‘Green News Report’ – January 22, 2013

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Obama talks big on climate at his 2nd Inaugural, but will the Administration follow up with action? A final decision on the Keystone XL pipeline and other climate & energy conundrums loom in the 2nd term of President Barack Hussein Obama … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): ‘2012 Was Once Considered Hottest Year On Record, Man In 2024 Remembers Wistfully’; Supreme Court won’t hear challenge to EPA pollution rule; Crop innovation saves water, boosts yields; Solar panel prices continue to fall; Antibacterial ingredient tainting US lakes; Widespread contaminants in Chesapeake Bay; Study: melamine from containers can leech in food; David Attenborough Calls Humans a “Plague Upon the Earth”… PLUS: Koch-funded study finds global warming is “manmade”, “solar forcing does not appear to contribute” … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Inauguration 2013: Obama Pledges Action on Climate Change:
• VIDEO: Obama: Failure To Respond To Threat Of Climate Change ‘Would Betray Our Children And Future Generations’ (Climate Progress):



• Speech Gives Climate Goals Center Stage (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  The central place he gave to the subject seemed to answer the question of whether he considered it a realistic second-term priority. He devoted scant attention to it in the campaign and has delivered a mixed message about its importance since the election.
• Obama’s green team: He really meant it (The Hill’s E2 Wire):
  “Energy and climate policy are going to be a top priority,” added Heather Zichal, the top White House energy and climate aide.
• Reaction to Obama’s Climate Commitment:
• Can Obama tackle climate change in his second term? (Washington Post):
  Obama isn’t going to persuade Republicans in Congress to pass a cap-and-trade bill in the next two years. Instead, the White House will likely have to consider some more modest options. Here are a few possibilities:
  1) Use the EPA to reduce carbon emissions from power plants.
  …
  2) Use the EPA to crack down on methane leaks from natural-gas infrastructure….
• GOP Declares War On Democratic Senators Who Won’t Betray Our Children And Future Generations (Climate Progress)
• Obama wins praise abroad for climate change goals (Reuters):
  “We have got work to do on climate change and President Obama was very forthright about the need to tackle climate change,” Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard told reporters.
• Speech Gives Climate Goals Center Stage (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, a group financed by the Koch brothers, who made a fortune in refining and other oil interests, criticized the speech in a statement. “His address read like a liberal laundry list with global warming at the top,” Mr. Phillips said. “Americans have rejected environmental extremism in the past and they will again.”
• Sen. Boxer: EPA should flex its powers on climate change (The Hill’s E2 Wire)
• White House Vague on 2nd Term Climate Action:
• VIDEO: Daily White House Briefing: WH Press Sec. Jay Carney vague on specific policy actions to address climate change (C-SPAN)
• TRANSCRIPT: WH Daily Briefing, 1/22/13
• Rhetoric easy, action harder for Obama on climate change (Australia Broadcasting Corp)
• Keystone XL Pipeline Decision Looms:
• Nebraska Governor OKs New Keystone Pipeline Route (NPR)
• Obama climate pledge faces test on oil pipeline (AP)
• VIDEO: Nebraska’s Republican Governor Confident Keystone XL Will Be Approved (Fox Business Channel, 3/4/2012)
• Sask. premier directly appeals to Obama for approval of Keystone XL pipeline (CTV Canada)
• Obama Administration Moves on Clean Energy Policy:
• Interior finalizes Ariz. solar energy plan (The Hill’s E2 Wire):
  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar finalized a plan Friday that sets aside 192,100 acres of public land in Arizona for solar energy.
  …
  The plan also established the 2,250-acre Agua Caliente Solar Energy Zone, which is part of an Obama administration initiative to fast-track solar projects in six Western states.
• Army dedicates largest solar array at White Sands (KOAT-TV Albuquerque)
• 2012: Hottest on Record for US; 10th for World:
  • 2012 Was 10th-Hottest Year Worldwide, Climate Data Shows (Intl Business Times)
  • Climate assessment delivers a grim overview: A draft version of a national report details the accelerated effects of climate change across the U.S., describing battered coastlines, devastating rainfall and drought. (LA Times)
  • NOAA: 2012 Was Officially The Warmest Year On Record For The U.S., Second Most Extreme (Climate Progress)

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

• Koch-Funded Study Finds 2.5°F Warming Of Land Since 1750 Is Manmade, ‘Solar Forcing Does Not Appear To Contribute’ (Climate Progress):
  The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Study (BEST) has finally published its findings on the cause of recent global warming…[and] concludes: “[S]olar forcing does not appear to contribute to the observed global warming of the past 250 years; the entire change can be modeled by a sum of volcanism and a single anthropogenic [human-made] proxy.
• 2012 Was Once Considered Hottest Year On Record, Man In 2024 Remembers Wistfully (The Onion)
• Supreme Court won’t hear challenge to EPA pollution rule (The Hill’s E2 Wire):
  The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a major copper company’s plea to review an Environmental Protection Agency air pollution rule that set standards for sulfur dioxide, a pollutant tied to several respiratory ailments.
• Crop Production Boosted 145% in Drought Conditions with Water-Saving Membranes (Treehugger):
  Scientists at Michigan State University have invented an innovative new tool for farmers that may not only lessen the effects of drought on their fields, but may actually improve the yields. Alvin Smucker, an MSU AgBioResearch scientist and professor of soil biophysics, led the development of a subsurface water retention membrane that has been shown to increase vegetable production in dry years.
• Solar Panel Prices Continue ‘Seemingly Inexorable Decline’ (Climate Progress):
  The unsubsidized cost of renewable power produced from solar and wind energy will be no more expensive than that from oil, natural gas, and coal by the end of the decade, Energy Secretary Steven Chu predicted…
• Report: Chesapeake Bay contaminants widespread, severe in spots (Baltimore Sun)
• Cosmetics ingredient tainting state lakes (MN Star-Tribune) [emphasis added]:
  An antibacterial widely used in soaps and cosmetics that mostly goes down the drain is slowly converting to toxins at the bottom of many of Minnesota’s lakes and rivers. A new analysis of sediment in eight lakes and rivers used by municipal wastewater treatment plants found that amounts of the antibacterialial triclosan and the toxins it forms have been steadily increasing since it was first used in Dial soap in the 1960s.
• Traces of melamine from dinnerware can seep into food, study says (LA Times):
  David Attenborough Calls Humans a “Plague Upon the Earth” (Treehugger):

  “We are a plague on the Earth. It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so…It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde.”
• Why the ‘Idle No More’ Movement Is Our Best Chance for Clean Land and Water (Alternet):
  As Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence enters her fourth week of a hunger strike outside the Canadian parliament building, thousands of protesters voice their support in Los Angeles, London, Minneapolis, and New York City. Spence and the protesters of the Idle No More movement are drawing attention to deplorable conditions in native communities and the recent passage of Bill C-45, which sidesteps most Canadian environmental laws.
• Coal to Asia Emerges as New Front in Battle against Global Warming: Experts and environmentalists question whether shipping U.S. coal to China can be reconciled with the need to combat climate change (Reuters)
• Black carbon ranks as second-biggest human cause of global warming (Washington Post)

• 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.
• CO2 Emissions Rises Mean Dangerous Climate Change Now Almost Certain (Guardian)
• Study: Sea Levels Rising 60% Faster Than Projected, Planet Keeps Warming As Expected (Climate Progress)
• Ocean Acidification: Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean (New Scientist)
• Global warming targets further out of reach, UN says (Phys.org):
  Based on current pledges, global average temperatures could rise by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) this century — way above the two degrees Celsius being targeted, said a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.
• Thawing of permafrost to be ‘major factor’ in global warming, warns UN report (UN News Centre)
• 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.

• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• Report: Humans near tipping point that could dramatically change Earth (CS Monitor) [emphasis added]:
  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)
• 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)
• 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… “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)
• The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)
• No, global warming hasn’t stopped (New Scientist)
• 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?