Environmental News For The Week 12May 2019

Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666

This is a collection of interesting news articles about the environment and related topics over the last week. This is a Tuesday evening regular post at GEI.

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More Than 34,000 Measles Infections Recorded In Europe So Far This Year, WHO Says — Apparently, the US isn’t the only country experiencing one of the worst measles outbreaks in decades (though it might be the only country that had at one time in the not-too-distant past declared the disease to be eradicated). The WHO warned on Tuesday that Europe has recorded a total of 34,300 measles cases in 42 countries, putting the region on track to record more than 200,000 cases in 2019, more than double the roughly 80,000 cases reported last year, which was nearly triple the number of cases reported in 2017, according to Reuters. So far, the vast majority of cases have been in Ukraine, which recently completed a contentious election held against the backdrop of a still-simmering conflict in the Eastern part of the country. Despite rising vaccination rates, the WHO said large gaps in coverage in troubled areas like Ukraine, Albania and Romania have contributed greatly to the outbreak. “Although the European Region achieved its highest ever estimated coverage for the second dose of measles vaccination in 2017 (90%),” the WHO said, “countries with measles outbreaks have experienced a range of challenges in recent years including a decline or stagnation in overall routine immunization coverage in some cases, low coverage at subnational level or among some marginalized groups and immunity gaps in older populations.” Meanwhile, in the US, CDC officials have confirmed an additional 60 cases of measles have been diagnosed since late last month, bringing the total to more than 760, according to NBC News. The WHO added that if the response isn’t timely enough, the virus will find its way into more pockets of vulnerable individuals, and could eventually spread to more countries, or even beyond the European region. The death toll across the region has climbed to 13, with most of the deaths occurring in Ukraine.

As measles cases spread, the tinder for more outbreaks is growing – STAT – U.S. health officials are putting all they have into extinguishing measles outbreaks, many of them raging in cities throughout the country. The reality, though, is that there is a growing amount of tinder afoot, a fact that will make it increasing difficult to battle these blazes, experts fear.In recent years, the percentage of children who have received one or more doses of measles-containing vaccine has remained relatively stable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But that stability masks the fact that, over the past few decades the overall size of the population that is either unvaccinated or undervaccinated has been growing. With each cohort of kids born to parents who distrust or fear vaccines, the number of people susceptible to the measles virus expands. At the same time, there is a growing population of adults who were children in the early days of measles vaccination whose immunity may have worn off. (During their youth, only one dose of vaccination was recommended, instead of the standard two-dose treatment today.) Introduce the spark of the highly contagious measles virus into these populations and the tinder will be set ablaze. “I’m very concerned where this is all heading,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, professor of pediatrics and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, who describes this year’s measles activity as “a wakeup call.” “At what point do all of these pockets of measles transmission start becoming confluent? I think that’s the big worry,” he said. On Monday the CDC announced that the number of cases so far this year has topped 700, the highest rate in a quarter century. With the year only a third of the way through and measles spreading in a number of outbreaks across the country, this year’s total could well top the 1994’s 963 cases.

A Vaccine For Dengue, Just Approved By The FDA, Has A Dark History – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration just approved one of the most sought after vaccines in recent decades. It’s the world’s first vaccine to prevent dengue fever – a disease so painful that its nickname is “breakbone fever.” The vaccine, called Dengvaxia, is aimed at helping children in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories where dengue is a problem. But this vaccine has a dark – and deadly – history. One that has led to criminal charges in the Philippines, sparked national panic and fueled a massive measles outbreak that has already killed more than 355 people. That story begins on a stage in Manila in 2016, with a massive vaccine campaign to inoculate nearly 1 million schoolchildren with Dengvaxia. The goal was to save thousands of kids’ lives and prevent an estimated 10,000 hospitalizations over a five-year period. But in the end, estimates are that more than 100,000 Philippine children received a vaccine that health officials say increased their risk of a severe and sometimes deadly condition. In addition, other children who received the vaccine may have been endangered because, their parents alleged, they were not in good health.The French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur spent 20 years – and about $2 billion – to develop Dengvaxia. The company tested it in several large trials with more than 30,000 kids globally and published the results in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. “When I read the New England Journal article, I almost fell out of my chair,” says Dr. Scott Halstead, who has studied dengue for more than 50 years with the U.S. military. When Halstead looked at the vaccine’s safety data in the clinical trial, he knew right away there was a problem. For some children, the vaccine didn’t seem to work. In fact, Halstead says, it appeared to be harmful. When those kids caught dengue after being vaccinated, the vaccine appeared to worsen the disease in some instances. Specifically, for children who had never been exposed to dengue, the vaccine seemed to increase the risk of a deadly complication called plasma leakage syndrome, in which blood vessels start to leak the yellow fluid of the blood. “Then everything gets worse, and maybe it’s impossible to save your life,” Halstead says. “A child can go into shock.” Despite these concerns, in July 2016, the World Health Organization went ahead and recommended the vaccine for all children ages 9 to 16.

Got Milk? Cows, Not Needed – Scientists Bioengineer Milk -Mish – Scientists believe they are on the cusp of a huge change in the way we produce milk in history. Cows won’t be needed. Please consider Made Without Humans or Cows: Inside the Race to Bioengineer Milk.From Silicon Valley to Switzerland, hundreds of millions of dollars are being pumped into a new technology to produce “real milk” – containing identical casein and whey proteins to the genuine article – but without any humans, cows or other animals involved at all.There is a lot at stake. The global dairy industry was worth $413bn in 2017 while the market for infant formula is expected to top $70bn this year, according to Save the Children.From animal cruelty on factory farms to deforestation and a rising portion of the emissions linked to climate change, raising cattle to produce milk is facing a growing reputational challenge.“If you see how cows are treated in the milking process… from a moral standpoint it’s appalling to most people,” says Niccolo Manzoni, founding partner at Five Seasons Ventures, an agricultural technology fund based in Paris.A study published by the World Health Organisation just last week involving almost 30,000 children across 16 countries suggested breast-feeding has a “protective effect” in staving off fat tissue. Bottle-fed babies, the study found, are 25pc more likely to end up obese. Corporate giants such as US-based DowDuPont, BASF, Nestle, as well as start-ups such as Sugarlogix, Gnubiotics Sciences and Jennewein Biotechnologie are busy pouring money into lab research. They are developing products that are very similar to human milk, a complex hybrid of over 1000 proteins and a unique ingredient called human milk oligosaccharide (HMO). An udderless future is eventually in the cards. But even if scientists perfect the technology, how far off is public acceptance? Farmers will push to ban it. That’s for sure. What about labeling? Using the term “milk” for such products will likely be restricted. Would you drink bioengineered milk?

Scientist- The Food Crisis Will Have Humans Eating Maggots For Protein – As an alternative to meat, one scientist has suggested that humans will acquire the habit of eating maggots in order to reach their protein intake requirements. “Maggot sausages” will be the “meat” of the future according to an Australian scientist, Dr. Louwrens Hoffman. Food scientists at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia are incorporating insects such as maggots and locusts into a range of specialty foods, including sausage, as well as formulating sustainable insect-based feeds for the livestock themselves. “Would you eat a commercial sausage made from maggots? What about other insect larvae and even whole insects like locusts? The biggest potential for sustainable protein production lies with insects and new plant sources,” said Dr. Hoffman.Hoffman says that the meat industry is not sustainable, but people can start eating insects instead.“An overpopulated world is going to struggle to find enough protein unless people are willing to open their minds, and stomachs, to a much broader notion of food,” said Hoffman.The scientist says that conventional livestock production will soon be unable to meet global demand for meat. That means that other “fillers” and alternatives will be needed to supplement the food supply with sufficient protein sources, according to The New York Post.“In other words, insect protein needs to be incorporated into existing food products as an ingredient,” he says. “One of my students has created a very tasty insect ice cream.” The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) team is focusing on disguising insects in pre-prepared foods, says Hoffman, as studies have shown Westerners shy away from eating whole insects.

Soybean oil comprises a larger share of domestic biodiesel production – Biodiesel production accounts for an increasing share of soybean oil use in the United States, currently representing about 30% of domestic soybean oil disposition. Soybean oil is the most commonly used vegetable oil for biodiesel production, and inputs reached 7.1 billion pounds during the latest soybean oil marketing year (MY), which ran from October 1, 2017, to September 30, 2018. Growth in biodiesel production has coincided with federal biofuel mandates and other conditions that encouraged a larger share of the domestic soybean oil supply to be consumed as biofuel feedstock. Biodiesel is a mixture of chemical compounds known as alkyl esters produced from a variety of vegetable oils, fats, and greases. Vegetable oils comprise about three-fourths of total biodiesel feedstock in the United States, with soybean oil accounting for slightly more than half of total inputs by weight. Smaller amounts of vegetable oil for biodiesel production include distiller’s corn oil (an inedible oil that is produced as a byproduct of the corn ethanol production process) and canola oil. Soybean oil and distiller’s corn oil are widely used because the feedstocks are produced in the Midwest, where most biofuel production capacity exists. About half of U.S. raw soybeans are exported, and much of the rest is processed, or crushed, at soybean processing plants in the United States. Between MY 2010 – 2011 and MY 2017 – 2018, domestic biodiesel production grew from 0.7 billion gallons to 1.8 billion gallons. The increase in production has largely been driven by the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a program administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that mandates the blending of renewable fuels into the nation’s fuel supply.

FDA Study: Sunscreen Chemicals Seep Into the Bloodstream – A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) study has found thatchemicals used in common sunscreens end up in the blood at levels well above the trigger for further testing, Reuters reported. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Monday, found subjects’ blood had levels of avobenzone, oxybenzone, octocrylene and ecamsule substantially above the 0.5 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) point at which testing is required. One of the chemicals, oxybenzone, has been shown to harm coral reefs, and sunscreens containing it have been banned in coral habitats from Hawaii to Key West, Florida. The study authors said the results should not stop people from using sunscreen, which is an important way to protect against skin cancer.”The fact that an ingredient is absorbed through the skin and into the body does not mean the ingredient is unsafe. Rather, this finding calls for further testing to determine the safety of that ingredient for repeated use,” Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) Director Dr. Janet Woodcock and CDER’s Division of Nonprescription Drug Products Director Dr. Theresa M. Michele wrote in an FDA statement about the study.

Drinking Water Crisis Update: Supplies in 43 States Found Contaminated With Harmful PFAS Chemicals –Millions of people across the U.S. have been exposed to toxic PFAS chemicals in their drinking water, according to a new report from Northeastern University and the Environmental Working Group. The report found that at least 610 sites in 43 states were contaminated with the fluorinated compounds known as PFAS chemicals as of March 2019, including the drinking water systems for around 19 million people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), exposure to PFAS chemicals can lead to increased risk of canceras well as immune, behavioral and reproductive health issues. The Environmental Working Group said that when their interactive map was last updated in July 2018, there were 172 locations in 40 states showing PFAS contamination. Based on the new data, Michigan tops the list of states with the most contaminated sites on the map with 192, followed by California with 47 and New Jersey with 43. PFAS contamination was found at 117 military bases across the country, due to use in aviation-grade firefighting foam. The U.S Department of Defense officials estimate that it will cost $2 billion to clean up the contamination at all bases in the U.S., Military Times reported.”This should be frightening to all Americans in many ways,” David Andrews, a senior scientist with the Environmental Working Group, told CBS News. “These chemicals … don’t break down in our body and they don’t break down in our environment and they actually stick to our blood. So levels tend to increase over time.” PFAS chemicals have been manufactured since the 1940s and are used in a wide range of consumer products, including cosmetics, paint, adhesives, food packaging, furniture and cleaning products, as well as water, oil and grease repellants, HuffPost reported. Because they take thousands of years to break down, PFAS chemicals easily find their way into drinking water, lakes and rivers, and wildlife. The CDC says that basically everyone in the U.S.have some level of PFAS chemicals in their blood, usually due to consuming contaminated water or food. Currently, there are no enforceable federal limits for PFAS chemicals in drinking water, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does have a non-binding health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion, the Daily Mail reported. For the report, the Environmental Working Group included all locations where PFAS were found, even if the concentration was less than the health advisory level. The organization hasproposeda 1 part per trillion limit for PFAS chemicals in drinking water.

Mapping PFAS Crisis: New Data Reveals 19 Million Americans In 43 States Exposed To Toxic Chemicals – Tens of millions of Americans in 43 states may have been exposed to to xic fluorinated compounds known as PFAS in their drinking water, according to the non-profit Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute, at Northeastern University.The report shows PFAS chemicals have exposed upwards of 19 million through contaminated groundwater. Researchers found 610 contaminated locations ranging from public water systems, military bases, military and civilian airports, industrial plants, dumps, and firefighter training sites. PFAS chemicals were used in thousands of industrial applications and consumer products such as apparels, carpeting, food packaging, firefighting foams, and metal plating. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned that the toxic chemicals are present in the blood samples of the general population. Prior studies have shown the dangerous chemicals have been linked to weakened childhood immunity, thyroid disease, cancer, and other major health issues. “The Environmental Protection Agency has utterly failed to address PFAS with the seriousness this crisis demands, leaving local communities and states to grapple with a complex problem rooted in the failure of the federal chemical regulatory system,” said Ken Cook, president of EWG. “EPA must move swiftly to set a truly health-protective legal limit for all PFAS chemicals, requiring utilities to clean up contaminated water supplies.” The map below locates 610 places in 43 states that have dangerously high levels of PFAS chemicals in groundwater. Data from the US Department of Defense and public water utility reports were also included in the map. This additional data shows 117 military sites, including 77 military airports, which have high levels of PFAS firefighting foam.

Trump EPA Ignored Its Own Scientists’ Calls to Ban Asbestos, ‘Bombshell’ Report Shows — In a report that elicited calls for congressional action, The New York Times revealed Wednesday that “senior officials at the Environmental Protection Agency disregarded the advice of their own scientists and lawyers in April when the agency issued a rule that restricted but did not ban asbestos.” Asbestos is a group of fibrous, heat-resistant minerals used in manufactured goods, particularly building materials. According to the World Health Organization, “All types of asbestos cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, cancer of the larynx and ovary, and asbestosis (fibrosis of the lungs).” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement last month that the agency’s new rule “gives us unprecedented authorities to protect public health” and block certain products from the market. However, environmental and public health advocates raised concerns at the time about loopholes that remain, with one critic calling the regulation “toothless.” Criticism of the rule resurfaced Wednesday when the Times reported on a pair of internal EPA memos from last August, in which more than a dozen agency experts wrote: Rather than allow for (even with restrictions) any new uses for asbestos, EPA should seek to ban all new uses of asbestos because the extreme harm from this chemical substance outweighs any benefit – and because there are adequate alternatives to asbestos. “The sheer number of lives cut short and families destroyed from asbestos exposure demand nothing less than an outright ban,” Melanie Benesh, legislative attorney at the Environmental Working Group, said in a statement. “I can’t think of an easier vote for members of Congress to cast than for a bill that bans a substance responsible for the deaths of so many.” “If Administrator Wheeler and the Trump administration won’t act,” said Benesh, “then Congress must by passing this critical piece of legislation that finally bans asbestos.”

California, Nation’s Top User of Chlorpyrifos, Announces Ban on Brain-Damaging Pesticide – California will ban a brain-damagingpesticide that the Trump administration’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has delayed banning at the national level, the state announced Wednesday. Chlorpyrifos, which is used on almonds, citrus, grapes, cotton, walnuts and other crops, has been shown to harm children’s health and neurological development. “Countless people have suffered as a result of this chemical,” California EPA (Cal-EPA) Secretary Jared Blumenfeld told The Guardian. “A lot of people live and work and go to school right next to fields that are being sprayed with chlorpyrifos … It’s an issue of environmental health and justice.” The ban will take effect between six months and two years, and is accompanied by $5.7 million in funds from Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom to help transition to safer alternatives, The Washington Post reported. California follows Hawaii and New York in approving a ban on the pesticide, and bills to ban chlorpyrifos are being considered by New Jersey, Connecticut and Oregon. The EPA had recommended banning the pesticide during the Obama administration, but Trump’s first pick for EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, walked back those efforts in 2017. Environmental groups then sued the agency. In the most recent development in the ensuing legal battle, a federal judge in Aprilordered the EPA to make a final decision on a ban by mid-July. “Governor Newsom has done what the Trump administration has refused to do: protect children, farmworkers and millions of others from being exposed to this neurotoxic pesticide,” Environmental Working Group President Ken Cook said in a statement reported by The Washington Post. “With the governor’s action, California is once again showing leadership in protecting public health.”

California defies Trump to ban pesticide linked to childhood brain damage – California is banning a widely used pesticide that has been linked to brain damage in children, a major victory for public health advocates who have long fought to outlaw the toxic chemical in the agricultural industry.The state ban on chlorpyrifos, a pesticide used on almonds, citrus, cotton, grapes, walnuts and other crops, follows years of research finding the chemical causes serious health effects in children, including impaired brain and neurological development. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had moved to ban the chemical under Barack Obama, but the Trump administration reversed that effort, rejecting the scientific conclusions of its own government experts.“Countless people have suffered as a result of this chemical,” the California EPA secretary, Jared Blumenfeld, said in an interview on Wednesday. “A lot of people live and work and go to school right next to fields that are being sprayed with chlorpyrifos … It’s an issue of environmental health and justice.”The move in California, home to a vast agricultural sector responsible for growing a majority of the nation’s fruits and nuts, is the latest example of the state resisting Trump’s conservative agenda and policies. Environmental activists, however, have been pushing to stop chlorpyrifos use in the state for years in the wake of overwhelming evidence of harms caused by exposure. Epidemiological studies have linked chlorpyrifos to a number of health conditions. Pregnant women living near fields and farms that use the chemical have an increased risk of having a child with autism. Exposure to low to moderate levels of chlorpyrifos during pregnancy have also been associated with lower IQs and memory problems. California officials cited a recent reviewby a state panel on toxic air contaminants, which found the effects in children could occur at lower levels than previously understood. “The science is definitive,” said Blumenfeld, adding that he hoped the move would spur the federal government to take action. “This job really should have been done by the US EPA.” Activists have accused the Trump administration of backing the interests of DowDuPont, a chlorpyrifos manufacturer whose predecessor donated to the president.

More bald eagles found dead on Maryland’s Eastern Shore as authorities struggle to solve ‘systemic’ poisonings – State and federal wildlife officials are investigating the deaths of at least seven bald eagles and a great horned owl on the Eastern Shore this spring, saying they signal a “systemic” problem with use of an illegal poison on the Delmarva Peninsula. The birds died under similar circumstances as 13 eagles found dead near Federalsburg in 2016. A In the years since the eagles died near Federalsburg, the agency has interviewed “numerous” landowners, farmers and hunters, but none provided any insights into the poisonings. “It is hard to believe that not one person has information of persons placing a toxic poison that has killed no fewer than twenty eagles in these areas,” Maryland Natural Resources Police said the poisonings appear “to be a problem systemic to Maryland and specifically to the northern Delmarva Peninsula.” The first known poisoning this year occurred March 1 near Route 445 and Swan Creek Road in Chestertown, the authorities said. They found six bald eagles and a great horned owl there dead, along with other eagles that were treated for “significant injuries.” Since then, police said authorities have returned to the area “on several occasions” when landowners and property managers have reported finding additional eagle carcasses. Police did not say how many had been found. On April 3, authorities were called to a farm near Lewistown and Colby roads in the Cordova area of Talbot County where three bald eagles showed signs of poisoning after feeding on the carcass of a red fox. One of the eagles died at the scene; the others were treated and are in stable condition, police said. Police believe the deaths can be linked to bait laced with carbofuran, sold under the trade name Furadan. It is so toxic that the birds can be killed even by indirect exposure, if the poison was first consumed by an animal upon which a bird feeds.

Ninth Gray Whale in Two Months Washes Up Dead in Bay Area – A gray whale washed up dead on a San Francisco beach Monday morning, CNN reported, making the mammal the ninth to be found dead in the Bay Area this year. The whale was found on Ocean Beach and reported to the Marine Mammal Center at 6:30 a.m. Monday, theSan Francisco Chronicle reported. Scientists at the center will conduct a necropsy Tuesday to determine the cause of death. “The death of nine gray whales in the San Francisco Bay Area this year is a cause for serious concern and reinforces the need to continue to perform and share the results of these type of investigations with key decision-makers,” the center’s lead research pathologist Dr. Padraig Duignan said in a statement. The scientists do not yet know the age, sex or length of the whale found Monday. Eight other gray whales have washed up in the Bay Area in the past two months: three of them died after collisions with ships and four died of malnutrition, the center has concluded so far.”Their skeleton seems to stick out more and more,” Duignan told the told the Los Angeles Times earlier this month of the whales that died of starvation. Duignan said that the center usually sees only two or three dead gray whales a year. But the problem isn’t limited to the Bay Area. More gray whales this year appear to be suffering from malnutrition as they migrate up the Pacific Coast from Mexico to theArctic. Thirty-one dead whales have been found along the entire Pacific Coast, 21 in all of California. Living whales show signs of poor nutrition, and there are markedly fewer mother and calf pairs, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Salt-Water Fish Extinction Seen By 2048 – The apocalypse has a new date: 2048. That’s when the world’s oceans will be empty of fish, predicts an international team of ecologists and economists. The cause: the disappearance of species due to overfishing, pollution, habitat loss, and climate change. The study by Boris Worm, PhD, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, — with colleagues in the U.K., U.S., Sweden, and Panama — was an effort to understand what this loss of ocean species might mean to the world. The researchers analyzed several different kinds of data. Even to these ecology-minded scientists, the results were an unpleasant surprise. “I was shocked and disturbed by how consistent these trends are — beyond anything we suspected,” Worm says in a news release. “This isn’t predicted to happen. This is happening now,” study researcher Nicola Beaumont, PhD, of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, U.K., says in a news release. “If biodiversity continues to decline, the marine environment will not be able to sustain our way of life. Indeed, it may not be able to sustain our lives at all,” Beaumont adds. Already, 29% of edible fish and seafood species have declined by 90% — a drop that means the collapse of these fisheries. But the issue isn’t just having seafood on our plates. Ocean species filter toxins from the water. They protect shorelines. And they reduce the risks of algae blooms such as the red tide. “A large and increasing proportion of our population lives close to the coast; thus the loss of services such as flood control and waste detoxification can have disastrous consequences,” Worm and colleagues say.

Climate Change May Wipe Out Bengal Tigers, UN Analysis Finds – Climate change may wipe out the world’s only mangrove-living Bengal tiger population in just 50 years, according to a new analysis conducted by the United Nations. According to the report, extreme temperatures and sea level rise are threatening a 4,000-square-mile diverse ecosystem known as the Sundarbans. Located in southern coastal Bangladesh, nearly three-quarters of land here is just a few feet above sea level.”Spanning more than 10,000 square kilometers, the Sundarbans region of Bangladesh and India is the biggest mangrove forest on Earth, and also the most critical area for Bengal tiger survival,” said lead-author Sharif Mukul, an assistant professor at Independent University Bangladesh, in a press release earlier this year.Researchers used framework found in two climatic scenarios as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to compare computer simulations with current distribution data of land-use and landcover factoring in extreme weather events and sea-level rise. They found that climate change will have a “substantial negative impact” on habitats found in low-lying regions – and the animals that call them home. “Our model predicts that due to the combined effect of climate change and sea-level rise, there will be no suitable Bengal tiger habitat remaining in the Sundarbans by 2070,” wrote study authors in Science of the Total Environment.

U.N. biodiversity report says 1 million species face extinction. And humans will suffer as a result.– One million plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction, with alarming implications for human survival, according to a United Nations report released Monday. The landmark report by seven lead co-authors from universities across the world goes further than previous studies by directly linking the loss of species to human activity. It also shows how those losses are undermining food and water security, as well as human health. More plants and animals are threatened with extinction now than any other period in human history, it concludes. Nature’s current rate of decline is unparalleled, and the accelerating rate of extinctions “means grave impacts on people around the world are now likely,” it says. Nearly 150 authors from 50 nations worked for three years to compile the report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services – a panel with 132 member nations, including the United States. Representatives of each member nation signed off on the findings. The report emphasizes the effects humans have on animals that are key to their own survival. Pesticides sprayed by farmers kill pollinators such as bees and other insects will likely to have a devastating effect on crops. Homeowners contribute to the problem by purchasing “bug zappers” that target mosquitoes but also eliminate key pollinators such as butterflies and moths, as well as common flies that some animals rely on for food.

Nature crisis: Humans ‘threaten 1 million species with extinction’ – BBC — On land, in the seas, in the sky, the devastating impact of humans on nature is laid bare in a compelling UN report. One million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction. Nature everywhere is declining at a speed never previously seen and our need for ever more food and energy are the main drivers. These trends can be halted, the study says, but it will take “transformative change” in every aspect of how humans interact with nature. From the bees that pollinate our crops, to the forests that hold back flood waters, the report reveals how humans are ravaging the very ecosystems that support their societies. Three years in the making, this global assessment of nature draws on 15,000 reference materials, and has been compiled by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). It runs to 1,800 pages. The brief, 40-page “summary for policymakers”, published today at a meeting in Paris, is perhaps the most powerful indictment of how humans have treated their only home. It says that while the Earth has always suffered from the actions of humans through history, over the past 50 years, these scratches have become deep scars. The world’s population has doubled since 1970, the global economy has grown four-fold, while international trade has increased 10 times over. To feed, clothe and give energy to this burgeoning world, forests have been cleared at astonishing rates, especially in tropical areas. Between 1980 and 2000, 100 million hectares of tropical forest were lost, mainly from cattle ranching in South America and palm oil plantations in South East Asia. Faring worse than forests are wetlands, with only 13% of those present in 1700 still in existence in the year 2000.

Biodiversity crisis is about to put humanity at risk, UN scientists to warn -The world’s leading scientists will warn the planet’s life-support systems are approaching a danger zone for humanity when they release the results of the most comprehensive study of life on Earth ever undertaken. Up to 1m species are at risk of annihilation, many within decades, according to a leaked draft of the global assessment report, which has been compiled over three years by the UN’s leading research body on nature. The 1,800-page study will show people living today, as well as wildlife and future generations, are at risk unless urgent action is taken to reverse the loss of plants, insects and other creatures on which humanity depends for food, pollination, clean water and a stable climate. The final wording of the summary for policymakers is being finalised in Paris by a gathering of experts and government representatives before the launch on Monday, but the overall message is already clear, according to Robert Watson, the chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). “There is no question we are losing biodiversity at a truly unsustainable rate that will affect human wellbeing both for current and future generations,” he said. “We are in trouble if we don’t act, but there are a range of actions that can be taken to protect nature and meet human goals for health and development.” The authors hope the first global assessment of biodiversity in almost 15 years will push the nature crisis into the global spotlight in the same way climate breakdown has surged up the political agenda since the 1.5C report last year by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Like its predecessor, the report is a compilation of reams of academic studies, in this case on subjects ranging from ocean plankton and subterranean bacteria to honey bees and Amazonian botany. Following previous findings on the decimation of wildlife, the overview of the state of the world’s nature is expected to provide evidence that the world is facing a sixth wave of extinction. Unlike the past five, this one is human-driven. “All of our ecosystems are in trouble. This is the most comprehensive report on the state of the environment. It irrefutably confirms that nature is in steep decline.”

Nature’s Dangerous Decline ‘Unprecedented’; Species Extinction Rates ‘Accelerating’ –Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history – and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating, with grave impacts on people around the world now likely, warns a landmark new report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the summary of which was approved at the 7th session of the IPBES Plenary, meeting last week (29 April – 4 May) in Paris.“The overwhelming evidence of the IPBES Global Assessment, from a wide range of different fields of knowledge, presents an ominous picture,” said IPBES Chair, Sir Robert Watson. “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”“The Report also tells us that it is not too late to make a difference, but only if we start now at every level from local to global,” he said. The IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is the most comprehensive ever completed. It is the first intergovernmental Report of its kind and builds on the landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of 2005, introducing innovative ways of evaluating evidence. Based on the systematic review of about 15,000 scientific and government sources, the Report also draws (for the first time ever at this scale) on indigenous and local knowledge, particularly addressing issues relevant to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. The Report finds that around 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades, more than ever before in human history. The average abundance of native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20%, mostly since 1900. More than 40% of amphibian species, almost 33% of reefforming corals and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened. The picture is less clear for insect species, but available evidence supports a tentative estimate of 10% being threatened. At least 680 vertebrate species had been driven to extinction since the 16th century and more than 9% of all domesticated breeds of mammals used for food and agriculture had become extinct by 2016, with at least 1,000 more breeds still threatened.

Scientist to politicians: End oil, farm subsidies to save planet – A leading figure in the network of international experts who assess the twin threats posed by climate change and species loss, Robert Watson uses symbols to remind audiences that there is no special reason why human beings should not share the fate of the flightless bird, declared extinct at the end of the 17th century.But the British environmental scientist is not always so subtle.Hours before the launch in Paris on Monday of the largest scientific effort to document the spiraling worldwide loss of plants and animals, Watson urged governments to cut hundreds of billions of dollars of annual subsidies to companies in the farming, mining, fishing and fossil fuel sectors, whose operations are driving the extinction crisis.“We need to reduce and eliminate harmful subsidies,” said Watson, who served as chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a 130-nation scientific body, as it produced the report. “We really have to think about what is the economic system that will be much more sustainable in the future.” The report found that global subsidies of $345 billion for fossil fuels resulted in $5 trillion in overall costs, when damage to the natural world is taken into account. Most of the world’s tens of billions of fishing subsidies contributed to increasing or maintaining fishing fleets driving the steady destruction of fish stocks, the report found. The reports’ 145 expert authors urged governments to use money saved by cutting subsidies for habitat-razing industrial farming to incentivize agricultural techniques that could regenerate local ecosystems. This would help to both restore dwindling wildlife and sequester carbon emissions, the report found.

Insects Must Be Saved to Prevent Collapse of Humanity, Top Scientist Warns – A leading scientist warned Tuesday that the rapid decline of insects around the world poses an existential threat to humanity and action must be taken to rescue them “while we still have time.” Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and one of the world’s top entomologists, said in an interview with The Guardian that the importance of insects to the planet should spur humans to take immediate action against one of the major causes of insect decline – the climate crisis.”Insects are the glue in nature,” said Sverdrup-Thygeson. “We should save insects, if not for their sake, then for our own sake.”Falling insect populations around the world is cause for serious alarm, Sverdrup-Thygeson said, given the enormous impact these tiny creatures have on the global ecosystem.”I have read pretty much every study in English and I haven’t seen a single one where entomologists don’t believe the main message that a lot of insect species are definitely declining,” said Sverdrup-Thygeson. “When you throw all the pesticides and climate change on top of that, it is not very cool to be an insect today.”If this decline continues unabated, Sverdrup-Thygeson warned, soon “it will not be fun to be a human on this planet either.””[I]t will make it even more difficult than today to get enough food for the human population of the planet, to get good health and freshwater for everybody,” said Sverdrup-Thygeson. “That should be a huge motivation for doing something while we still have time.””You can pull out some threads,” she added, “but at some stage the whole fabric unravels and then we will really see the consequences.” Sverdrup-Thygeson’s call to action came after the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released a comprehensive global biodiversity report, which warned that human activity has pushed a million plant and animal species to the brink of extinction. According to the report, “available evidence supports a tentative estimate of 10 percent [of insect species] being threatened” by the climate crisis.

How Trump Could Make the Extinction Crisis Even Worse – Despite an alarming UN report that warns one million plant and animal species face extinction due to human activity, the Trump administration is poised to hasten species on their path to extinction by eroding criticalwildlife protections. The UN’s landmark 1,500-page study, announced this week, warns that if we continue to destroy natural landscapes at rates “unprecedented in human history,” massive biodiversity loss will undermine food security, access to clean water and sources of modern medicine by 2050. The report’s findings come amid efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle the most powerful legal tool we have for protecting imperiled wildlife in the U.S.: the Endangered Species Act. The rollbacks, first proposed by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt last summer, would weaken protections that shield the biodiversity the report warns is critical to the survival of all life on Earth. The administration’s move directly contradicts the UN report’s conclusion that biodiversity is essential to life as we know it. The proposed changes would incorporate economic considerations into decisions about whether to protect species on the brink of extinction. The proposal also dismantles protections against hunting and trapping for species newly listed as threatened. It also alters the requirement that agencies consult with scientists before approving potentially harmful permits for development, mining, clear-cutting and other destructive activities. These steps follow President Trump’s agenda of prioritizing energy dominance and giving handouts to the fossil fuel industry, regardless of the damage to our nation’s endangered biodiversity. “The UN report shows that if we’re serious about protecting species not just for their own worth, but in order to save ourselves, we need to increase protections rather than decrease them,” said Drew Caputo, Earthjustice vice president of litigation for lands, wildlife andoceans. “The administration’s attempt to gut the Endangered Species Act is, as this report shows, a full-speed-ahead course of action in exactly the wrong direction. It’s also totally illegal. If they finalize those rollbacks, we’ll see them in court.”

Sanders Proposes Major Changes to Food Production System – Back on the campaign trail in Iowa over the weekend, 2020 Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders unveiled a major policy vision that includes breaking up powerful agricultureconglomerates as a way to save small farmers and rural communities who he says are facing a “major, major crisis.” Before delivering a speech Sunday at fairgrounds in the town of Osage, Sanders told the Des Moines Register in an interview on Friday that “we have got to make a decision as to whether or not we are comfortable with seeing fewer and fewer large agribusiness industries control commodity after commodity” – a dynamic, he said, he is not “happy about” and one that is undermining rural communities across the country. According to the newspaper: During his first Iowa trip in early March, [Sanders] targeted “factory farming” and derided the concentration of players from the corn seed market to pork production. Sunday, he plans to expand on those issues and also talk about agriculture’s connection to water quality and globalclimate change. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, often seen as competing for the same slice of liberal voters as Sanders, released her own agricultural policy in late March. She specifically called for federal regulators to break up Tyson, Dow-DuPont and Bayer-Monsanto – some of the key players in Iowa’s ag economy. Asked by the newspaper whether the nation could realistically move back to a system of smaller, family farms, Sanders said he didn’t “think we’re going to go back to the 1880s,” but did say “the heart of rural America is agriculture” and that his campaign intends to focus more on the issue of rural issues and farming in 2020 than they did when he first ran in 2016. According to the newspaper, Sanders said it is time for the nation to push for major changes to the entire foodproduction system. As Bill Neidhardt, spokesperson for the campaign, put it, Sanders believes the “rural way of life needs to be preserved both in his home state of Vermont and across Iowa,” and in order to achieve that, the senator’s speech – addressing corporate control over agriculture, fair trade deals, support for new farmers, climate change, clean water, rural education, rural health care and immigration – is a “call for major, structural changes to the agricultural economy.”

Green Revolution: Washington State To Allow Composting Of Human Beings – It doesn’t get much greener than this. Staking his presidential run on climate change, the Governor of Washington is set to sign a bill legalizing composting of deceased humans. An especially high percentage of the deceased in Washington are cremated, so this alternative will cut down on carbon emissions. Instead, family members can pay around $5,500 to turn their loved ones into compost, and use the composted-remains to plant a tree. Hell, why not throw it right into the vegetable garden. Then your loved ones become a part of you.Friendly reminder though, soylent green is people. Click here to read the full story.

UN Decides to Control Global Plastic Waste Dumping – Today, 187 countries took a major step forward in curbing the plastic waste crisis by adding plastic to the Basel Convention, a treaty that controls the movement of hazardous waste from one country to another. The amendments require exporters to obtain the consent of receiving countries before shipping most contaminated, mixed, or unrecyclable plastic waste, providing an important tool for countries in the Global South to stop the dumping of unwanted plastic waste into their country.After China banned imports of most plastic waste in 2018, developing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia, have received a huge influx of contaminated and mixed plastic wastes that are difficult or even impossible to recycle. Norway’s proposed amendments to the Basel Convention provides countries the right to refuse unwanted or unmanageable plastic waste. The decision reflects a growing recognition around the world of the toxic impacts of plastic and the plastic waste trade. The majority of countries expressed their support for the proposal and over one million people globally signed two public petitions from Avaaz and SumOfUs. Yet even amidst this overwhelming support, there were a few vocal outliers who opposed listing plastic under Annex II of the Basel Convention. These included the United States, the largest exporter of plastic waste in the world; the American Chemistry Council, a prominent petrochemical industry lobbying group; and the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, a business association largely comprised of waste brokers. As the United States is not a party to the Basel Convention, it will be banned from trading plastic waste with developing countries that are Basel Parties but not part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

U.S. abstains from supporting Basel Convention plastics proposal – Between reports on the international plastic trade’s devastatingcosts in Southeast Asia and revelations of rampant scrap smuggling into Malaysia, even the most casual of plastic watchers know what’s up: the post-China global scrap market is in a state of ongoing turmoil, and developing countries are bearing the brunt of the consequences. It’s not all doom and gloom, however – as Monica Wilson, associate director of GAIA’s U.S. office, noted at the WasteExpo conference this week, “The crisis is a remarkable opportunity – it’s in crisis that we can make the biggest shifts.” Some of those shifts could be coming from Geneva, Switzerland this week, where signatories of the Basel Convention have gathered to discuss updates to the hazardous waste treaty – including, as reported by Reuters, a bold Norwegian proposal to monitor and restrict the export of plastics from developed to less developed countries. If passed, the amendment would require prior informed consent from importing countries before plastic scrap can be exported into their territory, as well as detailed information from the exporting country regarding the volume and type of waste.”The greatest burden of plastic waste entering the sea is likely to arise where waste collection systems are ineffective or even non-existent,” the amendment application states. “Developing countries in particular may face challenges in managing the rapidly growing volume of plastic waste … By explicitly including plastic waste in the scope of the Basel Convention, these waste streams can be controlled, and mismanagement of plastic waste avoided.” According to campaigners, the proposal enjoys support from the vast majority of member countries. Conspicuously absent, however, is the U.S.”[The amendment] … would only allow the U.S. to export plastic waste that is already sorted, cleaned and ready for recycling,” David Azoulay, director of the Center for International Environmental Law’s Environmental Health Program, told Reuters. “Which is exactly the type of waste they don’t send around because it has value.”

Deadly Flooding From Michigan to the South Damages Homes, Sends Mississippi River to 157-Year-High in Davenport, Iowa – Deadly flooding from heavy rains and snow melt continued to plague areas from Michigan to the South on Saturday. The Mississippi River ticked above levels reached in the historic 1993 flood in Davenport, Iowa, making it the highest level there in 157 years. The city’s downtown remained under water Friday, days after a temporary levee gave way and flooded the city that does not have a permanent levee or floodwall, the Associated Press reports. Jon Erdman, weather.com senior meteorologist, noted that the Mississippi River at Rock Island, Illinois, across the river from Davenport, first rose above flood stage on March 15 as water from melting snow in upstream tributaries flowed into the Mississippi River. “Rounds of additional rain in Iowa and Illinois and a melt of snow cover from some April storms pushed the river higher since late April,” Erdman added. On Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard closed a five-mile stretch of the Mississippi River near St. Louis to boat and barge traffic, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency Thursday for Wayne County after this week’s heavy rains left widespread flooding, the AP reports. Wayne County Executive Warren Evans said an estimated 3,000 homes in the county, including homes in Detroit, have been damaged by the flooding that also forced authorities to close a stretch of the Southfield Freeway in both directions.All along the Mississippi River, communities continue to sandbag in an attempt to stave off floodwaters. Grafton Mayor Rick Eberlin told reporters roads were closing around the town that is 40 miles north of St. Louis and has no flood walls or levees. He noted that waters were beginning to encroach the town hall, the AP reported. “We are at our wits end,” Eberlin said. “We are totally unprotected.” About 40 miles northwest of St. Louis, the towns of Winfield and Foley saw flash flooding after a levee overtopped, according to emergency personnel.In Hannibal, Missouri, the Mississippi is expected to crest Friday afternoon at the third-highest level on records, the Hannibal Courier-Post reports. The city, which issued a state of emergency declaration Wednesday morning, plans to raise the height of flood gates and the levee will be raised as a precaution. At least seven deaths are attributed to this week’s flooding and severe weather.

Evacuations ordered following levee breaches along Mississippi River north of St. Louis – Heavy flooding continued inundating towns and farmland along rivers in the Midwest on Monday. The swollen Mississippi River forced road closures and forced people from their homes as high water levels are making their way downstream.The National Weather Service (NWS) issued flash flood watches and flood warnings Monday for much of eastern Kansas and western Missouri. Flood warnings were also issued for areas along rivers in the central U.S, namely the Mississippi River, which breached levees in multiple places on Monday.Local news cameras captured dramatic aerial images of the moment floodwaters breached a levee in St. Charles County. Footage of the raging water surging over the Elm Point Levee in St. Charles County astounded those watching in the KSDK newsroom as one of the station’s news choppers broadcast images back to the control room. The station posted the video of the breach on Twitter. According to KSDK, the Elm Point Levee is situated between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, both of which are experiencing flooding.FOX2 posted similar footage on social media showing the Elm Point breach along with a breach of the levee at the nearby Sand Fort Creek. Raw footage sent back from the FOX2 news chopper showed rising floodwaters inundating various buildings, including one that appeared to be leaking oil.St. Charles County officials advised West Alton residents to evacuate due to the current Mississippi River crest projection of 35.5 feet on Monday. While the water levels in some areas along the Mississippi river are falling, many communities saw continued cresting in Missouri, according to the NWS office in St. Louis. About 150 people were displaced Sunday following a levee breach in St. Charles, Missouri.

Midwest downpours prompt more evacuations, flash flood fears – Rain swamping the nation’s midsection forced people from their homes in Kansas, stranded dozens of Texas children at school overnight and strained levees along the surging Mississippi River in Illinois, Missouri and elsewhere Wednesday prompting yet more flash flood concerns. The flooding began in earnest in March, causing billions of dollars of damage to farmland, homes and businesses across the Midwest. Rivers in many communities have been above flood stage for more than six weeks following waves of heavy rain. Some parts of Kansas received up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) from Tuesday through Wednesday morning, said Kelly Butler, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Wichita. She described that as a “ridiculous amount of water” on top of grounds that already were saturated by days of rains. Several Kansas districts canceled classes, and numerous water rescues were reported. Emergency management officials began evacuating people from their homes near the Kansas college town of Manhattan around 5 a.m. Wednesday as Wildcat Creek overflowed its banks. The Cottonwood River spilled over in Marion County, prompting more evacuations and the surging Slate Creek also forced people from their homes in Wellington and closed a stretch of the Kansas Turnpike near the Oklahoma border. Flash flood watches also are in effect in Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, as well as flood warnings along the Mississippi River. While the river was slowly going down from St. Louis and to the north, it continued rising in southern Missouri and southern Illinois. The Mississippi was nearing an expected 44-foot (13.5-meter) crest in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, 12 feet (3.5 meters) above technical flood stage. A concrete floodwall there protects the historic downtown, but low-lying areas of Cape Girardeau and neighboring communities were underwater. The Illinois River remained nearly 10 feet (3 meters) above flood stage at Peoria, Illinois, where sandbags were helping to fortify downtown. One major concern in Peoria and other Illinois River towns was that the water level is expected to remain extraordinarily high into next week. Other parts of the country also were dealing with flooding…

Heartland Heartache Hits Record- Mississippi River At Major Flood Stage For 41 Days & Counting – Thousands of farmers in the Midwest have been waiting for a very long time for floodwaters to recede so that they can finally plant some crops, but instead more rain just keeps on coming.As you will see below, it is being reported that the Mississippi River has now been at major flood stage for 41 days in a row, and a lot more rain is coming this week. Meteorologists are warning us that major flooding may extend into June, and that means that many farmers will not be able to plant crops at all this year. Unfortunately, as global weather patterns continue to shift many believe that what we are witnessing this year may become the “new normal” along the Mississippi River. . The following comes from USA Today…The Mississippi River crested at higher levels than it ever had in the past. That was at 22.7 feet in Davenport, Iowa, on Thursday, a record that hadn’t been matched since records began to be kept in 1862, said Loveland. That is almost eight feet above flood stage.In Rock Island, Illinois, the Mississippi set a record level of 22.7 feet, breaking the record set on July 9, 1993, during the Great Flood of 1993.And according to NPR, the Mississippi has now been at major flood stage for 41 days in a row…The Mississippi River has been at major flood stage for 41 days and counting, and this week a temporary wall failed, sending water rushing into several blocks of downtown Davenport, Iowa.I know that many Americans that live on the east and west coasts don’t really care about what goes on in the middle of the country, but this is a truly historic disaster. At this point the flooding is so bad that authorities have actually decided to close the Mississippi River to all vessel traffic at St. Louis…As of Friday afternoon, the Mississippi River was closed to all vessel traffic at St. Louis. The U.S. Coast Guard shut down the river for a five-mile stretch, citing not only the extremely high water but also the swift current.The river is already more than 8 feet above flood stage at St. Louis and expected to rise another 4 feet by Monday. Closure of river traffic at one of the largest cities on the Mississippi is a huge blow for commerce since many goods are shipped on barges up and down the river.

India cyclone kills at least 33, hundreds of thousands homeless (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless after a cyclone packing winds of about 200 km per hour slammed into eastern India, ripping out tin roofs and destroying power and telecom lines, officials said on Sunday. At least 33 people were killed after cyclone Fani struck the state of Odisha on Friday but a million people emerged unscathed after they moved into storm shelter ahead of landfall. The death toll could have been much greater if not for the massive evacuation in the days before the storm made landfall, officials said. The seaside temple town of Puri, which lay directly in the path of Fani, suffered extensive damage as winds gusting up to 200 kph (124 mph) tore off tin roofs, snapped power lines, and uprooted trees on Friday. “The cyclone has killed 21 people in Puri and about 300 people are injured,” Brajabandhu Dash, medical officer at Puri, told Reuters. Earlier, 12 deaths were reported from other parts of the state. The depression over the Western Meghalaya and adjoining Bangladesh has weakened, and will become insignificant in the next 24 hours, India’s met department said on Twitter early on Sunday. According to preliminary reports, Fani damaged power infrastructure worth more than 12 billion rupees ($173.7 million) and the authorities are trying to restore electricity supply for emergency services, another official said. More than 60,000 people including officials and volunteers were involved in relief operations, said special relief commissioner Bishnupada Sethi, who monitored the evacuation. The relief effort used sirens, loudspeakers and sent more than 20 million mobile messages to the targeted people, he said. The cyclone season in the Bay of Bengal can last from April to December, and storms can be deadly. In 1999, a super-cyclone battered the coast of Odisha for 30 hours, killing 10,000 people. Fani was the strongest summer cyclone in 43 years to hit Odisha, disrupting water supplies and transport links, the state’s chief minister Naveen Patnaik said in a statement. “We are in the process of restoring physical infrastructure,” he told reporters.

Cyclone Fani Kills at Least 38, Leaves Hundreds of Thousands Homeless in India and Bangladesh – Dozens are dead and hundreds of thousands homeless after the strongest cyclone to hit the Indian state of Odisha in 43 years, Reuters reported Sunday. The powerful cyclone made landfall Friday morning near the Eastern Indian town of Puri with the strength of a category 3 hurricane, according to AccuWeather. The storm did major damage to the town, felling trees, blowing off roofs and destroying power lines, Reuters said. At least 38 people have died in Odisha, 25 of them in the Puri district, The Times of India reported Sunday. Another dozen people died when the storm moved on to Bangladesh as a tropical depression Saturday, AFP reported. “Six people died after they were hit by falling trees or collapsed walls, and six have died from lightning,” Bangladeshi disaster official Benazir Ahmed told AFP. However, the death toll could have been much higher if officials had not evacuated 1.2 million people in Odisha and more than 1.6 million people in Bangladesh ahead of the storm. Authorities had been preparing an evacuation plan since a cyclone in 1999 killed thousands in the region, The New York Times reported. However, in both countries survivors face a daunting recovery process.Flooding inundated entire villages in both Odisha and Bangladesh and destroyed livelihoods, including damaging thousands of acres of crops in the latter country. “See, our house is destroyed, our boat is destroyed – what can we do?” 21-year-old Puri fisherman Pikki Gopi told The New York Times. “We don’t have any place to work, eat or sleep. We have nothing to do.” Survivors were also concerned about food, AccuWeather reported, since the storm destroyed many grocery stores and food supplies. It also destroyed power lines and communications networks in parts of Odisha, including Puri, where officials said it would take at least a week to restore power. Patnaik told the Hindustan Times that relief efforts were made more difficult by the rarity of the storm. “Fani is one of the rarest of rare cyclones – the first to hit in 43 years and one of three to hit in 150 years. Because of the rarity, the prediction and tracking of the cyclone was challenging. In 24 hours, one was not sure of the trajectory it was going to take. Fani after landfall, tore apart the infrastructure, especially power, telecom and water supply, ” Patnaik said.

The Readers’ Editor writes: India is in the midst of a water crisis. Why isn’t it an election issue? Even before the unrelenting summer sun began to scorch the earth, water was beginning to run out in many parts of India. With the rains still weeks away, the country is facing a serious water crisis. You would not know this if you listened to election speeches as politicians hurtle around the country seeking votes. While Narendra Modi talks of Pulwama, Balakot, Masood Azhar, Pakistan and obsessively about Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi speaks of jobs, farmers, the economy, the Rafale controversy, and obsessively about Narendra Modi. The water problem does not feature in their list of concerns. Yet, without water there can be no life. The shortage of water is a perennial problem. It cannot be solved overnight. But do politicians even realise that with climate change and altering weather cycles, the crisis is worsening? Heightened, of course, by the sheer mismanagement of a life-supporting resource by successive governments. Not surprisingly, water, or rather its absence, is beginning to feature in more than one election-related story in the last weeks. Even as we finally edge towards the end of this massively prolonged election process, it is worthwhile to spend some time away from the name-calling and clamour of election campaigns to heed the water stories being reported.

Extreme Events in the Himalayan Region: Are We Prepared for the Big One? The Himalaya form a dynamic, changing landscape. The product of millions of years of crustal shortening, they carries in their bowels immense tectonic stresses. It is evident that contrasting tectonic and climatic agendas made this range what it is. The Himalaya were lifted up to their great heights by the force of the Indian plate colliding with the Eurasian one, and their growth was – and is – counterbalanced by erosional forces unleashed by the annual summer monsoons and the winter rains. In effect, there exists a dynamic balance between the vertical forces that hold them up and the opposing erosional forces that wear them down. Some of these opposing forces include earthquakes, avalanches and floods, and they can be and often are disastrous for those living on the Himalaya’s fringes. The trend in annual losses caused by natural disasters is markedly upward. This appears to be related to more people and infrastructure being exposed to natural disasters, and the attendant risk, the underlying reasons for which are population growth and a greater number of people living in vulnerable areas. It is clear that massive efforts have to be mounted, together with sound scientific strategies for mitigation, if we are to deal better with disasters. One of our major concerns now should be the 2,500-km-long Himalayan plate boundary that can generate powerful earthquakes. There is now consensus among scientists that there are deficits in slips in certain segments of the Himalayan arc (for example, the central Himalaya) that are not commensurate with the accumulation of elastic strain. In other words, areas that haven’t experienced great quakes for several years now have only been accumulating stress and are likelier to de-stress in the future with a greater quake, of magnitude 8.5 or higher. Are we prepared for such extreme events in the Himalayan region?

NASA Issues A Warning- Meteorites Are A Threat To The Earth! – On Monday, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine warned that meteors that could destroy an entire state in the United States and that they are a real threat to Earth. Bridenstine also claimed that not enough people are taking his warnings seriously enough. Speaking at the Planetary Defense Conference in Washington, D.C., Bridenstine said: “This is not about Hollywood, this is not about movies, this is about ultimately protecting the only planet we know right now to host life!” And it’s not being taken seriously, according to a report by WRCBTV. Bridenstine used the meteorite that exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in 2013 as an example of just how dangerous these space rocks could be to the Earth. The Chelyabinsk meteor had “30 times the energy of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima” and injured around 1,500 people. Just 16 hours after the crash, NASA detected an even larger object that approached the earth but did not actually land on it, he revealed. “I wish I could tell you that these events are exceptionally unique, but they are not,” Bridenstine said. “These events are not rare – they happen. It’s up to us to make sure that we are characterizing, detecting, tracking all of the near-Earth objects that could be a threat to the world.”

A Portion Of The World’s Largest Ice Shelf Is Melting At A Ridiculously High Rate – A portion of the world’s largest ice shelf is melting 10 times faster than the overall ice shelf average due to warming surface water, according to a new report that emphasizes the impact such warming has on ice melt. Researchers studying data taken at Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf over the last four years reported on Monday that warming ocean water that’s heated by the sun is causing the rapid melting that intensifies risks of long-term rising sea levels. The findings, which were discovered in part by researchers at the University of Cambridge, were published in the journal Nature Geoscience. “The stability of ice shelves is generally thought to be related to their exposure to warm deep ocean water, but we’ve found that solar heated surface water also plays a crucial role in melting ice shelves,” the report’s leading author, Craig Stewart from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, said in a release. The area with higher melt rates was found beneath the shelf where the ice pushes against Ross Island. This pressure slows the flow of the entire ice shelf, according to the university’s release. Though the ice shelf is considered to be relatively stable, the new findings suggest that it may be more vulnerable than previously believed. The ice shelf, which is about the size of France, stabilizes the West Antarctic ice sheet and blocks ice that flows into it from some of the world’s largest glaciers. Should it weaken, it could significantly increase the risk of instability in surrounding glaciers, including those more than 500 miles away, and lead to rising sea levels of several meters or more, the researchers warned.

Rapid permafrost thaw unrecognized threat to landscape, global warming researcher warns – A “sleeping giant” hidden in permafrost soils in Canada and other northern regions worldwide will have important consequences for global warming, says a new report led by University of Guelph scientist Merritt Turetsky. Scientists have long studied how gradual permafrost thaw occurring over decades in centimetres of surface soils will influence carbon release to the atmosphere. But Turetsky and an international team of researchers are looking at something very different: rapid collapse of permafrost that can transform the landscape in mere months through subsidence, flooding and landslides. The team discusses the importance of abrupt thaw for carbon release estimates, northern ways of living and climate policy in a commentary in the May 2 issue of Nature. Permafrost affects about one-quarter of land in the northern hemisphere. These frozen soils lock up carbon in biomass from dead plants, animals and microbes over millennia, preventing its breakdown and keeping it out of the atmosphere. As a result, permafrost region soils now hold twice as much carbon — about 1.6 trillion tonnes — as is contained in the atmosphere. “This abrupt thaw is changing forested ecosystems to thaw lakes and wetlands, resulting in a wholesale transformation of the landscape that not only impacts carbon feedbacks to climate but is also altering wildlife habitat and damaging infrastructure.” Describing the formation of thaw lakes and landslides triggering mass movement of soil and sediment into rivers and streams, Turetsky adds: “It’s happening faster than anyone predicted. We show that abrupt permafrost thawing affects less than 20 per cent of the permafrost region, but carbon emissions from this relatively small region have the potential to double the climate feedback associated with permafrost thawing.” In addition, abrupt thaw releases more methane — a stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide — than does gradual thaw. The researchers say rapid permafrost collapse will have local, national and international effects, from altering traditional travel and hunting patterns in the North, to causing costly infrastructure damage to roads and rail lines, to making it even more difficult to meet emission targets intended to limit global warming.

US climate objections sink Arctic Council accord in Finland – US objections to wording on climate change prevented Arctic nations signing a joint statement at a summit in Finland, delegates said. It is the first time such a statement has been cancelled since the Arctic Council was set up in 1996. A Finnish delegate, Timo Koivurova, said “the others felt they could not water down climate change sentences”. There is international concern that Arctic temperatures are rising twice as fast as in the rest of the world. On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed the forum in Rovaniemi, northern Finland, with a speech welcoming the melting of Arctic sea ice, rather than expressing alarm about it. “Steady reductions in sea ice are opening new passageways and new opportunities for trade,” he said. “This could potentially slash the time it takes to travel between Asia and the West by as much as 20 days.” “Arctic sea lanes could become the 21st-Century Suez and Panama Canals,” Mr Pompeo said. At short notice he cancelled talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Tuesday, in a surprise move. Scientists and environmental groups warn that the retreat of Arctic sea ice threatens polar bears and marine species, but also contributes to rising sea levels, adding to the risk of coastal flooding. They also warn of a major pollution risk if energy and transport firms find it easier to exploit the pristine Arctic wilderness. The Arctic Council consists of the United States, Canada, Russia, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland. It meets every two years to address economic and environmental challenges in the Arctic. Sources at the forum told Reuters news agency that the US shunned the joint statement because of wording stating that climate change posed a serious threat to the Arctic.

Pompeo says shrinking Arctic sea ice presents ‘new opportunities for trade’ – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that the Arctic, a region that has been significantly impacted by climate change, presents “opportunity and abundance” when it comes to economic opportunity. “The Arctic is at the forefront of opportunity and abundance,” Pompeo said at a meeting of the Arctic Council in Finland, according to reports. “It houses 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil, 30 percent of its undiscovered gas, an abundance of uranium, rare earth minerals, gold, diamonds, and millions of square miles of untapped resources, fisheries galore.”Pompeo added that “steady reductions in sea ice are opening new passageways and new opportunities for trade,” noting that the developments could “potentially slash the time it takes to travel between Asia and the West by as much as 20 days.””Arctic sea lanes could become the 21st century Suez and Panama Canals,” he stated. Pompeo’s speech mainly focused on the threats the Trump administration believes Russia and China pose in the Arctic. He never mentioned the term “climate change,” according to The Associated Press. Rather, Pompeo said that Trump was committed “to leveraging resources in environmentally responsible ways.” “America is the world’s leader in caring for the environment,” Pompeo added, pointing to the reduction in energy-related CO2 and black carbon emissions in the U.S. CNN, citing the U.S. Global Change Research Program, reported that shrinking levels of sea ice cause warmer temperatures throughout the globe, leading to expedited sea ice melting. Pompeo’s remarks also come as scientists issue increasingly dire warnings about the potential threats posed by climate change. The oldest and most robust sea ice in the Arctic began breaking for the first time in reported history last year, according to The Guardian.

Hands off the Arctic: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warns China & Russia away from the north — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned China and Russia to “respect our interests” in the Arctic, or face the consequences. Frozen and desolate, the Arctic region looks set to be the next frontier for competition between the US, Russia, and China. Speaking at a meeting of the Arctic Council in Finland on Monday, Pompeo launched a broadside against the US’ competitors in the region, particularly China. “Arctic seaways could become the 21st century Suez and Panama canals,” America’s top diplomat stated. “China is already developing shipping lanes in the Arctic Ocean. This is part of a very familiar pattern. Beijing attempts to develop critical infrastructure using Chinese money, Chinese companies and Chinese workers, in some cases to establish a permanent Chinese security presence.” Although China holds observer status on the Arctic Council, the country is 900 miles from the Arctic Ocean. Nevertheless, melting polar ice means viable sea routes across the region will soon be open, and Beijing has given these consideration in its Maritime Silk Road infrastructure plan. During a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed interest in linking Russia’s Northern Sea Route with China’s Maritime Silk Road. Such a route could slash shipping times from China to the West by several weeks.Where Beijing sees a business opportunity, Pompeo sees a threat.“China’s pattern of aggressive behavior elsewhere should inform what we do, and how it might treat the Arctic,” he warned.

Demanding Urgent Action on Climate Emergency, Youth Lock Their Necks to UK Parliament’s Gates – A small group of youth activists locked their necks to the U.K. Parliament’s gates Friday to demand urgent government action to address the global climate crisis while young people worldwide took to the streets as part of the weekly school climate strike. BREAKING – @XrYouth lock their necks to Parliament Square today to demand that after passing the motion to declare an environment and climate emergency the UK government now halts biodiversity loss, goes net #ZeroCarbon2025 and create a #CitizensAssembly.pic.twitter.com/xWKnMImRku – Extinction Rebellion (@ExtinctionR) May 3, 2019 The demonstration came two days after Parliament made history by passing a motion put forth by Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn to declare an environment and climate emergency.But, as Extinction Rebellion London said on Twitter, “a declaration is not enough.””Desperate times call for desperate measures,” 14 members of Extinction Rebellion Youth – aged 13 to 23 – wrote in a letter to Parliament on Friday, detailing why they decided to lock themselves to the gates. “The government’s inaction up to this point has compelled us to act, and although we do not want to be doing this, we feel we have no choice.”

Anti-Protest Legislation Is Threatening Our Climate – We only have about a decade to reverse course on the climate crisis. Activism opposing fossil fuel pipelines is needed more than ever. But activists are facing threats to their right to protest in state legislaturesacross the country. Lawmakers are introducing legislation to restrict the right to protest. These bills are often modeled on resolutions drafted by companies and passed through groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the secretive group of corporate lobbyists trying to rewrite state laws to benefit corporations over people, and are usually supported by law enforcement groups. The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law has been tracking these bills where you can see nearly 100 have been introduced, so far. There are several categories of bills that have been introduced and in some cases, enacted: anti-boycott legislation, bills that limit collective bargaining, bills that increase criminal penalties for protests against fossil fuel pipelines, bills that enhance criminal penalties for highway shut down protests, bills restricting the rights of students to oppose hate speech college campuses, and more. Each category of bills attempts to criminalize a particular movement tactic, often to increase criminal penalties for already illegal conduct. The trend emerged in 2015 and was first used against the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement in support of the Palestinian rights. Anti-boycott legislation has been introduced, and in some cases enacted, on the federal level and in all but nine states. Another example is following large wildcat strikes in several states, bills have been introduced to limit the collective bargaining rights of public sector teachers unions. Bills targeting campus speech have been filed in response to student protests against white supremacists. And anti-mask wearing laws – which historically were designed to target the Klan – are now used to target anti-fascists. Fossil fuel pipeline protests, like we saw at Standing Rock and elsewhere, have been another target of those interested in passing these bills. The bills claim to protect “critical infrastructure” but are actually used to criminalize Water Protectors and environmental activism. The first of these bills was introduced and enacted in Oklahoma in 2017, a state with significant oil and gas interests, and the second largest Indigenous population in the country. When voting on these laws, Oklahoma legislators made clearthat these bills were a direct response to pipeline protests. Since that time, these bills have been introduced in nearly two dozen states, and enacted in five, though several more states are currently considering these bills.

McConnell: Senate won’t take up bill preventing US withdrawal from Paris deal – Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that the Senate will not take up a House bill that would force President Trump to keep the U.S. in the Paris climate agreement. “This futile gesture to handcuff the U.S. economy through the ill-fated Paris deal will go nowhere here in the Senate,” McConnell said from the Senate floor. “We’re in the business of actually helping middle-class families, not inventing new obstacles to throw in their paths.” His comments came shortly before the House passed a measure that would prevent the administration from using funding to withdraw from the 2015 deal. Though the legislation easily passed the House, McConnell’s comments underscore that the bill is dead on arrival in the GOP-controlled Senate. McConnell has touted his ability to block House-passed legislation, calling himself the “Grim Reaper” for progressive policy ideas. “Tons of red tape and real economic damage for zero measurable effect. That’s my friends across the aisle in a nutshell on this issue,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday.

Students are terrified of climate change. Some school boards say it’s too political to talk about – Burning book pages aren’t supposed to rain from the sky. But for kids growing up in the age of climate change, it’s now a familiar sight. “Sonoma County kids know that when there’s a big wildfire, there are pieces of paper that fall out of the sky,” said Park Guthrie, who teaches sixth grade at a school in Occidental, California. Loose pages of paper may catch fire and get carried away by the wind. When the Tubbs Fire ravaged the area in November of 2017, Guthrie’s son Kai, then a high school freshman, found pieces of paper with Bible quotes floating in the air in the ravaged Coffey Park. This is the new normal for kids around the country – and Guthrie and his son believe it should be a wakeup call for elected leaders. Guthrie founded Schools for Climate Action (S4CA) in 2017, shortly before the devastating Tubb fire. Since then, a growing wave of climate-related disasters – from increasing school closures due to poor air quality, to dangerous fires, to the dragging drought – have continued, in his words, to “traumatize the community.” In an effort to undo some of that trauma, Guthrie and his son knew they had to act. Guthrie began to push for increased climate awareness in schools, among student groups and in educational groups across the state, encouraging school boards to sign climate resolutions to pressure Congress to take action. Guthrie found a sympathetic ear in California in Chris Ungar, a 19-year school board veteran from the San Luis Coastal Unified School district in San Luis Obispo. Ungar had already been thinking about climate change after students presented his board with a resolution of their own. “Ungar helped move the fight beyond California. He took the issue to the quarterly meeting of the Pacific regional caucus of the National School Boards Association, which represents state school boards around the country and helps them lobby lawmakers on educational issues. Inspired by this conversation, the Pacific committee drafted a proposal for the larger national body, specifically advocating for disaster relief funding, urging a reduction in carbon emissions, and encouraging states to adopt climate change curriculum.

Activist Greta Thunberg ignites climate action among European students – 13-year-old Nikita Shulga co-founded a project in Ukraine that turned food scraps from his school canteen into organic fertiliser to create healthy soils. British student Ayrton Cable was only eight when he learnt about homelessness, putting him on a path to activism and establishing the Water, Air, and Food Awards (WAFA) for youths. Giorgia Mira, 16, was mocked when, inspired by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, she started climate protests outside her school in southern Italy, but believes she is slowly changing the minds of both her peers and teachers. They are all part of the nearly four dozen teenagers who called on adults to solve the problems of climate change and hunger without further delay at a four-day food industry conference this week in the Italian city of Milan. “We should solve these problems, not close our eyes … because if you don’t do it, then nothing changes,” Sophia-Christina Borisyuk, 13, Shulga’s former classmate who co-founded the composting project, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “If we don’t do anything, after 200, 300 or even 100 years, we all die because we use a lot of minerals and other resources but we don’t replenish,” added Shulga, whose project has spread to 200 schools all over Ukraine. Their goal is to get all of Ukraine’s 17,000 schools to produce their own compost. Youth activism has been under the spotlight since Thunberg, 16, shot to prominence last year for weekly protests on the cobblestones in front of Stockholm’s Parliament House, holding a “school strike for climate” sign.Thousands of students around the world have since copied her protest for climate action and youth organisations have launched strikes involving students in more than 40 countries. “These few years are crucial … action needs to be taken now,” said Cable, now 16, referring to scientists’ warning that the world has about 12 years left to clean up its energy system or face potentially catastrophic consequences.WAFA Youth has engaged 100,000 students from more than 1,000 schools in 12 countries to look at issues around water security, said Cable, who has campaigned against wide-ranging issues including hunger, factory farming and cyber bullying.

Ireland Becomes Second Country to Declare Climate Emergency – (NB: third; Scotland was first) The Republic of Ireland became the second country in the world to declare a climate emergency Thursday,The Independent Ireland reported. The declaration was passed Thursday evening when both the government and opposition parties agreed to an amendment to a climate action report.”We’re reaching a tipping point in respect of climate deterioration,” Climate Action Minister Richard Bruton said. “Things will deteriorate very rapidly unless we move very swiftly and the window of opportunity to do that is fast closing.”The Irish declaration follows a similar action from UK’s parliament May 1. The governments of Wales and Scotland have also declared climate emergencies. Its official.Ireland becomes 2nd country in the world to declare a #ClimateEmergency & Dflil also agreed to endorse all the recommendations of the Oireachtas Climate Action Report .Definitely one of the highlights for me as a @greenparty_ie TD .My children are thrilled.pic.twitter.com/bcQhvYxvqx – Catherine Martin TD (@cathmartingreen) May 9, 2019 Irish Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan pointed out that the declaration needed to be a starting point.”Declaring an emergency means absolutely nothing unless there is action to back it up,’ he said, as BBC News reported. “That means the Government having to do things they don’t want to do.”Climate Action Committee Chair Hildegarde Naughton said that Bruton would bring new climate action proposals before the Dflil, as the Irish parliament is called, and that she looked forward to working with her colleagues to assess them.”Now we need action,” she said, as BBC News reported.

URI researchers: Offshore wind farm increased tourism on Block Island – – Researchers at the University of Rhode Island who analyzed AirBnB rental data before and after construction of the Block Island Wind Farm have found that, contrary to some concerns, the turbines have increased tourism on the island. Corey Lang, URI associate professor of environmental economics, said that many coastal communities that rely on tourism to sustain their economy have worried that offshore wind farms would negatively affect tourism. “It’s a common argument for pushback against siting offshore wind, but there isn’t a lot of empirical evidence about it one way or the other,” said Lang. “There have been surveys done assessing how tourists might feel about it, based on potential images of turbines in offshore waters, but those are hypothetical.”The researchers collected lodging data from AirBnB to examine trends in monthly revenues, occupancy rates and reservations from roughly two years before construction of the turbines to one year after construction was completed. They compared AirBnB rental trends in Block Island to those in nearby communities that are also dependent on summer vacation rentals – Narragansett, Westerly and Nantucket. The results were almost entirely positive for the peak summer months of July and August, and there were no noticeable effects during the rest of the year. During July and August following construction of the turbines, AirBnB rentals in Block Island experienced, on average, a 19 percent increase in occupancy rates and a $3490 increase in monthly revenue compared to those in Narragansett, Westerly and Nantucket. “We have multiple indicators for the tourism market, and they seem to be indicative that there was an increase in interest in visiting Block Island in the year after construction of the wind farm,” said Lang. While the data didn’t indicate the reason for the increase in occupancy, Lang and Carr-Harris suggest that people were curious about the wind farm and wanted to see it for themselves. “I think there has been some excitement about it. People are excited about renewable energy and sustainability, and they want to get behind it,” Lang said. “So for the nation’s first offshore wind farm, we believe our results indicate that it has had a positive effect on tourism.”

A war is brewing over lithium mining at the edge of Death Valley -The desolate beauty of the Panamint Valley has long drawn all manner of naturalists, adventurers and social outcasts – including Charles Manson – off-road vehicle riders and top gun fighter pilots who blast overhead in simulated dogfights. Now this prehistoric lake bed is shaping up to be an unlikely battleground between environmentalists and battery technologists who believe the area might hold the key to a carbon-free future. Recently, the Australia-based firm Battery Mineral Resources Ltd. asked the federal government for permission to drill four exploratory wells to see if the hot, salty brine beneath the valley floor contains economically viable concentrations of lithium. The soft, silvery-white metal is a key component of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and is crucial to the production of electric and hybrid vehicles. The drilling request has generated strong opposition from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and the Defenders of Wildlife, who say the drilling project would be an initial step toward the creation of a full-scale lithium mining operation. They say lithium extraction would bring industrial sprawl, large and unsightly drying ponds and threaten a fragile ecosystem that supports Nelson’s bighorn sheep, desert tortoises and the Panamint alligator lizard, among other species.“A lithium mine would destroy these spectacular panoramas,” The battle could be a fierce one. Lithium is expected to play an increasingly important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, and has been designated by the Trump administration as a mineral essential to the economic and national security of the United States. In addition to powering countless laptops and cellphones, lithium-ion batteries may also play a role in guarding against power line wildfire ignitions. The only functioning lithium mine in North America is about 150 miles away in Clayton Valley, Nev. Most of the lithium used for batteries now comes from the so-called Lithium Triangle of South America – a region that includes the world’s largest salt flats.For dyed-in-the-wool environmentalists, the brewing war over lithium mining poses a moral dilemma as it seemingly pits them against efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Constructed with the world’s lightest metal, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries allow vehicles to run on power generated by wind turbines, solar panels, hydroelectric dams and other clean-energy sources. In California alone, officials hope to see as many as 5 million such zero-emission vehicles on state highways by 2030.

The Reason Renewables Can’t Power Modern Civilization Is Because They Were Never Meant To – Over the last decade, journalists have held up Germany’s renewables energy transition, the Energiewende, as an environmental model for the world. “Many poor countries, once intent on building coal-fired power plants to bring electricity to their people, are discussing whether they might leapfrog the fossil age and build clean grids from the outset,” thanks to the Energiewende, wrote a New York Times reporter in 2014. With Germany as inspiration, the United Nations and World Bank poured billions into renewables like wind, solar, and hydro in developing nations like Kenya. But then, last year, Germany was forced to acknowledge that it had to delay its phase-out of coal, and would not meet its 2020 greenhouse gas reduction commitments. It announced plans to bulldoze an ancient church and forest in order to get at the coal underneath it. After renewables investors and advocates, including Al Gore and Greenpeace, criticized Germany, journalists came to the country’s defense. Now comes a major article in the country’s largest newsweekly magazine, Der Spiegel, titled, “A Botched Job in Germany” (“Murks in Germany“). The magazine’s cover shows broken wind turbines and incomplete electrical transmission towers against a dark silhouette of Berlin. “The Energiewende – the biggest political project since reunification – threatens to fail,” write Der Spiegel’s Frank Dohmen, Alexander Jung, Stefan Schultz, Gerald Traufetter in their a 5,700-word investigative story (the article can be read in English here).Over the past five years alone, the Energiewende has cost Germany €32 billion ($36 billion) annually, and opposition to renewables is growing in the German countryside.“The politicians fear citizen resistance” Der Spiegel reports. “There is hardly a wind energy project that is not fought.”In response, politicians sometimes order “electrical lines be buried underground but that is many times more expensive and takes years longer.” As a result, the deployment of renewables and related transmission lines is slowing rapidly. Less than half as many wind turbines (743) were installed in 2018 as were installed in 2017, and just 30 kilometers of new transmission were added in 2017. Solar and wind advocates say cheaper solar panels and wind turbines will make the future growth in renewables cheaper than past growth but there are reasons to believe the opposite will be the case. As a result, the deployment of renewables and related transmission lines is slowing rapidly. Less than half as many wind turbines (743) were installed in 2018 as were installed in 2017, and just 30 kilometers of new transmission were added in 2017. Solar and wind advocates say cheaper solar panels and wind turbines will make the future growth in renewables cheaper than past growth but there are reasons to believe the opposite will be the case. Der Spiegel cites a recent estimate that it would cost Germany “€3.4 trillion ($3.8 trillion),” or seven times more than it spent from 2000 to 2025, to increase solar and wind three to five-hold by 2050.

Renewables Are Dead – Ilargi – If I’ve said once that those among us who tout renewable energy should pay more attention to the 2nd law of Thermodynamics, I must have said it a hundred times. But I hardly ever get the impression that people understand why. And it seems so obvious. A quote I often use from Herman Daly and Ken Townsend, when I talk about energy, really says it all: “Erwin Schrodinger (1945) has described life as a system in steady-state thermodynamic disequilibrium that maintains its constant distance from equilibrium (death) by feeding on low entropy from its environment – that is, by exchanging high-entropy outputs for low-entropy inputs. The same statement would hold verbatium as a physical description of our economic process. A corollary of this statement is that an organism cannot live in a medium of its own waste products.”Using energy produces waste. Using more energy produces more waste. It doesn’t matter -much- what kind of energy is used, or what kind of waste is produced. The energy WE use produces waste, in a medium of which WE cannot survive. The only way to escape this is to use less energy. And because we have used such an enormous amount of energy the past 100 years, we must use a whole lot less in the next 100.We use about 100 times more energy per person, and a whole lot more in the west, than our own labor can produce. We use the equivalent of what 500 billion people can produce without the aid of fossil fuel-powered machines. We won’t solve this problem with wind turbines or solar panels. There really is one way only: cut down on energy use.Because it’s exceedingly rare to see this discussed, even among physicists, who should know better since they know thermodynamics, it’s good to hear it from someone else. An article in Forbes today discusses a May 3 article in German magazine Der Spiegel on the problems with the Energiewende, the country’s drastic turn towards renewables. The Forbes article is written by Michael Shellenberger, President of Environmental Progress and Time Magazine “Hero of the Environment.” (sigh..) Let’s take a walk through it: The Reason Renewables Can’t Power Modern Civilization Is Because They Were Never Meant To.

U.S. Solar Installations Hit 2 Million Mark –There are now more than two million solar installations in the U.S., and that number is set to double in four years, Reuters reported Thursday.The announcement came as a joint statement from industry group the Solar Energy Industries Association(SEIA) and research firm Wood Mackenzie. “We believe that the 2020s will be the decade that solar becomes the dominant new form of energy generation,” SEIA CEO Abigail Ross-Hopper said in the statement, according to Reuters.Solar energy now generates enough power to fuel more than 12 million homes, and the renewable energysource has made strides in recent years. It hit the one million mark only three years ago, a target it took the industry 40 years to achieve, CNBC reported. California was a major player in that growth. It was responsible for 51 percent of the first million installations and 43 percent of the second. Texas, Rhode Island, Florida, Utah and Maryland were also key players, SEIA said.

Amsterdam to ban petrol and diesel cars and motorbikes by 2030 – Cars and motorbikes running on petrol or diesel will be banned from driving in Amsterdam from 2030. The city’s council plans to phase in the change as part of a drive to clean up air pollution, which the authorities blame for shortening the life expectancy of Amsterdammers by a year. “Pollution often is a silent killer and is one of the greatest health hazards in Amsterdam,” said the councillor responsible for the city’s traffic, Sharon Dijksma, announcing the municipality’s decision. From next year, diesel cars that are 15 years or older will be banned from going within the A10 ring road around the Dutch capital. Public buses and coaches that emit exhaust fumes will no longer enter the city centre from 2022. By 2025, the ban will be extended to pleasure crafts on its waters, mopeds and light mopeds. All traffic within the built-up area must be emission-free by 2030 under the Clean Air Action plan. The city plans to encourage its residents to switch to electric and hydrogen cars by offering charging stations to every buyer of such a vehicle. It is hoped that the second-hand electric car market will blossom in the coming years. There will need to be 16,000 to 23,000 charging stations by 2025 to make the project viable – up from the current 3,000 in the city. In large part due to heavy traffic in the cities of Amsterdam, Maastricht and Rotterdam, air pollution in the Netherlands is worse than European rules permit. There are concerns that the levels of nitrogen dioxide and particle matter emissions are causing respiratory illnesses. But the Rai Association, the automotive industry’s lobby group, condemned the plan as bizarre and regressive. A spokesman said: “Many tens of thousands of families who have no money for an electric car will soon be left out in the cold. That makes Amsterdam a city of the rich.

U.S. energy consumption, production, and exports reach record highs in 2018 – The United States produced a record amount of energy from various sources in 2018, reaching 96 quadrillion British thermal units (quads), an 8% increase from 2017. This increase in production outpaced the 4% increase in U.S. energy consumption, which also reached a record high of 101 quads. At the same time, U.S. energy exports increased 18% to a record high of 21 quads in 2018, reducing net energy imports into the United States to a 54-year low of 4 quads, or less than 4% of U.S. energy consumption. In 2018, crude oil and natural gas accounted for 57% of all U.S. energy production, with crude oil production seeing an increase of 17% and natural gas an increase of 12% from 2017. Natural gas plant liquids production also increased by 14%. Energy production from renewable energy increased 4% from 2017, mostly because of growth in solar (22%), wind (8%), and biomass energy (2%). Nuclear electric power production remained virtually unchanged in 2018. Coal was the only energy production source to decrease in 2018, falling 2% from 2017 levels. Total U.S. consumption of energy also increased from 2017 levels but at a slower pace than production. Compared with other fuels, petroleum had the largest gap between growth in production and growth in consumption in 2018. The 17% increase in crude oil production outpaced a modest 2% increase in total domestic petroleum consumption, resulting in a 73% increase in exports of crude oil and a 6% increase in exports of petroleum products in 2018 compared with 2017. Exports of crude oil and petroleum products made up 68% of all U.S. energy exports in 2018, accounting for most of the increase in total U.S. energy exports from 2017. Petroleum product exports reached a record-high 10.2 quads, or 5.6 million barrels per day. Crude oil exports nearly doubled and reached a record-high 4.2 quads (2 million barrels per day), surpassing both coal and natural gas on an energy equivalent basis to become the second-highest U.S. energy export. Exports of natural gas and biomass energy (e.g., ethanol) also reached new records in 2018, and coal exports reached itshighest level since 2013.In 2018, U.S. energy imports decreased 2% compared with 2017, which, along with record-high energy exports, brought combined net U.S. energy imports to their lowest levels since 1964. In 2018, the United States was a net exporter of coal, coal coke, petroleum products, natural gas, and biomass energy. The United States remained a net importer of crude oil, which has been true for every year since 1944. However, in 2018, net imports of crude oil reached its lowest level since 1991.

Federal authorities seek millions owed by coal companies affiliated with W.Va. governor – Federal authorities have filed civil actions to collect millions owed by coal companies affiliated with West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and his children in Virginia and four other states for unpaid fines incurred by nearly 2,300 safety citations. According to the office of Thomas T. Cullen, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, the actions are aimed at 23 coal companies in Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky, seeking more than $4.7 million in unpaid penalties for violations of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act. National Public Radio first reported in 2014 that the companies owed $2 million in fines and last month reported that the total had climbed to more than $4 million. NPR reported that the companies are now primarily controlled by the Republican governor’s son and daughter. In a prepared statement, Cullen said Tuesday that the mine safety act “plays a critical role in protecting our coal miners and ensuring that mine owners and operators fulfill their legal obligations to provide safe and healthy working conditions.” “As alleged in the complaint, the defendants racked up more than 2,000 safety violations over a five-year period and have, to date, refused to comply with their legal obligations to pay the resulting financial penalties. This is unacceptable, and, as indicated by this suit, we will hold them accountable,” Cullen said.

Lawsuit Launched to Force Trump Administration to Protect Endangered Species From Coal Mining in Appalachia – The Center for Biological Diversity and allies filed a formal notice of intent today to sue the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state of West Virginia for failing to protect endangered species from coal mining. Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show high-level interference by the Trump administration that is circumventing the Endangered Species Act and putting species at risk of extinction. “The Trump administration is putting coal-industry profits ahead of people and wildlife in Appalachia whose health is threatened daily by pollution,” said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center. “Political appointees interfered to undermine endangered species safeguards, so we’re relying on the courts to protect endangered animals and the creeks where they live.” The records show officials in West Virginia appealed to the Trump administration for shortcuts for protections for the Guyandotte River and Big Sandy crayfish, which the officials claimed were harming the coal industry. In response Vincent DeVito, a former high-level Trump official in the U.S. Department of the Interior, did an end run around the Fish and Wildlife Service. DeVito signed a guidance document presented to him by the West Virginia Division of Mining limiting protections for the crayfish. The state then issued mining permits in crayfish habitat. Those permits blindsided Service officials who were actively developing their own guidance to protect the crayfish. Today’s notice challenges the ongoing reliance on a slightly modified version of the state’s guidance. The public records reveal extensive efforts by Trump administration appointees to prevent the Fish and Wildlife Service from following science and doing what is needed to protect the crayfish. Groups joining today’s notice include Appalachian Mountain Advocates, OVEC – the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Sierra Club West Virginia Chapter and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.

Toxins in the ground: Inside America’s most polluted coal ash site and industry’s struggle with federal rules -In the fall of 2017, Jason Peeler flew over his cattle ranch, a little over 40 miles south of San Antonio. The weather was dry, “bone dry,” but he noticed something unusual: There was water sitting on a portion of his land he had not stepped foot on in years. That’s when he realized something was amiss with the land his family had leased to the San Miguel Electric Cooperative (SMEC) three decades earlier. The 391 MW San Miguel coal plant burns just meters from the Peeler family’s home, visible far down the rural highway that leads to the ranch – the single stack’s steady billow stands out among the miles of rolling Texas hills. Three ponds stand next to the plant; the daily task of two is to absorb dry coal ash, the byproduct of burning coal. Water turns the ash into a heavy sludge of toxic metals, and gravity pulls the concoction further below ground. In March of this year the co-op’s coal plant, set to remain open until 2037, was named the most contaminated in the country by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), reporting unsafe levels of at least 12 coal ash contaminants. Now, the family wants their land restored to its original condition. “There were people screaming and hollering a long time ago, you just didn’t listen,” Jason Peeler said. “You hear them talk about dirty coal and think: ‘OK, I don’t really see that much coming out the stack.’ I thought they were doing a pretty good job of getting all that stuff out. Anyways, it turns out they were – they were pulling it all out and stacking it on our property.” The Peelers’ story and the land they live on is a microcosm of a problem utilities are facing today: Data from electric companies across the country show that almost every coal plant in the country is contaminating the ground they sit on with chemicals, many of them toxic. For utilities that have dealt with adverse impacts of the contamination publicly, pressure to clean up is mounting. But the federal regulations intended to direct cleanup efforts leave many dumpsites untouched, and the Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of eroding oversight further in a rulemaking proceeding that began in March of last year.

Coal ash from power plants in Puerto Rico finds its way to Osceola County landfill – Boat loads of coal ash – generated as waste from Puerto Rico’s power plants – are crossing the Atlantic Ocean and getting transferred into trucks before ending up in a Central Florida landfill. Those living near the Holopaw landfill are worried because they are already having issues with their water. “We have to have filters on every house, it’s the odor,” said resident David Braun. “You get a lot of odor, like the egg smell and that.” Channel 9 discovered the J.E.D. Landfill on Omni Way in St. Cloud and others like it have been taking coal dust for years – but only from in-state sources. Osceola County leaders had to approve an exemption to existing rules last month and lasting through December in order to allow the Puerto Rican coal ash to be dumped within county lines. Lawsuits over alleged coal-ash sickness in east Orange County are spotlighting known health issues with certain types of coal ash. The controversy plays into the public dialogue happening in Osceola County, though the specifics of each county’s involvement with coal waste differs. In 2017, Puerto Rico banned dumping coal ash for the “life, health and general welfare of the people,” according to the territory’s Senate Bill 81 from that year. “Puerto Rico has a lot of problems with illegal dumping,” said Commissioner Fred Hawkins, who heads Osceola County’s District 5 and believes any comparisons are unfail. “When you see these ash pools that people are talking about with no liners, that’s really illegal dumping.” Hawkins and landfill officials are asking residents to trust the system, arguing that the J.E.D. facility is built to DEP and EPA standards, double-lined to prevent seepage into the ground and government-monitored for leaks. Puerto Rico lacks such facilities, Hawkins said. Hawkins abstained from the vote, but the rest of the county’s commissioners approved the lowering of fees associated with disposing of Puerto Rico’s coal ash, making it cheaper for the island’s utilities to get rid of the waste and potentially more profitable for J.E.D.’s owner, Waste Connections, which declined to answer questions Tuesday about the volume of coal ash being disposed of in Osceola County.

TVA defends its role in trade group — The Tennessee Valley Authority is defending its participation in a utility trade organization that has often been on the front lines of legal challenges to tighter air pollution standards.Since 2001, TVA, the government-owned power producer that touts a commitment to environmental protection, has contributed more than $7 million to the Utility Air Regulatory Group, according to President and CEO Jeffrey Lyash.In return, the company has gotten help in understanding and complying with “highly technical and complex” Clean Air Act regulations, Lyash wrote in response to a recent congressional inquiry.The utility organization, usually known by its acronym UARG, has long been barred from representing TVA in lawsuits unless the authority gives written approval, Lyash said, adding that it has never taken that step.But a copy of TVA’s latest UARG membership agreement obtained by E&E News acknowledges that “the information and analyses” exchanged among group members and their lawyers “are developed in anticipation of litigation.” Consequently, TVA’s defense amounts to “linguistic gymnastics,” said David Pomerantz, executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute, a California-based watchdog group critical of UARG. “The idea that TVA could have spent over $7 million of its customers’ money on UARG’s lawyers since 2001 … without supporting UARG’s central mission of undermining EPA clean air rules is laughable on its face,” Pomerantz said in an email today.

U.S. uranium production in 2018 was the lowest in nearly 70 years – The United States produced 1.47 million pounds of uranium concentrate in 2018, down for the fourth consecutive year and the lowest total since 1950, based on preliminary production data. Uranium production in the United States has declined since its peak of 43.7 million pounds in 1980 and has remained below 5 million pounds annually for more than 20 years. As domestic uranium production has declined over the past several decades, owners and operators of commercial nuclear power plants in the United States have obtained more uranium from foreign sources. Canada has historically been the largest single source of imported uranium, followed by Australia, Russia, and Kazakhstan, countries in which the cost of uranium is lower than in the United States. Preparing uranium for use as fuel in nuclear reactors involves several steps. The production of uranium concentrate – U3O8, known more commonly as yellowcake – is the first step in the nuclear fuel production process. In 2018, uranium concentrate was produced at seven U.S. facilities: one uranium mill in Utah and six in-situ leach plants in Wyoming and Nebraska. In-situ leaching, or in-situ recovery, extracts uranium that coats sand and gravel particles of groundwater reservoirs. The process involves injecting a solution into the reservoir that causes the uranium to dissolve into the groundwater. This water is then pumped out of the reservoir and processed at a uranium mill. Uranium milling involves extracting uranium ore, crushing it into a fine powder, and adding chemicals to separate the uranium. Groundwater from in-situ leach operations is processed at a mill by extracting and concentrating the uranium. EIA recently updated its U.S. Energy Mapping System to include uranium resources across the country. Uranium production facility information was also updated. The new uranium layers include Identified resource areas, which include uranium provinces, districts, and select important deposits. Uranium associated with phosphate, which are sedimentary phosphate deposits that contain trace amounts of uranium. When uranium prices are high enough, producers may extract trace uranium as part of the phosphate mining process.

Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant To Close, Latest Symbol of Struggling Industry – 40 years after the nation’s worst commercial nuclear accident, the remaining reactor still operating at Three Mile Island in South-central Pennsylvania is closing. Exelon announced Wednesday that Three Mile Island Generating Station Unit 1 will shut down by September 30th. The company says the plant has been losing money for years. The nuclear industry generally has struggled to compete with less expensive electricity generated from natural gas and renewable energy. Exelon first announced it would close two years ago unless lawmakers stepped in to keep it open. It then campaigned to save the plant by seeking a subsidy from Pennsylvania’s legislature. The company argued that, in light of climate change and efforts to address it, the plant deserves compensation for the carbon-free electricity it produces. That argument has worked in other states, including Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey and New York. But in Pennsylvania, the state’s powerful natural gas industry opposed it, along with industrial users and consumer advocates, calling the proposal a “bailout”. When it became clear the subsidy legislation wouldn’t pass within the next month Exelon decided to retire the plant, which was licensed to operate for 15 more years.

‘Apples the size of watermelons’: A psychologist reveals what it was like to grow up in the Chernobyl fallout zone – Janina Scarlet was four months shy of her third birthday when disaster struck near the Ukrainian town of Chernobyl. On April 26, 1986 at around 1:23 a.m., a blazing fireball blew the lid off the area’s nuclear reactor, spreading toxic radiation into the air. Radioactive debris released into the atmosphere reached the riverside town of Vinnytsia some 200 miles away, where Scarlet’s family lived. “We were told it was contained, and that everything was fine. As a result, people in Ukraine continued going outside, and breathing the fresh air, and drinking un-boiled water, and eating raw fruit. And all of it was poisoned.” Although it’s been 33 years since the Chernobyl explosion, the health consequences of that radiation exposure still plague people who lived near the plant. The Chernobyl disaster has been directly blamed for fewer than 50 deaths from radiation poisoning, but many researchers say the full death tally from the Chernobyl explosion and its lingering effects may never be known. The World Health Organization estimates that eventually, the disaster may become responsible for some 5,000 cancer deaths. After the accident, everything within a 30-kilometer radius of the nuclear plant was deemed off-limits. But Scarlet’s family lived outside that small area, so they remained in the larger fallout zone for nine years post-Chernobyl. She remembers getting sick for long periods of time, staying home from school, and going to the hospital. “I would get nose bleeds that wouldn’t clot.” Today, Scarlet works as a licensed psychologist and lives in San Diego, California, though she still gets weather-related migraines even there. She also suffers about one seizure each year and is forbidden from driving a car for that reason. Beyond her physical health, Scarlet said tiny “snippets” of memories from the months after the disaster still linger in her mind. “Gigantic fruit,” she recalled. “Apples almost the size of watermelons.” Other consequences of living in the fallout zone were eerily serene. “My parents tell me it was the most beautiful spring they’d ever seen because, apparently, it caused a lot of blossoming, a lot of booming,” she said. “Unfortunately, a lot of it was toxic.”Kids who lived near the Chernobyl site have increased instances of thyroid cancer, and adults who helped with the reactor cleanup are more at risk of developing leukemia. The American Cancer Society says“there is no threshold below which this kind of radiation is thought to be totally safe.” “I did know a couple of people that were very young and developed cancer very rapidly and then died very quickly,” she said, adding that a few years after the accident, “my friend’s mom died of cancer when she was 35.”

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