IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Ad wars: Clean energy advocates want you to vote --- so the fossil fuel industry is attacking them; Colorado's highest court overturns local fracking bans; Big climate victory for kids in court in Washington State; Big conservation victories for lions and elephants; PLUS: Kenya's big bonfire of the ivories - to stop illegal trade and save elephants... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Global Warming Could Deplete The Oceans’ Oxygen – With Severe Results; 4 Arrested In Murder Of Honduran Activist Berta Cáceres; Persistent Water and Soil Contamination Found at N.D. Wastewater Spills; Armed Guards At India's Dams As Drought Grips Country; Hawaii's Last Sugar Harvest Paves Way For A Fight On The Land's Future; Dredging of Miami Port Badly Damaged Coral Reef... PLUS: After a Comeback, New Challenges for Yellowstone’s Grizzly Bears... and much, MUCH more! ...
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...
Colorado court overturns local fracking bans:
High court strikes down Fort Collins' voter-approved halt to fracking (The Coloradan):
In its first judgment on local fracking bans and moratoriums, the court called both laws “invalid and unenforceable” because they’re preempted by state law...The Fort Collins and Longmont cases represent an ongoing debate in Colorado and beyond about whether the ultimate right to regulate the oil and gas industry should belong to states or municipalities.
Colorado Supreme Court rules state law trumps local bans on fracking (Denver Post)
Colorado court overturns fracking bans (The Hill)
Fossil Fuel ad campaign targets individual donors, activists:
America Rising targets Steyer (Politico):
Democratic mega-donor Tom Steyer and other leading environmentalists like Bill McKibben are the targets of an expensive new negative campaign from America Rising Squared, the 501c4 arm of Republican opposition research group America Rising...the push will include a deployment of trackers with video cameras to follow the activists, a significant effort to research them and their work, a six-figure digital ad campaign focused on social media, and a website — corenews.org — that will serve as a hub for the group’s content.
Tom Steyer's Next Gen ad: Vote Climate:
NextGen Climate Launches New Program to Engage, Register and Mobilize Young Voters For Climate Action (NextGen Climate Action.org)
Billionaire green donor launches U.S. millennial voter drive (Reuters):
Steyer's NextGen Climate super PAC, a political group that raises funds to boost candidates with strong environmental platforms, said the campaign aims to boost turnout of millennials, who have become one of the largest potential voter groups...NextGen cited a June 2015 poll that found that 73 percent of young voters want the United States to get 50 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.
VIDEO: Hoax (Tom Steyer, YouTube)
Millenials love clean energy, fear climate change, and don't vote. This campaign wants to change that. (Vox.com)
Court sides with kids on climate in Washington State:
Massive Victory for 7 Kids in Climate Change Lawsuit in Washington State (EcoWatch):
In granting the youth a remedy, Judge Hill noted the extraordinary circumstances of the climate crisis, saying, “This is an urgent situation … these kids can’t wait.”
Washington judge rules in favor of kids and climate (Grist):
[T]he Dept. of Ecology withdrew its draft emissions rule in February of this year, and Friday’s ruling installs a court-ordered deadline for the agency to promulgate a new one...Our Children’s Trust, an advocacy group supporting the case, has orchestrated several similar youth-led state and federal cases around the country. Earlier this month, a magistrate judge in Eugene, Ore., recommended that the group’s federal case proceed to trial.
Kenya's bonfire of the ivories:
Kenya burns vast piles of elephant tusks as it seeks ban on trade (Reuters):
"Kenya is making a statement that for us ivory is worthless unless it is on our elephants," he told dignitaries before setting light to the first of almost a dozen pyres...Illegal hunting spiked in the three years to 2012 when about 100,000 elephants were killed, the equivalent of more than 33,000 a year.
Kenya's ivory inferno: Does burning elephant tusks destroy them? (BBC)
Historic ivory burn covers the sky in smoke and ash (CNN):
"In 10 years in central Africa we have lost as many as 70% of the elephants. The elephant, as has been said, is an iconic symbol of our country. Unless we take action now we risk losing this magnificent animal."
Ringling Bros. ends captive elephant performances:
Elephants perform for final time at Ringling Bros. (AP):
"We love our girls. Thank you so much for so many years of joy," he said as the elephants left the ring for a final time...The change at Ringling signifies a shift in Americans' understanding of elephants, Tobias said. People no longer see elephants as circus performers, he said, "but sentient animals that are capable of a full range of human emotions."
VIDEO: Ringling Bro. circus elephants take final bow (CBS News)
Lion Airlift: rescued lions airlifted to safety and sanctuary in Africa:
33 Rescued Lions Arrive in South Africa in Airlift (ABC News):
The roars of lions filled the cargo section of Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport Saturday evening as 33 lions rescued from South American circuses landed in South Africa where they will be released into a bush sanctuary for big cats. It was the largest airlift of lions in history, said Jan Creamer, president of Animal Defenders International, which carried out the operation.
PHOTOS: 33 Rescued Circus Lions Airlifted From Peru To South Africa (NPR)
Animal Defenders International (ADI):
24 of the lions were rescued in surprise raids by ADI on circuses in Peru. They were living in deplorable conditions in cages on the backs of trucks. Nine were voluntarily surrendered by a circus in Colombia. Almost all of the rescued lions have been mutilated to remove their claws, one has lost an eye, another is almost blind, and many have smashed and broken teeth so would not survive in the wild.
'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...
Armed Guards At India's Dams As Drought Grips Country (Guardian UK):
Government says 330 million people are suffering from water shortages after monsoons fail.
Coal Swoon Felt In Most States, Except 2 (E&E News):
The amount of coal burned to generate electricity has fallen in nearly every state, after peaking about a decade ago, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said yesterday.
Dredging of Miami Port Badly Damaged Coral Reef, Study Finds (NY Times):
The large-scale dredging of Miami’s port to accommodate the newest generation of freighters, an undertaking that prompted a long-running battle with environmentalists, caused widespread damage to a portion of the area’s fragile and already distressed coral reef, according to a new report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
TPP: Greenpeace Leaks U.S.-E.U. Trade Deal Documents (NY Times):
The Dutch chapter of the environmental activist group Greenpeace leaked on Monday what it called a trove of documents from the talks over a proposed trade deal between the European Union and the United States.
Global Warming Could Deplete The Oceans’ Oxygen – With Severe Results (Washington Post):
As climate change warms ocean waters, they may become depleted of dissolved oxygen, with profound consequences for the ecosystems.
Hawaii's Last Sugar Harvest Paves Way For A Fight On The Land's Future (Guardian UK):
For more than 150 years, the big agricultural corporations that produce sugar have been top dogs in the island’s economic life and its political governance. As the industry winds down, a new generation of activists are dreaming big of replacing sugar not only with a new agricultural model but also a new political settlement.
After a Comeback, New Challenges for Yellowstone’s Grizzly Bears (NY Times):
When the Yellowstone grizzly bear was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1975, there were only about 100 to 200 of them in the park and the surrounding country.
Pennsylvania Studies Link Between Fracking, Lawrence County Earthquakes (Power Source):
"The U.S. Geological Survey says five minor earthquakes originated in an area just west of New Castle in a 22-hour period on Monday, all small tremors between magnitude 1.7 and 1.9, which is below what humans can feel.
South Sudan’s Broken Oil Industry Increasingly Becoming a Hazard (New Security Beat):
The environment has long been a factor in violent conflict in South Sudan, especially with respect to control over oil.
4 Arrested In Murder Of Honduran Activist Berta Cáceres (NPR):
On Monday authorities in Honduras arrested four people in connection with the murder of influential environmental activist Berta Cáceres two months ago.
EPA Takes Offline Report That Says Glyphosate Not Likely Carcinogenic (Reuters):
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday pulled a report offline that concluded glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans, saying the document was inadvertently published and the agency had not finished its review of the chemical, which is the key ingredient in Monsanto's herbicides.
Fight In Congress Over Zika Funds With First US Death (McClatchy):
The first officially reported death in the United States from Zika-related complications, a 70-year-old man in Puerto Rico, intensifies a partisan battle on Capitol Hill over $1.9 billion in emergency funds blocked for two months by Republicans.
Persistent Water and Soil Contamination Found at N.D. Wastewater Spills (InsideClimate News):
"We found even if you take away the spill water," said Avner Vengosh, the study author and professor of earth and ocean sciences at Duke, "you still left behind the legacy of radioactivity in the soils," where it could last for thousands of years.
Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $55 million in talc-powder trial (Reuters):
The verdict, which J&J plans to appeal, was the second straight trial loss for the company, which is facing about 1,200 lawsuits accusing it of not adequately warning consumers about its talc-based products' cancer risks.
“There is no doubt”: Exxon Knew CO2 Pollution Was A Global Threat By Late 1970s (DeSmog Blog):
"There is no doubt that increases in fossil fuel usage and decreases of forest cover are aggravating the potential problem of increased CO2 in the atmosphere. Technology exists to remove CO2 from stack gases but removal of only 50% of the CO2 would double the cost of power generation.” Those lines appeared in a 1980 report, “Review of Environmental Protection Activities for 1978-1979,” produced by Imperial Oil, Exxon’s Canadian subsidiary.
Want to fight climate change? Here are the 7 critical life changes you should make (Grist) [emphasis added]:
So, given the imperfections of this world, what is a lone wolf such as yourself to do? Here are some conclusions gleaned from this study: 1. Buy the most fuel-efficient car you can afford, then drive it as little as possible....
FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page
Skeptical Science: Database with FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Myths
4 Scenarios Show What Climate Change Will Do To The Earth,
From Pretty Bad To Disaster
(Fast CoExist):
But exactly how bad is still an open question, and a lot depends not only on how we react, but how quickly. The rate at which humans cut down on greenhouse gas emissions--if we do choose to cut them--will have a large bearing on how the world turns out by 2100, the forecasts reveal.
Warning: Even in the best-case scenario, climate change will kick our asses (Grist)
NASA Video: If we don't act, here's what to expect in the next 100 years:
NASA climate change video: This is the U.S. in 2100 (NASA).