatility with winds from the northeast. In this case, another storm is expected to move into the Northeast from the Ohio Valley around the same time, adding to the weather mix. Sandy will likely be around for the 21st anniversary of the infamous “Perfect Storm” of Oct. 30, 1991, that killed six fishermen.
• Halloween scare? Hurricane Sandy shows similarities to ‘perfect storm.’ (+video) (CS Monitor):
  Hurricane Sandy, now near Jamaica, could hit the East Coast as a strong tropical storm, causing flooding early next week, according to one forecast model. But it could also head out to sea.
• Big Hurricanes Increasing in US: Study:
• Extreme hurricanes hitting U.S. more frequently, study says (LA Times) [emphasis added]:
  On Monday, a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, or PNAS, concluded that large Katrina-sized hurricanes were twice as likely to form off the United States’ southeast coast in hotter years than they were in colder years.
• HALF of Great Barrier Reef Lost in Last 30 Years:
• VIDEO: Half of Great Barrier Reef ‘disappeared’ in past 27 years (BBC)
• Great Barrier Reef has lost half its corals since 1985, new study says (Washington Post):
  The sobering findings highlighted how even the world’s most protected marine areas are under assault from natural forces and causes linked to the human activity that is resulting in climate change.
  …
  Researchers warned that Australian officials will have to step up efforts to curb controllable threats, such as coral-eating starfish, because they are easier to target than intense storms and rising ocean temperatures.
• Scientists: To save Great Barrier Reef, kill starfish (CNN):
  Reacting to the study, the World Wildlife Fund said Australia must reduce fertilizer runoff as a first step to controlling the crown-of-thorns starfish.
• World’s biggest geoengineering experiment ‘violates’ UN rules: (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  Satellite images appear to confirm the claim by Californian Russ George that the iron has spawned an artificial plankton bloom as large as 10,000 square kilometres. The intention is for the plankton to absorb carbon dioxide and then sink to the ocean bed – a geoengineering technique known as ocean fertilisation that he hopes will net lucrative carbon credits.
• Plastic Pollution, Now in the Arctic!:
• Biologists record increasing amounts of plastic litter in the Arctic deep sea: studies confirm that twice as much marine debris is lying on the seabed today compared to ten years ago (press release, Alfred Wegener Institute – Helmholtz Geimeinschaft) [emphasis added]:
  “The Arctic Ocean and especially its deep-sea areas have long been considered to be the most remote and secluded regions of our planet. Unfortunately, our results refute this notion at least for our observatory. The quantities observed were higher than those recorded from a deep-sea canyon not far from the industrialised Portuguese capital Lisbon,” Melanie Bergmann explains.
• Plastic Waste Increasing On Remote Arctic Seabed, Cameras Reveal (Yale 360:
  Deep-sea cameras deployed to monitor biodiversity on the Arctic seabed have documented a significant rise in the amount of plastic waste and other litter on the remote sea floors of the Far North, according to a new study.
• Heat-trapping CO2 also makes ice more brittle (Summit Co. Voice):
  New MIT research suggests carbon dioxide has direct impact on glaciers and ice caps.
• Good News: Ozone Hole 2nd Smallest in 20 Years:
• Antarctic Ozone Hole Second Smallest in 20 Years, Scientists Say (Bloomberg):
  The seasonal ozone hole above the Antarctic was the second smallest in 20 years as warm temperatures slowed depletion of the layer that shields the planet from ultraviolet radiation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
• The World We Avoided by Protecting the Ozone Layer (NASA) [emphasis added]:
  The year is 2065. Nearly two-thirds of Earth’s ozone is gone—not just over the poles, but everywhere. The infamous ozone hole over Antarctica, first discovered in the 1980s, is a year-round fixture, with a twin over the North Pole. The ultraviolet (UV) radiation falling on mid-latitude cities like Washington, D.C., is strong enough to cause sunburn in just five minutes.
• Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Wikipedia):
  It is believed that if the international agreement is adhered to, the ozone layer is expected to recover by 2050. Due to its widespread adoption and implementation it has been hailed as an example of exceptional international co-operation, with Kofi Annan quoted as saying that “perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date has been the Montreal Protocol”.

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

• Renewable energy: Mandate it in the constitution? (CS Monitor):
  Renewable energy proposal in Michigan would enshrine a ’25 by 25′ mandate in the state constitution. If voters approve the referendum Nov. 6, Michigan would be the first state to include a renewable energy goal in its constitution.
• US downplayed effect of Deepwater oil spill on whales, emails reveal (Guardian UK):
  Documents obtained by Greenpeace show officials controlling information about wildlife affected by the disaster
• Cute Solar Charging Canopies Tilt Toward Sun (Treehugger):
  Solelia’s solar charging canopy consists of 1 Kw of photovoltaic panels divided between two parking “spaces”, with charging posts for each space. The panels, with the addition of an optional motor, can follow the sun during the day to always be in an optimal angle and produce as much electricity as possible. Solelia says the tilting canopies can produce up to 30% more electricity than conventional fixed solar cells.
• Sir David Attenborough: US politicians duck climate change because of cost (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  One of the world’s leading naturalists has accused US politicians of ducking the issue of climate change because of the economic cost of tackling it and warned that it would take a terrible example of extreme weather to wake people up to the dangers of global warming….”Disaster. It’s a terrible thing to say, isn’t it?“
• FRONTLINE: Did the climate deniers win? (Mother Jones):
  The hour-long report on the fossil-industry and right-wing climate science denial movement broadcast on PBS Frontline Wednesday night raises a key issue. Did deniers win their fight to stop action on global warming by killing it in Congress and keeping it out of the presidential campaign?
• Government to study cancer risk of living near nuclear sites (Grist)
• Climate-changing methane ‘rapidly destabilizing’ off East Coast, study finds (NBC):
  A changing Gulf Stream off the East Coast has destabilized frozen methane deposits trapped under nearly 4,000 square miles of seafloor, scientists reported Wednesday. And since methane is even more potent than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas, the researchers said, any large-scale release could have significant climate impacts.

• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• Report: Humans near tipping point that could dramatically change Earth (CS Monitor):
  Human activity is affecting Earth in many ways, but a new study suggests that continued population growth and its impact on climate and ecology could trigger a more profound chain reaction of effects within little more than a decade.
• VIDEO: James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change (TED Talks):
  Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.
• VIDEO ANIMATION: Time history of atmospheric CO2 (NOAA Carbon Tracker YouTube channel):
• VIDEO: Animation Charts Modern Global Warming (NYT Green)
• Thinking Big: NREL Study Shows 80 Percent Renewables Possible By 2050 (Climate Progress)
• Must-Read: Economist William Nordhaus Slams Global Warming Deniers, Explains Cost of Delay is $4 Trillion (Climate Progress):
  Nordhaus’s blunt piece – “Why the Global Warming Skeptics Are Wrong” – is worth reading because he is no climate hawk.
  …
  “The skeptics’ summary is based on poor analysis and on an incorrect reading of the results.”
• Part 1: The brutal logic of climate change (David Roberts, Grist) [emphasis added]:
  It’s simple: If there is to be any hope of avoiding civilization-threatening climate disruption, the U.S. and other nations must act immediately and aggressively on an unprecedented scale. That means moving to emergency footing. War footing. “Hitler is on the march and our survival is at stake” footing. That simply won’t be possible unless a critical mass of people are on board. It’s not the kind of thing you can sneak in incrementally.

  It is unpleasant to talk like this. People don’t want to hear it.

• Part 2: The brutal logic of climate change mitigation (David Roberts, Grist)
• How to Buy Time in the Fight against Climate Change: Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane: A short list of relatively simple actions taken to reduce greenhouse gases other than CO2 could help put the brakes on global warming–if implemented globally (Scientific American)
• Climate Scientists Rebuke Rupert Murdoch: WSJ Denier Op-Ed Like ‘Dentists Practicing Cardiology’ (Think Progress Green)
• Saudi Oil Minister Calls Global Warming “Humanity’s Most Pressing Concern” (Climate Progress):
  “We know that pumping oil out of the ground does not create many jobs. It does not foster an entrepreneurial spirit, nor does it sharpen critical faculties.”
• VIDEO: Behold: The World’s First 24/7 Solar Plant is Up and Running (Treehugger)
• World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns: If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will ‘lose for ever’ the chance to avoid dangerous climate change (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  The world is likely to build so many fossil-fuelled power stations, energy-guzzling factories and inefficient buildings in the next five years that it will become impossible to hold global warming to safe levels, and the last chance of combating dangerous climate change will be “lost for ever”, according to the most thorough analysis yet of world energy infrastructure.
  …
  “The door is closing,” Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said. “I am very worried – if we don’t change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever.”
• Concise Overview: The IPCC report on extreme climate and weather events (Real Climate)
• READ the IPCC Report: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
• The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)
• No, global warming hasn’t stopped (New Scientist)
• Top UN Climate Official Blasts U.S. Climate Policy: Americans Must Realize “This Is Their Future They’re Compromising” (Think Progress Green)
• VIDEO: Climate Scientists Michael Mann on “A Look Into Our Climate: Past To Present To Future” (TEDx, YouTube)
• Earth’s Plant Growth Fell Because of Climate Change, Study Finds (NYT Green)
• Heads in the Sand: Warning: “Climate change is occurring … and poses significant risks to humans and the environment,” reports the National Academy of Sciences. As climate-change science moves in one direction, Republicans in Congress are moving in another. Why?
  (National Journal) [emphasis added]:
  Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, says there’s no question that the influence of his group and others like it has been instrumental in the rise of Republican candidates who question or deny climate science. “If you look at where the situation was three years ago and where it is today, there’s been a dramatic turnaround. Most of these candidates have figured out that the science has become political,” he said.
  …
  Groups like Americans for Prosperity have done it.“