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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: 2012 set to be one of the hottest years on record; Sea levels rising faster than predicted; Plankton is in trouble; Does air pollution raise the risk of autism?; PLUS: EPA knocks BP out of federal contracting ... 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): Superstorm Sandy to cost $79 Billion; Rising seas to swallow NYC without action; L.A. inks solar deal with Moapa Tribe; 'Buyer beware' on San Diego's desalination plant; How to destroy the planet from the comfort of home; DOE's 'Road to Fuel Effienciency'; Ex-coal executive charged in mine disaster; Jordan fights water shortages ... PLUS: Meet The Climate Denial Machine ... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• EPA Blocks BP From Federal Contracts:
• BP suspended from new US federal contracts over Deepwater disaster (Guardian UK):
  
  The temporary order bans BP from competing for new oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico – such as the auction of 20m acres taking place on Wednesday – or from bidding on new contracts to supply the Pentagon or other government agencies with fuel. While the ban does not affect existing business, it raises wider questions about the company's future in a crucial market.
• BP Is Barred From Taking Government Contracts (NY Times):
  
  The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that BP’s suspension from new contracts would remain in effect “until the company can provide sufficient evidence to E.P.A. demonstrating that it meets federal business standards.”
  ...
  The E.P.A.’s decision appeared to take BP by surprise.
• Will UN Ambassador Susan Rice Benefit from Keystone XL Pipeline?:
• Sec.of State Candidate Has a Major Financial Stake in Canadian Tar Sands (On Earth Magazine):
  
  Rice’s financial holdings could raise questions about her status as a neutral decision maker. The current U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Rice owns stock valued between $300,000 and $600,000 in TransCanada, the company seeking a federal permit to transport tar sands crude 1,700 miles to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast, crossing fragile Midwest ecosystems and the largest freshwater aquifer in North America.
• Susan Rice, Top Candidate For Secretary Of State, Has Millions Tied To Canadian Tar Sands (Climate Progress):
  
  Last October, it was revealed that the State Department contractor performing the environmental assessment of Keystone XL was deeply connected to the pipeline’s developer, TransCanada. Also in October of 2011, emails obtained from the State Department showed that officials in the agency were coaching TransCanada about how to navigate the regulatory process, raising questions about the coziness of the relationship between the two parties.
• Autism Linked to Auto Pollution:
• Study: Autism Linked to Air Pollution From Traffic: USC study suggests air pollution may contribute to autism (USA Today):
  
  Using data from Califonia's Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment, University of Southern California researcher Heather Volk found that pregnant women who were exposed to high levels of traffic-related air pollution were nearly three times as likely to have a child with autism as people who were in the lowest quartile of exposure.
  ...
  Scientists are split about what causes autism, but most agree that there is both a genetic and environmental component to the disease. Volk says her study suggests, but does not confirm, that air pollution may play a role in whether a child develops autism.
• Shortcomings of study linking autism to air pollution highlight need for better research (Boston Globe):
  
  While all of these caveats don’t necessarily invalidate the findings, they do point to a larger issue: the need for better designed, better funded studies to determine with more finality what’s leading to the precipitous rise in autism in American children.
• STUDY: 2012 On Track to Be 9th Hottest on Record:
• 2012 expected to be 9th warmest year on record (Guardian UK):
  
  World Meteorological Organisation data shows average global temperature to date is 14.45C, higher than long-term average
  ...
  Although climate change sceptics may seize on the data, it does not change the long-term warming trend. Nine of the 10 hottest years on record have occurred since 2001, according to the Met Office. As well as the La Niña variation, there may have been other weather effects at work.
• Extreme weather calls for action, UN climate chief says (Reuters)
• U.N. Agency Says 2012 Ranks Among Hottest Years (NY Times)
• STUDY: Sea Levels Rising 60% Faster Than Predictions; Global Temps On Track:
• US coastal cities in danger as sea levels rise faster than expected, study warns: Satellite measurements show flooding from storms like Sandy will put low-lying population centres at risk sooner than projected (Guardian UK)
• STUDY: Projected sea-level rise may be underestimated (Potsdam Institute):
  
  That sea level is rising faster than expected could mean that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) sea-level rise projections for the future may be biased low as well, their results suggest.
• READ THE STUDY: Comparing climate projections to observations up to 2011 (IOP Science)
• Study: Sea Levels Rising 60% Faster Than Projected, Planet Keeps Warming As Expected (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  
  The rate of sea-level rise in the past decades is greater than projected by the latest assessments of the IPCC, while global temperature increases in good agreement with its best estimates.
  ...
  “The new findings highlight that the IPCC is far from being alarmist and in fact in some cases rather underestimates possible risks.”
• STUDY: Ocean Acidification Already Damaging Plankton Shells:
• Ocean Acidification: Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean (New Scientist):
  
  "This is actually happening now," says Geraint Tarling of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK. He and colleagues captured free-swimming sea snails called pteropods from the Southern Ocean in early 2008 and found under an electron microscope that the outer layers of their hard shells bore signs of unusual corrosion.

  As well as warming the planet, the carbon dioxide we emit is changing the chemistry of the ocean.

• Washington state confronts ocean acidificationWashington state confronts ocean acidification (Washington Post)
• UN COP18: Next Phase of Climate Negotiations in Doha, Qatar:
• China, EU Comments Show Reduced Scope of UN Climate Talks (Bloomberg):
  
  China teamed with the European Union and envoys from the bloc of 48 Least Developed Countries to dial back expectations for United Nations climate talks, indicating that there probably aren’t any new promises for aid or cuts in greenhouse gases on the horizon.
• UNFCC Main Page: Video and Text (United Nations)
• VIDEO: UN COP18 Webcast MainPage: (United Nations)
• UN News Centre (United Nations)
• U.N. Global Warming Summit: Heading Over the Climate Cliff (Time's Eco-Centric Blog):
  
  What’s the climate connection? The fiscal crisis and global warming are both, to put it bluntly, problems for tomorrow. Even if Congress can’t come to an agreement to avert the fiscal cliff, the economy won’t collapse immediately and the U.S. will still be able to borrow money, just as climate change won’t render the world uninhabitable next year the world can’t reduce carbon emissions overnight anyway. As a society—and as a species—we tend not to be very good at addressing problems of tomorrow, but in one very important respect, the climate cliff and the fiscal cliff are very different.
• Time's Up: UN Study Says World Emissions Targets Not Enough:
• Youth have their say at COP18: Activists highlight what they call lack of representation for 1.5bn youth (UN FCC)
• Arctic sea ice larger than US melts, UN reports; climate change happening ‘before our eyes’ (Washington Post)
• Global warming targets further out of reach, UN says (Phys.org):
  
  Based on current pledges, global average temperatures could rise by three to five 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.
• Climate Change Report Warns of Dramatically Warmer World This Century (The World Bank)