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ARB Newsclips for May 7, 2014. 

This is a service of the California Air Resources Board’s Office
of Communications.  You may need to sign in or register with
individual websites to view some of the following news articles.

AIR POLLUTION

WHO finds Indian cities have dirtiest air; Chinese data foggy. An
effort by the World Health Organization to measure pollution in
cities around the world has found New Delhi admits to having the
dirtiest air, while Beijing's measurements, like its skies, are
far from clear. The study of 1,600 cities found air pollution had
worsened since a smaller survey in 2011, especially in poorer
countries, putting city-dwellers at higher risk of cancer, stroke
and heart disease. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/07/us-pollution-idUSKBN0DN13P20140507


A burning concern: San Lorenzo Valley winter air quality fails
U.S. standard.  Donna Smith, who has lived in the San Lorenzo
Valley for 34 years, wants people to know how toxic the air gets
in the winter because of the common practice of using
wood-burning stoves to heat homes.  During the six-month burn
season, which ended April 30, there were 37 days when San Lorenzo
Valley air did not meet the federal standard, 19 last
year…Posted. 
http://www.montereyherald.com/breakingnews/ci_25710834/burning-concern-san-lorenzo-valley-winter-air-quality


Carbon Pollution Could Make Your Sandwich Less Healthy. Add more
thing to worry about on climate change: the more CO2 we put in
the atmosphere, the fewer nutrients many crops will have. The
massive National Climate Assessment (NCA) that came out yesterday
was full of sobering lessons about the way that human-caused
global warming is changing life around us. That includes human
health: Posted.
http://time.com/90823/carbon-pollution-could-make-your-sandwich-less-healthy/

CLIMATE CHANGE

Report: Climate change already affecting US.  When it came time
to deliver a new federal report detailing what global warming is
doing to America and the dire forecast for the future, President
Barack Obama turned to the pros who regularly deliver the bad
news about wild weather: TV meteorologists. "We want to emphasize
to the public, this is not some distant problem of the future.
Posted.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_CLIMATE_REPORT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CLIMATE_REPORT_HAWAII_GLANCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_CLIMATE_REPORT_GREAT_PLAINS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_CLIMATE_REPORT_MIDWEST?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CLIMATE_REPORT_SOUTHWEST?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CLIMATE_REPORT_ALASKA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CLIMATE_REPORT_NORTHWEST?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


OTHER RELATED STORIES
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/report-climate-change-already-affecting-us/2014/05/07/6efeb926-d5b6-11e3-8f7d-7786660fff7c_story.html


AP PHOTOS: A look at warming in the United States. A federal
report released Tuesday says that global warming is rapidly
affecting the United States in both visible and invisible ways.
From severe weather to an increase in pollen, the report says
that warming is not only physically dangerous, but also costly.
Still, it's not too late to prevent the worst of climate change,
says the 840-page report, which the White House is highlighting
as it tries to jump-start often-stalled efforts to curb
heat-trapping gases. Posted.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_CLIMATE_REPORT_PHOTO_GALLERY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Fed climate report called 'tremendous undertaking'. A new federal
report is the most exhaustive and perhaps even easiest-to-read
look at what global warming will to do the United States, say
experts who strongly support it. The report, required by federal
law, is "the most comprehensive assessment ever done on how
climate is affecting the United States," said University of
Illinois climate scientist Donald Wuebbles, a study author. White
House counselor John Podesta called it authoritative and "a
tremendous undertaking." Posted.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_CLIMATE_REPORT_METHOD?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Industry Sees Costly Rules After Obama’s Climate Report. 
President Barack Obama’s choreographed rollout of a dire new
climate report is sending a signal to the fossil-fuel industry:
look out. Supporters and opponents saw the Obama administration’s
full embrace of the National Climate Assessment yesterday as
laying the groundwork for wide-ranging new efforts to curb
emissions blamed for global warming. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-07/industry-sees-costly-rules-after-obama-s-climate-report.html


EU Proposes Shield for 175 Industries in Carbon Market. The
European Union’s regulator proposed expanding the list of
industries in its emissions market that should be protected from
relocating to regions without greenhouse-gas curbs. The reviewed
measure, which would cover a total of 175 industries from 2015 to
2019, includes sectors such as production of dietetic food.
Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-05-06/eu-proposes-shield-for-175-industries-in-carbon-market.html


U.S. Climate Has Already Changed, Study Finds, Citing Heat and
Floods. The effects of human-induced climate change are being
felt in every corner of the United States, scientists reported
Tuesday, with water growing scarcer in dry regions, torrential
rains increasing in wet regions, heat waves becoming more common
and more severe, wildfires growing worse, and forests dying under
assault from heat-loving insects. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/science/earth/climate-change-report.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/05/06/226686/report-says-climate-change-is.html


On Climate, Republicans and Democrats Are From Different
Continents.  Americans are less worried about climate change than
the residents of any other high-income country, as my colleague
Megan Thee-Brennan wrote Tuesday. When you look at the details of
these polls, you see that American exceptionalism on the climate
stems almost entirely from Republicans. Democrats and
independents don’t look so different from people in Japan,
Australia, Canada and across Europe. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/upshot/on-climate-republicans-and-democrats-are-from-different-continents.html?action=click&module=Search®ion=searchResults&mabReward=relbias%3As&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry360%23%2Fclimate%2Bchange%2F24hours%2F&_r=0
 

Americans Are Outliers in Views on Climate Change.  As President
Obama sets out to convince the public that climate change
requires immediate attention, he has his work cut out for him.
Perhaps more than people in any other rich nation, Americans are
skeptical that climate change is a dire issue. In Pew Research
Center surveys conducted last spring, 40 percent of Americans
said that global climate change was a major threat to their
country. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/upshot/americans-are-outliers-in-views-on-climate-change.html?action=click&module=Search®ion=searchResults&mabReward=relbias%3As&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry360%23%2Fclimate%2Bchange%2F24hours%2F
 

Are Your Companies Copping Out on Climate Change? Whatever people
may think, climate change is affecting Americans -- period.
Fortunately, many companies, nongovernmental organizations, and
government representatives are gathering to talk about the
challenges -- as well as the economic opportunities -- of dealing
with this growing problem. It's not all bad, although there are
still many companies that need to show improvements. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Are-Your-Companies-Copping-Out-on-Climate-Change-5457598.php


Climate change being felt across the United States, new report
says. Climate change is rapidly turning America the beautiful
into America the stormy, sneezy, costly and dangerous, according
to a comprehensive federal scientific report released Tuesday.
Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_25708081/climate-change-being-felt-across-united-states


National Climate Assessment: Who conducted the study, and how. A
new federal report is the most exhaustive and perhaps even
easiest-to-read look at what global warming will to do the United
States, say experts who strongly support it. The report, required
by federal law, is "the most comprehensive assessment ever done
on how climate is affecting the United States," said University
of Illinois climate scientist Donald Wuebbles, a study author.
Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_25709270/national-climate-assessment-who-conducted-study-and-how


CLIMATE CHANGE: Report highlights current, future impacts. 
Droughts like the one plaguing California will become more severe
and prolonged, and so will heat waves, destructive wildfires and
other consequences of a fast-changing climate, the authors of a
White House report said Tuesday. Climate change can be seen in
the reduced Sierra Nevada snowpack, resulting in shrinking water
supplies for farming and drinking; the fallowing of 800,000 acres
of crops statewide...Posted.
http://www.pe.com/local-news/topics/topics-environment-headlines/20140506-climate-change-report-highlights-current-future-impacts.ece
 

Climate report assesses impacts of global warming, including more
droughts, wildfires in California.  Global warming is rapidly
turning America the beautiful into America the stormy, sneezy and
dangerous, according to a new federal scientific report. And
those shining seas? Rising and costly, the report says. Climate
change’s assorted harms “are expected to become increasingly
disruptive across the nation throughout this century and beyond,”
the National Climate Assessment concluded Tuesday. Posted.
http://www.sbsun.com/government-and-politics/20140506/climate-report-assesses-impacts-of-global-warming-including-more-droughts-wildfires-in-california
 

From crop failures to flooded runways, new climate report
catalogs impacts across sectors. When it rains, it pours. When
it's dry, it's parched. When it's hot, it lasts. These are some
of the impacts climate change is already bringing to the United
States, with more extremes to come in the future, according to
the National Climate Assessment report released yesterday.
Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059999137/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Climate rollout is aimed at changing attitudes, or at least
elections. People who hear the word "enhanced" might think of a
stronger body part or a loaded pizza. For Susan Hassol, it
represents the problematic dialect of climate scientists, many of
whom, admittedly, have a better grasp of wind currents than
words. "To the public, that means to make it better," she said.
Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059999135/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

New global map of world's glaciers holds a grave sea-level rise
warning. Imagine an inventory of almost all of the world's
glaciers that allows scientists to assess their size and location
from Antarctica to Canada and make better projections of future
rising sea levels. That now exists, according to a team of 74
scientists led by the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Trent
University in Canada. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059999138/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

DROUGHT

Officials warn of dire fire season. Urge all county residents to
be prepared. State, local and federal officials — including U.S.
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell — said Tuesday that a
bone-dry California is poised for its worst fire season ever and
they urged San Diego County residents to be prepared. “We are
right now looking at a pretty tough wildfire season,” said Jewell
during a news conference held at Cal Fire’s local headquarters in
Rancho San Diego. Posted.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/may/06/fire-jewell-drought-danger-pimlott/


FUELS

Stanford Divesting Boosts Student Campaign Seeking Domino Effect.
Stanford University’s decision to stop investing in coal
companies may help bolster the hundreds of student-led campaigns
that have spread across college campuses in the past two years
aimed at stopping climate change. Stanford, which has an $18.7
billion endowment, is by far the wealthiest and most high-profile
university to embrace the movement’s argument that universities
should divest from fossil-fuel companies contributing to global
warming. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-05-06/stanford-university-says-it-will-divest-from-coal-companies-1-.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/07/carbonstanford-divestment-idUSL2N0NT0T720140507


HIGH-SPEED RAIL

High-speed rail plan attracts foes, supporters at Fresno hearing.
Members of the California High-Speed Rail Authority were
alternately scolded and encouraged -- and even threatened with
arrest -- for more than three hours Tuesday in a hearing on plans
for the Fresno-Bakersfield section of its proposed bullet-train
network. Tuesday was the first part of a two-day meeting for the
rail board to consider certifying environmental reports…Posted.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/05/06/3913683/high-speed-rail-plan-attracts.html#storylink=cpy
BY SUBSCRIPTION 

GREEN ENERGY

Lake View Terrace solar project angers neighbors, raises planning
questions. It’s a field of weeds hemmed in by a chain-linked
fence. But to Lyles Perkins and other neighbors, it’s scarce land
where horses might one day roam — if only someone else would buy
the land. Brad Wilson at Ecos Energy, the landowner, has a
different vision — one with, as they say in the business world, a
double-bottom line. Posted.
http://www.dailynews.com/article/20140506/NEWS/140509635 

Federal tax credit for wind turbines gives GE a backlog of
orders. Customer orders for General Electric Co.'s advanced wind
turbines have surged over the last 18 months, the company
announced yesterday, in part because renewable energy developers
responded aggressively to Congress' one-year extension of the
production tax credit (PTC) for wind energy.  Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059999110/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

Metal-hungry clean tech aims to shrink its carbon footprint by
powering mines. Clean technology has a dirty secret. "If you want
clean tech, you need mines," said Kerry-Ann Adamson, a former
research director with Navigant Research who now owns her own
consulting firm. "If you haven't got mines, you are not going to
get a battery," she added. "If you don't have platinum, you are
not going to get a fuel cell." Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1059999160/print BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

MISCELLANEOUS

China fertile ground for green progress: report. China's massive
pollution problems have given rise to a new force of
environmental campaigners, different politically from middle
class activists in the West and potentially more effective in
tackling climate change, new research finds. In Europe, financial
crisis has knocked environmental policy down the political agenda
and populist movements see environmentalism as a hobby of
European elites. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/07/us-china-environment-activism-idUSKBN0DN06L20140507


OPINIONS

COLUMN-In electricity, Britain is nostalgic for central planning:
Kemp. Britain is abandoning its market-based model for
electricity and opting for much greater state control, as
politicians intervene more aggressively in response to concern
about rising bills, climate change and supply security. For a
brief period in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Britain had the
most liberalised and market-based electricity system in the
world, but now politicians, experts and many voters seem to want
a return to more central planning. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/07/kemp-britain-electricity-idUSL6N0NT3JI20140507


The G.O.P. Can’t Ignore Climate Change.  “TO waste, to destroy
our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of
using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in
undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which
we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.”
These words were spoken by one of the nation’s most passionate
conservationists: Republican President Teddy Roosevelt. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/opinion/the-gop-cant-ignore-climate-change.html?action=click&module=Search®ion=searchResults&mabReward=relbias%3As&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry360%23%2Fclimate%2Bchange%2F24hours%2F


Editorial: Climate change in the 'present'.  John Paul Holdren,
senior adviser to President Obama on science and technology, took
a star turn Tuesday when he released the administration’s third
U.S. National Climate Assessment.  The document is “the most
comprehensive and authoritative ever about how climate has been
changing in the United States,” said Mr. Holdren.  Posted. 
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/climate-613072-obama-coal.html


Mike Kasperzak: Senate bill restores meaning and purpose to the
CEQA process The California Environmental Act, or CEQA, is a
critical environmental protection law that is implemented for
nearly every type of land use project across California. In great
part because of its stringent substantive and procedural
requirements, CEQA has assisted cities in approving
environmentally conscious land use projects that are in line with
California's goals of environmental protection. 
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_25700274/mike-kasperzak-senate-bill-restores-meaning-and-purpose

  
BLOGS

Renault Twizy silently sneaks into university library. "If you've
never heard of the Renault Twizy, that's because it's silent."
That's the tagline for a new video of a promotional stunt by the
French automaker that sent the funky looking EV driving into a
university library to show off how quiet it is. Get it? You
aren't supposed to talk in a bibliothèque but you can drive an EV
there. Posted.
http://green.autoblog.com/2014/05/06/renault-twizy-silently-sneaks-into-university-library-video/

In Air Pollution Fight, Beijing Replaces BBQ With Burning Buses. 
A bus converted into an indoor barbecue restaurant went up in
flames on Tuesday, according to local media. The state-run China
Daily posted a photo showing the charred, blackened shell of the
makeshift restaurant, which caught fire on May 6. According to
the report, no one was injured and firefighters were able to
transfer two cooking-gas tanks inside the bus to safety before
they could explode.  Posted. 
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/05/07/in-air-pollution-fight-beijing-replaces-bbq-with-burning-buses/
  

Wonkbook: Will we now finally care about climate change?  It's
been more than 25 years now since James Hansen of NASA,
testifying before Congress, helped bring global warming (and
climate change more generally) to the public forefront. And ever
since then, scientists and scientific organizations have warned
the public time and time again — in public appearances, on TV, in
papers or even in assessment reports — that global warming is not
only real but very likely human-caused.  Posted. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/05/07/wonkbook-will-we-now-finally-care-about-climate-change/
 

A New Miles Per Gallon Rating System. UC Riverside graduate
student works with Motor Trend magazine to create fuel economy
ratings for vehicles based on real-world driving, not lab tests.
Do you ever wonder about the accuracy of those miles per gallon
ratings pasted on windows of new cars? So did Emissions
Analytics, a United Kingdom-based vehicle emissions testing
company. Posted. http://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/22093 

New Methane Study Demonstrates Urgent Need for Regulatory Action.
Another scientific study finds methane emissions from oil and gas
production are higher than previously thought, reinforcing the
urgent need to reduce emissions of this powerful climate
pollutant. The latest study, accepted today to be published in
American Geophysical Union’s Journal of Geophysical
Research…Posted.
http://blogs.edf.org/energyexchange/2014/05/07/new-methane-study-demonstrates-urgent-need-for-regulatory-action/#sthash.eOEoS8J2.dpuf


Beverly Hills just banned fracking.  There’s no shortage of
strange chemicals in the bodies of Beverly Hills’ surgically
enhanced, Botoxed residents. But leaders of the Southern
California city on Tuesday took a major step toward keeping
mystery chemicals out of the ground beneath them.  Posted. 
http://grist.org/news/beverly-hills-just-banned-fracking/  





California is in a drought emergency.
Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.