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?
Floodwaters slowly receded Monday in many parts of the northern Philippines after two typhoons that killed nearly 60 people, amid appeals for more boats to bring food and water to residents refusing to abandon inundated homes. [AP]
A leading Silicon Valley venture capitalist said last week that the US was handing China the opportunity of becoming the leading economy in the world if it loses the “clean tech war”. [AOL]
Former U.S. Rep Bob Inglis (R-SC): “Conservatives seem to think that climate change is for elitists, enviros and Democrats, not hard-working, God-fearing Republicans.” [Business Week]
Farm chiefs have a narrowing chance to diversify vital crops at rising threat from drought, flood and pests brought by climate change, food researchers warned on Monday. [AFP]
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Saturday that the bankruptcy of the solar company Solyndra doesn’t undercut the case for continued federal investment in green energy. [E2]
Envoys meeting for United Nations climate talks must find a way to extend the world’s only treaty capping greenhouse gases, which is at risk of expiring, environmental groups said as sessions began in Panama City. [Business Week]
“For us to take a snapshot in time and to say that what is going on in the country today, the climate change that is going on is man’s fault and we need to jeopardize America’s economy, I’m a skeptic about that,” Gov. Rick Perry told a man in Derry, NH, Friday night who pressed him about his position on climate change. “I’m not afraid to say I’m a skeptic about that.” [Huffington Post]
A huge hole that appeared in the Earth’s protective ozone layer above the Arctic in 2011 was the largest recorded in the Northern Hemisphere, triggering worries the event could occur again and be even worse, scientists said in a report on Monday. [Reuters]
Warm weekend weather set records in western South Dakota. [AP]
Hundreds of South African families have been left homeless, 42 people injured and a nine-year-old boy is dead after a tornado ripped through the north-eastern sections of the country on Sunday. [IOL News]
A summer of record flooding along the Missouri River is leaving a band of destruction — broken roads, drowned farmland and condemned houses — through the nation’s midsection. [WSJ]
After a protracted campaign, Girl Scouts USA has announced that it will lessen palm oil in its ubiquitous cookies by using alternatives when possible and cutting overall usage. [MongaBay]
The tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu has declared a state of emergency due to a severe shortage of fresh water, with officials saying Monday that some parts of the country may only have a two-day supply. [AP]