Clean Start: September 12, 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?

Professor Peter Sale, who studied the Great Barrier Reef for 20 years at the University of Sydney, says that coral reefs as we know them “will be gone by end of the century” primarily because of global warming and ocean acidification. [Independent]

Seven of the 10 oil workers who went missing in the Gulf of Mexico last week were found alive Sunday, said Mexico’s state-owned oil company, Pemex. [CNN]

Robert Redford supports the “thousands of citizens who took to the gates of the White House this summer to demonstrate against the Keystone XL.” [Houston Chronicle]

Residents from Florida to Louisiana report Tropical Storm Lee blew in oily residues, thick tar mats and tar balls, confirming fears that the crude from BP’s historic blowout is far from gone. [Huffington Post]

The U.S. Department of Energy announced Friday it has finalized a $90.6 million loan guarantee to Charlotte, NC-based Cogentrix in support of its solar generating project in Alamosa, which will be the highest concentration photovoltaic energy generation facility in the world. [Denver Post]

The blistering heat experienced by the United States during August, as well as the June through August months, marks the second warmest summer on record, including the hottest summer ever in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Louisiana, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. [Science Daily]

The United Nations has vowed to help victims of flooding in southern Pakistan, responding to Islamabad’s calls for international help for up to five million people affected by recent monsoon rains. [Al Jazeera]

More than 100 people burned to death in a fire on a fuel pipeline in a densely-populated area of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, according to police. [Al Jazeera]

The number of homes destroyed by a Texas wildfire has risen to 1,554 and is expected to further increase as firefighters enter more areas where the blaze has been extinguished, officials said Sunday. [AP]

Eighteen homes have burned in a blaze moving through dry forests near Washington state’s Satus Pass and that number could increase, officials said Sunday. [AP]

One of the UK’s elite cycle races has fallen victim to severe gales as the remnants of Hurricane Katia hits British shores. [UKPA]

Roads remained closed in the Northeast on Monday and some rivers were still flooded, days after strong rains from the remnants of tropical storm Lee washed over the region. [AP]