‘Green News Report’ – February 14, 2013

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Special Coverage: Climate change takes center stage at the State of the Union address (though not in the corporate media) while activists and Senate Democrats turn up the heat … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Fukushima: 3 youth diagnosed with thyroid cancer; GAO warns weather is changing; Superstorm Sandy 2nd costliest; $188b cost for weather disasters in two years; NY to ban Styrofoam cups?; NJ officials charged with poisoning drinking water; Tesla v. NYTimes; Solar ‘glass’ breakthrough; Fox News ‘stands in way of energy security progress’; Refinery fire: Chevron refinery pipes 80% corroded; Industry ousts scientist from EPA panel … PLUS: Global climate treaties work: Antarctic ozone hole smallest in 10 yrs … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• VIDEO: Obama’s State of the Union ‘Seems Like A Lot of Work’: (Colbert Report):

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• Washington Post Overlooks Obama’s Extensive Remarks On Climate And Energy: If a tree falls in the forest (because of global warming), but the media doesn’t report on it, does it make a sound? (Climate Progress)
• Climate Change in the State of the Union 2013:
• Extended Transcript: Climate Hawk Obama: ‘If Congress Won’t Act Soon To Protect Future Generations, I Will’
  (Climate Progress):
  But for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change. Yes, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods – all are now more frequent and intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science – and act before it’s too late. [Read Obama’s extended remarks here]
• VIDEO: Obama on Energy: U.S. Must Combat Climate Change (ABC News)
• Full Transcript: Obama’s State Of The Union Address As Prepared For Delivery: (NPR)
• SOTU 2013: Energy & Efficiency:
• State of the Union Hints at Ways to Bridge the Gap Between Old and New Energy (Council on Foreign Relations)
• Obama Clean-Energy Fund Would Gain If Oil Drilling Expanded (Bloomberg News):
  President Barack Obama’s proposal to fund clean-energy research with fees paid by oil and gas producers is renewing a debate over whether the promise of innovation tomorrow is worth expanding drilling today.
• State of the Union address: What is Obama’s ‘energy security trust’? (CS Monitor)
• Using Federal Oil Revenues to Cut America’s Oil Use (NYT Green)
• Analysis and Response to the Climate SOTU 2013:
• State of the Union Hints at Ways to Bridge the Gap Between Old and New Energy (Council on Foreign Relations)
• Obama’s threat to act unilaterally on climate change? Looking empty (Grist) [emphasis added]:
  Some good news for congressional Republicans: The president’s threat to take unilateral action on climate isn’t looking all that threatening. White House officials are talking about small steps the administration could take, but aren’t currently pushing forward on the big executive action that advocates have wanted to see: EPA regulation of greenhouse gases from existing power plants.
• President Obama Wants to Go All of the Above on Energy. But Will Anyone Join Him? (TIME Eco-Centric):
  there is a problem: “all of the above,” as attractive as it sounds, isn’t really possible. Energy policy may not be a zero-sum game—whenever one side wins, the other must lose—but there are choices that need to be made.
• From Obama’s speech, four ambitious climate and energy proposals (David Roberts, Grist)
• Strangely Anti Climactic? (Climate Crock of the Week)
• Debunking Nature’s arguments for Keystone (Grist)
• Leaders Offer Sweeping Oil Security Policy Essential to Strengthening Economy, Fiscal Outlook (Securing America’s Energy Future)
• 5 things the President should do to tackle climate change (CrossCut)
• Republican Rubio’s Anti-Science, Strawman Response (GULP!)
• VIDEO: GOP ‘Savior’ Marco Rubio Mocks Climate Change (Climate Progress):
  The Republican Party’s newest champion took the time to shoot down the realities of climate change and the kinds of regulations that he himself once supported as the speaker of the house in Florida.
• VIDEO: GOP’s Future Still Stuck In The Past: Rubio Claims There’s ‘Reasonable Debate’ On Cause Of Climate Change (Climate Progress)
• Poll: Majority of Americans Support Action on Climate Change:
• Two-thirds of Americans want Obama to act on climate change, says poll: Two new studies released after president’s state-of-the-union promise to act on climate change with or without Congress. (Guardian UK)
• 65% support ‘significant steps’ on climate change [pdf] (League of Conservation Voters)
• Climate Change: Key Data Points from Pew Research (Pew Research Center)
• Activists Turn Up the Heat on KXL:
• 48 arrested in civil disobedience at White House to stop Keystone XL pipeline and push Obama on climate action (Climate Science Watch)
• Dozens Arrested at White House Protest of Keystone XL Pipeline (Environment News Service):
  Today, 48 prominent environmental, civil rights, and community leaders from across the country demonstrated at the White House demanding that President Barack Obama reject TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and address the climate crisis.
• 5 Myths About Keystone XL, Debunked (Media Matters)
• RFK Jr. arrested: Celebs, enviros arrested at Keystone pipeline protest: Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune also was arrested — the first time in the group’s 120-year history that a club leader was arrested in an act of civil disobedience. (CS Monitor)
• Snowballs in Hell: Sen. Sanders Intros Climate Legislation:
• Sen. Boxer hopes to bring climate legislation to floor by summer (The Hill’s E2 Wire)
• The Newly Proposed Carbon Tax Will Fight Global Warming, Protect Low-Income Americans And Reduce The Deficit (Climate Progress):
  A carbon fee is just like any other consumption tax in that it inordinately impacts low- and middle-income families. The Climate Protection Act and Sustainable Energy Act create a rebate program to make sure that these families are not harmed. This is modeled after Alaska’s oil dividend, and will ensure that pollution reduction is not a regressive tax.
  …
  This package funds the Weatherization Assistance Program, ARPA-E, the production tax credit and investment tax credit, manufacturing for clean energy technologies, worker training, and other programs that will be critical in transitioning to a clean energy future. Finally…The Climate Protection Act and Sustainable Energy Act will reduce the debt by $300 billion over the next ten years.

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

• Global Climate Treaties WORK: The Antarctic Ozone Hole Is the Smallest It’s Been in a Decade (Motherboard) [emphasis added]:
  Wonderful news from the European Space Agency’s atmospheric monitors: the hole the ozone layer above Antarctica has hit a ten-year low, and it’s still shrinking. That means the environmental worry that caused your mom to slather you with sunblock as a kid is now showing positive effects from bans on ozone-killing chlorofluorocarbons in the late 80s.
• Fukushima Fallout: 3 young people have thyroid cancer (Japan Times):
  A Fukushima Prefectural Government panel said Wednesday that two people who were 18 or younger when the triple-meltdown crisis started at the Fukushima No. 1 atomic complex in March 2011 have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, bringing the total cases to three.
• Chevron Refinery Fire: Investigators Find Widespread problems (SF Gate)
• Canada: Scientists say new confidentiality rules on Arctic project are ‘chilling’ (Ottawa Citizen)
• Climate Change: Congress Warned By GAO That Weather Is Changing (Huffington Post):
  The federal government’s official watchdog had a message for Congress on Thursday: Hey, Stupid, the climate is changing.
• Report: Sandy was 2nd-costliest hurricane in US (AP): The deadliest hurricane in U.S. history hit Galveston, Texas, in 1900 and killed 8,000 to 12,000 people.
• Bloomberg Pushes for Plastic-Foam Ban in ‘State of the City’ (Bloomberg):
  New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he intends to use his final year in office to push for more recycling and electric vehicles, a curbside food-composting pilot program and a ban on plastic-foam food packaging.
• New Jersey Water Officials Charged With Poisoning Drinking Water (Environment News Service):
  Two top officials of the East Orange Water Commission have been charged with conspiring to close contaminated wells before monthly water tests so as to falsely report low levels of a regulated contaminant in drinking water supplied to customers, then opening the wells, allowing the chemical back into the water supply.
• What’s at stake in the fight between Tesla and the New York Times (Washington Post)
• Colourful ‘solar glass’ means entire buildings can generate clean power: British firm develops colourful, transparent solar cells that will add just 10% to glass buildings’ cost (Guardian UK)
• Fox Stands In The Way Of Energy Security Progress (Media Matters)
• Ouster of Scientist from EPA Panel Shows Industry Clout (PBS Newshour)
• Secret funding helped build vast network of climate denial thinktanks (Guardian UK)
• $188b Price Tag From U.S. Extreme Weather From 2011 To 2012 (Climate Progress)
• The New Sustainable Energy Factbook: A Strong Case for Consistent Policy (Bloomberg New Energy Finance, via Climate Progress.org):
  The report provides a detailed account of the energy market for investors and policymakers making a strong case for the role of stable policies in leveling the playing field for clean energy technologies in the evolving energy landscape.
• VIDEO: Humans Have Already Set in Motion 69 Feet of Sea Level Rise (Mother Jones): Glaciologist Jason Box describes a post-warming world that you won’t even be able to recognize.

• 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?