Clean Start: July 1, 2011

Welcome to Clean Start, ThinkProgress Green’s morning round-up of the latest in climate and clean energy. Here is what we’re reading. What are you?

As firefighters inside Los Alamos Laboratory scramble to clear brush near barrels of plutonium-contaminated waste, the Las Conchas Fire is poised to become New Mexico’s largest ever wildfire. [Reuters]

Southern California researchers found plastic in nearly 1 in 10 small fish collected in the Pacific Ocean in the latest study to call attention to floating marine debris entering the food chain. [Los Angeles Times]

“In the next 30 years, high-value vineyards in Northern California could shrink by 50% because of global warming,” according to a new Stanford University study released Thursday. [Greenspace]

David Roberts: “Climate models currently in wide use (by, e.g., the IPCC) probably won’t be able to predict abrupt climate changes,” and have given us a “false sense of security.” [Grist]

“The swollen Missouri River breached another section of a southwestern Iowa levee on Thursday that has failed previously, forcing some evacuations and closing part of Interstate 29,” authorities said. [Reuters]

High-volume hydraulic fracturing for natural gas — fracking — will be permitted on privately held lands in New York State, the Cuomo administration announced, ending the state’s ban on fracking. [Huffington Post]

“We may all be plaintiffs and defendants in future climate change lawsuits,” write lawyers Bill Sampson and Scott Kaiser. [Who's Who Legal]

“Workers in North Dakota’s booming oil industry and related jobs had taken up any empty space in Minot before the swollen Souris River raced into the city, filling thousands of homes with water and turning the housing shortage into a crisis.” [AP]