Environmental News For The Week 15Sept 2019

Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666

This is a collection of interesting news articles about the environment and related topics published last week. This is usually a Tuesday evening regular post at GEI (but can be posted at other times).

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Carcinogen in Zantac and Generics Triggers FDA, EU Probes — Global health regulators sounded a coordinated alarm about the possibility that a stomach drug taken by millions of people could be tainted with the same cancer-causing agent that has sparked a worldwide recall of blood-pressure pills. Drug-safety officials in the U.S. and Europe said Friday that they were looking into whether Sanofi heartburn medication Zantac and generic versions made by numerous manufacturers contain levels of the probable carcinogen NDMA that could pose a danger to patients. Ranitidine, as the drug is known in generic form, is an antacid and antihistamine used to treat and prevent a range of gastrointestinal disorders. The chemical NDMA, or N-Nitrosodimethylamine, is a likely human carcinogen found in cooked or cured meats such as bacon, and is a common industrial byproduct. The discovery further underscores the challenge pharmaceutical-industry regulators face in overseeing a vast global supply chain of drugs, drug ingredients and factory processes. Dozens of versions of the hypertension treatment valsartan have been recalled since last year out of concern they could be contaminated with NDMA. Many of those drugs were made in China or India, raising questions about the quality of generic manufacturing in far-flung factories around the globe. Bloomberg News has reported on how poor quality controls and efforts to conceal manufacturing problems from the FDA have complicated oversight of overseas drug producers. The review of ranitidine comes after Valisure, a New Haven, Connecticut-based online pharmacy that tests all the medications it dispenses, alerted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that it had detected high levels of NDMA in both generic and brand versions of Zantac sold at major pharmacies run by companies including Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., CVS Health Corp. and Walmart Inc.

Mouthwash Cancels Out Key Benefits of Exercise, Study Finds – Your mouthwash could have a bizarre effect on how exercise affects your body, a new study this week suggests. The study found that swigging mouthwash can prevent exercise from lowering your blood pressure as it normally does. Strange as that sounds, the results highlight just how important the bacteria living in our mouths really are to us. It’s been long known that exercise opens up and dilates our blood vessels, in part by getting our bodies to produce more nitric oxide. But even after we’re done jogging and stop producing excess nitric oxide, our circulation is still affected, with our blood pressure remaining lower than it was for hours – a phenomenon known as post-exercise hypotension. There are various theoriesfor why this happens, but no one’s completely figured it out. One theory Bescos and his team had, based on other research, involves the natural microbial environment, or microbiome, of our mouths. A byproduct of nitric oxide, called nitrate, is often gobbled up by certain mouth bacteria. These bacteria then process nitrate into another chemical called nitrite, which is absorbed into the body when we swallow saliva, and some of it is again turned back into nitric oxide. They theorized that this process gets enough nitric oxide back into our bloodstream where it helps keep our blood pressure low. Mouthwash was simply a way for them to test out their theory. They used antibacterial mouthwash containing chlorhexidine, a potent antiseptic used in many prescription strength and some over-the-counter mouthwashes. They had the volunteers run on a treadmill for a half-hour on two separate occasions, then they were kept under close watch and had their blood pressure monitored for two hours. During those two hours, they were randomly assigned to periodically swig either mouthwash or a placebo; on the second trip, they took whichever liquid they hadn’t the first time around. When people took mouthwash as opposed to placebo, the team found, their blood pressure wasn’t lowered by as much. And by the two-hour mark, the post-exercise effect had disappeared completely. The mouthwash didn’t likely kill off bacteria en masse in the mouth since the diversity of the microbiome was left unchanged. But it did seem to drastically reduce their ability to produce nitrite, and that led to lower levels of nitrite in people’s saliva and blood. The team’s findings were published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine.

US agency warns of lung illness epidemic among young people, attributed to e-cigarettes – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a public warning of a rapidly developing epidemic of severe lung illnesses associated with the smoking of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), also known as “vaping.” In just a few weeks, 450 cases have been confirmed spanning 33 states. As of this writing the death toll has increased to five. The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) issued an urgent preliminary report on September 6, 2019, “Pulmonary Illness Related to E-cigarette Use in Illinois and Wisconsin,” describing their findings on a cluster of 53 cases recently afflicting the two states. In July, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (WDHS) and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) received multiple reports from physicians and hospitals of several severe cases of pulmonary sickness not associated with any infectious etiology. All have in common the recent use of e-cigarettes and its associated products. Concern over a growing epidemic prompted a coordinated effort by the two states along with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Many of those affected are otherwise young and healthy without any prior medical conditions. They present with severe “air hunger,” or shortness of breath. They also experience fevers, nausea and vomiting, as well as intense fatigue. The median age of these patients was 19. They were predominately white males. Almost all required admission to the hospital, with many admitted to the intensive care units. Eighty-seven percent required supplemental oxygen, and one third were intubated and received mechanical ventilation. One patient in this cluster has died. Nearly all the patients received intravenous or oral steroids, with improvement once therapy was initiated. This would suggest an inflammatory mediated immune response has triggered the disease. Universally, chest x-rays or CT scans of these patients showed both lungs were affected. All these patients had reported a history of having vaped within 90 days before their symptoms started, with most reporting heavy daily e-cigarette use. A significant number used both nicotine and THC or CBD products. The CDC is warning consumers to stop buying bootleg products and mixing street cannabis with e-cigarette products. They also strongly urge them to stop modifying the devices to vape adulterated substances.

Trump administration seeks ban on flavored e-cigarettes to combat youth addiction — (Reuters) – The Trump administration announced plans on Wednesday to remove all flavored e-cigarettes from store shelves in a widening crackdown on vaping, as officials warned that sweet flavors had drawn millions of children into nicotine addiction. President Donald Trump and top U.S. officials expressed concern about surging teenage use of e-cigarettes, and the move comes as health officials are investigating a handful of deaths and potentially hundreds of lung illnesses tied to vaping.Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that, with Trump’s blessing, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was working on a “guidance document” that would lead to a ban of all e-cigarette flavors aside from tobacco flavoring.“Once the FDA would finalize this guidance, we would begin enforcement actions to remove all such products from the marketplace,” Azar told reporters during a meeting with the president and first lady Melania Trump in the Oval Office.The ban would include mint and menthol flavoring as well as bubble gum, candy, fruit, alcohol and other flavors, he said.Tobacco flavoring would be allowed to remain, subject to companies’ filing for approval from the FDA. Even that would be at risk if the government determined children were attracted to it or that it was being marketed to them, Azar said.

What’s Causing Vaping’s Mystery Illnesses? New Study Might Offer Some Answers – Over the past few weeks, the tone of the discussion over the health issues raised by vaping has evolved from quiet concern to full-blown nationwide panic. With hundreds of cases of mysterious, vaping-related lung ailments reported in more than 33 states, and more than six vaping-related deaths reported in the United States, the potential health issues that may arise from vaping are now impossible to ignore, to the degree that even President Trump has declared it a health crisis. Yet we don’t actually have the answer to one extremely important question: What is actually causing these health issues linked to vaping? While some theories have been put forth, including that vitamin E in bootleg THC cartridges may be playing a role, a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine sheds further light on some potential answers. According to the study, which examined six vaping-related cases at University Hospital in Salt Lake City, the illnesses caused by vaping may be linked to a certain type of white blood cells called macrophages, which help protect your immune system by essentially trapping potentially dangerous viruses and bacteria and digesting them. In people with healthy immune systems, macrophages are able to distinguish between “good” and “bad” cells; in people with inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn’s, it is believed that the macrophages in the intestinal system are unable to make this distinction, and end up attacking the wrong types of cells. This is ultimately what University of Utah researchers believe is happening with these vaping cases, except with macrophages in the lungs. When researchers examined samples from the patients’ lungs, they found in the patients’ cells the presence of lipid-laden macrophages, or macrophages that contain fat particles. Lipid-laden macrophages are extremely unusual and have a distinctive appearance, Scott Aberegg, lead author and U of U Health critical care pulmonologist, said in a press release. Notably, the presence of lipid-laden macrophages in a person’s lungs is also used to diagnose lipoid pneumonia, a rare type of lung condition caused by inhaling these fat particles. Lipoid pneumonia is marked by such symptoms as shortness of breath, coughing, and chest pain, all of which have been reported by those presenting at hospitals with vaping-related lung ailments.

U.S. Could Lose Measles Elimination Status by October — The United States was declared to have eliminated the measles virus in 2000, meaning it was no longer endemic to the country. But now ongoing outbreaks of the measles virus threaten that elimination status. There have been 1,241 cases of the measles in the United States since January. The last time there was well over a thousand cases of measles was 27 years ago, in 1992. At least 2,200 people reported having the measles that year, and, while that may seem steep, it was a 77 percent drop in the number of measles cases the United States saw the year prior.After 1992, the measles finally started to lose steam – all the way until 2000, when a vaccination program was declared successful. Health officials were able to officially declare the United States to have eliminated measles. This year, as measles cases continue to climb, the country may lose its elimination status by early October if the disease continues to appear.”That loss would be a huge blow for the nation and erase the hard work done by all levels of public health,” Kristen Nordlund, a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told Healthline. According to Nordlund, the measles elimination goal – which was first announced in 1996 – was a monumental task. Before the vaccine came around, which successfully wiped out measles, about 3 to 4 million people contracted the virus each year, with nearly 48,000 of them being hospitalized and around 500 dying.

Is a Dark Ages disease the new American plague threat? – Diseases are reemerging in some parts of America, including Los Angeles County, that we haven’t commonly seen since the Middle Ages. One of those is typhus, a disease carried by fleas that feed on rats, which in turn feed on the garbage and sewage that is prominent in people-packed “typhus zones.” Although typhus can be treated with antibiotics, the challenge is to identify and treat the disease in resistant, hard-to-access populations, such as the homeless or the extremely poor in developing countries.I also believe that homeless areas are at risk for the reemergence of another deadly ancient disease – leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease. Leprosy involves a mycobacteria (tuberculosis is another mycobacteria) that is very difficult to transmit and very easy to treat with a cocktail of three antibiotics. Yet according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there are more than 200,000 new cases of leprosy reported in the world every year, with two-thirds of them in India, home to one-third of the world’s poor. The poor are disproportionately affected by this disease because close quarters, poor sanitation, and lack of prompt diagnosis or treatment easily can convert a disease that should be rare to one that is more common. Untreated, Hansen’s disease causes disabilities over time, with the peripheral nerves affected and the fingers and toes becoming numb. Multibacillary Hansen’s disease, the more serious version, also causes skin lesions, nodules, plaques and nasal congestion. With eye involvement, corneal ulcers and sometimes blindness can occur. According to the CDC, there are between 100 and 200 new cases of leprosy reported in the U.S. every year. A study just released from the Keck Medical Center at the University of Southern California looked at 187 leprosy patients treated at its clinic from 1973 to 2018 and found that most were Latino, originating from Mexico, where the disease is somewhat more common, and that there was on average a three-year delay in diagnosis, during which time the side effects of the disease – usually irreversible, even with treatment – began to occur. Leprosy is still more prevalent in Central America and South America, with more than 20,000 new cases per year. Given that, it seems only a matter of time before leprosy could take hold among the homeless population in an area such as Los Angeles County, with close to 60,000 homeless people and 75 percent of those lacking even temporary shelter or adequate hygiene and medical treatment. All of those factors make a perfect cauldron for a contagious disease that is transmitted by nasal droplets and respiratory secretions with close repeated contact.

‘It can kill you in seconds’: the deadly algae on Brittany’s beaches — Activists say stinking sludge is linked to nitrates in fertilisers from intensive farming… André Ollivro stepped carefully down the grassy banks of an estuary in the bay of Saint-Brieuc, Brittany, not far from his beachfront cabin. The pungent smell of rotting eggs wafting from decomposing seaweed made him stop and put on his gas mask. It was a strange sight in what is usually a tourist hotspot. “You can’t be too careful,” said the 74-year-old former gas technician, who is leading the fight against what has come to be known as France’s coastal “killer slime”. For decades, potentially lethal green algae have amassed in shallow bays on Brittany’s beautiful north-western coast. Environmentalists say the blossoming of unusually large amounts of green algae are linked to nitrates in fertilisers and waste from the region’s intensive pig, poultry and dairy farming flowing into the river system and entering the sea. When the algae decompose, pockets of toxic gas get trapped under its crust – potentially fatal to humans if they step on it.“It could kill you in seconds,” Ollivro said, as he took out a gas reader to monitor levels for his environmental campaign group. This summer, six Brittany beaches were closed because of a mass of dangerous seaweed. The bay of Saint-Brieuc was the focus, with bulldozers piling so much algae into dumper trucks on the beach that an inland treatment centre, where seaweed is dried out and disposed of, briefly closed due to an unbearable stench. The centre blamed the foul odour on the method used to collect the algae, which had mixed in mud and sand. Local residents complained the smell was so bad it woke them up at night. The row over algae intensified in July when the family of a man who died in the putrid seaweed sludge of the Gouessant estuary in 2016 sued the state and local authorities. The family said not enough was done to prevent the spread of seaweed and the public was not properly warned of the fatal danger. The area where he was found had already seen over 30 wild boar die in sludge five years before, with a likely link to rotting seaweed. But Auffray’s body was not immediately tested or autopsied until weeks later, too late to accurately measure the role of toxic gas.

Concerns grow over tainted sewage sludge spread on croplands -For more than 20 years, the eastern Michigan town of Lapeer sent leftover sludge from its sewage treatment plant to area farms, supplying them with high-quality, free fertilizer while avoiding the expense of disposal elsewhere.But state inspectors ordered a halt to the practice in 2017 after learning the material was laced with one of the potentially harmful chemicals known collectively as PFAS, which are turning up in drinking water and some foods across the U.S.Now, the city of 8,800 expects to pay about $3 million to have the waste treated at another facility and the leftover solids shipped to a landfill. Testing has found elevated PFAS levels in just one field where the sludge was spread, but farmers have lost an economical fertilizer source and hope more contamination doesn’t turn up.”I feel bad for them,” “The city didn’t do anything malicious. We had no clue this was going on.” Lapeer isn’t alone. For decades, sewage sludge from thousands of wastewater treatment plants has been used nationwide as cropland fertilizer. It’s also applied to sports fields, golf courses and backyard gardens. About half of the 7 million tons generated annually in the U.S. is applied to farm fields and other lands, the Environmental Protection Agency says. While the sludge offers farmers a cheap source of fertilizer, there long have been concerns about contaminants in the material – and attention of late has turned to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The city of Marinette, Wisconsin, has stopped distributing sewage waste, also called “biosolids,” to farms after getting high PFAS readings. In Maine, a dairy farm was forced to shut down after sludge spread on the land was linked to high levels of PFAS in the milk. “It’s been devastating. We kind of get treated like we are criminals,”

Lawmakers Take Manufacturing Companies to Task Over Toxic PFAS Chemicals in Drinking Water – Representatives from the 3M Company, the Chemours Company and DuPont appeared before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Sept. 10 as Congress explores several bills to regulate dangerous “forever chemicals” called PFAS, which do not break down in the environment and have been linked to a number of diseases.None Democrats on the committee suggested the companies had long known about the health hazards of dangerous “forever chemicals” called PFAS in their products and should shoulder some of the responsibility for addressing their spread.”You have played a part in this national emergency. You have sickened our first responders and members of the military, and I don’t know how you sleep at night,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Florida, The Hill reported.California Rep. Harley Rouda, who chairs the Oversight and Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Environment, said the companies’ misrepresentation of the science around PFAS “shakes the foundation of democratic capitalism” by “violating the trust of the American people,” The Guardian reported.According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, PFAS are synthetic chemicals used since the 1940’s in food packaging, non-stick pans, cosmetics, firefighting foam and water- and grease-repellent products. PFAS contamination is often found in water sources near industrial sites, military bases and airports in nearly every U.S. state. In addition to persisting in the environment, they have been shown to accumulate in the human body, and PFAS exposure has been linked with infertility, cancer, thyroid disease, developmental problems in children, liver damage and a host of other health issues, according to the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Plastic Apocalypse- Dangerous Microplastics Now Turning Up In Human Stool – Last month we revealed how high levels of dangerous microplastics had been detected in some of the most remote regions of the world. Now there are new reports that microplastics are turning up in human stool, a new study suggests. The study, Detection of Various Microplastics in Human Stool: A Prospective Case Series, examined human stool from eight people around the world and found all had microplastics. “This small prospective case series showed that various microplastics were present in human stool, and no sample was free of microplastics,” wrote the team of scientists, led by Dr. Philipp Schwabl of the Medical University of Vienna. “Larger studies are needed to validate these findings. Moreover, research on the origins of microplastics ingested by humans, potential intestinal absorption, and effects on human health is urgently needed.”Schwabl said volunteers came from Japan, Russia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Finland, and Austria. Their daily food intake was the likely entry point for microplastic exposure. The study didn’t rule out that microplastic exposure could be coming from food wrappers and bottles. None of the volunteers were vegetarians, while six out of the eight had consumed ocean-going fish.

Study Finds Microplastics Stunt Earthworms’ Growth and Could Harm Soil Ecosystems – A first-of-its-kind study published Wednesday in Environmental Science and Technology found that particles from the kind of plastic commonly used in bags and bottles stunt the growth of earthworms, a finding with major implications for soil health, The Independent reported.The researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) found that rosy-tipped earthworms (Aporrectodea rosea) exposed to soil filled with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) for 30 days lost 3.1 percent of their weight on average, according to a university press release published by EurekAlert! The worms kept in soil without microplastics, in contrast, increased their weight by 5.1 percent.Study co-author and ARU graduate Connor Russell explained why this matters: Earthworms can be called ‘ecosystem engineers’ as they help maintain a healthy soil. They do this through ingesting dead organic matter, therefore contributing to the availability of nutrients. Their burrowing activity improves soil structure, helping with drainage and preventing erosion. It’s therefore highly likely that any pollution that impacts the health of soil fauna, such as earthworms, may have cascading effects on other aspects of the soil ecosystem, such as plant growth.If plastics inhibit earthworms’ growth, they could therefore impact agriculture, since earthworms play an important role in farming soil, The Guardian explained. The study is the first to look at the impact of microplastics on worms that live in the topsoil. Lead Author and ARU Biology Lecturer Dr. Bas Boots said in the press release that it was not yet clear why the microplastics caused the worms to lose weight. The researchers also tested two other kinds of plastic: biodegradable PLA and synthetic clothing fibers. Both caused the rye grass growing on top of the soil to germinate fewer seeds, and the biodegradable plastic reduced the height of the grass shoots. The HDPE also decreased the soil’s pH. It isn’t yet known how much plastic actually ends up in the soil, but the amount is likely to be high, The Guardian reported, since it could easily be transported there from sewage, water or air. Some European studies have found between 700 and 4,000 plastic particles per kilogram of soil in certain farmlands.

The EPA Will End Mammal Testing by 2035 — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pledged Tuesday to “aggressively reduce animal testing” and to end funding for mammal tests by 2035. The move makes the EPA the first federal agency to set a timeline for ending animal tests, according to Science Magazine. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler also promised $4.25 million towards the development of alternative methods for testing the safety of chemicals. The announcement saw animal rights and environmental groups come down on opposite sides.Representatives from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the White Coat Waste Project and the Humane Society of the United States all attended the press conference, according to Science Magazine.”PETA is celebrating the EPA’s decision to protect animals certainly – but also humans and the environment – by switching from cruel and scientifically flawed animal tests in favor of modern, non-animal testing methods,” Dr. Amy Clippinger, director of PETA’s Regulatory Testing Department, said in an EPA press release. “PETA will be helping regulatory agencies and companies switch to efficient and effective, non-animal testing approaches and working toward a day when all animal tests are only found in history books.”But the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) opposed the move and questioned Wheeler’s motives, suggesting that the decision was more about saving chemical companies money than protecting animals.”Phasing out foundational scientific testing methods can make it much harder to identify toxic chemicals – and protect human health,” Jennifer Sass, senior scientist for the NRDC’s ealthy People and Thriving Communities program, said in a statement reported by The Washington Post. “Once again, the Trump administration appears to be working on behalf of the chemical industry and not the public. Congress should bar the agency from blindfolding itself.”

Cubed wombat poop, why your left nut runs hot, among Ig Nobel winners – Over the years, curious intrepid scientists have gleaned insight into why the wombat’s poo is cube-shaped, explored the magnetic properties of living and dead cockroaches, and determined that a man’s left testicle really does run hotter than the right. These and other unusual research topics were honored tonight in a ceremony at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater to announce the 2019 recipients of the annual Ig Nobel Prizes.Established in 1991, the Ig Nobels are a good-natured parody of the Nobel Prizes and honor “achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.” The unapologetically campy award ceremony features mini-operas, scientific demos, and the 24/7 lectures, whereby experts must explain their work twice: once in 24 seconds, and the second in just seven words. Acceptance speeches are limited to 60 seconds. And as the motto implies, the research being honored might seem ridiculous at first glance, but that doesn’t mean it is devoid of scientific merit. The winners receive eternal Ig Nobel fame and a ten-trillion dollar bill from Zimbabwe. It’s a long-running Ig Nobel gag. Zimbabwe stopped using its native currency in 2009 because of skyrocketing inflation and hyperinflation; at its nadir, the 100-trillion dollar bill was roughly the equivalent of 40 cents.

‘Hopeful’ Scientists Create Nearly Extinct Northern White Rhino Embryo –Scientists are hoping to impregnate the closely-related southern white rhino – the most abundant rhino sub-species in the world – using harvested eggs from the last two northern white rhino cows and frozen sperm collected from four rhino bulls before their deaths, an international science consortium said on Wednesday. Two northern white rhino in-vitro embryos were successfully created at Avantea Laboratories in Cremona, Italy.”These are early embryos that have a very high potential to develop into a baby. [They] have now been put in liquid nitrogen. We have achieved a new life, a new hope for this species,” Thomas Hildebrandt, project head at the Leibnitz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, a consortium partner in the project, told DW.Researchers from Kenya, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Germany are still fine-tuning the implantation procedure before the embryos are transferred into a surrogate mother, but are hopeful a northern white rhino calf can be born via surrogacy within the next three years. The remaining two cows, mother Najin and daughter Fatu, live in a Kenyan sanctuary. The last bull, Fatu’s father, Sudan, died in March, 2018. Genetic reasons mean neither cow can breed.

Trump Admin Grants First Lion Trophy Import Permit Since Listed as Threatened -A Florida man has been allowed to import a Tanzanian lion’s skin, skull, claws and teeth, a first since the animal was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, according to US Fish and Wildlife Service records uncovered by the Center for Biological Diversity through the Freedom of Information Act.The documents show that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a permit in May for hunter, Carl Atkinson, to bring home the lion trophy which was taken from a game preserve in July or August, according toCourthouse News. The hunter’s attorney, John Jackson III, is a member of the Interior Department’s own International Wildlife Conservation Council, which Ryan Zinke created as Secretary of the Interior to highlight the “economic benefits that result from US citizens traveling to foreign nations to engage in hunting,” as CNN reported. “This is tragic news for lion conservation, and it suggests that the Trump administration may soon open the floodgates to trophy imports from Tanzania,” said Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. “Tanzania is a lion stronghold, but it’s been criticized by scientists for corruption and inadequate wildlife protections. Opening the U.S. market to these imports doesn’t bode well for the lion kings of Tanzania.” Tanzania is thought to be home to 40 percent of Africa’s lions, though exact populations are difficult to count. It has a history of mismanaging populations of lions, elephants and other threatened animals. By allowing hunters to bring their trophies back to the U.S. there are ripple effects. Hunters often seek out mature male lions, which make desirable trophies. Yet, killing one lion often leads to the death of many more. Since those mature male lions are usually pack leaders, a new pack leader will move in and assert dominance by killing the hunted lion’s offspring, resulting in the loss of many lions, as the Center for Biological Diversity noted.

9/11 Tribute in Light Endangers 160,000 Birds Each Year -The Tribute in Light beams shine brightly on Sept. 11 every year as a memorial of the two towers that are no longer part of the New York City skyline. The lights are dramatic and mesmerizing, not only for people but also for birds – endangering nearly 160,000 of them every year, according to a study published in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The bright lights attract various migratory birds during their annual pass through New York City. However, the intensity of the lights draws the birds in and they seem unable to veer away from the lights, which puts them at risk of injury, starvation, and exhaustion. Scientists say circling the lights also stresses the birds greatly. As the night marches on, their calls to one another get louder, increasing in line with their confusion, according to the Independent.None”When the installation was illuminated, birds aggregated in high densities, decreased flight speeds, followed circular flight paths, and vocalized frequently,” the study authors wrote. “Simulations revealed a high probability of disorientation and subsequent attraction for nearby birds.” Meaning, larger birds are swooping in to feast on the confused ones.New York City sits in the middle of a major migration corridor, used for millennia by birds flying south for the winter. As summer wanes, thousands of birds pass directly above the city, a passage generally unnoticed by its human inhabitants. Some of these include small songbirds like warblers and redstarts, according to the New York Times. They are joined by haws and bats and peregrine falcons, which swoop in to feed on the smaller birds.To navigate their migration, the birds rely on an internal compass that relies on the Earth’s magnetic field, sunlight, starlight, and moonlight. Light pollution from the city already conceals most of the night sky. The Tribute in Light beams then add to the problem by outshining the stars and the moon, according to Wired. The birds circling the Tribute of Light use up too much energy flying in circles, leaving them vulnerable to starvation or exhaustion before they reach a place to rest.

U.S. aquariums try to save Florida corals as disease spreads – (UPI) — Aquariums around the United States are helping to preserve coral species from the Florida Reef, saving them from a deadly disease that is killing major portions of the undersea ecosystem. At stake is the survival of species on the third-longest barrier reef in the world, which the U.S. Geological Survey says not only is dying, but also eroding. Scientists in 2014 found a new affliction, stony coral tissue loss disease, was ravaging the reef. The 200-mile-long barrier helps protect Florida and the Keys from waves at a time when climate change is believed to be causing more frequent and more severe hurricanes. The federal government estimates the reef’s value at $8.5 billion in terms of shoreline protection, tourism and fishing impact. About 100 Florida coral colonies are now living in a display tank at Moody Gardens aquarium in Galveston, Texas, one of a dozen new homes for the invertebrate animal colonies. At first, it was envisioned that aquariums in Florida would take the corals, but that grew quickly this year to include a dozen others around the nation. Other aquariums that have Florida corals include the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa; Adventure Aquarium in Camden, N.J.; and Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha, Neb.

Strange life forms found deep in a mine point to vast ‘underground Galapagos’ -Something odd is stirring in the depths of Canada’s Kidd Mine. The zinc and copper mine, 350 miles northwest of Toronto, is the deepest spot ever explored on land and the reservoir of the oldest known water. And yet 7,900 feet below the surface, in perpetual darkness and in waters that have remained undisturbed for up to two billion years, the mine is teeming with life.Many scientists had doubted that anything could live under such extreme conditions. But in July, a team led by University of Toronto geologist Barbara Sherwood Lollar reported that the mine’s dark, deep water harbors a population of remarkable microbes.The single-celled organisms don’t need oxygen because they breathe sulfur compounds. Nor do they need sunlight. Instead, they live off chemicals in the surrounding rock – in particular, the glittery mineral pyrite, commonly known as fool’s gold.“It’s a fascinating system where the organisms are literally eating fool’s gold to survive,” Sherwood Lollar said. “What we are finding is so exciting – like ‘being a kid again’ level exciting.” Sherwood Lollar is excited not only because of the peculiar the mine’s rock-eating life seems, but also because of the growing realization that strange forms of life might not be so peculiar after all. Scientists are starting to find similar microbes in other deep spots, including boreholes, volcanic vents on the bottom of the ocean and buried sediments far beneath the seafloor.“The deep microbial realm reveals a biosphere that’s more extensive, resilient, varied and strange than we had realized,” said Robert Hazen, a mineralogist at the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory in Washington, and co-founder of Deep Carbon Observatory, a global project to study the deep biosphere. Cut off from light, air, and any connection to the surface, this shadowy realm seems more like an alien world than part of Earth. Hazen said exploring it could help us understand how life might have begun on other planets as well as on our own. We might even find alien-like creatures living undetected right beneath our feet.

Dorian One of Strongest, Longest-Lasting Hurricanes on Record in the Atlantic – Dorian made landfall again Saturday night near Halifax, Nova Scotia, with 100 mph sustained winds. Hurricane Dorian spun away from North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Friday as one of the longest-lasting named storms and the most powerful on record to hit the Bahamas, and it wasn’t finished yet – a hurricane warning had been posted for Nova Scotia, Canada.Compared to the path of devastation Dorian left across the northern Bahamas, the U.S. coast had largely been spared.Dorian had struck the northern Bahamas‘ Great Abaco and Grand Bahama islands as one of the strongest Category 5 storms on record in the Atlantic, making landfall on Sept. 1 with 185 mile-per-hour winds and even higher gusts. It stalled there for more than 36 hours, its wind, rain and storm surge overwhelming the two low-lying islands and damaging or destroying more than 13,000 houses, nearly half the islands’ dwellings, according to the American Red Cross.With no electricity or running water in many areas after the storm, many island residents were trying to get out, and the deaths were only beginning to be counted as the water subsided.”What has happened in the Bahamas is like nothing I have ever seen in my career, and I have been doing this for more than 30 years,” said Rob Young, a professor of geosciences and natural resources and director of the Western Carolina University Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines.Stephen P. Leatherman, a professor in the Florida International University Department of Earth and Environment, and an expert on hurricanes, likened the destruction to a bombing. “The sheer devastation in the northern Bahamas is pretty much unprecedented,” he said.

Hurricane Dorian: Tens of thousands homeless in the Bahamas as damage assessed on Canadian coast – As the remnants of Hurricane Dorian slammed Canada’s Atlantic coast over the weekend, the devastation wrought by the storm has only begun to be assessed. The Bahama islands of Grand Bahama and Great Abaco are in a state of ruin. While the death count from Dorian has reached an official total of 43 people, authorities predict the final amount to be much greater as bodies are found amid the wreckage and additional deaths from lack of clean water, food and medicine occur as humanitarian crises set in following the storm’s passage. “There’s a horrible amount of disease that can develop after an event like this,” said Darren Tosh, director of aid group Samaritan’s Purse, to the BBC. In addition to the loss of life and infrastructure, many residents of the most heavily impacted areas lack the means to rebuild after the continuous wave of devastating storms in recent years. “Dorian will go down in history as the worst catastrophe in this region, not only due to the highest recorded wind speed in the North Atlantic but also because the storm stalled over Abaco and Grand Bahama Island for over 24 hours,” risk modeler Karen Clark told Bloomberg . The Bahamian government, led by the conservative Free National Movement party of Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, has done little to coordinate relief and rescue efforts for the tens of thousands stranded. As is typical in such conditions, while the wealthy are able to provide their own means of travel, the islands’ poor are left to fend for themselves. According to Bloomberg, early estimates of the storm’s damage in the Bahamas surpass $7 billion. Over 70,000 persons have been reported homeless and in need of aid in the northern Bahamas, which were directly hit by the then-category 5 storm. “There’s nothing left here. There are no jobs,” said 19-year-old Avery Parotti to the Associated Press as she waited to be evacuated from Great Abaco. The Bahamian economy, which derives nearly 50 percent of its gross domestic product from the islands’ tourist industry, or $4.3 billion, is also expected to be set back, as both Grand Bahama and Great Abaco constitute major tourist destinations. “A lot of persons think all of the Bahamas is gone, the entire thing … when people see devastation like this they tend to hold back … on what they plan on doing,” said a Nassau-based vendor to theOrlando Sentinel of the storm’s impact. The New York Times notes that the clearing of debris and efforts to lead rescue attempts have been conducted by private citizens as well as various charity groups. “This is a catastrophe, and they [the government] should be here in numbers,” said Marsh Harbour resident Martin McCafferty to theTimes. “The government hasn’t sent one plane!” the Times quotes another saying.

Bahamas struggles to cope with decomposing bodies, emotional trauma after Dorian – The smell of death hung over parts of Great Abaco Island in the northern Bahamas on Friday, as relief workers sifted through the debris of shattered homes and buildings in a search expected to dramatically drive up the death toll from Hurricane Dorian. Dorian, the most powerful hurricane to ever hit the Bahamas, swept through the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama Island earlier this week, leveling entire neighborhoods and knocking out key infrastructure, including airport landing strips and a hospital. Hundreds, if not thousands, are still missing in the country of about 400,000 people, and officials say the death toll, which stands at 30, is likely to shoot up as more bodies are discovered in the ruins and floodwaters left behind by the storm. “You smell the decomposing bodies as you walk through Marsh Harbour,” said Sandra Sweeting, 37, in an interview amid the wreckage on Great Abaco. “It’s everywhere. There are a lot of people who aren’t going to make it off this island.” Some locals called the government’s initial official death toll a tragic underestimate. “I work part-time in a funeral home. I know what death smells like,” said Anthony Thompson, 27. “There must be hundreds. Hundreds.” Chaotic conditions around the islands were interfering with flights and boats, hampering relief efforts. The medical chief of staff of Bahamas’ only functioning public hospital said the death toll would be “staggering,” and two refrigerated, 40-foot trucks would be needed to hold the bodies that were expected to be found. “Weve ordered lots of body bags,” Dr. Caroline Burnett-Garraway said in an interview at Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau, the country’s capital. Processing all the dead will take weeks, she added. Those injured by the storm, which was a Category 5 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity, were being treated for fractures, head injuries, deep lacerations, skin rashes and dehydration. Survivors are also dealing with the emotional trauma triggered by the horrors of the preceding days. Near an area called The Mudd at Marsh Harbour, the commercial hub of Great Abaco, a Reuters photographer described a devastating scene, with most houses leveled, a man lying dead near a main street and dead dogs in water. Some residents were leaving the area with meager possessions, while others were determined to remain.

Thousands of Dorian survivors desperate to evacuate wrecked Bahamas as death toll climbs to 44 – ABC As hundreds of people waited anxiously to be evacuated at the port in Marsh Harbour, a Bahamian island community wrecked by Hurricane Dorian, Senior Lt. William Sturrup of the Royal Bahamian Defense Force pleaded for patience and cooperation. A cargo ship that just dropped off supplies became a lifeboat for many who lost everything but their lives and were desperate to board the vessel and escape the devastation. “This boat is here to take you to Nassau,” Sturrup told the crowd of distressed evacuees on Saturday, many holding backpacks and garbage bags stuffed with the few belongings they have left. Bahamian Health Minister Dr. Duane Sands told ABC News on Sunday that the death toll in the Bahamas is now up to 44 and that it is possible some victims were washed out to sea and may never be found while many other bodies are feared buried in the rubble.There are about 76,000 people left homeless and in need of assistance in the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama Island, the U.N. said Friday.Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis is scheduled to address the nation on Monday night.On Sunday, Dorian was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, after lashing the Eastern seaboard of the United States and making landfall one last time nearly 1,600 miles north of the Bahamas in Nova Scotia, Canada.Dorian slammed Nova Scotia on Saturday night as a Category 2 hurricane, packing torrential rain and maximum sustained winds of 100 mph that stripped roofs off homes, uprooted trees and toppled a large construction crane in Halifax. The deadly storm struck North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Friday as a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of 90 mph, battering the barrier islands with torrential rain, ferocious winds and dangerous floodwaters.

Counting bodies ‘not the priority’: Bahamas not lying about Dorian deaths, health chief says -On Sunday, white-clad body recovery crews were working their way through a field of rubble on the island of Abaco on the hunt for the hidden victims of Hurricane Dorian, following the smell of rotting flesh through the rubble. It didn’t take them long. Lying on the foundations of what was once a house was the body of a middle-aged man, his rigid arms outstretched. He was wearing an orange shirt. As those who survived Dorian are continuing to flee the area of Marsh Harbour by boat and plane, search and recovery crews are finally punching deeper into the mountains of debris, going house to house looking for the dead. The slow pace of such work – and a death toll that stands at just 44, despite photographs of massive devastation – has led to wide speculation that the true number of dead is far higher. With many Bahamians still unaccounted for, people on social media say they have personally counted scores of dead bodies. Others question whether the government is telling the truth about the number of people who died in the Abacos and on Grand Bahama Island during Dorian’s catastrophic Category 5 winds and rains. But Duane Sands, the Bahamas’ minister of health, says the government is not suppressing Hurricane Dorian’s death toll and is simply tallying confirmed deaths as the bodies arrive at the morgue. In an interview with the Miami Herald Sunday, Sands called information suggesting a cover-up “false” and “unfortunate.” The body count “is not the priority,” he said. “The priority is find those people for their loved ones who are missing them; to take care, provide comfort to those people who are hurt, who are suffering, that’s the priority. To put food in people’s bellies, water in their throat.” The public, he added, should have a better appreciation for the task facing the Bahamas. Cadaver dogs, U.S. Coast Guard helicopters and U.S. search and rescue teams, including a six-man team of firefighters from Gainesville, combed the devastation in search of the missing.

With dogs and spray paint, crews in grim search for Dorian’s dead in Bahamas (Reuters) – For the searchers sifting through the enormous pile of wreckage that Hurricane Dorian left after smashing the Bahamian town of Marsh Harbor, the only way to get past the stench of hidden corpses is to think about the families of the dead. “There’s chaos everywhere, you just have to pick a spot and move out from there, said Chad Belger, a lieutenant in Gainesville, Florida’s fire department and part of the aid crew that responded to the northern Bahamas in the wake of the worst hurricane in its history. The official death toll on the islands stands at 45, but evacuees, rescue workers and officials say they expect it to climb substantially as searchers find more bodies. That task is underway in the Marsh Harbor shanty towns the Mudd and the Peas. A Reuters journalist on Sunday saw government workers, wearing disposable hazmat suits, rubber boots and masks, remove one body from a rubble-filled teal building. Nearby, nearly a dozen workers creeping across the surrounding hellscape found and marked three more corpses that need to be removed before heavy machinery, slated to arrive from Nassau on Monday, begins clearing out the wobbly mountains of plywood riddled with rusted nails that once housed thousands. Some 70,000 people on the Bahamas need food and shelter a week after Dorian hit the islands as a top-of-scale Category 5 hurricane with wind gusts topping 200 miles per hour (320 kph), according to a U.N. World Food Programme estimate.For Belger, a muscular 38-year-old retired U.S. Army specialist who helped lead search, rescue and recovery efforts after a Category 5 Hurricane Michael struck the Florida panhandle last year, the scope of the damage has been startling.Despite the sense of urgency that brought Belger and his team of six here with little more than their recovery gear, sleeping bags and ready-to-eat meals, searching the rubble proved to be a slow task. Many in the group carried tools that resembled heavy, hooked fireplace pokers, which they poke into tall piles of matted down grass and dead palm fronds and lift up cracked metal boards. They have little to follow other than their noses in the slow hunt for human remains.

Local reports claim thousands dead in the Bahamas from Hurricane Dorian – As the official death count from Hurricane Dorian rose to 50 on Tuesday, local Bahamian press reports are estimating thousands killed from the Category 5 storm over the past week. A “shocking report by agencies on the ground” published in the Bahamas Press calculates as many as 3,000 dead could be counted on the island of Great Abaco alone. “The numbers are ‘staggering’ just as the Minister of Health Dr. Duane Sands suggested last week,” the report states, noting, “sources inside [National Emergency Management Agency] tell us the guidelines left in place for the management of a Natural Disaster were never followed,” resulting in “the worst and most chaotic management of a natural disaster ever in the history of the Bahamas.” The Nassau Punch published a similar figure Monday. The UN World Food Program has estimated as many as 90 percent of all structures in Marsh Harbour, the largest city on Abaco, have been reduced to rubble by Dorian. “There is the smell of death in that area,” said Dr. Rudy Moise to the Tampa Bay Times. Moise has led humanitarian efforts to assist the afflicted Haitian population on Abaco. According to the Washington Post, a brief search of “less than one-tenth” of the impoverished shantytowns of the Mudd and Pigeon Peas “yielded five bodies.” Citing comments from the islands’ health minister, CNN reported “body bags, additional morticians and refrigerated coolers to properly store bodies are being transported to Abaco and other affected areas … Four morticians in Abaco are embalming remains because officials have run out of coolers.” DorianPeopleSearch.com has had thousands of names entered into its database, as worried members of the population seek to find their loved ones. “Given the storm surge and significant flooding from the hurricane, it is likely that some bodies may have washed out to sea … The exact death count may never be known,” said the World Health Organization’s Esther Mary de Gourville to the Post . Additional reports note at least seven others killed in the southeast United States and Puerto Rico.

Aerial Photos Show Dorian’s Utter Devastation in Bahamas | The Weather Channel – (63 aerial photos, 494 at ground level) Nightmarish photos shot from the air show the scale of catastrophic damage residents are dealing with in Great Abaco, Bahamas, after Hurricane Dorian spent more than 36 hours pummelling the islands.Homes reduced to piles of wood, flooded neighborhoods and damaged cars and even airplanes can be seen in the aerial photos. The storm, which struck the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm, killed at least 23 in the location, but the death toll is expected to climb as rescue and recovery teams continue their work.A humanitarian crisis is unfolding as more than 13,000 houses, or about 45% of the homes in Grand Bahama and Abaco, were likely severely damaged or destroyed, The Red Cross said according to the Associated Press. About 62,000 people on the hard-hit islands are without clean drinking water, The Red Cross reported, and U.N. officials said more than 60,000 are in need of food. Deputy Prime Minister Peter Turnquest said that rebuilding the infrastructure could take hundreds of millions to billions of dollars.

2,500 Now Missing in the Bahamas After Hurricane Dorian and Trump Admin Won’t Let Survivors Live and Work in the U.S. – The Trump administration will not grant temporary protected status to people evacuating the Bahamas afterHurricane Dorian, the White House announced Wednesday. On the same day, Bahamian authorities said that around 2,500 people are listed as missing after the strongest storm to ever hit the country.Temporary protected status would have allowed Bahamians displaced by the hurricane to live and work in the U.S. until it is safe for them to return home, NBC News explained. Currently, more than 300,000 people from 10 countries are living in the U.S. with this status, including evacuees from the 2010 Haitian earthquake. Bahamians can still travel to the U.S. with the right documents, but will not be able to work. The Bahamians impacted by Hurricane Dorian are facing a humanitarian crisis, and the American government, international partners and private organizations continue to support them with aid and services. At this time, we do not plan to invoke Temporary Protected Status for those currently in the United States,” a White House official said, as Reuters reported. Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said Monday it would be “appropriate” to extend the status to Dorian evacuees, but President Donald Trump appeared to oppose the idea later, asCNN reported. “I don’t want to allow people that weren’t supposed to be in the Bahamas to go to the United States, including some very bad people and some very bad gang members and some very, very bad drug dealers. So we are going to be very, very strong on that,” Trump said.The news also comes days after Dorian evacuees were ordered off a ferry from Freeport in the Bahamas to Florida if they did not have visas. Bahamians are typically allowed to enter the U.S. with just a passport and clean criminal record, but the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Monday that Bahamians traveling by sea now need a visa, Reuters reported.

Record 7 Million People Displaced by Extreme Weather Events in First Half of 2019– In another sign of the climate crisis, a record seven million people were displaced from their homes byextreme weather events during the first half of 2019, The New York Times reported Thursday.The number comes from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), which has been using data from governments, UN humanitarian agencies and news accounts to publish annual reports since 2003. Their mid-year figures for 2019, published Thursday, marked the highest number of disaster displacements the organization has ever recorded by this point in the year. The number was nearly double the number displaced by conflict and violence during the same period this year, The Independent pointed out.“In today’s changing climate, mass displacement triggered by extreme weather events is becoming the norm,” the report authors wrote.The numbers were tallied before Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas, and the organization predicted it could soar to 22 million by the end of the year, making 2019 one of the worst years for disaster-caused displacement on record. That’s because the worst disasters usually occur between June and September, which is when most storms inundate the tropics, The New York Times explained.The extreme weather events covered by the report included

1. Cyclone Fani, which displaced 3.4 million people in India and Bangladesh in May
2. Cyclone Idai, which displaced 617,000 in Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Madagascar in March
3. Spring flooding in Iran, which displaced 500,000

Cyclone Vayu also displaced 289,000 in India in June, while flooding displaced 405,000 in the Philippines, 190,000 in Ethiopia and 75,000 in Bolivia. However, not all disaster displacements are equal. The 3.4 million displaced by Fani were evacuated ahead of time, an act that saved lives and showed that India and Bangladesh had learned from past disasters.

NOAA Directed Staffers Not to Contradict Trump on Misleading Dorian Claims –Can the U.S. under President Donald Trump still trust government-issued weather reports?That’s the question at the heart of a Saturday report from The Washington Post that leadership at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) directed staff not to contradict Trump’s claims thatHurricane Dorian would impact Alabama.The controversy began Sept. 1 when Trump sent a tweet listing Alabama among the states that what would “likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated” by the approaching hurricane, as HuffPost reported.But Alabama was not in the National Hurricane Center’s “cone of uncertainty,” which meteorologists use to predict a storm’s likely path, The Washington Post explained. Trump’s tweet prompted concerned residents to call the Birmingham, Alabama office of the National Weather Service (NWS), which is operated by NOAA. In response, the Birmingham NWS tweeted that Alabama would “NOT see any impacts” from the hurricane.After both tweets were posted, NOAA sent an email to NWS staff instructing them to “only stick with official National Hurricane Center forecasts if questions arise from some national level social media posts which hit the news this afternoon.”They were also told not to “provide any opinion,” according to the email obtained by The Washington Post. NWS staff received a similar email on Sept. 4, after Trump displayed an Aug. 29 forecast map during a White House briefing that had been altered with a black marker to include Alabama in the cone of uncertainty. The Washington Post report came a day after NOAA issued an unsigned statement supporting the President’s claims that Dorian would impact Alabama, as NPR reported.

National Weather Service workers are ‘disgusted’ at their NOAA bosses for ‘throwing them under the bus’ and backing Trump’s claim that Hurricane Dorian WAS headed for Alabama as ‘Sharpiegate’ rumbles on –Workers in the National Weather Service are ‘shocked, stunned and irate’ at their bosses in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for backing Trump up and claiming that he was right to say Hurricane Dorian was headed for Alabama. In a string of baffling developments now known as ‘Sharpiegate’, the row centers on the president’s September 1 tweet that the brutal storm was likely to hit Alabama ‘harder’ than expected. The NWS Birmingham office quickly issued a tweet to insist the state was not in the storm’s path. Trump then defended his statement and insist it was based on early information that had been given to him by scientists. At an Oval Office press conference on September 4, he held up an August 29 map of the storm’s path to prove his point. That map showed the storm’s path as heading towards northern Florida and parts of Georgia. The original one, which had been issued by the NOAA, did not show Alabama being but but the one Trump held up had the state circled in black sharpie. Reporters picked up on the difference and called the ‘doctoring’ of the map ‘Sharpiegate’. On Friday night – as Dorian rattled along Northeast Coast , setting its sights on New England after savaging the Bahamas and the Carolinas – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is the umbrella agency of which the NWS is a part, issued a statement saying Trump was right and the NWS Birmingham office was wrong to admonish him. Its support of the president has now infuriated workers within the NWS who say they have been ‘thrown under the bus’.

Ross threatened to fire top NOAA staff after office contradicted Trump on Dorian: report — Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross threatened to fire top employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) after officials contradicted President Trump’s claim that Alabama could be affected by Hurricane Dorian, according to a report by The New York Times. The Commerce Department later denied the story in a statement to The Hill. “The New York Times story is false. Secretary Ross did not threaten to fire any NOAA staff over forecasting and public statements about Hurricane Dorian,” the spokesperson told The Hill. Trump faced pushback from meteorologists last week after stating that Alabama would potentially feel the effects of Dorian. The warning, which came via tweet, prompted the National Weather Service’s Birmingham branch to emphasize on Twitter that the state would not be affected by the storm. Trump adamantly defended his position throughout the week and at one point displayed a map in the Oval Office that appeared to show a marker-drawn addition to indicate Dorian would hit Alabama. Ross contacted acting NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs two days later and asked him to fix issues related to the perception that the agency had contradicted Trump, the Times reported Monday, citing three people familiar with the discussion. The newspaper said that Jacobs initially objected. He was then told that political staff at NOAA would be dismissed if the situation wasn’t resolved. On Friday, an unsigned NOAA statement was issued that affirmed Trump’s claims and disavowing the tweet from the National Weather Service in Birmingham about the hurricane. The White House and the Commerce Department declined to comment to the Times, the story said.Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), a member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, called for Ross to step down in the wake of Monday’s report. “His direct attacks on the scientists and federal employees, whom he threatened to fire for doing their jobs by accurately reporting the weather, are an embarrassing new low for a member of this Cabinet which has been historically venal and incompetent,” Beyer said in a statement.

Tokyo’s Typhoon Faxai: 3 Dead, 40 Injured, 900K Homes Without Power – Nearly one million homes were without power, three people were killed, nearly 40 were injured, while thousands of people were stranded at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport after a powerful typhoon made landfall near the Japanese capital earlier today, as Kyodo News reported. Typhoon Faxai made landfall with sustained winds near 130 miles per hour, according to the BBC. It was the most powerful typhoon to hit Tokyo in nearly a decade. At one point, the entire city of Kanagawa lost power and authorities warned against going outside. “I’ve never seen a situation like this, where the entire city lost power,” a city official told NHK, as the Guardianreported. The storm hit the coastal city of Chiba early Monday morning, forcing the above ground East Japan Railway Co. to suspend all lines in the greater Tokyo area, stranding millions of commuters. Millions more were unable to get to work after subway service was suspended as well. However, most of the services resumed by noon after the storm passed though on a delayed schedule. “We need to inspect tracks and check if there is any damage,” a train company spokesman told Agence France Presse.The entire islands of Shikinejima and Oshima off the country’s south coast lost power, according to the Tokyo Disaster Prevention Department, as CNN reported.Security camera footage captured a woman in her fifties being blown head first into a building wall by the force of the wind. She was found unconscious on a street in Setagaya City, a residential area near central Tokyo, and later died in hospital, NHK reported, according to the BBC.Police also reported that an 87-year-old man died after a tree toppled over him while he was removing fallen trees on a mountain in Otaki, Chiba Prefecture, according to Kyodo News.More than 100 flights to and from airports in the Tokyo area were canceled on Monday, according to the airport website, as CNN reported. By Monday afternoon, 6,800 passengers were still stranded at Narita International Airport, according to an airport spokesperson, as CNN reported. Flights were still arriving, but blocked highways and suspended rail service left weary travelers with no way to leave the airport. “They let planes land … and thousands of passengers were disgorged into an airport that was cut off – no buses, no JR trains,” one traveler told Reuters.

Floods wreaking havoc on Great Lakes region fueled by climate crisis – This summer, as rain relentlessly poured down on the Great Lakes region, Detroit declared a rare state of emergency. The swollen Detroit River had spilled into the low-lying Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood – an event not seen near this scale since 1986. Volunteers sandbagged the area as the city’s overwhelmed sewer system spilled raw sewage into the river, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Erie. Across the channel from Jefferson Chalmers, water damaged the historic boathouse on Belle Isle, a 982-acre island park that remains partly shut down because of flooding. Meanwhile, in Duluth, Minnesota, the city is rebuilding after a powerful storm over Lake Superior damaged a popular pedestrian path, eroded acres of lakefront property and ravaged infrastructure along the shore.About 800 miles to the east, floods hit Buffalo, New York, on Lake Erie in two of the last three years, while Lake Michigan’s historically high watersinundated parts of Chicago throughout the spring and summer months.The havoc wreaked on communities bordering the Great Lakes is a result of their water level steadily rising over the last five years and spiking to record levels this spring and summer. In 2019, the lakes’ depths ranged from 14in to nearly 3ft above long-term averages, according to data from the US army corps of engineers. In June, water in the Lakes St Clair, Ontario, Superior and Erie set records for monthly mean levels, while Lake Michigan-Huron rose to 1in from its recorded peak.That is leading to widespread damage in coastal cities, eroded shorelines and beaches and many other issues. The record levels come just five years after the lakes experienced historically low levels in 2014, and climate scientists say it is clear what’s fueling the drastic swing: the Earth’s rising temperatures. Climate scientists say a confluence of climate crisis-related issues resulted in this year’s levels. Warmer air over the Gulf of Mexico caused more evaporation, and that moisture pushed into the region during the spring and summer. Higher temperatures give the atmosphere more capacity to hold evaporated water, Rood said, which is why storms are dumping more rain than 50 years ago.

Canada Tells Flood Victims It’s Time to Move — The city of Gatineau, just across the river from Canada’s capital city of Ottawa was inundated by a 100-year flood in 2017. Then, this past April, the flooding was worse, which has prompted the government to tell people who lost more than 50 percent of the value of their home to just leave. Canada has decided that the best thing for many people to do in the face of escalating costs from the climate crisis by limiting funds for rebuilding and telling people to move. It has caused entire neighborhoods to be removed, house-by-house, as the New York Times reported. “Canadians are stubbornly beginning to reconsider the wisdom of building near flood-prone areas,” said Jason Thistlethwaite, a professor of environment and business at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, to theNew York Times. “It’s taking government action to obligate people to make better decisions.” After two floods in three years, many residents will not be able to sell their home and the government won’t let them rebuild. Under a provincial program in Quebec, the government will offer up to $100,000 to homeowners for flood damage compensation or a $200,000 buyout for them to move outside flood areas. If people take the money to rebuild, they will not be eligible for future compensation if their home floods again, according to CBC. The attempt to mitigate future losses has precedent in Canada. In 2005, Quebec prohibited new constructions in the areas most likely to flood. Then in 2013, after the most expensive flooding in Canada’s history hit Alberta, residents in two neighborhoods of High River, south of Calgary, were issued mandatory buyouts. In 2015, the federal government made it harder for local governments to get money after floods. And British Columbia said people without flood insurance would be ineligible for government aid, as the New York Times reported. This year, Canada warned that it would not pay for people who rebuild in danger zones. “[T]hey are going to have to assume their own responsibility for the cost burden,” Public Security Minister Ralph Goodale told reporters in April, according to the New York Times. “You can’t repeatedly go back to the taxpayer and say, ‘Oh, it happened again.'”

India isn’t getting more rainfall, but it is experiencing more floods – After the hottest summer in recorded history, India endured a delayed monsoon and widespread floods. Assam in the North East was one of the earliest states to be ravaged by floods, followed by Maharashtra and Kerala. By mid-August, states in central India began to flood. Extreme rain events over central India tripled between 1950 and 2015, according to a 2017 study led by researchers at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, affecting about 825 million people, leaving 17 million homeless and killing about 69,000. The probability of similar flooding in the years to come is high, driven by a global rise in temperatures – 1 degree Celsius since systematic record-keeping began in 1850 – according to an October 2018 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations body formed to assess science on climate change. “The total rainfall has not changed much but extreme rainfall has increased and this will lead to more floods,” said J Srinivasan, founder chairman and distinguished professor at the Divecha Centre for Climate Change under the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Even as India is likely to end with an excess of 1% rainfall in 2019, large parts of the country face a rainfall deficit. India’s per capita availability of water is 1,544 cubic metres, water resources minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat told parliament’s upper house, the Rajya Sabha, in July, compared to 1,816 cubic metres in 2001. The average for lower-middle-income countries, the group that India is a part of, based on its per capita income, is 3,013 cubic metres. For high-income countries, this number is 8,822 cubic metres.

Plastic makes its way into oceans – and 2020 climate forum – According to a new report from the Ocean Conservancy, an estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic waste wind up in the ocean each year. More than 23 million pounds were collected in one day during its 2018 International Coastal Cleanup (ICC). Approximately one million volunteers across 122 countries participated in the cleanup, confirming the continuation of a trend from 2017: all of the top 10 most commonly found items during the ICC were made of plastic. Cigarette butts (which contain plastic filters) topped the list, followed by food wrappers; straws and stirrers; forks, knives and spoons; and plastic bottles. “[W]hat strikes me is that the vast majority are not recyclable,” George Leonard, the Ocean Conservancy’s chief scientist, told National Geographic. “To the extent we talk about recycling as a solution to ocean plastic problems, it would have to get to 50 or 90%, which is a huge lift and gets complicated very quickly.” Congressional Democrats released a proposal last month for sweeping plastic waste legislation, while a growing number of states and municipalities have passed plastics bans – most often targeting plastic bags and straws. The latter movement has made its way into the Democratic debates. Sen. Kamala Harris declared during Wednesday’s CNN-hosted climate forum that, as president, she would incentivize reusable shopping bags and ban plastic straws (even as she acknowledged the “droopy” tendency of paper straws), while Mayor Pete Buttigieg referred to those who use plastic straws – including himself – as “part of the problem.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, however, expressed far less willingness to indulge the plastic straw debate, dismissing it as a calculated attempt by corporate behemoths to shift the burden of responsibility onto consumers. “This is exactly what the fossil fuel industry wants us to talk about,” she said in response to a moderator question on regulating plastic straw use, meat consumption and lightbulb efficiency. “They want to be able to stir up a lot of controversy around your lightbulbs, around your straw, and around your cheeseburgers, when 70% of the pollution, of the carbon that we’re throwing into the air, comes from [the building industry, the electric power industry and the oil industry].” Warren isn’t alone in her disdain. Public fixation on straws has sparked criticism from many environmentalists, who point out that the conversation – in addition to excluding those with disabilities – distracts from more critical sources of environmental degradation and plastic pollution. On the other side of the aisle, President Trump’s reelection campaign has cast “liberal paper straws” as a linchpin in the culture wars, selling Trump-branded plastic straws for $15 per pack. According to the Guardian, the straws had raised approximately $460,000 for the campaign as of late July.

The Toxic Trash That Is Poisoning the West Bank – Maysoon Sweity , a 54-year-old schoolteacher and mother of six, stood on the roof, watching a column of dark smoke spiral into the sky. Less than a mile away, tires and scraps from discarded refrigerators burned at the base of the concrete wall separating her Palestinian village from Israel. “When I see that, I see death,” she said. “Everyone is sick, and I know that one day I’ll be sick too.” In the early 2000s Israel built a wall in the West Bank in response to the violence of the second intifada, and sharply limited the ability of Palestinians to enter Israel from the territories. This left many Palestinians who had been working in Israel without jobs. An estimated 20 percent of the world’s 50 million tons of e-waste isrecycled. The rest is burned or traded by the world’s poorest. In the Hebron region of the West Bank, processing Israeli electronic wastehas become a lucrative, if illegal, industry. Every morning, Palestinians driving flatbed trucks leave villages like Beit Awwa, Deir Sammit and Idna for Israeli towns and cities, and return with broken computers, appliances, and obsolete medical equipment, among other things. Other Palestinian traders buy high-value items like electrical cables pulled from demolished buildings and smuggle them, along with other bulk e-waste, into the territory. Israeli trash becomes Palestinian treasure. The majority arrives in scrapyards, where workers wield hammers, saws and blowtorches to dismantle the items and extract every ounce of metal for local and international resale. Self-taught technicians refurbish consumer electronics to sell at a nearby market. In front yards and living rooms, villagers pick apart scraps for a few shekels worth of copper. Then there are the “burners,” workers who specialize in burning insulated cables, often the hardest items to recycle because of their small size and abundance. While burning has provided crucial income for some, it has also upended the lives of Palestinians already struggling with the difficulties of living under the occupation. On the villages’ outskirts and along the separation wall – where Israeli and Palestinian security is largely absent – the burning of cables, useless e-waste scraps and trash have blackened the soil and saturated once fertile pastures with what Dr. Garb calls a “witches’ brew” of contaminants.

Massive, rotting soybean pile still burns after catching fire in July – (UPI) — A mountain of rotting soybeans in Missouri caught fire in July — and continues to burn. The huge pile started to rot after being soaked during historic spring flooding that hit northern Missouri, western Iowa and Nebraska, said Patrick Burke, a spokesman for Gavilon, a Nebraska-based company that owns a grain elevator on the property near Rock Port.”With all that pressure on the decaying beans, it started to heat up,” Burke said. “Then, we had a week straight of 100- to 110-degree days. So, essentially, it just combusted.”It is common for grain elevators to store soybeans — and other grains — in large outdoor piles, Burke said. This pile caught fire in mid-July, and crews have been unable to extinguish the blaze for a number of reasons, Burke said.When the fire started, much of the surrounding area still was underwater, and the roads were impassable, making it impossible for fire crews to reach the site, Burke said.”Our only access to the facility for a while was by air boat,” he said.Also working against firefighters was the pile itself.”It’s a ground pile, and what happens with ground piles is a crust forms over the top,” Burke said. “That crust is basically waterproof. We had one day where it rained a ton — we basically had 6 inches of rain in 24 hours. It didn’t even slow the fire down.” Moreover, because the pile essentially is burning from the inside out, any attempt to extinguish the fire risks exposing more oxygen to the inferno. That could create a much bigger blaze, firefighters said. On Aug. 8, the fire spread from the outdoor pile into the grain bins. Fire crews from the West Atchison Fire Department, Rock Port Fire Department and five other area departments responded, according to the Atchison County Mail. While the fire crews sprayed water over the bin, salvage crews cut holes in it to remove the unburnt grain, which brought the fire in the bin under control.Meanwhile, the outdoor pile continues to burn. The company doesn’t know how long it will take for the fire to burn out. “It’s a large pile,” Burke said. “There’s a lot of fuel for the fire to burn through.” Gavilon will not say how many bushels of grain the pile contains, but neighbors report the affected area is about the size of a football field, about 35 feet high, glowing bright orange.

PG&E reaches $11 billion settlement relating to wildfire claims – PG&E said it has reached an $11 billion settlement agreement with entities representing about 85% of insurance subrogation claims relating to 2017 and 2018 wildfires.The California power provider said these claims were based on payments made by insurance companies to individuals and businesses with insurance coverage for wildfire damage.In January, PG&E filed for bankruptcy protection and faced up to $30 billion in fire liabilities shortly after its power lines sparked what became California’s deadliest wildfire yet last fall. The Camp Fire, which burned in Paradise, California, last November, killed at least 86 people.Equipment owned and maintained by the company also started at least 17 of the 21 major wildfires that burned in California in 2017, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The company expects billions of dollars in losses, primarily from lawsuits filed by fire victims, businesses and insurance companies. Shares of PG&E were up 7% in late-morning trading after surging 10% earlier in the day. “Today’s settlement is another step in doing what’s right for the communities, businesses and individuals affected by the devastating wildfires,” said Bill Johnson, president and CEO of PG&E.The $11 billion settlement is the utility’s second major resolution of wildfire claims. PG&E and 18 other entities said they reached a $1 billion settlement in June.The company on Monday also unveiled the outlines of a reorganization plan that will pay $17.9 billion for claims stemming from the wildfires. That preliminary plan was immediately criticized by victims, who said that less than half of that is intended for them. The plan has payments capped at $8.4 billion for victims, payments capped at $8.5 billion for reimbursing insurers and a $1 billion settlement with local governments.

7 Amazon Rainforest Countries Sign Pact to Come Together in Response to Wildfires -Seven Amazon countries signed a pact Friday to protect the world’s largest tropical rainforest in response to the record-breaking number of wildfires that have blazed through the Amazon rainforest this summer, Reuters reported. Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru and Suriname agreed to create a network to coordinate their responses to disasters like this summer’s fires. They also promised to increase the satellite monitoring of deforestation, share information on threats to the forest like illegal mining, develop reforestation and education initiatives and increase the participation of Indigenous communities.”This meeting will live on as a coordination mechanism for the presidents that share this treasure―the Amazon,” Colombian President Ivan Duque said, as Reuters reported.Fires in Brazil, which contains 60 percent of the Amazon within its borders, are up 83 percent this year compared to last, according to Reuters. Fires are also raging in Bolivia on its border with Brazil and Paraguay, BBC News reported. Right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whose pro-industry policies and rhetoric have been blamed for the increase in fires, did not attend the conference in person because he was preparing for surgery.Instead, he attended via video. Bolsonaro, who rejected $22 million in aid from the G7 countries in August, urged the South American countries to manage the region without international interference.”We must take a strong position of defense of sovereignty so that each country can develop the best policy for the Amazon region, and not leave it in the hands of other countries,” Bolsonaro said, as AFP reported.

Amazon fires: Deforestation in Brazil triples in August, pointing to more blazes to come – Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest rose for the fourth straight month in August from a year earlier, according to preliminary government data released on Friday, adding to concerns over fires already ravaging the region. The Brazilian Amazon is facing its worst spate of forest fires since 2010, with news of the destruction of the world’s largest rainforest last month prompting global outcry and worries that it could hurt demand for the country’s exports. In the eight months through August, Amazon deforestation rose 92 per cent to 6404 square kilometres, an area roughly half the area of Sydney, according to preliminary data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). In August alone, deforestation more than tripled to 1700 square kilometres. Deforestation is often followed by burning to clear land for farming, so the destruction in August could signal more fires to come in the Amazon, according Ana Paula Aguiar, an INPE land use researcher now on leave at Stockholm University. “They cut trees and then later they start fires, so possibly [the spike in fires] will continue,” Aguiar said. “If they have already deforested in the previous month, we’ll see fire this month.”

Fires consume more than 4.2 million acres of Bolivia’s forests – Massive fires in the eastern region of Bolivia continue to expand, threatening to destroy thousands of hectares of crops and pollute the air breathed by villagers with smoke and ash. While the word’s attention has been focused on the catastrophic destruction being wrought by fires in Brazil’s Amazon rain forest, Bolivia, across Brazil’s southwestern border, is also on fire. As with the Amazon blazes, the sharp increase in fires in Bolivia has been caused by dry summer heat exacerbated by climate change. They are also the result of deliberate burnings and expanded deforestation that flow from right-wing policies pursued by the government of President Evo Morales that are quite similar to those of Brazil’s fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro. With a month and a half left to Bolivia’s presidential election, Morales is facing a series of crises on several fronts. In addition to the spreading fires, there has been an upsurge in the class struggle, with strikes by health care workers, teachers, miners, students and factory workers that have paralyzed the transit in Bolivia’s capital and largest city, La Paz. Some of the strikes are led by Morales supporters, while others are being promoted by his adversaries, aiming to bring him down as one of the last links in what became known as Latin America’s “Pink Tide” of bourgeois nationalist and populist governments. A decree signed by Morales on July 9, authorized “controlled burns” to increase deforestation – expanding areas for raising livestock and opening up land for exploitation by the agribusiness sector. The decree, reflecting the growing pressure of the world economic slowdown on Bolivia’s exports, was a betrayal of the campaign promises he and his MAS ruling party made in the last election to reduce biofuel production. The international press has not let Bolivian events go without notice. According to the Economist, “Whatever reforms Morales pushed at the beginning of his long tenure as president, these are now being challenged by the world economic downturn. A report of the Center of Studies for Labor and Agrarian Development (CEDLA) said that what prevails today in Bolivia is ‘more subcontracting, and temporary jobs without social security’.” Online newspapers point out that the most affected area is Chiquitania – a region of tropical savannas in Santa Cruz, a Bolivian department with 3.32 million inhabitants. Also hard hit is the department of Beni, with a population of 420,000. So far, two people have been killed by the fires, a policeman and a volunteer fire fighter. Bolivian officials reported this week that the fires have devastated more than 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of land, more than double the destruction from just two weeks ago.

Who’s Responsible for the Ecocide in the Amazon? – There’s a cause for alarm as the world witnesses how the Amazon forests in Brazil, the Bolivian Chiquitan’a and the Paraguayan swamps are being ravaged by uncontrolled fires. Approximately one million hectares of high biodiversity forests have been damaged so far by these fires, which are impressive, recurring, and quite obviously intentional.We are facing a catastrophe greater than anything previously seen, the consequences of which are unpredictable. The only apparent certainty that experts are willing to share is that regenerating these forests to their prior condition would take some 200 years. Noam Chomskyhas defined what is happening as a “crime against humanity.”The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, appears today as the main culprit because, ever since his presidential campaign, he has been delivering hate speeches against indigenous peoples and their territories, calling them a “hindrance to development”. He has also attacked NGO-supported conservationist policies and current legislation limiting the expansion of agriculture and stockbreeding, as well as mining and oil drilling.Bolsonaro, who has the support of big investors and entrepreneurs, is championing a systematic plan to exploit and plunder the Amazon and any other resource-rich territory, arguing that the “the Amazon belongs to Brazilians.”Data confirming that the looting has already begun can be found in the latest National Institute for Space Research (INPE) reportswhich show that in the first seven months of this year, the rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has increased by 278%; and that the Amazonian territories ravaged by fire during this period are estimated at some 18.600 square kilometres (a 62% increase from last year) – to which should be added the fires that are still burning to this day. What we are facing here is nothing more and nothing less than a planned, systematic ecocide that ought to be judged by the whole mankind, and those responsible for it held to account. But over and above Brazil’s president, it is crucial to consider the role of and the pressure by the Brazilian business sectors behind the progress of the industries which are deforesting the Amazon – and to claim their liability.

Brazil worker who protected indigenous tribes killed in Amazon – Police in Brazil are investigating the murder of an official who had worked to protect indigenous people from farmers and loggers attempting to seize land. Maxciel Pereira dos Santos was reportedly shot twice in the head in the city of Tabatinga, near Brazil’s borders with Colombia and Peru. Union officials said Mr Santos was shot in front of members of his family. The killing comes amid international outrage over the rate of destruction of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. At least 80,000 fires were recorded there between January and August this year – more than double the number in the same period last year. Brazil’s populist President Jair Bolsonaro has drawn intense domestic and international criticism for failing to protect the region. He has often stated support for farmers and loggers working in the region, while criticising environmental campaigners and slashing the budget of the country’s environmental agency. The union which represents staff at Brazil’s indigenous protection agency, Funai, said Mr Santos had been shot twice in the head as he drove his motorcycle down a busy street. INA officials said he was killed in retaliation for his work at the Vale do Javari reserve, where for years he helped prevent hunters, farmers and loggers illegally entering the area. The reserve is said to be home to the world’s highest concentration of uncontacted indigenous tribes.

The air above Antarctica is suddenly getting warmer – here’s what it means for Australia – Record warm temperatures above Antarctica over the coming weeks are likely to bring above-average spring temperatures and below-average rainfall across large parts of New South Wales and southern Queensland. The warming began in the last week of August, when temperatures in the stratosphere high above the South Pole began rapidly heating in a phenomenon called “sudden stratospheric warming”. In the coming weeks the warming is forecast to intensify, and its effects will extend downward to Earth’s surface, affecting much of eastern Australia over the coming months. The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting the strongest Antarctic warming on record, likely to exceed the previous record of September 2002. Although we have seen plenty of weak or moderate variations in the polar vortex over the past 60 years, the only other true sudden stratospheric warming event in the Southern Hemisphere was in September 2002. In contrast, their northern counterpart occurs every other year or so during late winter of the Northern Hemisphere because of stronger and more variable tropospheric wave activity.Impacts from this stratospheric warming are likely to reach Earth’s surface in the next month and possibly extend through to January.Apart from warming the Antarctic region, the most notable effect will be a shift of the Southern Ocean westerly winds towards the Equator.For regions directly in the path of the strongest westerlies, which includes western Tasmania, New Zealand’s South Island, and Patagonia in South America, this generally results in more storminess and rainfall, and colder temperatures.But for subtropical Australia, which largely sits north of the main belt of westerlies, the shift results in reduced rainfall, clearer skies, and warmer temperatures.Past stratospheric warming events and associated wind changes have had their strongest effects in NSW and southern Queensland, where springtime temperatures increased, rainfall decreased and heatwaves and fire risk rose. The influence of the stratospheric warming has been captured by the Bureau’s climate outlooks, along with the influence of other major climate drivers such as the current positive Indian Ocean Dipole, leading to a hot and dry outlook for spring.

Democratic Presidential Candidates Face 7 Hours of Tough Questions on Climate Change, From Fracking to Fossil Fuels –CNN’s Wolf Blitzer kicked off a seven-hour long town hall on climate change with an unambiguous message of urgency on climate change. Many of the candidates offered multi-trillion dollar plans to address the crisis – as economists warn that the price of failing to act could be $69 trillion worldwide by the end of the century. But the highlight of the evening wasn’t the economics nor was it the candidates. It was the questions – a mix of queries from CNN reporters, video-taped messages, and those attending the town hall in person. The questions were often nuanced and detailed – and drew on understandings shaped by both personal experience and professional expertise. They rolled in from a wide array of Americans: from homeowners concerned that long-loved homes in floodplains face a future of repeat flooding and worried about whether insurance programs will offer support or make their decisions more difficult; from members of the Sunrise Movement, who’d successfully pushed for a broadcast town hall on climate and who confronted candidates directly on their track records; from doctors and nurses asking about how to protect communities from the worst impacts of climate change and – with memories of the government’s inadequate response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico still so fresh – how politicians would ensure that communities of color would not be left out of those plans.There were survivors of climate-linked disasters like the Camp fire that incinerated much of Paradise, California; folks hailing from the fracked gas fields of Pennsylvania; a restaurant worker and a retiree; environmental lawyers; multiple Columbia University students; and Chantel Comardelle, executive secretary of the Isle de Jean Charles Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe in Louisiana, which is not only contending with the long legacy of Indian Removal Act policies but also rising seas.

World ‘gravely’ unprepared for effects of climate crisis – report — The world’s readiness for the inevitable effects of the climate crisis is “gravely insufficient”, according to a report from global leaders.This lack of preparedness will result in poverty, water shortages and levels of migration soaring, with an “irrefutable toll on human life”, the report warns.Trillion-dollar investment is needed to avert “climate apartheid”, where the rich escape the effects and the poor do not, but this investment is far smaller than the eventual cost of doing nothing. The study says the greatest obstacle is not money but a lack of “political leadership that shakes people out of their collective slumber”. A “revolution” is needed in how the dangers of global heating are understood and planned for, and solutions are funded. The report has been produced by the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA), convened by 18 nations including the UK. It has contributions from the former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, the Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, environment ministers from China, India and Canada, the heads of the World Bank and the UN climate and environment divisions, and others.Among the most urgent actions recommended are early-warning systems of impending disasters, developing crops that can withstand droughts and restoring mangrove swamps to protect coastlines, while other measures include painting roofs of homes white to reduce heatwave temperatures.In the foreword to the report, Ban, Gates and Kristalina Georgieva, the World Bank chief executive, write: “The climate crisis is here, now: massive wildfires ravage fragile habitats, city taps run dry, droughts scorch the land and massive floods destroy people’s homes and livelihoods. So far the response has been gravely insufficient.” Ban said: “I am really concerned about the lack of vision of political leaders. They are much more interested in getting elected and re-elected, and climate issues are not in their priorities.

What’s the Actual Cost of Not Addressing Climate Change? –The amount of carbon tax – a neoliberal solution – required to achieve just a modest reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 (graph, source). Bernie Sanders wants to reach 100 percent renewableenergy for electricity and transportation by no later than 2030 and complete decarbonization no later than 2050. One of those two ideas just might solve the problem, and the other has not a prayer of working. Every report on the release of Bernie Sanders’ Green New Deal plancontains at least one quote in which someone is shocked, dismayed or dismissive about the cost – $16 trillion in total – even though the plan will, as the proposal itself says, “pay for itself” in a number of ways:

• This plan will pay for itself over 15 years. Experts have scored the plan and its economic effects. We will pay for the massive investment we need to reverse the climate crisis by:
• Making the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution, through litigation, fees, and taxes, and eliminating federal fossil fuel subsidies.
• Generating revenue from the wholesale of energy produced by the regional Power Marketing Authorities. Revenues will be collected from 2023-2035, and after 2035 electricity will be virtually free, aside from operations and maintenance costs.
• Scaling back military spending on maintaining global oil dependence.
• Collecting new income tax revenue from the 20 million new jobs created by the plan.
• Reduced need for federal and state safety net spending due to the creation of millions of good-paying, unionized jobs.
• Making the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share.

The proposal goes on to note (emphasis mine):The cost of inaction is unacceptable. Economists estimate that if we do not take action,we will lose $34.5 trillion in economic activity by the end of the century. And the benefits are enormous: by taking bold and decisive action, we will save $2.9 trillion over 10 years, $21 trillion over 30 years, and $70.4 trillion over 80 years.When it comes to number this big, the mind shuts down. Spending $16 to save $34 is easily understood. Spending $16,000 to save $34,000 is not beyond most imaginations. But spending $16 trillion to save $34 trillion? Those are scary numbers, no matter which side of the cost-benefit equation they’re on. The mind shuts down contemplating them, and Sanders’ opponents are hoping voters will be so frightened of of either one, they won’t begin to consider the importance of the moon-shot-type project he’s proposing.

Greta Thunberg Responds to Cost of Climate Action Critics: ‘If We Can Save the Banks, We Can Save the World’ — During an event in New York City Monday night with author and environmentalist Naomi Klein, 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg had a simple message for those who claim it is “too expensive” to boldly confront the climate crisis with sweeping policies like a Green New Deal.”If we can save the banks,” said Thunberg, “we can save the world.” “If there is something we are not lacking in this world, it’s money,” she added. “Of course, many people do lack money, but governments and these people in power, they do not lack money. And also we need to have the polluters… actually pay for the damage they have caused. So, to that argument, I would not even respond to that argument, because it has been said so many times, the money is there. What we lack now is political will and social will to do it.”Watch Thunberg speaking on the right to a future at an event Hosted by Naomi Klein: The Right to a Future, with Naomi Klein and Greta Thunberg – YouTube Thunberg arrived in New York late last month after nearly two weeks of sailing across the Atlantic. The young environmentalist made the journey ahead of the Sept. 20 global climate strikes, which she helped inspire through persistent activism that has included directly confronting world leaders and elites over their role in the planetary emergency.The strikes, which are expected to bring millions to the streets in over 150 countries, will coincide with the United Nations Summit on Climate Change on Sept. 23 in New York. “I want September 20 to be a tipping point,” Thunberg said Monday night. “I want world leaders to feel like they have too many people watching them.”

World Meteorological Organization Chief Castigates Climate Alarmists- It’s Not The End Of The World – The head of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) issued an unprecedented rebuke to climate alarmists in an interview published by a Finnish magazine on Sept. 6. Petteri Taalas, the secretary-general of the WMO, told Talouselämä magazine that he called for a calm and rational approach to the climate debate, and disagreed with those who are promoting end-of-the-world scenarios.“Now we should stay calm and ponder what is really the solution to this problem,” Taalas told Talouselämä magazine.“It is not going to be the end of the world. The world is just becoming more challenging. In parts of the globe, living conditions are becoming worse, but people have survived in harsh conditions.”The WMO and the United Nations Environment Programme created the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. Since then, the IPCC has become the leading institution worldwide to promote the theory that human activity contributes to global warming. Taalas said that while skepticism of the human-activity theory has abated in recent years, climate scientists are under increasing assault from radical climate extremists. “While climate skepticism has become less of an issue, now we are being challenged from the other side. Climate experts have been attacked by these people and they claim that we should be much more radical. They are doomsters and extremists; they make threats,” Taalas said. The head of the WMO noted that the media in his country are creating additional anxiety.

Climate change: Electrical industry’s ‘dirty secret’ boosts warming – It’s the most powerful greenhouse gas known to humanity, and emissions have risen rapidly in recent years, the BBC has learned. Sulphur hexafluoride, or SF6, is widely used in the electrical industry to prevent short circuits and accidents. But leaks of the little-known gas in the UK and the rest of the EU in 2017 were the equivalent of putting an extra 1.3 million cars on the road. Levels are rising as an unintended consequence of the green energy boom. Cheap and non-flammable, SF6 is a colourless, odourless, synthetic gas. It makes a hugely effective insulating material for medium and high-voltage electrical installations. It is widely used across the industry, from large power stations to wind turbines to electrical sub-stations in towns and cities. It prevents electrical accidents and fires. However, the significant downside to using the gas is that it has the highest global warming potential of any known substance. It is 23,500 times more warming than carbon dioxide (CO2). Just one kilogram of SF6 warms the Earth to the same extent as 24 people flying London to New York return. It also persists in the atmosphere for a long time, warming the Earth for at least 1,000 years.

Bill Gates Is Funding a Chemical Cloud That Could Put an End to Global Warming – Now you might be scratching your head a bit as solar geoengineering sounds like a plot point from a disaster movie. However, it is both a radical but potentially effective means of stopping global warming. For the uninitiated, this technology would go on to mimic the effects of a massive volcanic eruption. Andy Parker, project director at the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative, told CNBC, “Modeling studies have found that it could reduce the intensity of heatwaves, for instance, apparently it could reduce the rate of sea-level rise. It could reduce the intensity of tropical storms.”Basically, planes would fly at high altitudes, spraying millions of tons of particles around the planet to create a massive chemical cloud that would cool the surface. However, do not get too excited yet. The technology is not officially ready but is coming close. Even more so, the process could go on to affect regional weather patterns. Even more so, it could potentially eradicate the blue sky. However, the good news is that this process is affordable. Stephen Gardiner, author of “A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change shared his opinions about the technology stating, “These consequences might be horrific. They might involve things like mass famine, mass flooding, drought of kinds that will affect very large populations.” It will be interesting to see if this becomes a viable solution as the potential side effects to the process could be very bad. Nevertheless, it seems the benefits could outweigh the overall side effects.

Biofuel plan faces fresh backlash from U.S. agricultural trade groups –(Reuters) – U.S. agricultural trade groups on Friday told the Trump administration a proposed biofuel reform package falls short of expectations, four sources familiar with discussions said, complicating plans the administration had for presenting the proposal to President Donald Trump. Trump was expected to meet with Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture officials on Friday afternoon to discuss the proposal meant to assuage farmers angry about biofuel blending exemptions given to oil refineries, a separate source said. Trump has found himself in a political bind as he looks to appease two of his most prized constituencies – Big Oil and Big Corn – to again propel him into the presidency next year. The proposed plan would include an increase to biofuels requirements for 2020 of 1 billion gallons (3.8 billion liters), sources said. The plan already faced backlash during a conference call the USDA held early Friday with biofuels advocates to detail plans, sources said. The agricultural industry wants the administration to force larger refineries to make up for the exempted gallons through a process called “reallocation,” but it has not committed to that yet, the sources said. “Plants are closing now. Farmers are going bankrupt now. The biofuel industry made it clear that restoring the exempted gallons by 2020 is the only way to stop the bleeding,” said a biofuel source familiar with the call. “Anything short of that is going to face united opposition, which means the president won’t want to show his face in Iowa.”

Sen. Brown Says EPA Rule Waivers Hurt Ohio Farmers -Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is criticizing the Trump administration for EPA rule waivers that he says are hurting Ohio farmers. The rules had required large oil companies to produce a certain amount of biofuel like ethanol. By waiving the requirements of the Renewable Fuel Standard, Brown says it takes a market away from Ohio farmers who sell corn to be turned into ethanol. “It means that instead of corn farmers selling more corn, ethanol to the oil companies, to these refineries, it means the oil companies win again and corn farmers in Ohio and elsewhere lose again,” he says. Since Trump took office, Brown says the administration has issued 85 waivers, reducing the demand for biofuels by 1.4 billion gallons. This week, Brown, along with Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Tina Smith (D-MN) and other Senate colleagues, sent a letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, calling on the EPA to stop the abuse of these waivers causing harm to rural communities across the country. “This pattern of demand destruction is wreaking havoc on our nation’s rural economy. … At a time when farmers are already struggling after years of low prices and a chaotic trade agenda, this Administration chose to destroy more markets for farmers,” the letter says.

Refining CEOs met with Trump, seeking concessions on U.S. biofuels policy -sources – (Reuters) – The chief executives of two of the largest U.S. refining companies met with President Trump and other officials on Wednesday, seeking concessions in ongoing negotiations over biofuels laws, according to two sources familiar with discussions.Valero Energy CEO Joe Gorder and Marathon Petroleum CEO Gary Heminger were at the White House on Wednesday, the sources said, amid ongoing wrangling by the administration to try to find ways to satisfy warring agricultural and oil interests over biofuels. The White House is expected to meet with U.S. Senators from key farm states later on Thursday and senators representing oil-producing states on Friday, the sources said.

Big Ag Is Sabotaging Progress on Climate Change – The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report, on “Climate Change and Land,” warns that meeting the challenges of our climate crisis requires urgent changes in our food systems. The IPCC identifies a range of impacts on land, water, and other natural resources, and offers a set of welcome if unsurprising recommendations to both reduce the contributions of our food systems to climate change and adapt to feed a global population expected to grow to nearly 10 billion by 2050. They include: Stop draining wetlands to grow biofuels; reduce demand for beef and strengthen regulations to prevent deforestation in critical areas like the Amazon; cut food waste, which now squanders one-third of consumable food; reduce excessive fertilizer use; and improve cropping systems to turn croplands from heavy greenhouse-gas emitters to carbon sinks. But agribusiness, under the banner of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, lobbies governments to subsidize expanding fossil-fuel-based fertilizers and commercial seeds. In Malawi, for example, 40 to 60 percent of the government’s agricultural budget funds these subsidies for farmers to purchase commercial products they otherwise couldn’t afford. They don’t end up getting enough of a yield increase to pay for the inputs, and their land becomes more acidic, less fertile, with the repeated corn crops fed by these fertilizers. At best, this wastes scarce government resources. At worst, this perpetuates the kind of unsustainable, fossil-fuel-intensive agriculture the IPCC is warning us about. But it’s good for Monsanto. The agrochemical giant sells 50 percent of Malawi’s commercial corn seeds, and their sales would plummet if the subsidies were eliminated or redirected to more productive uses. The company is actively trying to expand markets by preventing farmers from saving seeds from their last harvests, which the majority of farmers still do. I discovered that a former Monsanto executive had even drafted Malawi’s national seed policy, which threatened to outlaw farmers’ rights to save, exchange, and sell their seeds. Farm groups successfully removed some of the worst provisions, but the bill still threatens the sale of farm-saved seed. Monsanto and fellow agro behemoths have also campaigned to open Mexico to the cultivation of genetically modified corn. Citizens and farmers have complained that the release of such corn, which pollinates through the wind, would threaten the integrity of Mexico’s remarkable repository of some 23,000 varieties of native corn that have evolved over millennia.

Trump defends lightbulb efficiency rollback: ‘I look better under an incandescent light’ – President Trump quipped at a Monday evening rally that his administration’s rollback of energy efficiency standards for lightbulbs was due to the fact that he looked better under less efficient bulbs. “I’m not a vain person. … But I look better under an incandescent light than these crazy lights that are beaming down,” Trump told a crowd in Fayetteville, N.C., on Monday.The administration finalized the reversal of Obama-era efficiency standards last week, rolling back the rules for about half of lightbulbs. Critics of the move say it will hasten climate change by requiring the U.S. to produce more energy to power the less efficient bulbs. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whose home state is one of several that have passed state laws to keep the Obama-era standards in place, pledged to restore them at the federal level as president last week at a climate change town hall hosted by CNN. “If you can get electricity from a lightbulb that utilizes one-tenth of the power that an old incandescent lightbulb uses, of course you’re going to do that. Of course, you’re going to encourage that technology,” Sanders said.

Should there be a tax on short, cheap flights? — We go on about Why cheap mass air travel must be stopped, because it it is crazy. In Europe, where there are wonderful fast trains, it’s so much cheaper to fly. Now a former German transport minister, Alexander Dobrindt, is proposing that a floor price be set on air tickets.Writing in Bloomberg, Leonid Bershidsky notes that airlines get a break that nobody else gets: their fuel isn’t taxed, thanks to a 1944 international agreement. Tickets are taxed, but lightly and weirdly, depending on whether it is intra-EU or extra-EU (Britons, prepare to pay more after Brexit), which has nothing to do with its carbon footprint. A tax scale that goes up with the distance traveled is plainly a mistake, too. Of course, the longer the flight, the higher the absolute amount of carbon emitted per passenger. But the idea of a smart environmental levy on airfares shouldn’t be to discourage long-distance travel, because it’s rather pointless. For people planning an intercontinental trip, or even one across Europe, there’s no reasonable alternative to flying. All the flying people do in Europe is crazy, because people really do have alternatives. Bershidsky tells us that “there’s no justification for flying, say, from Brussels to London, from Barcelona to Madrid, or from Rome to Milan – it’s faster by train when airport waiting times are taken into consideration.” But the price of flying is so low that people do it instead. Former Minister Dobrindt wants a tax on all flights under 50 Euros, because they are the worst for carbon emitted per mile traveled, and they are the ones for which there could be alternatives.

The next target in the climate-change debate: your gas stove (Reuters) – Dozens of cities in liberal-leaning states such as California, Washington, and Massachusetts are studying proposals to ban or limit the use of natural gas in commercial and residential buildings. The movement opens a new front in the fight against climate change that could affect everything from heating systems in skyscrapers to stoves in suburban homes. Berkeley, California, in July became the first U.S. city to pass an ordinance banning gas systems in new buildings, and it may soon be followed by many others, according to interviews with local officials, activists and industry groups. Los Angeles and Seattle are among those considering laws that could drastically reduce natural gas consumption. “Berkeley is the opening salvo,” said Bruce Nilles, managing director of think tank Rocky Mountain Institute’s building electrification program. Local officials and environmentalists cite mounting evidence that unburned gas leaking from pipes and compressor stations harms the climate more than carbon dioxide, the byproduct of burned fossil fuels. Many environmentalists until recently considered natural gas a “bridge fuel” to a future of renewable energy because gas burns cleaner than oil or coal. Now local officials are stepping into what they call a federal regulatory void under the administration of President Donald Trump, who argues fossil-fuel restrictions needlessly damage the economy.

Planned Lake Erie wind farm back on track after fee paid – – The review process has resumed for a planned Lake Erie wind farm after the non-profit developer behind the project paid an outstanding bill from state regulators on Thursday. Officials with the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation filed a document saying they’d paid $150,000 to the Ohio Power Siting Board, the state agency responsible for reviewing and approving wind-turbine projects. Agency review for the project, referred to by LEEDCo as “Icebreaker,” was frozen last week after the Aug. 12 bill went unpaid for weeks. The filing doesn’t say why LeedCo delayed in paying the bill. An administrative law judge later Thursday ordered the review process to resume, with filings due in October and November. LEEDCo previously paid a $50,000 application fee when the project review started in 2017, but the agency’s review costs have exceeded that as the approval process has dragged on due to its complexity and controversy, according to agency staff. The Icebreaker project envisions building six wind turbines roughly eight miles off the coast of Cleveland, with construction beginning as soon as 2021. When it was launched, the project was budgeted to cost $126 million and provide 20.7 megawatts of electricity. It would be the first freshwater renewable energy project in North America. The project, which has been discussed for years, has been going through a lengthy review process involving multiple state and federal agencies. It cleared a major regulatory hurdle in May, when developers agreed to a list of 33 project stipulations sought by state regulators that attempt to address environmental and other concerns.

Wind Energy Has A Waste Problem: Disposing Of The Turbines – While most of a turbine can be recycled or find a second life on another wind farm, researchers estimate the U.S. will have more than 720,000 tons of blade material to dispose of over the next 20 years, a figure that doesn’t include newer, taller higher-capacity versions. There aren’t many options to recycle or trash turbine blades, and what options do exist are expensive, partly because the U.S. wind industry is so young. It’s a waste problem that runs counter to what the industry is held up to be: a perfect solution for environmentalists looking to combat climate change, an attractive investment for companies such as Budweiser and Hormel Foods, and a job creator across the Midwest and Great Plains. At the end of a long gravel road on the southwest Nebraska prairie, the turbine scrap area looks more like a sci-fi drama set. Rob Van Vleet climbed atop a 127-foot-long turbine blade and walked the length like a plank. “These towers may be supporting as much as 150,000 pounds, 250 feet in the air,” Van Vleet said. “The stands are an inch and a half thick steel … so they’re very strong.” Ninety percent of a turbine’s parts can be recycled or sold, according to Van Vleet, but the blades, made of a tough but pliable mix of resin and fiberglass – similar to what spaceship parts are made from – are a different story. “The blades are kind of a dud because they have no value,” he said. Decommissioned blades are also notoriously difficult and expensive to transport. They can be anywhere from 100 to 300 feet long and need to be cut up onsite before getting trucked away on specialized equipment – which costs money – to the landfill. Cindy Langstrom manages the turbine blade disposal project for the municipal landfill in Casper, Wyo. Though her landfill is one of the only ones in the state – not to mention the entire U.S. – with enough space to take wind farm waste, she said the blades’ durability initially posed a financial hurdle. “Our crushing equipment is not big enough to crush them,” she said. Langstrom’s team eventually settled on cutting up the blades into three pieces and stuffing the two smaller sections into the third, which was cheaper than renting stronger crushing machines that are usually made for mining.

GE Investigates new wind turbine collapse in Brazil – (Reuters) – General Electric Co is investigating the cause of another accident involving wind power equipment it built and installed on a wind farm in Brazil operated by power company Omega, the two companies said on Thursday. On Tuesday, a GE wind turbine fell to the ground from its tower at the Delta 6 wind farm in Brazil’s northern Maranhao state. A worker is being treated for injuries. Two months ago another turbine made by GE collapsed in Brazil when its tower broke in half. There have been three such collapses of GE wind turbines in the United States this year. “We are working to contain and solve these problems as soon as possible to guarantee the safety and reliability of our equipment,” GE’s Brazilian unit said in reply to a request for comment by Reuters. “We are working to find the causes behind the accident,” GE said, adding that it was giving assistance to the worker injured in the accident and his family. Omega said it was working with GE to discover the cause of the accident. RDS Energia, a Brazilian consultancy that develops wind farm projects, said this type of accident was unusual, since towers and turbines are designed to resist winds of up to 300 km (186 miles) per hour.

California solar/storage deal beats natural gas on price – For a long time, there were two big knocks against solar power: It’s expensive, and it can’t keep the lights on after sundown.A contract approved Tuesday by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power shows how much that reality has changed.Under the 25-year deal with developer 8minute Solar Energy, the city would buy electricity from a sprawling complex of solar panels and lithium-ion batteries in the Mojave Desert of eastern Kern County, about two hours north of Los Angeles. The Eland project would meet 6% to 7% of L.A.’s annual electricity needs and would be capable of pumping clean energy into the grid for four hours each night.The combined solar power and energy storage is priced at 3.3 cents per kilowatt-hour – a record low for this type of contract, city officials and independent experts say, and cheaper than electricity from natural gas. The Eland deal’s approval was delayed last month after DWP staff said concerns had been raised by the union representing employees of the city-run utility. It wasn’t clear whether the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18 had specific objections to the Eland project. But the union has been on the attack against L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti since his decision in February to shut down three natural-gas-fired power plants along the coast, which could force hundreds of union workers to transition to new jobs.

Asia’s growing coal use could negate global climate change progress, UN says (Reuters) – Asia’s heavy and expanding reliance on coal power risks cancelling out global progress towards preventing catastrophic climate change, a top United Nations official warned on Wednesday. While developing economies such as India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam increasingly turn to cheap coal to meet fast-growing demand for electricity, some nations are ramping up use of renewable energy, although its share of the total fuel mix for power generation is still small. Asian countries must set more ambitious goals to contribute to global efforts to curb climate change, said Ovais Sarmad, the deputy executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. “There are certain countries in this region still relying heavily on coal and fossil fuels as sources of energy, and in some areas that is growing,” he told Reuters in an interview. “That’s a very, very serious problem because … all those gains that had been made in other parts of the world would be completely negated.” Further warming could push the climate system closer to irreversible tipping points, scientists warn, raising the risk of harvest failures, forced migration, mass extinction of species, ecosystem collapse and societal breakdown. Some major Asian cities, such as Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila, are also at risk of submersion, as sea levels rise.

Oil and gas companies undermining climate goals, says report – Major oil and gas companies have invested $50bn (£40.6bn) in fossil fuel projects that undermine global efforts to avert a runaway climate crisis, according to a report. Since the start of last year, fossil fuel companies have spent billions on high-cost plans to extract oil and gas from tar sands, deepwater fields and the Arctic despite the risks to the climate and shareholder returns. Carbon Tracker, a financial thinktank, found that ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP each spent at least 30% of their investment in 2018 on projects that are inconsistent with climate targets, and would be “deep out of the money in a low-carbon world”. Andrew Grant, the author of the report, said: “Every oil major is betting heavily against a 1.5C world and investing in projects that are contrary to the Paris goals.” The study is the first to analyse individual projects to test whether they are compliant with a 1.5C world, and whether they would be financially sustainable in a low-carbon world. It found that none of the largest listed oil and gas companies are making investment decisions that are in line with global climate goals, and risk wasting $2.2tn (£1.8tn) by 2030 if governments take a tougher stance on carbon emissions.

In Measure Overhauling Energy Policy, Ohio Pivots Away From Green Energy –NPR Morning Edition – audio – While most states are embracing green energy plans, Ohio appears to be doing the opposite. A new law props up struggling coal plants and trims support for renewable energy forms.

Conservation groups declare victory over TVA, withdraw Supreme Court petition – Two conservation groups have withdrawn their U.S. Supreme Court petition to force the Tennessee Valley Authority to remove 50 years’ worth of coal ash from unlined disposal ponds along the Cumberland River, saying a consent decree in a state-court regulatory action has made their federal litigation unnecessary. In a motion to dismiss filed Wednesday, the Tennessee Clean Water Network and the Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association say they have “achieved the principal goals they sought through this Clean Water Act suit” by intervening in the state-court enforcement action by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. To read the full story on Westlaw Practitioner Insights, click here: bit.ly/2k6mDXN

As Duke Energy updates Belews plant, concerns remain over coal ash It’s been five months since state regulators ordered Duke Energy to excavate coal ash at six remaining sites across North Carolina, including Belews Creek in Stokes County. The power company is appealing that decision as not supported by scientific evidence, but in the meantime, it’s taking steps to modernize its equipment and find ways to limit the impact of coal ash. Company spokesman Bill Norton points to a buoy floating on a waste pond where 12 million tons of coal ash sits underneath. “If you take a look at the ash basin, you see how far down that water level is,” says Norton. “We’ve been removing the water from the ash basin since March. And regardless of how the basin is ultimately closed, the single biggest step is de-watering the basin, removing the ponded water.” State law requires Duke Energy to close all of its basins by 2030, but where the coal ash stored in this pond will end up isn’t clear. Once the water is out, the country’s largest electric company plans to partially excavate the basin and cover it with a waterproof top, a method known as cap-in-place. It’s one of two primary methods the Environmental Protection Agency says can be used to safely close these basins. “It makes a lot more sense to close it where it is rather than dig it all up, have emissions from trucks, have a lot of noise and have that go on for more than a decade just to move it to the other side of the road,” says Norton.

Coal Miners Doubt Promises of an Inclusive Energy Transition –As coal mines shutter across the country and the prevalence of black lung increases, American coal workers say they are running out of hope for a political fix. “We’re starting to think that the government is just waiting for us all to die and go away,” Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, said at a media briefing this week.After years of fighting for health care and pension plan protection with limited success, the union leader said coal miners are skeptical of campaign promises to support their flagging industry as coal is phased out of the power system.“People are talking about us needing a transition,” said Roberts. “Well, our transition unfortunately has been at the bankruptcy courts, and what you get out of a bankruptcy court is whatever your union can win for you.” Roberts spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, ahead of CNN’s televised climate town hall with leading Democratic primary candidates. The union leader said the Green New Deal and other progressive climate proposals would eliminate coal-mining jobs and threaten the middle-class lifestyle coal workers and their families currently enjoy.At current salary levels, Roberts argued that miners would need two solar installation jobs in order to earn what they make now. He cautioned that building trade and utility jobs would also be at risk. “I don’t think a good starting point for Democrats is to eliminate union jobs,” Roberts said.

Mitch McConnell Blocked Millions for Coal Miners, Steered Funds to Russian-Backed Plant –Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last month blocked a measure that would have used Treasury Department funds marked for Appalachian development to help pay for coal miners’ health care and pensions in his home state of Kentucky. But just a few months earlier, McConnell successfully steered near-identical Treasury funds for Appalachia to bankroll a Kentucky aluminum plant connected to an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Democrats on Capitol Hill have raised concerns for months about McConnell’s connection to the aluminum plant. It’s one of several reasons why McConnell’s political opponents have tried to stick him with the nickname “Moscow Mitch.” But what’s gone largely unnoticed as the sobriquet has become a social media trending topic is how McConnell worked to keep money out of coal miners’ hands – even as he maneuvered to steer federal funds to the Russian-linked plant.The scrutiny started in January, when McConnell voted to lift sanctions on Rusal, a Russian aluminum company formerly headed by Putin ally Oleg Deripaska, despite several of his Republican colleagues defecting and voting no. Rusal’s de-listing caused an uproar among Democrats on Capitol Hill who viewed the deal the Treasury Department put together with Rusal as too lenient. Then, in April, the focus turned to McConnell. Just days after the Treasury Department announced the official de-listing of Rusal, the company announced a $200 million investment in the Braidy Industries aluminum plant in the northeastern part of Kentucky. Democrats raised questions about how much McConnell knew about Rusal’s investment plan before he voted for sanctions relief. Rusal is the only outside investor in the plant.

Ads claim voter referendum would allow ‘China to control Ohio’s power’ | Toledo Blade – Inspired by national headlines, a group seeking to derail a proposed voter referendum on a new law rescuing Ohio’s two nuclear power plants has put the Chinese government front and center in what has so far been a nearly $2.3 million ad blitz. “They took our manufacturing jobs. They shuttered our factories. Now they’re coming for our energy jobs,” a TV ad states amid images of the Chinese flag and uniformed soldiers’ in high-kick marching mode. These images are interspersed with the faces of apparent employees at the Davis-Besse plant in Oak Harbor and Perry plant east of Cleveland. Some are familiar to viewers from ads that aired earlier this year to build support for passage of House Bill 6, which surcharge consumers’ monthly electric bills to send $150 million a year to the plants’ owner, FirstEnergy Solutions, or its post-bankruptcy successor. Davis-Besse and Perry, directly employing about 1,400 people, were targeted for decommissioning in 2020 and 2021, respectively, absent the consumer subsidies. “That ad is powerful,” said Ian James, a former ballot issue campaign professional who is currently involved in the legal hemp and cannabis arenas. “It will almost certainly have a chilling effect on signature gathering, depending on the reach and volume of its air time,” he said. All of this comes before opponents of the law have even filed the signatures to put the question on the November, 2020 ballot. The law will take effect on Oct. 21 unless opponents file at least 265,774 valid signatures of registered voters to put it on hold pending the vote. Columbus-based Medium Buying has tracked the ad buy. Ohioans for Energy Security, the group supporting the law’s preservation, has purchased nearly $1.5 million in TV time to air through Tuesday, including $118,000 in the Toledo market. It has also purchased $607,857 in ads for cable and $228,499 for radio. “Don’t sign your name to a plan that kills Ohio…,” the TV ad states. “China turned off the power on Ohio manufacturing. Don’t let them do it to you. Don’t sign the petition allowing China to control Ohio’s power.”

Ohio nuclear bailout defenders deploy ground troops to thwart repeal effort’s signature collection – cleveland.com – They’ve already hit Ohio’s airwaves and mailboxes. Now, the political defenders of a new Ohio law propping up two Ohio nuclear plants are hitting the streets.Generation Now, a pro-House Bill 6 political group, has hired on-the-ground workers to try to prevent voters from signing petitions from a different group seeking to place an HB6 repeal on the November 2020 ballot.Political professionals generally refer to this category of campaign workers as “blockers,” who are tasked with interfering with the signature collection process. But Generation Now spokesman Curt Steiner called them “educators.”“They’re going to be going to places where there’s a likelihood that there will be activity to gather signatures,” Steiner said. “They’ve also been asked, where they see people, to be polite, give them information and don’t interfere with anyone trying to sign a petition.”Gene Pierce, a spokesman for Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts, the group collecting the signatures, said the blockers’ early tactics have been aggressive.“Nobody wants to step into a tense situation,” he said. “So if someone’s coming out of a library and there’s a heated conversation, or someone’s acting aggressive toward another person, the natural inclination is to walk away.”“We are still getting our signatures our numbers are going up, but this is coming close to the edge of intimidating and harassment,” he said. The blockers are being recruited, trained and organized by FieldWorks, a Washington, D.C. firm that specializes in both sides of ballot issues – the collection of petition signatures and what the firm calls “defensive strategies” to prevent them.“What we know is that the petitioners will be out there telling people all sorts of things trying to get them to sign petitions,” Steiner said. “They’ll say anything because it’s a bounty hunt. And we’re trying to make sure people understand that there’s more than one side to the story.”

Key waste-processing facility at Savannah River Site approaching start up, operations – The Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site is nearing operational status, a feat that once achieved will greatly influence, and likely hasten, nuclear waste cleanup at the site. The processing facility, right now undergoing testing and commissioning ahead of radioactive use, could start up by the end of the year (ahead of a 2021 deadline), according to a presentation slide shown Wednesday during a speech by Todd Shrader, the principal deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management. Shrader, though, was less committed to that timeline in his actual remarks. Environmental Management, this year celebrating its 30th birthday, is the Savannah River Site landlord. Shrader is now the No. 2 official at the remediation office. Earlier this year, Savannah River Site manager Michael Budney said the processing facility was moving forward and toward full-on operations. The Energy Department’s fiscal year 2020 budget justification documents corroborated that outlook. SWPF is designed to be a liquid-waste workhorse; the multibillion-dollar facility is set to, once online, process millions of gallons of radioactive waste each year, much more than what is currently being done. The more than 30 million gallons of waste stored in aging, underground tanks at the site has previously been described as South Carolina’s single largest environmental concern.

Japan may have to dump radioactive water into the sea, minister says – (Reuters) – Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power will have to dump radioactive water from its destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean as it runs out of room to store it, the environment minister said on Tuesday. Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, has collected more than 1 million tonnes of contaminated water from the cooling pipes used to keep fuel cores from melting since the plant was crippled by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011. “The only option will be to drain it into the sea and dilute it,” the minister, Yoshiaki Harada, told a news briefing in Tokyo. “The whole of the government will discuss this, but I would like to offer my simple opinion.” The government is awaiting a report from an expert panel before making a final decision on how to dispose of the radioactive water. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, in a separate press briefing, described Harada’s comments as “his personal opinion”.

Japan May Dump Radioactive Fukushima Water Into the Pacific in ‘Only Option’ of Disposal – The operator of the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant may have to dump huge amounts of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean. The company no longer has room to store it, said Yoshiaki Harada, Japan’s environment minister, today, as Japan Today reported.Eight years after an earthquake and tsunami triggered Japan’s worst nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which is 160 miles north of Tokyo, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) has continued to pump water in to cool fuel cores. Once it is used and contaminated, the water is put into storage, according toCNN.TEPCO has collected more than 1 million metric tons of contaminated water used to cool the nuclear reactor. “The only option will be to drain it into the sea and dilute it,” said Harada at a news briefing in Tokyo, asJapan Today. “The whole of the government will discuss this, but I would like to offer my simple opinion.”Harada did not say how much water would need to be released into the ocean.However, in a separate press briefing, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, said Harada’s comments were “his personal opinion.””There is no fact that the method of disposal of contaminated water has been decided,” said Suga, as CNNreported. “The government would like to make a decision after making thorough discussion,” he said.TEPCO is not able to say what will be done with the contaminated water, but will have to wait for a government decision, a spokesperson said, as Japan Today reported. Dumping the waste into the ocean will anger local fisherman and Japan’s neighbors.Last month, South Korea’s government minister for environmental affairs, Kwon Se-jung, summoned Tomofumi Nishinaga, head of economic affairs at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, how the Fukushima water would be handled, according to CNN. “The South Korean government is well aware of the impact of the treatment of the contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant on the health and safety of the people of both countries, and to the entire nation,” said a South Korean ministry press release.

Japan to Release Radioactive Fukushima Wastewater Into Pacific Ocean – The far-reaching dangers of nuclear power were on full display Tuesday as Japan’s environmental minister recommended releasing more than one million tons of radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi plant into the Pacific Ocean nearly a decade after a tsunami caused a meltdown at the coastal facility.“There are no other options” other than dumping the water into the ocean and diluting it, Yoshiaki Harada said at a news conference in Tokyo.Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga disputed Harada’s claim, saying the government has not settled on a method of disposing of the wastewater. Other options include vaporizing the water and storing it on land. But critics on social media said the suggestion of pouring contaminated water into the Pacific is more than enough evidence that the risks associated with nuclear power are too great to continue running plants like Fukushima. The wastewater has been stored in tanks at Fukushima since the 2011 tsunami, when a meltdown at the plant forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people. For years since the disaster, the plant has pumped tens of thousands of tons of water to help cool its damaged reactor cores and keep them from melting. After the water is used and contaminated with radionuclides and radioactive isotopes, it is stored in the tanks, but the plant expects to run out of room in 2022. The Atomic Energy Society of Japan said recently that it could take 17 years for water to meet safety standards after it is diluted.Greenpeace, which has long called on the Japanese government to invest in technology to remove radioactivity from the water, said the environmental minister’s proposal is unacceptable.“The government must commit to the only environmentally acceptable option for managing this water crisis which is long-term storage and processing to remove radioactivity, including tritium,” Shaun Burnie, a senior nuclear specialist the group’s German office, told France 24. The government of neighboring South Korea expressed grave concerns over the potential plan to dump the water into the Pacific, saying it planned to work closely with Japan to come up with an alternative.

Japan’s New Environmental Minister Calls for Closing Down All Nuclear Reactors to Prevent Another Disaster Like Fukushima – Japan’s new environmental minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, called Wednesday for permanently shutting down the nation’s nuclear reactors to prevent a repeat of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, comments that came just a day after Koizumi’s predecessor recommended dumping more than one million tons of radioactive wastewater from the power plant into the Pacific Ocean. Koizumi was appointed to his position Wednesday as part of a broader shake-up of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet. He is the 38-year-old son of former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a vocal critic of nuclear energy. “I would like to study how we will scrap them, not how to retain them,” the younger Koizumi, whose ministry oversees Japan’s nuclear regulator, said during his first news conference late Wednesday. “We will be doomed if we allow another nuclear accident to occur. We never know when we’ll have an earthquake.” In March of 2011, a powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami that caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant on Japan’s northeastern coast, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee radiation around the plant. After the disaster, all 54 of Japan’s nuclear reactors were shut down. Reuters reported Wednesday that “about 40 percent of the pre-Fukushima fleet is being decommissioned” and only six reactors are currently operating. Amid drawn out legal battles over the impacts of the meltdown, campaigners have ramped up opposition to nuclear power generation in the country. However, some Japanese politicians, including the current prime minister, have argued that nuclear energy is necessary to meet national climate goals. According to The Guardian:

Japan’s government wants nuclear power to comprise 20 percent to 22 percent of the overall energy mix by 2030, drawing criticism from campaigners who say nuclear plants will always pose a danger given the country’s vulnerability to large earthquakes and tsunamis. Abe, however, has called for reactors to be restarted, arguing that nuclear energy will help Japan achieve its carbon dioxide emissions targets and reduce its dependence on imported gas and oil.

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