‘Green News Report’ – November 1, 2012

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: With Hurricane Sandy recovery underway, Bloomberg endorses Obama, Romney is heckled, and the impacts of climate change finally begin to dawn on corporate media and public officials; PLUS: Planning ahead for a climate changed future … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): CIA’s Climate Change Security Report Delayed Due To Hurricane Sandy; Winter Storm May Hit In Early November, Possibly On Election Day; Energy company CEO: Why do we have to talk about climate change today?; Australia Rejects Calls From The Fossil Fuel Industry To Roll Back 20 Percent Renewable Energy Target; Exxon And Shell Earn $54 Billion So Far In 2012, After Taking $800 Million In Annual Tax Breaks; KFC UK will no longer source from Asia Pulp & Paper … PLUS: The Onion: Nation Suddenly Realizes This Just Going To Be A Thing That Happens From Now On … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Bloomberg Endorses Obama, Citing Climate Change:
• Bloomberg Endorses Obama, Citing Climate Change (NY Times):
  In a surprise announcement, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Thursday that Hurricane Sandy had reshaped his thinking about the presidential campaign and that as a result he was endorsing President Obama.
• NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg: A Vote for a President to Lead on Climate Change (Bloomberg News)
• VIDEO: Mitt Romney Heckled: ‘End Climate Silence!’ (Huffington Post)
• Conservatives Bash Christie For Cooperating With Obama Post-Sandy (Think Progress)
• Hurricane Sandy: Recovery:
• VIDEO: Christie: I don’t give ‘a damn’ about presidential politics right now (The Hill)
• War veterans hit Sandy’s front lines for rescues, cleanup (NBC News)
• NBC to air telethon to help Red Cross’s Sandy relief efforts (Washington Post)
• Long road ahead for Sandy-battered areas despite signs of progress (NBC News)
• Gas Shortage and More Bodies Mar Sandy Recovery (ABC News):
  New Jersey and New York, struggling to recover from the wreckage of Sandy, were staggered today by a gas shortage and an overwhelmed transit system as more victims of the deadly storm were found.
• Sandy recovery: Jersey Shore residents return to damage, destruction (Chicago Tribune)
• Comprehensive Live Blog Coverage at Mother Jones (Mother Jones)
• VIDEO: Governor Cuomo: “Anyone Who Says There is Not a Dramatic Change in Weather Patterns I Think is Denying Reality” (Mother Jones):



• Impacts of Climate Change Dawn on Public Officials:
• Report: Preventing Future ‘Frankenstorms’ (Center for American Progress)
• In Hurricane Sandy’s Fury, The Fingerprint Of Climate Change (Huffington Post Green):
  “The irony is that the two presidential candidates decided not to speak about climate change, and now they are seeing the climate speak to them,” said Tidwell. “That’s really what’s happening here. The climate is now speaking to them — and to everyone else.”
• VIDEO: Bill McKibben on Hurricane Sandy and Climate Change: “If There Was Ever a Wake-up Call, This Is It” (Democracy Now!)
• Hurricane Sandy Will Put a Rickety Power Grid to the Test (TIME)
• Hurricane Sandy: Power Outage Prediction Model Was Accurate (Science Daily)
• Impacts of Climate Change Dawn on Corporate Media:
• COVER STORY: It’s Global Warming, Stupid (Businessweek):
  Yes, yes, it’s unsophisticated to blame any given storm on climate change. Men and women in white lab coats tell us-and they’re right-that many factors contribute to each severe weather episode. Climate deniers exploit scientific complexity to avoid any discussion at all.
  …
  If all that doesn’t impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statistics for profit.
• Op-ed: A Big Storm Requires Big Government (NY Times)
• VIDEO: Chuck Todd On Hurricane Sandy: ‘It’s Called Climate Change’ (Huffington Post)
• Businessweek: ‘It’s Global Warming, Stupid’ (Climate Progress)
• A Convenient Excuse (The Phoenix):
  On October 2, I led a climate protest inside the offices of the Boston Globe. OK, it was really a meeting in a small conference room with editorial page editor Peter Canellos and members of his staff. But it was, in essence, a protest.
• Will Climate Get Some Respect Now? (Nic Kristof, op-ed, NY Times)
• Will Republicans Cut Emergency Disaster Funds?
• Steve King: Hurricane Sandy Aid Must Have Strings Attached To Avoid Waste On ‘Gucci Bags’ (Huffington Post)
• Even now, will Republicans nickel and dime FEMA?: Hurricane Sandy could spark a new fight in Congress over disaster aid, with Republicans demanding big cuts (Salon)
• Mitt Romney offers answer on his FEMA stance (CBS News) [emphasis added]:
  “As president, I will ensure FEMA has the funding it needs to fulfill its mission, while directing maximum resources…”
  …
  But what the campaign wouldn’t do is say whether a President Romney would insist that help for disaster victims be funded by cutting other programs in the federal budget, as many conservative Republicans insist. Running mate Paul Ryan is squarely on the side of cutting other spending to pay for disasters.
• Hurricane Sandy Shows We Need To Prepare For Climate Change, Cuomo And Bloomberg Say (Huffington Post Green)
• Billion-Dollar Disasters Mount: Superstorm Sandy Adds To Record Heat, Drought, And Wildfires For The U.S. (Climate Progress)
• The GOP disaster privatization plan was spelled out years ago (Digby’s Hullabaloo)
• Paul Ryan’s Budget And GOP Sequestration Plan Would Slash Hurricane Prediction Capabilities (Climate Progress)
• August 2011: White House blasts GOP over FEMA funding (LA Times)
• Time is Running Out to Avoid the Worst Impacts of Climate Change:
• Sandy shows the U.S. is unprepared for climate disasters (Washington Post)
• Can we stop the seas from rising? Yes, but less than you think. (Washington Post):
• VIDEO, Climate Scientist Michael Mann: Inside Story: US 2012 climate dialogue runs aground (Al Jazeera): Why have the US presidential candidates been avoiding discussing climate change in the run up to the elections?



• The Stats Are In: Superstorm Sandy Totals: Sandy may not have been the most powerful hurricane to make landfall, but it is likely to be the most damaging ever (Scientific American)
• Did Climate Change Cause Hurricane Sandy? (TIME)
• Superstorm Sandy’s climate change connection (Grist)
• Frankenstorm Sandy: Stitched Together from Elements Both Natural and Unnatural (Scientific American)
• Which cities get hit hardest by rising sea levels? (Washington Post):
  It’s not easy figuring out how cities should adapt to future sea-level rise. At the rate we’re heating the planet, many scientists now expect the ice caps to melt enough to hike ocean levels three to four feet by 2100. But then you have to look at how those higher seas interact with potentially fiercer storm surges. And then you have to survey a bunch of cities and guess how fast they’ll expand in the coming decades, to get a sense for just how many people will be at risk.
• NASA Warned New York About Hurricane Danger Six Years Ago: Scientists told us a storm like Sandy would be catastrophic. When will we listen? (Mother Jones)
• Summer of Extremes: Roundup of U.S. Records (Climate Communication)
• Summer of Extremes: Roundup of U.S. Records (Climate Communication)
• The Green Elephant in the Room (Betsy Rosenberg, The BRAD BLOG)

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

• The Onion: Nation Suddenly Realizes This Just Going To Be A Thing That Happens From Now On (The Onion)
• VIDEO: New Denialist Meme: Obama Created Sandy to Help His Election (Climate Crock of the Week)
• CIA’s Climate Change Security Report Delayed Due To Hurricane Sandy (Huffington Post Green)
• VIDEO: New England Nor’easter: 2012 Winter Storm May Hit In Early November, Possibly On Election Day (Huffington Post Green):
  A nor’easter bound for New England may be brewing, and it could hit as early as Election Day, according to a preliminary forecast from the National Weather Service. The preliminary extended forecast issued by the agency’s Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (HPC) Thursday morning noted that the possible nor’easter will likely be “much less extreme” than Hurricane Sandy, and it would produce effects away from the regions hardest hit by the superstorm.
• Energy company CEO: Why do we have to talk about climate change today? (Grist)
• Australia Rejects Calls From The Fossil Fuel Industry To Roll Back 20 Percent Renewable Energy Target (Renewable Energy World)
• Top Oil Giants Exxon And Shell Earn $54 Billion So Far In 2012, After Taking $800 Million In Annual Tax Breaks (Climate Progress)
• Plastic Pollution in Great Lakes Most Concentrated in the World (EcoWatch)
• After protracted Greenpeace campaign, KFC UK says it will no longer source from Asia Pulp & Paper (MongaBay):
  After months of pressure from Greenpeace on its alleged links to deforestation in Indonesia, KFC UK/Ireland has adopted a forest policy that excludes fiber sourced via conversion of tropical rainforests.
• 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?

• 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.“