Environmental News For The Week 11August 2019

Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666

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

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Florida health officials declare public health emergency for hepatitis A — -Martin and Brevard counties are among 17 in Florida “critically impacted” by the hepatitis A virus.They’re the main concern for Florida Department of Health officials and the reason the state’s surgeon general declared a ‘public health emergency’ Thursday evening.Florida Surgeon General Dr. Scott Rivkees said Friday he believes the declaration will make people take the matter more seriously. The number of people diagnosed with hepatitis A in Florida keeps increasing, he said. A ‘critically impacted’ county has at least 10 cases per 100,000 people, said Emerson George, communications director for the state Department of Health. The 15 other counties are: Citrus, Glades, Hernando, Hillsborough, Lake, Liberty, Manatee, Marion, Okeechobee, Orange, Pasco, Pinellas, Sumter, Taylor, and Volusia, according to the Florida Department of Health. There are 2,034 hepatitis A cases statewide this year. Pasco County leads the state with 358 cases, followed by Pinellas with 328; Volusia with 179; Orange with 140 and Marion with 109, according to the state health department. Brevard County has 64 cases and St. Lucie County has 30 cases. Martin County, with 32 virus cases, also has had four deaths attributed to it. Friday, Indian River County joined them all in experiencing an ‘outbreak’ of the virus when health department officials in Vero Beach said a food service worker was diagnosed with the virus and is the county’s fifth case. During a public health emergency, public and private places and businesses are asked to sanitize their bathrooms at least once per day with a solution of one and two-thirds cups of chlorine bleach per gallon of water or another cleaning product that specifically details it kills the virus.

Philippines declares epidemic after more than 600 die from dengue fever – The Philippines declared a national epidemic Tuesday after an outbreak of dengue fever killed more than 622 people this year. There have been more than 146,062 cases of dengue recorded between January and June 20, according to the country’s health department. The department said that the number of recorded cases is 98 percent higher than the same period in 2018. Health Secretary Francisco Duque said it was important for local areas to access national funds to treat the outbreak and provide a “localized response” in a Tuesday news release. During the week of July 14 to July 20, the country documented 10,502 cases, 71 percent higher than the same period in 2018. The Western Visayas area of the country was hit hardest, with more than 23,000 documented cases. There were also large outbreaks in Calabarzon, the Zamboanga Peninsula and Northern Mindanao. The Health Department said Tuesday it is launching a program aimed at destroying mosquito breeding sites. Dengue is a viral infection spread by mosquitoes that can cause joint pain, vomiting, nausea and a rash. In extreme cases, it can cause breathing problems, hemorrhaging and organ failure, The Guardian reported. The dengue vaccine was outlawed in the country after 14 children died out of more than 800,000 who received it in 2016 and 2017. However, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said the government may consider reintroducing the vaccine with the “utmost caution,” Reuters reported. Sanofi, the drug giant that developed the vaccine, has denied that the deaths were linked to the vaccine. However, Duque said that even if the vaccine was reimplemented, it would not be given to children. It is approved for children ages 9 and older.

No One Understands Lyme Disease — Lyme disease exposes how overrated medicine is. People have come to expect modern science to be able to detect and cure bacterial infections, at the very least – and yet for Lyme, a bacterial disease transmitted by ticks, the tests are shockingly inaccurate, and antibiotic treatment doesn’t always take away the often debilitating symptoms like joint pain, fatigue, brain fog and headaches. Some doctors admit they aren’t sure of the answer. Others, self-styled “Lyme literate” doctors, are stepping into the void, often diagnosing based on weak evidence and exposing patients to months or years of potentially harmful antibiotic therapies. Patients suffering mysterious symptoms can be forgiven for gravitating toward those providers who act like they are sure. The unrealistic expectations are part of the problem. A frank discussion is hampered by outrage and fear. Media reports often emphasize that the disease is on the rise, with 30,000 reported cases a year in the U.S. and an estimate that the real number is 10 times higher. Once endemic to New England, and named for a town in Connecticut, Lyme disease is spreading west, south and north. Climate change is blamed for its northward climb, but experts say changes in ecology may explain the expansion into warmer southern climates. A loss of biodiversity is favoring the rodents that provide steady hosts for the disease-carrying ticks. The good news is that most cases are curable with a course of antibiotics. But outrage followed when, in June, a piece in the New York Times tried to deliver that reassuring message. The author using her own 9-year-old son’s case as an anecdote. Some commenters said the story implied that all cases are curable, when in fact a substantial minority report persistent fatigue and other neurological symptoms.

CDC Shuts Down Military Lab Studying Ebola, Plague Amid Fears It’s Getting Out Through Wastewater — The laboratory at Fort Detrick, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, has been sent a cease-and-desist order by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention after a second inspection showed sloppy handling of deadly germs and viruses.The CDC inspected the military research institute in June and inspectors found several areas of concern in standard operating procedures, which are in place to protect workers in biosafety level 3 and 4 laboratories, spokeswoman Caree Vander Linden confirmed in an email Friday.The CDC sent a cease and desist order in July.After USAMRIID received the order from the CDC, its registration with the Federal Select Agent Program, which oversees disease-causing material use and possession, was suspended. That suspension effectively halted all biological select agents and toxin research at USAMRIID, Vander Linden said in her email. (source) At this time “no infectious pathogens, or disease-causing material, have been found outside authorized areas.” The New York Times reports that the CDC could not provide more specific details due to “national security reasons.” The laboratory, which is located in Frederick, Maryland, studies different deadly bugs for biological warfare purposes. They have failed inspection specifically by the Federal Select Agent Program, which oversees the possession, use and transfer of biological select agents and toxins that could potentially pose a severe threat to public, animal or plant health. The suspension was due to multiple causes, including failure to follow local procedures and a lack of periodic recertification training for workers in the biocontainment laboratories, according to Vander Linden. The wastewater decontamination system also failed to meet standards set by the Federal Select Agent Program, Vander Linden said in a follow-up email. (source) It’s important to note that the USAMRIID facility was flooded in May of 2018. In May 2018, storms caused a flood at the Fort Detrick facility, seriously damaging its 10-year-old steam sterilization plant, which provides high-tech wastewater management. The plant was offline for months, and the incident resulted in upgraded biosafety procedures. But as Vander Linden told the Frederick News-Post, the new protocols significantly increased “operational complexity” at the facility. The CDC inspection found that the “new procedures were not being followed consistently,” along with the discovery of “mechanical problems with the chemical-based decontamination system, as well as leaks [inside the lab]. (source)

The Colorado Rapids casually let everyone know that the plague still exists in 2019 –Just after noon, the Colorado Rapids tweeted out a press release regarding their upcoming Saturday match, the post-game fireworks and parking situation: Statement regarding tomorrow’s match, fireworks and closures around @DSGpark due to plague. Release: (link: http://bit.ly/Statement0802) bit.ly/Statement0802 FAQ: (link: http://bit.ly/RapidsFAQ0802) bit.ly/RapidsFAQ0802 It’s easy to miss at first, but once you come back to read the tweet again, you’ll notice the word “plague”, which seems like something that deserves more than a standard press release. In the linked article, the team says:“Following recommendations from the Tri-County Health Department and the City of Commerce City, the Colorado Rapids game with Montreal Impact on Saturday, August 3 at 7PM will go ahead as scheduled. However, it has been recommended that the post-game fireworks display be cancelled due to the confirmed presence of plague-infested fleas affecting prairie dog colonies in the surrounding areas. Additionally, in accordance with the Tri-County Health Department’s recommendation for the safety of all attendees, parking lots at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park will be restricted to asphalt lots until further notice.” I admit that I don’t have the most in-depth knowledge about the conditions of many cities in America, or in the world, but I really thought that the plague was a thing that existed between the 6th and 14th century. Not in Denver, Colorado in 2019. And certainly not something that is affecting people going to soccer games. “Yeah, all of eastern Colorado is basically a high prairie and we have prairie dogs like the south has kudzu. They get fleas that basically carry plague on them and every so often they have to do stuff like this so they don’t pass it on to humans.

Chipotle and Sweetgreen Bowls Contain Cancer-Linked ‘Forever Chemicals’ – Those popular burrito bowls at Chipotle and those takeaway salad bowls at Sweetgreens that see lunch rush lines going out the door and down the block have a dirty little secret, according to an independent investigation from the non-profit news site, New Food Economy. The plain, beige fiber bowls that are designed to withstand grease so they don’t turn to mush when they get wet are touted for their durability and for being fully compostable. They are even certified by third-party groups like the Biodegradable Products Institute and they feel like they would turn back into dirt if they were mixed into a compost heap. Yet, New Food Economy, found that all of those molded fiber bowls contain PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. PFAs are a wide-range of more than 4,000 fluorinated compounds that do not biodegrade. The chemicals lining the bowls usurp the fully compostable claim, since those chemicals will never break down. When the bowls are tossed into a compost heap, the chemical leech into the ground. So, rather than make black gold for farmers, the bowls may actually be making toxic compost. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, PFAS are man-made chemicals that are “very persistent in the environment and in the human body – meaning they don’t break down and they can accumulate over time,” as People reported. What does it mean for our health when we eat a salad off of a bowl lined with fluorinated compounds? That is not clear, but probably nothing. Exposure to the worst PFAS has been linked to kidney and testicular cancers as well as thyroid disorders and colitis, according to New Food Economy. Yet, those cancer-causing chemicals are either not present in the fiber bowls or they are not present at levels that approach toxicity. Furthermore, while the bowls contain the PFAS, any trace absorption into your food or onto your hands is minimal.

Vinyl gloves used at certain McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s locations may contain toxic chemicals linked to reproductive issues – Fast-food workers wear gloves to keep meals from getting contaminated, but those gloves can also contain chemicals that could be harmful to human health, according to a recent investigation.A national group of environmental organizations called the Coalition for Safer Food Processing and Packaging recently discovered a type of chemical called phthalates in vinyl gloves used at certain McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s locations. Phthalates have been found to interfere with the reproductive functions of both men and women and impede brain development in children. The investigation used citizen science (informal research that usually has a limited sample size) to test more than 100 gloves made by more than 30 distributors and used across 15 restaurant chains in the US. The coalition found phthalates in gloves at a McDonald’s and Wendy’s in Michigan, another McDonald’s in Maine, and a Burger King in Colorado. Workers at other locations of the same chains used gloves without any detectable levels of phthalates. The coalition also found that certain vinyl-glove brands produced some gloves with phthalates and others without.

Synthetic Polymer Contamination in Bottled Water – Abstract: Eleven globally sourced brands of bottled water, purchased in 19 locations in nine different countries, were tested for microplastic contamination using Nile Red tagging. Of the 259 total bottles processed, 93% showed some sign of microplastic contamination. After accounting for possible background (lab) contamination, an average of 10.4 microplastic particles >100 um in size per liter of bottled water processed were found. Fragments were the most common morphology (66%) followed by fibers. Half of these particles were confirmed to be polymeric in nature using FTIR spectroscopy with polypropylene being the most common polymer type (54%), which matches a common plastic used for the manufacture of bottle caps. A small fraction of particles (4%) showed the presence of industrial lubricants. While spectroscopic analysis of particles smaller than 100 um was not possible, the adsorption of the Nile Red dye indicates that these particles are most probably plastic. Including these smaller particles (6.5 – 100 um), an average of 325 microplastic particles per liter of bottled water was found. Microplastic contamination range of 0 to over 10,000 microplastic particles per liter with 95% of particles being between 6.5 and 100 um in size. Data suggests the contamination is at least partially coming from the packaging and/or the bottling process itself. Given the prevalence of the consumption of bottled water across the globe, the results of this study support the need for further studies on the impacts of micro- and nano- plastics on human health.

MAGA Supporters Clean 12 Tons Of Trash From West Baltimore Streets – According to WBAL-TV Baltimore, 300 volunteers on Aug. 5 took to the streets of northwest Baltimore, cleaning up trash from alleyways in an “Americans Helping Americans” event organized by conservative activist Scott Presler.Starting at 7 am at the intersection of North Fulton Avenue and Westwood Avenue (highest per capita homicide rate in the country), hundreds gathered to lend a hand in “Making Baltimore Great Again.” About 12 hours later, volunteers collected more than 12 tons of trash, almost 1 ton per hour, in a massive cleanup effort in hopes to revive the dying city.Many of the volunteers were from other states, such as Ohio, and North Carolina, and most of them traveled from abroad because they heard about the cleanup effort on Presler’s social media channels. “I never intended it to turn into a national event. It was never supposed to be this big,” Presler told The Epoch Times. Presler, who said he is proud to wear the MAGA hat, is a grassroots right-wing activist who has several hundred thousand followers on social media.“I’m a big Trump supporter, but I wanted people to know that’s not the reason we’re coming here today. This is not a pro-Trump rally, and this is not an anti-Rep. Cummings rally,” Presler said. “This is truly the community coming together.” Some Baltimoreans were thankful for the cleanup effort since they said the city had neglected their neighborhoods for decades. Presler spoke with community members about the deteriorating city. He said, “the people of Baltimore love their country and love their city and ‘they’re proud to live there,” but the government isn’t doing anything to resolve the trash problem. He put out a tweet on July 28 to his followers on Twitter, asking for help in the cleanup effort. By the 29th, he had nearly 100 volunteers from across the country. Presler kept the details of the cleanup effort secret, for fear that the far-left Antifa group might show up and cause trouble. He said there were no incidents during the event itself, apart from the fact that the cleanup team needed more dumpsters. Presler said city officials wouldn’t grant him a permit to store dumpsters on the street.“For 3 days, we respectfully called the office asking for an update,” he said in an Aug. 7 tweet. “The city of Baltimore never approved the permits, so we did it, anyway.” Presler said a second cleanup effort in the city could be imminent and already has 30 volunteers. People have been reaching out to him in deindustrialized areas across the country who want to start similar efforts.

Record-Setting Harmful Algae Blooms in New Jersey’s Largest Lake – Less than a week after the official start of summer, New Jersey’s largest lake was shut down by state officials due to a harmful algae bloom. Now, well into the heart of summer, Lake Hopatcong remains closed. And, several other lakes that have seen their waters turn green due to a rise in cyanobacteria have also been shut down, including Budd Lake and parts of Greenwood Lake. Summer economies have been shattered by New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection warnings about the blue-green algae. Lakeside rentals, swimming instructors, sailing teachers, boat rental operators, mini-golf clerks, ice cream vendors and many others who depend on a seasonal income have seen their bottom line decimated by the beach closures, according to the New York Times. The warning for Greenwood Lake was issued in mid-July, but triggered the cancellation of the lake’s annual powerboat race during the last weekend in August. Cyanobacteria, DEP officials warn, produce toxins that can cause skin irritation, stomach cramps, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, fever, sore throat, headache, muscle and joint pain, blisters of the mouth and liver damage, as the Morristown Daily Record reported. This summer has seen an unusually intense wave of algae blooms that have shutdown lakes in the Pacific Northwest and every beach on the Mississippi Gulf coast. Scientists say the climate crisis is probably a factor in the increase of cyanobacteria, which can grow in dense clusters and produce toxic substances. An increase in the frequency and intensity of rainstorms has pushed fertilizer runoff into waterways. Add to that hot, sunny days and the conditions are set for a harmful algae bloom, which are appearing more frequently and earlier in the season, according to the New York Times.

‘Alarming’ Explosion of Toxic Pesticide Use Causing Insect Apocalypse in United States: Study – The rapid and dangerous decline of the insect population in the United States – often called an “insect apocalypse” by scientists – has largely been driven by an increase in the toxicity of U.S. agriculture caused by the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, according to astudy published Tuesday in the journal PLOS One. The study found that American agriculture has become 48 times more toxic to insects over the past 25 years and pinned 92 percent of the toxicity increase on neonicotinoids, which were banned by the European Union last year due to the threat they pose to bees and other pollinators.Kendra Klein, Ph.D., study co-author and senior staff scientist at Friends of the Earth, said the United States must follow Europe’s lead and ban the toxic pesticides before it is too late.”It is alarming that U.S. agriculture has become so much more toxic to insect life in the past two decades,” Klein said in a statement. “We need to phase out neonicotinoid pesticides to protect bees and other insects that are critical to biodiversity and the farms that feed us.” “Congress must pass the Saving America’s Pollinators Act to ban neonicotinoids,” Klein added. “In addition, we need to rapidly shift our food system away from dependence on harmful pesticides and toward organic farming methods that work with nature rather than against it.”According to National Geographic, neonics “are used on over 140 different agricultural crops in more than 120 countries. They attack the central nervous system of insects, causing overstimulation of their nerve cells, paralysis, and death.” With insect populations declining due to neonic use, “the numbers of insect-eating birds have plummeted in recent decades,” National Geographic reported. “There’s also been a widespread decline in nearly all bird species.” As Common Dreams reported in February, scientists warned in a global analysis that by decimating insect populations, widespread use of pesticides poses a serious threat to the planet’s ecosystems and ultimately to the survival of humankind.

Insect Apocalypse- US Farmland 48 Times More Toxic To Insects Than 25 Years Ago – A new study shows how “insect apocalypse” is unfolding across America’s farmland since neonicotinoid pesticides were introduced several decades ago. Researchers found that farmland across the country is 48 times more toxic to insect life than 25 years ago, and neonicotinoid pesticides account for a large majority of the increase in toxicity. “It is alarming that US agriculture has become so much more toxic to insect life in the past two decades,” said Kendra Klein, Ph.D., study co-author and senior staff scientist at Friends of the Earth.”We need to phase out neonicotinoid pesticides to protect bees and other insects that are critical to biodiversity and the farms that feed us.” Published in the journal PLOS ONE on Tuesday, the new study is a complete assessment of pesticide usage on farmland in the US, is the first study in the world to quantify how dangerous fields have become for insects by providing YoY changes in toxicity levels of the soil. The increased toxic load measured in the study could explain why insect populations are collapsing in the US. Klein said neonicotinoids are more toxic for insects than traditional pesticides and are widely used by farmers. These dangerous chemicals can remain in the soil for months to years after one application.“Congress must pass the Saving America’s Pollinators Act to ban neonicotinoids,” said Klein.“In addition, we need to rapidly shift our food system away from dependence on harmful pesticides and toward organic farming methods that work with nature rather than against it.” The study suggests neonicotinoids are a major factor in the recent decline of insects, along with climate change and habitat destruction, leading scientist to warn of an “insect apocalypse.”

A Crashed Israeli Lunar Lander Spilled Tardigrades on the Moon – IT WAS JUST before midnight on April 11 and everyone at the Israel Aerospace Industries mission control center in Yehud, Israel, had their eyes fixed on two large projector screens. On the left screen was a stream of data being sent back to Earth by Beresheet, its lunar lander, which was about to become the first private spacecraft to land on the moon. The right screen featured a crude animation of Beresheet firing its engines as it prepared for a soft landing in the Sea of Serenity. But only seconds before the scheduled landing, the numbers on the left screen stopped. Mission control had lost contact with the spacecraft, and it crashed into the moon shortly thereafter. Half a world away, Nova Spivack watched a livestream of Beresheet’s mission control from a conference room in Los Angeles. As the founder of the Arch Mission Foundation, a nonprofit whose goal is to create “a backup of planet Earth,” Spivack had a lot at stake in the Beresheet mission. The spacecraft was carrying the foundation’s first lunar library, a DVD-sized archive containing 30 million pages of information, human DNA samples, and thousands oftardigrades, those microscopic “water bears” that can survive pretty much any environment – including space. But when the Israelis confirmed Beresheet had been destroyed, Spivack was faced with a distressing question: Did he just smear the toughest animal in the known universe across the surface of the moon? In the weeks following the Beresheet crash, Spivack pulled together the Arch Mission Foundation’s advisers in an attempt to determine whether the lunar library had survived the crash. Based on their analysis of the spacecraft’s trajectory and the composition of the lunar library, Spivack says he is quite confident that the library – a roughly DVD-sized object made of thin sheets of nickel – survived the crash mostly or entirely intact. In fact, the decision to include DNA samples and tardigrades in the lunar library may have been key to its survival.

New IPCC Report Warns of Vicious Cycle Between Soil Degradation and Climate Change – This Real News Network interview with Greenpeace’s Diana Ruiz discusses the new IPCC Climate report, “Climate Change and Land,” which issues a dire warning about how climate change and destructive land use reinforce each other, leading to serious threats for soil quality and hence human survival.

Top climate change scientist quits USDA, says Trump administration tried to bury his study -A top climate scientist is quitting the Department of Agriculture (USDA), accusing the Trump administration of attempting to bury a report he authored about rising carbon dioxide levels affecting rice yields, Politico reported Monday. Lewis Ziska, a 62-year-old plant physiologist who has worked at the USDA for over 20 years, told the outlet that department officials not only questioned the findings of the study but also tried to suppress press coverage of it. “You get the sense that things have changed, that this is not a place for you to be exploring things that don’t agree with someone’s political views,” he said in an interview. “That’s so sad. I can’t even begin to tell you how sad that is.”Ziska’s study found that rising carbon dioxide levels were causing rice to lose nutrients.A USDA spokesperson told The Hill in a statement that objections to promoting Ziska’s rice study were based on scientific disagreement, not political considerations. “This was a joint decision by ARS national program leaders – all career scientists – not to send out a press release on this paper,” the spokesperson said, citing three concerns with the data used in the report. “USDA is not suppressing climate change research,” they added.The move comes as USDA is already losing a large portion of its scientists and research staff as it uproots two research-focused agencies from Washington, D.C. to the Kansas City area. Nearly two-thirds of staff have said they will not make the move.Ziska is not the first administration official to resign over claims that the administration is censoring climate science. Last week, an intelligence analyst at the State Department said he left his post after officials blocked his congressional testimony about the national security implications of climate change. A National Park Service (NPS) employee had stepped forward just a week before, alleging she lost her job after refusing to remove mentions of the human causes of climate change from a peer-reviewed paper before it was published.

Nutrient deficiencies in rice grown under higher carbon dioxide could elevate health risks for tens of millions – As a result of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, Earth is experiencing many discernable changes, such as melting glaciers, higher global sea levels, and an overall greening of the planet. But increasing carbon dioxide concentrations are also causing many invisible effects, including detrimental changes to the nutritional content of food. In the past decade both laboratory and free-air studies have shown that crops of many dietary staples, including wheat, barley, rice, potatoes, and soybeans, develop lower concentrations of iron, zinc, protein, and other nutrients crucial to human health when they are grown under elevated levels of carbon dioxide. However, the specific implications of these changes for global health have been difficult to estimate, in part because these calculations are based upon experimental data that can take years to generate. Now a recent study in the AGU journal GeoHealth finds declines in B-vitamin concentrations in rice grown under elevated carbon dioxide concentrations may increase the future health risks of large numbers of people around the globe. B vitamins, including thiamin (B-1), riboflavin (B-2), and folate (B-9), are important nutrients that support many bodily functions, including healthy cell metabolism and brain function. They also help prevent infections, and regulate hormone and cholesterol production. Many developing countries depend on rice as a primary source of many B vitamins. As a result of the projected changes in B vitamins in rice, “tens of millions of people will be at risk of developing new B-vitamin deficiencies, with all the health implications that come with them,” With those losses averaging 17 to 30 percent – much higher than what has been observed for other nutrients in rice – the researchers wondered what the health implications would be for what Smith described as “the single-most important food calorically in the world.”

Mekong River at its lowest in 100 years, threatening food supply — A SEVERE DROUGHT that has caused water levels in Southeast Asia’s Mekong River to drop to their lowest in more than 100 years could have devastating consequences for fish, as well as the tens of millions of people living and working along the river, experts warn.The crisis began when critical monsoon rains, which usually start in late May in the Mekong region, failed to arrive. Dry conditions, driven by the El Niñoweather phenomenon and exacerbated by climate change, persisted well into July. At that time, observers say, the situation was made worse byhydropower dam operators upstream, in China and Laos, withholding water for their own purposes.Although the rains finally began to fall in the last week in much of the river basin, with water levels now slowly rising, experts warn that the potential damage from the drought could be worse than in 2016, when another drought caused forest fires around Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia and widespread disruptions to food production. Many rice farmers in the region have been unable to plant their main crop, raising fears of a heavily diminished harvest this fall. Less water flow could also have a devastating impact on fish reproduction in the Mekong River basin. This is normally the time when fish use rising water levels as a cue to spawn and to disperse their young, but there is little evidence of this happening so far this year. Perhaps even more alarming, experts expect that droughts and disruptions to the water flow of the Mekong will become more common, and they warn that it could eventually lead to the collapse of the entire ecosystem. “With the completion of more mainstream dams and the cumulative effects of climate change, that tipping point” for when the Mekong can no longer sustain these changes “may be coming closer,” Few rivers in the world rise and fall with the seasons as much as the Mekong, which can drop up to 40 feet in some places at the end of the dry season. When the monsoon rains arrive, they normally produce a flood pulse that brings with it sediment essential to agriculture as well as enormous amounts of larvae and tiny fish, including many critically endangered species such as the Mekong giant catfish, that are swept into the Tonle Sap Lake and other floodplains where they can mature. “Without the flood pulse, fish may delay or skip spawning,” says Zeb Hogan, a National Geographic Explorer and fish biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno, who leads a USAID project called Wonders of the Mekong. “For rare and endangered species, this situation threatens their survival, and for commercially important fish species, future harvests could be significantly reduced.”

Damming the Mekong Basin to Environmental Hell – Major dam construction projects have become a favorite pastime of some autocratic governments, with China leading the way. But, far from protecting against water shortages, as supporters promise, large dams are contributing to river depletion and severely exacerbating parched conditions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the basin of the Mekong River, which is running at a historically low level. Known as the “mother of waters” in Laos and Thailand, the Mekong flows from the Chinese-controlled Tibetan Plateau to the South China Sea, through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Farmers in the river basin, Asia’s Rice Bowl, produce enough rice to feed 300 million people per year. The basin also boasts the world’s largest inland fishery, accounting for an estimated 25% of the global freshwater catch.This vital waterway is now under threat, largely owing to a series of Chinese-built mega-dams near the border of the Tibetan Plateau, just before the river crosses into Southeast Asia. The 11 dams currently in operation have a total electricity-generating capacity of 21,300 megawatts – more than the installed hydropower capacity of all the downriver countriescombined. And they are wreaking environmental, economic, and geopolitical havoc. For starters, by reducing the flow of freshwater and nutrient-rich sediment from the Himalayas into the sea, these mega-dams are causing a retreat of the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam. The resulting seawater intrusion is forcing rice farmers to switch to shrimp farming or growing reeds. Moreover, according to a Mekong River Commission study, hydropower development through 2040 – which includes several more Chinese mega-dams under construction or planned – will result in a 40-80% decline in fish stocks (by biomass). Migratory fish will disappear across much of the basin, which presently is second only to the Amazon in terms of fish species diversity. Dams are also disrupting the Mekong’s annual flooding cycle, which helps to refertilize farmland naturally by spreading nutrient-rich silt, besides opening giant fish nurseries. Earlier this summer, China’s maintenance work on its Jinghong Dam resulted in the release of torrents of water. The resulting floods in Thailand and Laos destroyed crops and disrupted fish, damaging local people’s livelihoods.

Trump administration authorizes ‘cyanide bombs’ to kill wild animals –The Trump administration has reauthorized government officials to use controversial poison devices – dubbed “cyanide bombs” by critics – to kill coyotes, foxes and other animals across the US. The spring-loaded traps, called M-44s, are filled with sodium cyanide and are most frequently deployed by Wildlife Services, a federal agency in the US Department of Agriculture that kills vast numbers of wild animals each year, primarily for the benefit of private farmers and ranchers. In 2018, Wildlife Services reported that its agents had dispatched more than 1.5 million native animals, from beavers to black bears, wolves, ducks and owls. Roughly 6,500 of them were killed by M-44s. On Tuesday, after completing the first phase of a routine review, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would allow sodium cyanide’s continued use in M-44s across the country on an interim basis.

3 Southern Resident Orcas Missing, Presumed Dead — The extremely endangered population of Southern Resident killer whales off the coast of Washington and British Columbia fell to 73 after 3 orcas went missing, the Center for Whale Research said in a statement.The Washington state-based research center takes an annual survey of the killer whale population from the extremely endangered pods that once frequented the Salish Sea in southwestern Canada and northwestern Washington daily in the summer months. Now, the declining Chinook salmon stocks means the whales are rarely seen and are starving to death, as CNN reported. “They aren’t getting their prey, and that’s the problem,” said Michael Weiss, a field biologist with the Center for Whale Research, to CNN. Weiss said this problem started in the 90s when the population was around 100 whales, but it has been in a steady decline ever since. “It is right inline with the trajectory that has been predicted for several years,” said Howard Garrett, co-founder and board president of Orca Network on Whidbey Island, Washington, as the Global News in Canada reported. “It’s very, very sad. These are known individuals. People care about them, we’ve gotten to know them over many, many years and we know their family lines … and now we’ll see them never again.” “I predicted we would be in this fix,” said Ken Balcomb, founding director of the Center for Whale Research, as the Seattle Times reported. “Until we solve this food issue, we will keep going through this trauma, getting all excited when there is a baby and all upset when there is a death. We have to take care of the food problem.”

Ocean Heat Waves Kill Coral Instantly, Study Finds – Marine heat waves are increasing in frequency, duration and intensity, which spell trouble for corals, according to new research from scientists working at the Great Barrier Reef. The increased frequency in heat waves is a direct byproduct of the climate crisis the scientists say, as theBBC reported. The researchers knew that oceanic heat waves contributed to coral degradation, or bleaching, where the coral sheds the colorful algae covering and nourishing it and the coral slowly starves. What surprised the scientists was just how rapidly they died off when they experience a heat wave, according to Agence France Presse. Yet, while corals can often regenerate after a bleaching event once ocean temperatures are more hospitable to the corals’ symbiotic algae, heat waves that come on rapidly and linger are separate existential event that cause immediate death. Reefs will also have to weather extreme marine heat waves, which is “a distinct biological phenomenon from bleaching events,” according to the study’s authors, led by William Leggat, a coral reef expert at the University of Newcastle in Australia, as Vice’s Motherboard reported. “Now, we see there is also a temperature at which the coral animal itself suffers from heat-induced mortality,” explained co-author Tracy Ainsworth, a marine biologist at the University of New South Wales, in an email, as reported by Vice. “This isn’t starvation, this is the animal itself undergoing mortality directly from the heat of the water.”

“Ocean heatwaves that WIPE OUT marine life are occurring at double the rate experts had expected, a study shows.”OCEAN heatwaves that wipe out marine life are occurring at double the rate experts had expected, a study shows. The extreme warm spells – thought to be linked to global climate change – can last for months, killing fish and crustaceans and destroying coral reefs and kelp forests. The new study warns that damage they cause to ecosystems is harming fishing and aquaculture industries. Lead author Dr Andrew Pershing, chief scientific officer at the US Gulf of Maine Research Institute, said: ‘Across the 65 ecosystems we examined, we expected about six or seven of them would experience these “surprises” each year. ‘Instead, we’ve seen an average of 12 ecosystems experiencing these warming events each year over the past seven years, including a high of 23 “surprises” in 2016.’ In 2018, the water temperature off San Diego hit a record 27.3C – the highest figure on the Californian coast since records began more than a century ago. In 2016 and 2017, high temperatures killed half of the shallow water corals of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. A huge patch of warm water, a third the size of the US, formed in the Gulf of Alaska in 2013. Dubbed The Blob, it wiped out fish, birds and whales. Previous research has shown the number of ocean heatwaves doubled between 1982 and 2016.

Green Turtles Are Mistaking Plastic for the Sea Grass They Normally Eat — Endangered green turtles are having a problem. They’re mistaking plastic pollution for the seaweed they survive on, according to new research from the University of Exeter in the UK and the Society for the Protection of Turtles in Cyprus, as Newsweek reported. Green sea turtles use their eyesight to find food, so long, thin bits of green, black or clear plastic that resemble sea grass deceived many turtles. And, the younger they were, the more likely they were to mistake plastic for their dietary staple, study reported. The paper was published in the journal Scientific Reports. Black trash bags, fragments of fishing ropes and takeaway bags all have the potential to confuse turtles, theBBC reported. “Previous research has suggested leatherback turtles eat plastic that resembles their jellyfish prey, and we wanted to know whether a similar thing might be happening with green turtles,” said Dr. Emily Duncan, of the University of Exeter who was the paper’s lead author, in a statement. “Sea turtles are primarily visual predators – able to choose foods by size and shape – and in this study we found strong evidence that green turtles favor plastic of certain sizes, shapes and colors.” The researchers studied of 34 turtles that had washed up on the beaches of the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus. They were able to look at the insides of 19 turtles. All of them had swallowed plastic. One had swallowed 183 pieces of plastic, the BBC reported. The plastic crisis is particularly troubling for younger turtles, which ate more plastic than the older ones, possibly because they were “less experienced” and so “more likely to eat the wrong food,” the study said.

A Fourth of the World Is Living Under Extreme Water Stress, Says New Research – One quarter of the world’s population are living in areas where the competition for water resources is extreme, according to a new report from the Washington-based global research group World Resource Institute (WRI), as The Guardian reported. Around the world 17 countries, including India, which is home to 1.3 billion people, face extreme water stress. That means, “irrigated agriculture, industries and municipalities withdraw more than 80 percent of their available supply on average every year,” the WRI report said. “Such a narrow gap between supply and demand leaves countries vulnerable to fluctuations like droughts or increased water withdrawals,” the report said, as Deutsche Welle reported. The report cautioned that increased water stress and the climate crisis could lead to more “day zeroes,” a term that was coined when Cape Town, South Africa approached the brink of completely running out of potable water, according to The Guardian“The picture is alarming in many places around the globe, but it’s very important to note that water stress is not destiny,” said Betsy Otto, WRI’s global water director, to The Guardian. “What we can’t afford to do any longer is pretend that the situation will resolve itself.”In addition to the 17 countries facing extreme water stress, New Mexico ranked on par with the United Arab Emirates and Eritrea in Africa as the only state with extremely high pressures on its water system.After New Mexico, California ranked second with its water pressure under high stress. It was followed by Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska.Looking at the global picture, Qatar, with a total score of 4.97 on a scale of 5, tops the list of 17 extremely high water-stressed countries. It is followed by Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, UAE, San Marino, Bahrain, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Oman and Botswana. The Middle East and North Africa are home to 12 of the 17 countries suffering from extreme stress. Additionally, another 27 countries make up the “high baseline water stress” list.

Rivers of Dust: Water and the Middle East – It is written that “Enannatum, ruler of Lagash,” slew “60 soldiers” from Umma. The battle between the two ancient city states took place 4,500 years ago near where the great Tigris and Euphrates rivers come together in what is today Iraq. The matter in dispute? Water. More than four millennia have passed since the two armies clashed over one city state’s attempt to steal water from another, but while the instruments of war have changed, the issue is much the same: whoever controls the rivers controls the land. And those rivers are drying up, partly because of overuse and wastage, and partly because climate change has pounded the region with punishing multi-year droughts. Syria and Iraq are at odds with Turkey over the Tigris-Euphrates. Egypt’s relations with Sudan and Ethiopia over the Nile are tense. Jordan and the Palestinians accuse Israel of plundering river water to irrigate the Negev Desert and hogging most of the three aquifers that underlie the occupied West Bank. According to satellites that monitor climate, the Tigris-Euphrates Basin, embracing Turkey, Syria, Iraq and western Iran, is losing water faster than any other area in the world, with the exception of Northern India. The Middle East’s water problems are hardly unique. South Asia – in particular the Indian sub-continent – is also water stressed, and Australia and much of Southern Africa are experiencing severe droughts. Even Europe is struggling with some rivers dropping so low as to hinder shipping. But the Middle East has been particularly hard hit. According to the Water Stress Index, out of 37 countries in the world facing “extremely high” water distress, 15 are in the Middle East, with Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia heading the list. For Syria and Iraq, the problem is Turkey and Ankara’s mania for dam building. Since 1975, Turkish dams have reduced the flow of water to Syria by 40 percent and to Iraq by 80 percent. According to the Iraqi Union of Farming Associations, up to 50 percent of the country’s agricultural land could be deprived of water, removing 124 million acres from production.

UK: Major flooding narrowly averted after Toddbrook dam collapse – Around 1,500 residents of Whaley Bridge returned to their homes Tuesday and Wednesday after being evacuated for almost a week due to the partial collapse of a reservoir wall. Whaley Bridge is a small town in England’s Peak District national park that lies just below a dam that supports up to 1.2 million tons of water constituting the 0.5km long Toddbrook reservoir. It only became known that the dam was in danger of collapse on August 1, following several days of heavy rain. A Canal & River Trust (CRT) employee working alone noticed the force of the water cascading over a section of the concrete spillway had led to cracks and a partial break away. Barry Rudd, a trust volunteer, said he arrived at the dam at midday to find the employee “desperately trying to reduce the levels by opening the valves. He was running up and down the reservoir with a rake clearing debris and adjusting and tracking the valves, but there was just so much water coming over the top it began to wash away the clay wall.” Once the danger was apparent, up to 6,500 residents were evacuated from the town and nearby Furness Vale and New Mills. The entire area was cut off for days. The Peak District lies between Manchester and Sheffield and the heavy rainfall and flooding resulted in the only rail line between the two cities being closed for five days after being declared unsafe. A huge logistical operation involved workers labouring around the clock to prevent the dam bursting, which saved Whaley Bridge from severe flooding as well as other towns and villages further downstream. Part of the operation required fire and rescue workers to pump vast amounts of water out of the reservoir into the River Goyt. The operation was hindered due to some of the huge infrastructure cuts imposed over the last decade. In the first critical hours, only one industrial pump was available. Eventually more were secured, enabling around one billion litres of water to be pumped out in four days. A Royal Air Force helicopter was deployed to drop over 1,000 sandbags and 600 bags of aggregate to plug the gap in the dam’s defences, after which construction workers poured in concrete to create a temporary seal.

SC built 1,200 houses in flood-prone coastal areas. And sea levels keep rising. Despite rising seas and increasing storm threats, South Carolina residents have built more than 1,200 homes since 2010 in areas of the coast that are forecast to flood more often in coming decades, a new study says. Most of the new homes, valued at $1.3 billion, were clustered in Charleston County, the historic but increasingly storm soaked community that has attracted hordes of new residents in recent years. The city of Charleston already is dealing with floods that occur on sunny days because of rising sea levels.But Charleston and South Carolina aren’t alone in seeing new construction in areas expected to flood more often, says the study by a climate science group and a national real estate corporation’s research division.Nationally, nearly 20,000 homes have been built since 2010 in coastal areas that will become increasingly prone to flooding by the middle of the century, according to Climate Central and Zillow’s report. In North Carolina, 1,910 homes have been built since 2010 that face increased flood risks in the future, the report said. Both Carolinas rank in the top 10 in new home construction in high-risk areas. The issue should be of concern to people who live on the coast or are thinking of moving there: lives will be threatened by higher water, and property values of the new houses will suffer because of the threat of flooding, according to Climate Central and Zillow. At the same time, taxpayers from across the country are potentially on the hook to bail out property owners if a major storm destroys the new houses. “This research suggests that the impact of climate change on the lives and pocketbooks of homeowners is closer than you think,’’ Skylar Olsen, Zillow’s economic research director said in a news release this week.

The Gulf Stream is slowing down. That could mean rising seas and a hotter Florida The Gulf Stream, the warm current that brings the east coast of Florida the mixed blessings of abundant swordfish, mild winters and stronger hurricanes, may be weakening because of climate change. Visible from the air as a ribbon of cobalt blue water a few miles off the coast, the Gulf Stream forms part of a clockwise system of currents that transports warm water from the tropics up the east coast and across the Atlantic to northwestern Europe. In the frigid climate near Greenland, the water cools, sinks and flows south again, rolling through the deep ocean toward the tropics. This marine circulatory system has reached its weakest point in 1,600 years, recent studies show, having lost about 15% of its strength since the mid-20th century. Scientists disagree on whether climate change or natural cycles account for the slowdown. But a consensus has emerged that climate change will lead to a slower Gulf Stream system in the future, as melting ice sheets in Greenland disrupt the system with discharges of cold fresh water. A weaker Gulf Stream would mean higher sea levels for Florida’s east coast. It could lead to colder winters in northern Europe (one reason many scientists prefer the term climate change to global warming). And it could mean that a lot of the heat that would have gone to Europe would stay along the U.S. east coast and in Florida. “If you slow down the sinking of water in the North Atlantic, that means you have a pileup of waters along the eastern seaboard of the United States and the Gulf of Mexico,” said Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science for the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental group. “That means that you have increased regional sea level rise just from that ocean circulation change. So that’s not good for New York City, Norfolk or along Florida.” “Your cooling mechanism to get that water to the north is slowing down,” she said. “This slowing down of your natural air conditioning, by getting that hot water from the Gulf Stream flowing northward, means that you have that hotter water sticking around and not getting out of your region as fast.” It’s unclear the extent to which any weakening has reached the system’s southern leg off Florida, also known as the Florida current. That current is driven partly by winds and partly by the pull from the sinking of cold water in the north. While less visible than beaches and sunshine, the current plays a powerful role in establishing Florida’s identity. “It’s one of the things that makes fishing so good here, the ability of the Gulf Stream to bring in migratory fish,”

July equaled, and maybe surpassed, the hottest month in recorded history – According to new data from the World Meteorological Organization and Copernicus Climate Change Programme, July at least equalled, if not surpassed, the hottest month in recorded history. This follows the warmest ever June on record. The data from the Copernicus Climate Change Programme, run by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, is fed into the UN system by WMO. The figures show that, based on the first 29 days of the month, July 2019 will be on par with, and possibly marginally warmer than the previous warmest July, in 2016, which was also the warmest month ever. The latest figures are particularly significant because July 2016 was during one of the strongest occurrence of the El Niño phenomenon, which contributes to heightened global temperatures. Unlike 2016, 2019 has not been marked by a strong El Niño. “All of this means that we are on track for the period from 2015 to 2019 to be the five hottest years on record. This year alone, we have seen temperature records shattered from New Delhi to Anchorage, from Paris to Santiago, from Adelaide and to the Arctic Circle. If we do not take action on climate change now, these extreme weather events are just the tip of the iceberg. And, indeed, the iceberg is also rapidly melting,” Mr Guterres said.Exceptional heat has been observed across the globe in recent week, with a string of European countries logging record highs temperatures that have caused disruption to transport and infrastructure and stress on people’s health and the environment. As the heat dome spread northwards through Scandinavia and towards Greenland, it accelerated the already above average rate of ice melt.

July 2019 Was World’s Hottest Month Ever Recorded –July 2019 was the warmest month globally ever recorded, according to data released on Monday by the European Union’s climate change agency. “While July is usually the warmest month of the year for the globe, according to our data it also was the warmest month recorded globally, by a very small margin,” Jean-Noel Thepaut, head of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement.”With continued greenhouse gas emissions and the resulting impact on global temperatures, records will continue to be broken in the future.”July 2019 was slightly warmer, by 0.04 degrees Celsius (0.072 Fahrenheit), than the previous record, which was set three years ago. Extreme heat was felt across Europe last month. Germany recorded 42 degrees Celsius, its highest temperature since records began, and Paris also endured its hottest day on record. Robert Vautard of the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace, a research institute that looks into climate science, said the heat wave “was so extreme over continental Western Europe that the observed magnitudes would have been extremely unlikely without climate change.” At the beginning of last month the EU’s agency announced it had been the hottest June ever recorded. The European Union’s satellite-based observation network said on their website: “The latest data show that this year continues to bring record-breaking temperatures. Every month in 2019 has ranked among the four warmest for the month in question, and June was the warmest June ever recorded. It is now confirmed that July was also an exceptional month.”

Earth’s Hottest Month Lights a Fire for Progress –July 2019 was the hottest month in recorded human history, with record-breaking temperatures in many parts of Europe, wildfires raging over tens of thousands of square miles of Arctic Alaska and Russia, and a staggering ice melt in Greenland that dumped 197 billion gallons of water into the ocean – 12.5 billion tons of which melted over a single day. All the while, the Trump administration has been actively suppressing climate science while pushing scientists and other officials out of their jobs. It also proposed weakening coal-burning power plant emissions rules,relaxed sage-grouse protection in land coveted by energy developers, continued to weaken protections for Bears Ears National Monument, and greenlit a controversial plan to allow drilling in Alaska’s Cook Inlet that could harm beluga whales and other marine mammals.The administration also appointed William Perry Pendley, a staunch foe of America’s public lands, as acting head of the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 250 million acres. The appointment could set the stage for the liquidation of public lands and unfettered fossil-fuel development around the country, further driving greenhouse gas emissions fueling the climate crisis. Oh yeah, and Trump’s reelection campaign also started selling plastic straws to “own the libs.” And internationally, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro – often referred to as the “Trump of the South” – fired the head of the agency responsible for tracking deforestation in the Amazon, which has increased sharply under that administration. Again, this will have a devastating effect on the climate, not to mention the wildlife and Indigenous peoples who live in these forests. On the other side of the equation, Extinction Rebellion and other activist groups continued to pick up steam. Utilities are closing coal plants, investment banks are pulling out of fossil-fuel projects, and a major credit ratings agency has started to pay attention to climate risks.

57 Dead, 18,000 Hospitalized in Japan Heat Wave – – While the worst of this summer’s heat seems to have passed in the U.S. and Europe, Japan is in the throes of a dangerous heat wave. The end of the rainy season last week brought a dangerous heat wave that claimed the lives of 57 people in Japan and sent tens of thousands to the island nation’s hospitals for heat related illness, the Japan Timesr eported. The week that started on July 29 saw triple the number of heat-related hospitalizations as the week before. At 18,347, that’s the second highest number since heat-related records started in 2008, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, as the Japan Times reported.The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said the surge in hospitalizations, deaths and people collapsing from heat stroke is partly due to people’s bodies, which adapted to the cool weather of the rainy season and did not sweat much, have been unable to cope with the sudden spike in temperature, according to the Japan News.The JMA said a seasonal rain front lingered over Honshu from late June to mid-July. Plus, a high pressure system in the Sea of Okhotsk also brought cold winds from the north, resulting in cloudy, cool weather across the country, as the Japan News reported. That ended abruptly.From July 1 to July 23, one person died in Japan from heat stroke. The following week, the official end of the rainy season, saw 11 deaths when temperatures reached 98.6 degrees in central Japan, according to theJMA. Last week when 57 people died, temperatures in Kumagaya City and Isesaki City reached 101 degrees, while Fukushima and Osaka registered readings of 98 and Tokyo 95, according to the UPI. While Japan suffered from more hot temperatures today, Japanese authorities asked residents to stay cool and hydrated since the heat is expected to last until September.

Alaska records warmest month ever in July with coastline barren of sea ice – A heatwave pulsating through the Arctic helped push Alaska to its warmest month ever recorded in July, with the state’s vast coastline left completely barren of sea ice. Alaska’s average temperature in July was a record 58.1F (14.5C), nearly 1F above the previous monthly high set in July 2004, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Cities and towns across the vast US state, such as Anchorage, UtqiaÄ¡vik (formerly known as Barrow) and Kodiak all had their warmest month in 125 years of record-keeping. This heat, 5.4F warmer than the long-term average for July, helped spur wildfires that shrouded much of Alaska in a pall of smoke and has now resulted in a remarkable melting away of shoreline ice. There is now no sea ice within 150 miles of Alaskan shores, according to an analysis by the National Weather Service. The pace of ice loss is “unprecedented” in 40 years of satellite records, scientists said, with the Bering Sea, which separates Alaska from Russia, left completely ice-free. “It looks like the worst case scenario put forward by the IPCC [International Panel on Climate Change] could be an underestimate because we are seeing ice melting now that we expected 30 to 40 years from now. It’s alarming because it’s very fast-paced and the consequences are hard to predict.”

Arctic wildfires: How bad are they and what caused them? – BBC (includes many graphics) Wildfires are ravaging parts of the Arctic, with areas of Siberia, Alaska, Greenland and Canada engulfed in flames and smoke.Satellite images show how the plumes of smoke from the fires, many caused by dry storms in hot weather, can be seen from space.While wildfires are common at this time of year, record-breaking summer temperatures and strong winds have made this year’s fires particularly bad.They are now at “unprecedented levels”, says Mark Parrington, a wildfires expert at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (Cams).Eastern Russia and Alaska, both within and outside the Arctic Circle, have been particularly badly affected.Russia’s Federal Forestry Agency says more than 2.7m hectares (6.7m acres) of remote forest are currently burning across six Siberian and eastern regions.However, Greenpeace Russia says as many as 3.3m hectares are burning – an area bigger than Belgium.Smog has prompted several regions to declare states of emergency and smoke has blown across major cities like Novosibirsk, blotting out the sun and making it difficult for some people to breathe.The smoke from the Siberian fires has even spread to Alaska and parts of the west coast of Canada.In Alaska, as of 31 July, 105 large fires had burned more than 0.7m hectares (1.78m acres).The majority of the blazes were caused by lightning strikes, according to the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center.Greenland is also battling a fire in Qeqqata Kommunia, close to the Arctic Circle Trail, popular with hikers. The area has been experiencing a heatwave, which has also meant the sea ice has been melting at a fast rate. Canada’s Arctic is also suffering. One large wildfire in the Northwest Territories, inside the Arctic Circle, has burned at least 45,500 hectares (112,000 acres) according to the Northwest Territories Environment and Natural Resources agency, although the area is likely to be bigger.The wildfires are not just having an impact on the ground. They release harmful pollutants and toxic gases into the atmosphere.Thick smoke is visible on satellite images and distinguishable from every-day clouds across vast areas of the Arctic.Nasa has traced the megatons of harmful particles in that smoke – and where they have gone.The satellite images on the left below show the fires as red dots. The globe on the right shows the concentration of black carbon particles – or soot – released by the fires.This soot can be harmful to humans and animals, entering the lungs and bloodstream. It also plays a role in global warming. Nasa scientists say the soot absorbs sunlight and warms the atmosphere. If it falls on ice or snow, it reduces reflectivity and can trap more heat, speeding up the melting process.

Indonesia sends thousands of security personnel to combat forest fires (Reuters) – Indonesia is deploying thousands of military and police to douse forest fires after declaring an emergency in six provinces on the island of Sumatra and in the province of Kalimantan on Borneo, a disaster mitigation official said on Wednesday. Indonesia has faced global pressure to put an end to slash-and-burn clearance of land, often to plant palm and pulp plantations, particularly after devastating fires in 2015. Fires Indonesian farmers use to clear land during the dry season can rage out of control, bringing a choking haze that can affect neighbours such as Singapore and Malaysia. Drought has hit large parts of the archipelago as a mild El Nino weather pattern disrupts the dry season, weather officials say, with its peak now expected to run from mid-August to mid-September. The number of hot spots has been increasing, with 124 intense enough to suggest fires detected nationwide by Wednesday morning, said Agus Wibowo, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency. The government has declared an emergency in the provinces of Riau, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Jambi, South Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan, where extensive peatlands are particularly prone to fires, he added. Authorities have brought in 5,679 additional personnel to five of the provinces, drawn from the military, police and the regional disaster mitigation agency, Wibowo said. Also being deployed are aircraft that can run water bombing operations. In Riau, disaster authorities have made available 17 helicopters, with 10 more pressed in from private firms, the military and the forestry ministry, he added.

Indonesian president hands over management of forests to indigenous people — Indonesia has had a long history of conflict over control of its massive areas of tropical forests that are spread across the many thousands of islands that make up the archipelagic nation. Declaration under former Dutch colonial rule of state ownership of all forests was rarely accepted by the millions of people who lived in them and who had managed them sustainably for centuries. Widodo’s recent formal handover of titles is a highly symbolic step in the long fight for recognition by indigenous communities, whose customary rights remained contested by the new nationalist government after independence in 1945 despite being enshrined in the founding constitution. The islands now known as Indonesia have long been home to thousands of distinct ethnic groups with their own languages, customs and identity. “The recognition of customary management of forests is not restricted to the acknowledgment of communities’ rights as stated in the 1945 Constitution. Recognition also means an appreciation of Indonesia’s original values and its identity as a nation,” said Widodo in his opening speech at the Declaration of Recognition of Indigenous Forests event held at the presidential palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 30 December 2016. The event was attended by international and national figures, including representatives of the nine indigenous communities receiving customary titles. Of the nine recipients, the Kajang were noted by Widodo as a national model from which others could learn. The road leading to recognition was long and fraught, with conflict between the Kajang, different levels of government and the private sector over control of the forests.

Charred forests not growing back as expected in Pacific Northwest — Camille Stevens-Rumann was a student of raging wildfires well before she began formally researching their impact on the environment. The Colorado-based forestry professor fought wildfires that swept through the region while pursuing an undergraduate degree, observing how they influenced the landscape. “After getting tired of just wielding a chainsaw, I moved back to getting degrees in fire ecology,” Stevens-Rumann, 33, told CBC News. “I got really interested in thinking about how we’re managing our landscapes, and how [the] decisions we’re making even on the fire line are influencing how those ecosystems are recovering after.”Her research has taken her from the charred forests of America’s Rocky Mountain ranges all the way to the Pacific Northwest, just south of the B.C. border. What she’s found: certain tree species are having a tough time growing back in areas that have been affected by wildfires due to warming temperatures – a discovery that could have major implications for both the forestry sector and long-term climate change targets. Among Stevens-Rumann,’s work was a 2017 study of nearly 1,500 sites charred by 52 wildfires in the U.S. Rocky Mountains. Her research found that lower elevation trees had a tough time naturally regenerating in areas that burned between 2000 and 2015 compared with sites affected between 1985 and 1999, largely due to drier weather conditions. More recently, a 2019 study written by her colleague Kerry Kemp found that both Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine seedlings in the Idaho’s Rocky Mountains – just south of B.C. – were also struggling in low-lying burned areas due to warmer temperatures, leading to lower tree densities. Stevens-Rumann says there are many similar forests facing the same challenges in B.C.’s Southern Interior, while repeat wildfires in the province are likely also to inhibit regrowth in many areas. As a result, some ecosystems will no longer be able to support tree species. Instead they may convert to grasslands, she said.

PIOMAS August 2019 – Arctic Sea Ice by Neven – Another month has passed and so here is the updated Arctic sea ice volume graph as calculated by the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS) at the Polar Science Center: 2019 had a real opportunity during July to further move away from 2012, but failed to do so. Both years had a volume loss that was well below the 2007-2018 average of 6037 km3, which isn’t that surprising given how low they both already are. 2017 had even less of a volume loss, and so 2019 is still lowest and the gap with number 2 has grown a little bit. All other years, except for 2014, managed to close the gap somewhat. Here’s how the differences with previous years have evolved from last month: Wipneus’ version of the PIOMAS graph shows how this year’s volume loss slowed down during the second half of July, when it actually should have increased the gap to be able to compete with the big drop that was caused by the GAC during the first week of August 2012: Consequently, the anomaly trend line on the PIOMAS volume anomaly graph has shot up again somewhat, back to the one standard deviation zone: Because sea ice extent actually dropped quite a bit towards the end of the month, and thus volume was spread out over a relatively smaller ice pack, average thickness is no longer lowest on record. It’s still among the lowest, however: 2019 is still lowest on the Polar Science Centre average thickness graph: If we look at a direct comparison for PIOMAS volume distribution between 2019 and 2012, as produced by the inimitable Wipneus, we can see that 2012 will catch up a lot in the coming 10 days in the blue zone in the East Siberian Sea. Blue means that in 2019 the ice there is thinner than it was back in 2012. Of course, the GAC will quickly take care of that difference. But conversely, there’s a lot of dark red, in the CAA, the western Beaufort, east of Novaya Zemlya, and between Svalbard and Franz Josef Land, where the ice isn’t looking all that great (to put it mildly) and thus 2019 could easily equal 2012: Due to personal circumstances, I haven’t been able to follow this melting season in every single detail (hence not a lot of extra analysis this month). From what I’ve seen on the Arctic Sea Ice Forum, written by commenters I’ve known for years and highly respect, my gut feeling says this year won’t be able to break the 2012 records.

The Greenland ice sheet poured 197 billion tons of water into the North Atlantic in July alone — An extraordinary melt event that began earlier this week continued through August on the Greenland ice sheet, and there are signs that about 60 percent of the expansive ice cover saw detectable surface melting, including at higher elevations that only rarely see temperatures climb above freezing. On Thursday, the ice sheet saw its biggest single-day volume loss on record, with 12.5 billion tons of ice lost to the ocean from surface melt, according to computer model estimates based on satellite and other data. Records of daily mass loss date back to 1950. “This model, which uses weather data and observations to build a record of ice and snowfall, and net change in mass of the ice sheet, is remarkably accurate,” says Ted Scambos, a senior researcher at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Colorado. “I would accept the result as fact. 12.5 billion tons [lost] in one day, and the highest single-day total since 1950,” Scambos said. July 31 was the biggest surface melt day since at least 2012, with about 60 percent of the ice sheet seeing at least 1 millimeter of melt at the surface, and more than 10 billion tons of ice lost to the ocean from surface melt, according to data from the Polar Portal, a website run by Danish polar research institutions, and the NSIDC. According to Ruth Mottram, a climate researcher with the Danish Meteorological Institute, the ice sheet sent 197 billion tons of water pouring into the Atlantic Ocean during July. This is enough to raise sea levels by 0.5 millimeter, or 0.02 inches, in a one-month time frame, said Martin Stendel, a researcher with the institute.

Greenland’s ice wasn’t supposed to melt like last week until 2070 – During the past week, temperatures at the highest reaches of the Greenland ice sheet rose above freezing, melting snow at the Summit Station (10,550 feet above sea level) for the first time since July 2012 and perhaps only the third time in the last seven centuries. Across lower elevations around the margins of the ice sheet, bare glacial ice melted at an unprecedented rate, losing 12.5 billion tons of water on Thursday alone, with daily losses likely exceeding any point in at least the past 70 years. The Greenland ice sheet covers an area the size of Alaska with enough ice to raise global sea level by more than 20 feet. Greenland gains ice each winter from compacting snow accumulation and loses ice from melt water and icebergs discharged to the ocean. A dry, warm spring this year left a thin snow cover over bare glacial ice. Spring warming followed by a large melt event in June led scientist Jason Box of the Geological Survey of Greenland to predict record ice losses this year. The peak of the melt season passed in mid-July with more typical summer conditions, but the past week again saw a large increase in the area and intensity of melt across the Northern Hemisphere’s remaining ice sheet. This latest heat wave was particularly unusual as a dome of warm air arrived from the east, associated with the remnants of the record-setting European heat wave last month. Most large melt events on Greenland involve warm, humid air masses arriving from North America and the western Atlantic Ocean. This surge of warm air started in North Africa, traveled north across Europe and then westward across the North Atlantic Ocean toward and across Greenland. Air masses originating over North Africa are known to reach Greenland – Saharan dust has been traced to the ice sheet – but this recent air mass was exceptionally warm. By following the path of the heat wave, scientists predicted the extensive melt several days in advance. Air temperatures at Summit hovered near or above freezing for more than 11 hours on Wednesday, which is nearly twice as long as the last melt event there in 2012. Satellite data that I process for the National Snow and Ice Data Center showed more than 60 percent of the surface area of the ice sheet melting last Wednesday. While this is a smaller melt area than in mid-July 2012, the melt extent was second only to 2012 for late July. More detailed satellite images show that snow has melted from a large area along the western edge of the ice sheet, leaving more exposed ice than in 2012 in several areas. Numerous meltwater rivers and lakes, and dark, dust-encrusted ice reached areas higher on the ice sheet. Images comparingsummer 2018 and summer 2019 show a larger area of bare ice and meltwater lakes this summer. Several of the Danish Meteorological Institute weather stations on the ice sheet have recorded greater melt rates in 2019 than in 2012.

Research Highlight: Loss of Arctic’s Reflective Sea Ice Will Advance Global Warming by 25 Years – Losing the remaining Arctic sea ice and its ability to reflect incoming solar energy back to space would be equivalent to adding one trillion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere, on top of the 2.4 trillion tons emitted since the Industrial Age, according to current and former researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.At current rates, this roughly equates to 25 years of global CO2 emissions. It would consequently speed up the arrival of a global threshold of warming of 2ºC beyond temperatures the world experienced before the Industrial Revolution. Scientists and analysts, including the authors of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report released in October 2018, have stated that the planet runs the risk of catastrophic damage ranging from more intense heat waves and coastal flooding to extinction of terrestrial species and threats to food supply if that threshold is passed. The results were published June 20 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. In “Radiative Heating of an Ice-Free Arctic Ocean,” former Scripps graduate student Kristina Pistone, now with the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute based at NASA Ames Research Center, and Scripps climate scientists Ian Eisenman and Veerabhadran Ramanathan used direct satellite observations to assess the impact of a potential ice-free Arctic Ocean. The authors of the study conclude that the loss of sea ice will add a globally-averaged 0.7 watts per square meter (W/m2) of solar heating to the Earth system, 0.21 W/m2 of which has already occurred between 1979 and 2016. The amount of additional heat introduced into the Earth system because of Arctic melt is equivalent to an increase in CO2 concentration from 400 to 456.7 parts per million.

Harvard Scientists, Funded By Bill Gates, To Begin Spraying Particles Into The Sky To Dim The Sun – What was once a conspiracy theory is now the subject of congressional debate, peer-reviewed studies, and now a Harvard experiment. Harvard scientists will attempt to replicate the climate-cooling effect of volcanic eruptions with a world-first solar geoengineering experiment. The university announced this month that it has created an external advisory panel to examine the potential ethical, environmental and geopolitical impacts of this geoengineering project, which has been developed by the university’s researchers.According to Nature Magazine, Louise Bedsworth, executive director of the California Strategic Growth Council, a state agency that promotes sustainability and economic prosperity, will lead the Harvard advisory panel, the university said on 29 July. The other seven members include Earth-science researchers and specialists in environmental and climate law and policy.What was once a conspiracy theory will soon be a reality – any day now.Known as the Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx), the experiment will spray calcium carbonate particles high above the earth to mimic the effects of volcanic ash blocking out the sun to produce a cooling effect. The experiment was announced in Nature magazine last year, who was one of few outlets to look into this unprecedented step toward geoengineering the planet. If all goes as planned, the Harvard team will be the first in the world to move solar geoengineering out of the lab and into the stratosphere, with a project called the Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx). The first phase – a US$3-million test involving two flights of a steerable balloon 20 kilometres above the southwest United States – could launch as early as the first half of 2019. Once in place, the experiment would release small plumes of calcium carbonate, each of around 100 grams, roughly equivalent to the amount found in an average bottle of off-the-shelf antacid. The balloon would then turn around to observe how the particles disperse. Naturally, the experiment is concerning to many people, including environmental groups, who, according to Nature, say such efforts are a dangerous distraction from addressing the only permanent solution to climate change: reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

I Went to a Climate Change Denial Conference. It Made Even Less Sense Than You’d Think. – There’s no need to worry about reducing the greenhouse gases driving climate change – all that carbon dioxide is actually “greening the planet.” The Green New Deal, on the other hand, would send the country back to the stone age, or at least the pre-industrial era. Those were among the eye-popping and often-conflicting views expressed yesterday at the Heartland Institute’s 13th International Climate Change Conference, a gathering of climate change deniers that took place at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., just blocks from the White House. The vast majority of the world’s climate scientists agree that climate change could prove devastating to life as we know it unless we take swift and sweeping action to decarbonize the economy . But those “wild predictions have been pronouncedly exaggerated,” according to the British gadfly Lord Christopher Monckton, who holds the title 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley. One of the more colorful figures in the climate denial universe, Monckton ticked off a list of problems scientists have linked to climate change that Monckton says we really don’t need to worry about. According to him, the world is seeing less, not more, drought; sea levels are falling not rising; forest fires are causing less damage; hurricane activity is decreasing, too; and carbon dioxide is actually improving the global environment by “greening” places like Australia’s Great Sandy Desert. “That’s why we need more CO2, because it greens the planet,” he declared. Other conference panelists joined Monckton in cycling through a series of theories long debunked by peer-reviewed science. Some believe, like Monckton, that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are growing but provide more benefits than threats. (One Heritage Foundation official went so far as to suggest carbon dioxide emitters should get paid a subsidy rather than face the kind of carbon tax scheme policymakers have discussed; of course, the oil industry already does receive billions in subsidies.) Others argued that CO2 levels are in fact not rising, while still others say we should be more concerned about a coming ice age. “The real problem is we have a lot more to worry about with global cooling than with global warming,” said Rodger Bezdek, an energy analyst and Heartland policy advisor.

Pretend Underdogs: Inside a Climate Denier Conference at Trump Hotel – Joseph McCarthy, The Weather Channel – I entered Trump International Hotel in Washington last Thursday with a three-person team to cover the Heartland Institute’s 13th International Conference on Climate Change. I left with two. Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus that humans are causing climate changeby burning fossil fuels, this free-market think tank, which has received large sums of fossil fuel money, continues to hawk various strains of climate change denial. And they weren’t happy that The Weather Channel had brought along George Mason University researcher John Cook, who tracks disinformation and climate change denialism professionally. About two hours into the conference, interim Heartland President and Director of Communications Jim Lakely pulled us aside. “You have two choices,” the stocky, spikey-haired man told us in a small conference room filled with empty cardboard boxes. “Either John leaves, or you all leave.” (Cook was not on the press list, but was an official correspondent with The Weather Channel for the occasion.) This gesture – “He’s not welcome on principle,” Lakely said – set the tone for the next several hours, during which former NASA climate communications specialist Laura Faye Tenenbaum, sound recordist Rachel Falcone and I would listen to a cabal of policy wonks, contrarian scientists and communicators sounding a little too certain in their denial to deserve the title, “skeptics.” (The visit to the conference was part of the reporting for a new investigative podcast series on climate denial and disinformation coming from The Weather Channel this fall.)

How High School Students Are Collaborating to Organize Youth Climate Strikes — Young people are often told that they don’t have the ability to truly make a difference in the world. Not being able to vote can be a very powerless feeling. Youth are discouraged to be engaged in politics because, in theory, they don’t have as much life experience or perspective. We, Elise and Liam, wanted to challenge this idea, especially when it comes to climate change. With the impending reality of our earth’s demise, we took it upon ourselves to create a difference in Boise, Idaho, the place we both call home. We started hearing about Greta Thunburg around the same time as the rest of the world, as she skipped school to protest for climate action outside the Swedish Parliament in August of 2018. Suddenly, more and more climate strikes were beginning to gain momentum and attract attention. Organizations like Zero Hour, Fridays for Future, and US Youth Climate Strike were making headlines, and thus the youth climate movement was born and thriving. We decided to join the rest of the world to show our local and national politicians that climate action is critical, and we won’t sit idly by watching the continuation of exploitation of earth’s natural resources. In mid-February of 2019, a local youth activist organization posted the news around the March 15th strike called on by Alexandria Villasenor on their social media feed. When I saw that people were finally getting together to create some action behind the climate crisis, I was ecstatic and quickly wrote back, “How can I help? Who is leading this?” and only after a few minutes received a message back saying “no one in Idaho had stepped up to put our name on the map, this could be a great opportunity for you!” Once I heard that, I quickly sent an email to the US Youth Climate Strikes saying I wanted to be the state lead for the climate strikes, and within the next few days, I had been added to the national slack team and shared google folder. I quickly realized that it couldn’t be done alone and I knew Elise was extremely passionate about environmental issues, so I told her there was no way she was not helping me with this, and of course, she happily agreed. From there, we began creating a team, getting logistics ready and striking every Friday, just as Greta does. It first started with me sitting alone on the steps but soon Elise and other members of our group began to join in. After Elise and I solidified that we were going to do lead the strikes I began to reach out via social media, posting on my Instagram story asking who would be interested in helping out. Within a day, we had made a team and the craziness that is planning a protest began. With a group of about 12, it had its difficulties: trouble communicating, low turn out to calls, and much more, but through it, Elise and I definitely found out how to pull our own weight and the weight of others. I was spending endless hours in and out of school working on things such as emails, press, permits, outreach, and just generally how to create a protest from the ground up.

Exxon Accused of Pressuring Witnesses in Climate Fraud Case – Prosecutors in New York are accusing ExxonMobil of trying to discourage potential witnesses from testifying about whether the oil giant misled investors over the costs it may face from future climate regulations. They’re asking a judge to block Exxon from making what they describe as “unreasonable” and extensive requests for documents from the witnesses.New court filings reveal that Exxon sent letters to a group of investment advisers and shareholder activists who prosecutors want to put on the stand, informing them they will be subject to subpoenas from the company seeking documents relevant to the case if they choose to testify.Because of their roles investing in and engaging with Exxon over climate change, these witnesses’ testimony could prove critical to the state’s case.With opening statements scheduled to begin Oct. 23, a lawyer in New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office wrote that the request would “impose disproportionate burdens on these witnesses in a transparent attempt to discourage them from testifying voluntarily, and threatening to upend the trial schedule.” The attorney general’s office has asked Justice Barry Ostrager of New York Supreme Court to order Exxon to halt its requests for documents. While prosecutors had agreed to allow Exxon to interview the witnesses before the trial, the company went further by sending at least one witness what the attorney general described as an expansive request for documents and communications, including “all documents concerning your oil and gas holdings” and more. Exxon wrote on July 30 that it planned to send documents requests to seven witnesses. Aaron Caplan, a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and expert in legal ethics, said the letter from Exxon included in the court filing was unusually aggressive and tested ethical bounds, though he said Exxon could argue that it is simply being thorough in its defense. “It tiptoes right up to the line of impropriety,” he said. “And whether it crosses that line is up to interpretation.”

Why We Need Publicly Owned Energy for a Green New Deal –Whether it’s 11 years or 18 months, we haven’t got long to make the big, bold changes needed to prevent global climate catastrophe. If we’re going to have a chance of preventing widespread disaster, we can’t keep waiting for the private sector to deliver our clean, green energy future. Public ownership is the way to transition quickly to zero carbon, hand in hand with workers, citizens and communities. We don’t own much of our energy, individually or collectively. The UK is rich in offshore wind, butonly 7% is owned by UK entities and only 0.07% is in UK public ownership. We’ve flogged off our nuclear to China and France – for ‘£17 billion of risk and not much benefit’ as Aditya Chakrabortty points out. Our energy infrastructure is owned by National Grid and other private companies owned by investors from Qatar to China, to US to Hong Kong. The Big Six supply companies (British Gas, E.ON, EDF Energy, nPower, Scottish Energy and SSE) are owned by UK, French, German and Spanish investors. These investors aren’t interested in clean, green, affordable energy. They’re interested in their profits. That’s why since energy was privatised we’ve seen rip off prices, burning of fossil fuels and a lack of investment in the infrastructure we need. The government needs to set the pace and start the race. Bringing energy into public ownership would save us around £3.2 billion in dividends and a lower cost of borrowing – money that could be reinvested in getting us to our carbon targets quicker.

Asia is the right place for a US ‘Green New Deal’ — Rather than a national Green New Deal, playing off the vast public works program launched by President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s, a Development Green New Deal would see the U.S. support projects to curb carbon emissions in emerging economies in Asia and elsewhere. These countries happen to be where China is pouring in resources to build infrastructure, mostly under the umbrella of its Belt and Road Initiative. Even though some estimates put the cost of the Green New Deal plan at as much as $10 trillion, its ambitious program of remaking the U.S. economy would have far less impact on global carbon dioxide levels than comparable spending in Asia. Despite its reputation as an environmental laggard, U.S. carbon emissions actually fell 14% between 2005 and 2016. Global emissions, however, grew 59% over the period, with those of India up 101%. Vietnam, Bangladesh, China and Indonesia posted similar increases. Just the growth in Indian emissions over 2015 and 2016 more than offset the decline in America’s. There is no mystery about this. Much of Asia, home to half of the world’s population, is experiencing much faster economic growth than the U.S. while relying more heavily on coal-fired power. Yet Asia is rich in renewable energy resources like sunlight and wind. Across large swathes of Asia as well as Africa, the energy grid is barely extant so Development Green New Deal investment could set the direction of development in a climate-friendly direction. Idealistic as the notion of a Development Green New Deal may sound, it would dovetail with bipartisan concern about rising Chinese influence across Asia and Africa and provide a meaningful alternative to Beijing’s BRI. The U.S. cannot afford to continue its general benign neglect of developing Asian and African countries. The Republicans and Democrats have occasionally in the past recognized their common need to address this, such as when they united behind creating new trade preferences through the African Growth and Opportunity Act in 2000.

N.Y. carbon pricing plan creates quandary for FERC —New York’s grid operator is preparing a landmark plan to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions in the power sector that could head to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.The New York Independent System Operator’s move, expected later this year, could pose a direct challenge to Republican FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee and Commissioner Bernard McNamee, who so far have declined to assert any role in curbing greenhouse gas emissions while considering whether to approve natural gas projects.It would also mark the first effort of its kind by any of the electricity markets overseen by FERC and, if approved, could spark similar action in other regions, experts say.The ISO sees its proposal – in the works for nearly two years – as complementary to sweeping climate legislation signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) last month.The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act calls for slashing CO2 emissions from New York’s power sector 70% by 2030, achieving 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040 and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions throughout the state’s economy by 2050. The legislation did not anticipate separate action on carbon by the ISO.” The grid operator, Dewey said, is looking at “coming up with a strong market signal that achieves the dual objectives for New York of the most economic dispatch of power and a methodical, systematic way of reducing carbon output. “Understandably, the new climate legislation is forcing all parties to take a closer look at all the options available to achieve the aggressive goals. We look forward to partnering with the state on reaching the new targets for carbon reductions,” Dewey said .Under its plan, the ISO would attempt to incorporate the social cost of carbon emissions into its wholesale energy markets by using a carbon price in dollars per ton of carbon dioxide emissions. The cost would be assessed for electricity generators, which in turn would factor the amount into their offers to sell into the ISO market.

Low on Water, California Farmers Turn to Solar Farming – If California is to meet its goal of running on 100-percent clean electricity by 2045, fields that once grew hay are going to have to start producing electrons. That’s according to a new report from The Nature Conservancy that estimates the state will need to cover an area at least twice as large as Yosemite National Park with solar panels and wind turbines.That may seem like an ambitious ask, but the amount of California land devoted to renewable energy is already slated to grow exponentially. Part of the driving force is water scarcity: A state law now requires water regulators to figure out how to balance their accounts so that groundwater levels stop dropping. (For the past 50 years California has been pumping far more water out of the ground than filters back into aquifers.) To comply, farmers would have to stop irrigating at least half a million acres, according to a study by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.Letting valuable land go unirrigated isn’t exactly appealing to many growers. But the Nature Conservancy report suggests a good chunk of that acreage could be used for solar and wind farms. The report states that between one-third and one-half of the space needed by the state for renewables could come from agricultural acres starved for water.California farmers have already begun embracing solar panels. For some grow operations, installing a small number of solar panels has been a way to save on energy bills. A few years ago the Bowles Farming Company, near Los Banos, California, put up solar panels on four acres to partially offset the electricity needed for a new drip-irrigation system. “When we converted to drip we started to see increased costs because we’d gone from gravity-driven irrigation to pump-powered irrigation,” said Derek Azevedo, the executive vice president of Bowles. Azevedo said the investment is paying off, and the company is planning on erecting more panels.Other farmers are converting much bigger sections of their land to solar farms. The Los Angeles Times recently listed a few of the major projects underway: There are plans to build the largest solar farm on earth on agricultural land, in California’s Central Valley. Maricopa Orchards, at the southern end of the Central Valley, is putting up 4,000 acres of solar panels, and setting aside 2,000 acres of habitat for kit foxes and burrowing owls, as environmental mitigation. But for all the energy sense it makes to plant solar panels in sun-soaked agricultural areas, the Nature Conservancy notes that there may be pushback when it comes to the impact on native flora and fauna. Unless new solar operations are placed carefully, those miles of panels could destroy important habitat for wildlife, and cover some of the most bountiful farmland in the world.

Duke Drops Largest Solar Project in North Carolina Procurement – Its Own – North Carolina completed its first competitive solar solicitation in April, as called for in amajor energy compromise the legislature passed in 2017. Unlike almost anywhere else, the law stipulated that regulated monopoly Duke Energy, as well as its unregulated renewables developer arm, could compete in the utility’s home territory against independent power producers. Duke could even buy projects from its competitors in the procurement.GTM covered the outcome at the time, but the story took a new turn, because Duke canceled its largest project within roughly two months of winning it. Though the contract had Duke’s name on it, the utility was going to buy it from a third-party developer. “We thought it was an attractive price,” Duke Energy spokesperson Randy Wheeless said of the developer’s bid. “When they went back and double-checked some numbers, they realized they couldn’t come in at the price they had promised.” High-profile projects sometimes fall through, and utility and developers alike have expressed satisfaction with how the process unfolded overall in North Carolina. Nobody is complaining about the roughly $260 million the solar procurement is expected to save ratepayers over the next 20 years. Still, the canceled project raises questions about the unconventional structure of the solicitation, which sees the utility competing with other developers while also interacting with them as a power purchaser and a potential acquirer.

Power switch: Cleveland starts move to 100% renewable energy by 2050 – When the City of Cleveland revised its 10-year-old Climate Action Plan in 2018, it set an ambitious goal: to use 100% clean, renewable energy by 2050. This followed the United States’ 2017 withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson made the commitment to clean energy, joining 200 other mayors nationwide.While it may seem like a lofty initiative for a city once notorious for its pollution, it was a no-brainer to include 100 percent renewable clean energy while updating the Climate Action Plan, says Cleveland’s chief of sustainability Matt Gray.“We had around 12 neighborhood workshops, an advisory board of over 90 organizations, and tons of resident engagement,” he says. “What came out as one of the key priorities is green energy and clean energy.” As a result, the city is pursuing ways to implement solar- and wind-powered energy (the initiative is focused on electricity usage and not natural gas at this time), both on a large scale – Cleveland Public Power pledged to purchase 25 percent of its power from theIcebreaker Wind offshore wind farm, for example – and a small scale, exploring the creation of a “green bank” that can help smaller businesses with proportionate budgets install solar panels.’

Wind industry says Ohio’s proposed turbine ‘incident’ reporting rules are too vague – A state board that approves wind farm siting is also considering new requirements related to building codes. Ohio’s wind industry could soon face more hurdles to siting and producing wind farms if regulators approve new rules on building codes and incident reporting. The proposed rules would require various components of wind farms to comply with building code regulations. They also call for prompt reporting of “incidents” at wind farms, as well as regulatory approval before facilities start up again after those events. The building code requirements “state the obvious and should not be controversial,” said lawyer John Stock in comments filed with the Ohio Power Siting Board in July on behalf of wind farm opponents. Stock represents opponents in various cases dealing with individual wind farms. He has also represented the Murray Energy coal company in regulatory proceedings. But the proposed rules present multiple problems, according to industry and environmental advocates. The proposed rule “runs afoul of the existing Building Code, which exempts major utility facilities – including commercial scale wind farms – from compliance, oversight, and enforcement,” said Dickinson Wright attorney Christine Pirik and colleagues in comments filed on behalf of the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition. As written, the rules could even lead to revisiting cases on which the board has already issued necessary approvals, the renewable coalition’s comments noted. For example, the board might aim to alter existing certificate conditions that had already been developed after lengthy consultation with regulatory staff. At a minimum, confusion and uncertainty would result, harming the wind industry and communities that rely on it, the renewable coalition’s comments continued. “The lenders and equity investors upon whom developers rely need some degree of long-term regulatory and operational predictability to justify the significant up-front capital investment associated with large scale wind projects.”

Renewable energy credits in Ohio on the chopping block – Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis – After spiraling lower during the final week of July, over-the-counter prices for in-state solar renewable energy credits in Ohio were mixed during the week ended Aug. 1, still reeling after legislation was passed that would eliminate the state’s solar carve-out starting in 2020.Dropping $7 the week prior, Ohio 2019 in-state solar RECs were down almost $3 during the week ended Aug. 1 to $6.83/MWh. Ohio 2020 in-state solar RECs, which dropped $14.50/MWh in the prior week, rose 13 cents to an average of $8.13/MWh.Market analysts anticipate the impact of the legislation will ultimately work to push Ohio in-state SREC prices down to the $4.00/MWh level. Although it remains unclear, it is likely that Ohio-generated SRECs will be eligible to be sold in the Pennsylvania Tier I REC and Ohio REC market instead, analysts said.The Ohio legislation signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine at the end of July would also lower and freeze the state’s renewable energy mandate from 12.5% to 8.5% in 2026. As of Aug. 1, Ohio-located 2019 RECs came in at $5.38/MWh, up 7 cents, while 2020 RECs saw an index at $5.62/MWh, losing 1 cent week over week.

Feds: Wind industry struggling to find workers – Wind industry employers can’t find workers, and graduates of wind training programs can’t find jobs, according to those surveyed for a federal report released yesterday.

States sue Trump administration for reduced penalties on fuel efficiency – Thirteen states filed suit against the Trump administration Friday, arguing it was breaking the law by cutting penalties for automakers that do not meet Obama-era fuel efficiency standards. The suit, led by California’s and New York’s attorneys general, goes after a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) rule that lowers penalties for manufacturers from $14 to $5.50 for every tenth of a mile per gallon (mpg) they fall below fuel efficiency standards. “This rule is just another misguided and reckless attempt by the Trump Administration to roll back the clock on our clean air standards,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “Without strong penalties for violating these fuel efficiency standards consumers, our economy, and our environment all remain in danger. As we’ve done in the past, we will continue to fight this battle against the Trump Administration’s efforts to ignore the realities of climate change.” The suit is the latest step in a long saga between California and the Trump administration over fuel efficiency standards. The Trump administration proposed freezing the Obama-era fuel standards – something that has driven condemnation from both states and the auto industry. The standards from the Obama administration would have required automakers to produce cars and light trucks that reach an average of 51 mpg by 2026. The deal was designed to create one national fuel economy standard after decades of allowing California and other states to adopt their own more aggressive standards. California has been on a mission to protect its right to more aggressive fuel standards ever since the Trump administration proposed weakening them. After stalled negotiations between the state and federal entities, California announced last week that they had sidelined the administration and entered into an agreement with four automakers to establish new fuel economy standards similar to what was agreed to under Obama.

Ethanol producer says tariffs will hurt ethanol sales An ethanol plant in northwest Iowa suspended production last week and industry officials say it won’t be the last. Ethanol plants in Iowa and across the Midwest are expected to sharply cut back on their production in the coming weeks. DeLayne Johnson, CEO of Quad County Corn Processors in the northwest Iowa town of Galva, says the two biggest reasons for the reductions are oversupply and the trade dispute with China. “Tariffs are actually reducing our exports,” Johnson says, “and in addition, the small refinery exemptions EPA has given to Exxon, Shell, Mobil and others is certainly eating into the demand as well, to the tune of 2.8 billion gallons of ethanol and about 1-billion bushels of corn.” Plymouth Energy in Merrill suspended production last week. That’s one of at least ten ethanol plants nationwide to temporarily shut down. Three others have closed. While recent exports have helped, Johnson says tariffs from two of the nation’s biggest ethanol customers are countering that. “With the tariffs, we’re really not able to move anything into China and that’s potentially as much as a billion gallons a year,” Johnson says. “Also, Brazil, there’s a significant tariff there which they are also a very large client. So, we are really missing two of the largest markets.” Iowa is the nation’s largest ethanol producer, making a record 4.35 billion gallons in 2018. Johnson says biofuel processors in Iowa and elsewhere will need to change up their operations in the future. “That will be very important as we move forward for people to continue to diversify and get more value out of that kernel of corn,” Johnson says. The margins for ethanol production in the western corn belt have fallen to a four-year seasonal low while ethanol inventories are at their highest levels in nine years.

Brazil Considers Dropping Barriers to US Ethanol— As China turns its back on American ethanol in a lingering trade spat, Brazil is considering opening its doors to U.S. biofuel. Brazilian authorities are debating whether to yield to Washington’s request to lift ethanol-import duties as a way of facilitating talks for a bilateral trade deal with the U.S., two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. A broad trade accord would benefit many Brazilian products and may be announced by October. Officials in Brazil’s Economy Ministry are willing to remove ethanol barriers while those from the more protectionist Agriculture Ministry are pushing to renew the current import quotas with zero tariffs, the people said, asking not to be identified because talks are private. Brazil Agriculture minister Tereza Cristina confirmed that a discussion is going on within the government. There’s no decision yet, she said, and there may not be one until the end of the month, when the quota ends. “Any market opening may be done gradually in order to not hurt Brazil’s sector,” she told journalists Monday in event in Sao Paulo. Two years ago, Brazil slapped a 20% tariff on U.S. ethanol shipments that exceed an annual quota of 600 million liters (158 million gallons) after American corn-ethanol imports surged, flooding the Brazilian market and pushing down prices. A biofuel deal between the two nations would come as a relief for the U.S. ethanol industry, which has been beset by a supply glut and the weakest margins in more than 15 years. American producers had expanded rapidly to cater to fast-growing Chinese demand, only to be left without buyers amid President Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing. A decision would have to be made by the end of this month, when the quota expires and a 20% duty on all imports would go back into effect, the people said.

N.C. charging stations can now sell by the kilowatt-hour instead of minute – Plug your electric vehicle into a North Carolina charging station sometime soon and you may be billed for the electricity you consume, not just the time you spend at the outlet. Under a new state law, charging outlet operators can now buy electricity from their local utility and resell it by the kilowatt-hour, as RV campgrounds and marinas have long done. By exempting plug-in stations from regulation as public utilities, the Tar Heel State is now the 30th to permit such sales. According to the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center, six other states enacted similar rules in the last quarter alone. “This is regulatory cleanup that many states have undertaken,” said Dave Schatz, director of public policy at ChargePoint, the nation’s largest electric vehicle charging network. “We’re really glad that North Carolina has gotten there.” ChargePoint – which installs stations at workplaces, retailers, universities, local government buildings and the like – says many of its customers want to bill by the kilowatt-hour to improve the experience for drivers. “Kilowatt-hours are the gallons of gas that go into an electric vehicle,” Schatz said. “It’s very easy for drivers to understand they have a ‘tank’ that holds 60 kilowatt-hours, and they’ll be paying X dollars for each kilowatt-hour they consume.” Charging stations may not begin billing for kilowatt-hours right away. But the industry believes the ability to do so will make stations more transparent and profitable, ultimately expanding the number of plug-in outlets in the state.

Tightening Nickel Supply Threatens Electric Vehicle Boom – For Tesla and its chief competitors in the race for global domination of electric vehicle sales, it ain’t all about lithium ion. There are other valuable metals needed to make the battery packs do what’s asked of them, with nickel being essential. Tesla and its battery producer partners, and other automakers and their suppliers, are worried about the longer-term supply of nickel according to a new study by BloombergNEF. The study predicts that EV makers will be driving demand for nickel about 16 times to 1.8 million tons in the next years.Class-one nickel, a high-purity material used in batteries, is expected to see demand greatly outstrip supply in the next few years. That will be fueled by meeting the large Chinese EV market, and other global markets where demand is expected to grow.That need for class-one nickel will outstrip supply within five years, according to the study.One problem has been a lack of real investment in new mines for materials including nickel, Tesla’s global supply manager of battery metals, Sarah Maryssael, said at a Washington meeting in May. That could drive up prices as battery demand increases greatly. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is concerned about having enough economically viable – and available – metal to continue meeting its growing electric car demand. That will take off even more as the company taps into China’s booming markets. “They are getting ready to have the new factory in China, and are at full capacity in North America,’’ Peter Bradford, chief executive officer of nickel producer Independence Group NL, said. “They recognize the biggest risk from a strategic supply point of view is nickel.’’Bradford’s industry had been focused mainly on supplying the metal to stainless steel. By 2030, the BloombergNEF study expects that batteries will account for more than half of demand for the valuable class-one nickel.Metal suppliers have been scrambling to find the right metal to fill that demand. Australian firm BHP, the biggest maker, is betting on bright-turquoise colored nickel sulphate. That will be taking place at its nickel refinery south of Perth, with plans to potentially carry out the industry’s largest expansion.

Study: Electric scooters increase carbon emissions in most cases – Electric scooters have taken cities like Raleigh, North Carolina, by storm in the last year, propelled by an allure of convenience and environmental sustainability. But a new analysis, published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters, finds that scooters actually increase carbon pollution more often than not. Thought by its authors to be the first of its kind, the peer-reviewed study from North Carolina State University shows scooters create half the pollution per mile that gasoline-powered vehicles do. The problem: scooter trips only supplant car trips a third of the time. Even so, experts say the nascent electric scooter industry has the potential to both invert that fraction and reduce its overall life-cycle emissions. “If these scooters are definitely replacing cars, that can be a great thing,” said Joe Hollingsworth, who authored the study while an engineering master’s student at N.C. State. “But there’s still a lot of room to improve.” Hollingsworth, undergraduate Brenna Copeland, and their professor Jeremiah Johnson began their research last year after both Lime and Bird scooters descended on the streets, seemingly overnight. They noticed that a phone notification from Lime told users their ride was “carbon free.” That sparked the question: Really? On average, they found scooters cause 202 grams of climate pollution per mile. Because early models tended to last less than a year, their production made up half of their life-cycle impact. Daily collection for charging and redistribution with mostly gasoline-powered vehicles made up another 43%. “While the scooters themselves don’t have tailpipes,” Johnson said, “the cars that were picking them up largely did.”

Power outage hits Jakarta and Indonesia’s Java and Bali islands – Indonesia’s state electricity company said power will return to Jakarta by Sunday night after a power failure affected tens of millions of people.The blackout struck the capital city of Jakarta and its suburbs, home to about 40 million people. The islands of Java, where Jakarta is located, and Bali, were also impacted. It halted commuter trains in Jakarta, including those on the city’s newly-opened MRT metro lines, and turned off traffic lights in a city known for its traffic congestion. ATMs and mobile phone services were disrupted, and homes, stores and apartment buildings lost electricity.The problem was traced to the failure of a gas turbine at a major power plant and an unidentified disruption at another power facility, state electricity company PLN announced on Sunday.”The blackout was caused by trips [errors] on the Suralaya turbine gas from number 1 to 6, while the turbine gas number 7 is off. Cilegon turbine gas-powered power plants in Banten are also experiencing troubles,” I. Made Suprateka of PLN added. By Sunday evening, almost 50 percent of West Java island, including Jakarta, had its power returned, PLN later said. Hospitals and the city’s airport, producing electricity with generators, were not affected by the blackout.

Power restored to some areas in Indonesia capital, parts of Java after 9 hours – (Reuters) – Power has been restored in most parts of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, after the city of 10 million people went without electricity for more than nine hours due to technical issues, state power company PLN said on Sunday. A man talks with a security officer at a Commuterline station as it is closed due to a major power blackout in Jakarta, Indonesia, August 4, 2019. REUTERS/Gayatri Suroyo The outage, which also hit neighbouring provinces, spread across an area home to more than 100 million people and appeared to have affected most of the capital, prompting the use of generators in some offices, malls and apartments. The blackout began just before noon local time (0500 GMT). PLN said it had been able to switch 17 electrical substations around Jakarta back on by 9 p.m. but two others were still in the process of being restarted and four remained off. “The recovery process is still ongoing and indeed it cannot be turned back on at once immediately, but rather gradually we try to normalise with maximum efforts,” Sripeni Inten Cahyani, acting chief executive of PLN, said in a statement. At a news conference earlier on Sunday, Cahyani said it would take a few more hours to restore power to West Java and Banten provinces. She blamed faulty transmission circuits on the Ungaran to Pemalang power line in Central Java for causing voltage drops that hit power networks in Jakarta as well as West Java and Banten provinces.

The hidden costs of unreliable electricity | Bill Gates – Many people without reliable access to electricity live in rural villages where even health clinics can’t count on having power. After an outage, doctors sometimes have no way of telling whether the life-saving vaccines in their refrigerators have spoiled. It can be even more stressful if a power outage occurs at night. Sometimes health workers have no choice but to treat patients by candlelight, or by the light of a mobile phone.Even recharging a mobile phone is tricky when there isn’t electricity at home. It requires walking to a local store and paying 25 cents or more to plug the phone into a solar-powered outlet. That cost adds up fast. It’s actually hundreds of times more expensive to use charging stations than it is to charge a phone at home. But those without electricity don’t have an alternative. Mobile phones enable families to access services and business opportunities that improve their lives, so many pay whatever they have to in order to use their phones.These hidden expenses are a daily reality for the nearly 1 billion people who live in energy poverty. That’s one reason why increasing access to electricity is critical to lifting the world’s poor out of poverty. The good news is that, since 2016, the number of people living without reliable electricity has dropped by more than 200 million. That’s two hundred million more people who can now study after sundown, use electronic appliances, and charge their phones at home. At the same time, increased energy consumption means increased greenhouse gas emissions. Methods of generating electricity like coal and natural gas generate carbon dioxide, so unless we decarbonize the way we produce energy, emissions will continue to increase – and climate change will get worse – as energy consumption goes up. The problem is that many of today’s low carbon energy technologies aren’t a viable alternative yet. While deploying wind and solar in many places around the world is going to be hugely important for tackling climate change, we need innovation in things like storage to make them realistic solutions for the world’s poorest. Plus, many people experiencing energy poverty live in areas without access to the kind of grids that are needed to make those technologies cheap and reliable enough to replace fossil fuels.

China coal mine approvals surge despite climate pledges (Reuters) – Approvals for new coal mine construction in China have surged in 2019, government documents showed, with Beijing expecting consumption of the commodity to rise in the coming years even as it steps up its fight against smog and greenhouse gas emissions. Long-term cuts in coal consumption are a key part of China’s energy, environment and climate goals, but the fivefold increase in new mine approvals in the first-half of 2019 suggests China’s targets still provide ample room for shorter-term growth. China’s energy regulator gave the go-ahead to build 141 million tonnes of new annual coal production capacity from January to June, compared to 25 million tonnes over the whole of last year, Reuters analysis of approval documents showed. The projects included new mines in the regions of Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Shanxi and Shaanxi that are part of a national strategy to consolidate output at dedicated coal production “bases”, as well as expansions of existing collieries, the National Energy Administration (NEA) documents showed. Beijing aims to raise the share of non-fossil fuels in its overall energy mix to 15% by the end of next year from around 14.3% currently, and to 20% by 2030. It cut the share of coal to 59% last year, down from 68.5% in 2012.

Democrats step up pressure on fossil-fuel industry – Bernie Sanders says the industry is a criminal enterprise. Joe Biden is vowing to take action against it. Other candidates are competing to say who will wean America from its products the soonest. The fossil fuel industry is squarely in the cross hairs of Democrats running for the White House as they move sharply to the left on climate change, evoking growing alarm from a sector that’s found support in the Trump administration. It has moved to rescind regulations on oil drilling and proposed extraordinary measures to aid coal mining. “We are made out to be just some kind of evil force,” said Kathleen Sgamma, president of Western Energy Alliance, which represents oil and gas producers. “They are doubling down on it and adding very hostile rhetoric.” Big oil and its Republican allies say the Democrats’ swing to the left on the issue will backfire with voters, especially in states such as Ohio, which Trump won, in part, with an appeal to aggrieved coal miners. These critics have commissioned studies asserting that the Democratic polices would cost millions of jobs while increasing pump prices for gasoline. But that hasn’t deterred candidates, such as Sanders, a Vermont senator. “We’ve got to ask ourselves a simple question: What do you do with an industry that knowingly, for billions of dollars in short-term profits, is destroying this planet?” Sanders said during the most recent Democratic candidate debate. “I say that is criminal activity that cannot be allowed to continue.” The Democratic Party’s eagerness to demonize the industry is a marked shift from the 2016 election cycle, when Hillary Clinton embraced natural gas as a “bridge fuel” to cleaner power sources and declined to endorse a ban on the drilling technique known as fracking.

Up to 300 gallons of oil may have spilled into the Snake River from a leaking dam turbine – Up to 300 gallons of oil may have leaked into the Snake River from a power-generating turbine at Lower Monumental Dam. The Army Corps of Engineers reported the suspected spill this week, but it’s unclear when it possibly happened. The Army Corps disclosed the incident to regulators and the environmental group Columbia Riverkeeper under the terms of a 2014 settlement agreement. Columbia Riverkeeper had sued to stop oil releases from the eight dams on the lower Snake and Columbia rivers. The group issued a statement Thursday calling the most recent disclosure the latest in a series of spills that highlight the threat posed by the four aging Snake River dams. The Corps reported that 200 to 300 gallons of unspecified “turbine oil” may have leaked from a turbine shaft at Lower Monumental, about 40 miles northeast of the Tri-Cities. The Washington Department of Ecology confirmed it was also notified of the potential spill, which will be confirmed once the Army Corps takes an inventory of oil in the turbine. A state spokesman said the agency has received no reports of a sheen appearing on the river.

LG&E’s Coal Ash Pollution Is Seeping Into Ohio River, Herrington Lake – New testing confirms three Louisville Gas and Electric power plants are illegally contaminating groundwater flowing into the Ohio River and Herrington Lake.The pollution is coming from waste sites storing decades worth of ash leftover from burning coal for energy.Coal ash contains a cocktail of potentially harmful chemicals and is polluting Louisville’s drinking water source, but that pollution has not affected the quality of the city’s drinking water.“These constituents are getting into the Ohio River, but at concentrations probably equal to what we have in the Ohio River,” said Gary Revlett, LG&E environmental affairs director. “We’re not concerned from a risk standpoint, a [health-risk standpoint.]”As a result of the violations, the Environmental Protection Agency requires LG&E to close down the waste sites within five years. LG&E is already in process of closing all 19 of its coal ash ponds at a cost of more than $900 million – at no new additional costs to ratepayers.Earlier this year, WFPL News reported on groundwater pollution at coal-fired power plants owned by LG&E and Kentucky Utilities. Here’s a brief update on the pollution found in the latest round of testing from each of the plants:

• Mill Creek – Groundwater monitoring at this plant in southwest Louisville found the cancer-causing pollutant arsenic at 19 times higher than the EPA’s drinking water standards. The coal ash contaminants are present in groundwater that flows to the Ohio River.
• E.W. Brown ­ – Groundwater monitoring at the plant near Danville found unpermitted levels of lithium – a neurotoxin – and molybdenum in the groundwater that flows into Herrington Lake.
• Ghent – Groundwater monitoring at the Ghent Generating Station northeast of Carrollton found unpermitted levels of lithium and molybdenum in groundwater that flows into the Ohio River.

Advocacy groups file West Virginia pollution suit » A coalition of advocacy groups has filed a lawsuit against four West Virginia coal and chemical facilities alleging serious violations of the federal Clean Water Act, Kallanish Energy reports.The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Charleston, West Virginia.The facilities named are Lexington Coal’s Surface Mine No. 10 and Low Gap Surface Mine in Mingo County, Justice group/Bluestone Coal’s Red Fox Mine in McDowell County, Dana Mining’s Prime No. 1 Mine in Monongalia County, and Eagle Natrium’s chemical plant in Marshall County.The advocacy groups contend the facilities have been dumping toxic chemicals into local waterways in violation of their permits. The coalition includes the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Appalachian Voices and the Sierra Club. They had filed of their intent to sue under federal law last June.The notices alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. The notices also went to federal and state regulators. The federal government quietly removes a metric ton of plutonium from a South Carolina nuclear complex following a court order to do so; it was not immediately clear where the material went. (Post and Courier)

Judge sides with DEQ on Duke Energy coal ash removal – A North Carolina administrative law judge ruled Friday that the state Department of Environmental Quality had the proper legal authority to order Duke Energy to excavate each of its coal ash pits across the state. The decision by Judge Selina Malherbe to grant DEQ’s partial motion to dismiss will limit the scope of Duke’s appeal of the state’s lawsuit against the company as it moves forward, according to the DEQ. “DEQ stands by its determination that the best way to protect public health, communities and the environment is to excavate coal ash impoundments across the state,” DEQ Secretary Michael Regan said in a statement.On April 1, the DEQ ordered Duke Energy Progress LLC to excavate all remaining coal ash impoundments in North Carolina, saying it had “determined excavation of all six sites is the only closure option that meets the requirements of Coal Ash Management Act to best protect public health.” There are nine coal ash basins on the six sites – Allen in Gaston County, Belews Creek in Stokes County, Cliffside/Rogers in Cleveland and Rutherford counties, Marshall in Catawba County, and Mayo and Roxboro in Person County.Duke Energy appealed the order on April 26, saying it wants to protect customers from excessive cost and disruption, and that it has been safely closing coal ash basins according to state and federal law.The state wants Duke Energy to excavate all of its coal ash pits and to move the sludge to lined pits in other locations. Duke Energy wants to cap some of the pits in place. “While we are disappointed in the ruling on this issue, we will proceed with the appeal, standing firm in our belief that the NCDEQ decision is wrong, not based in science and engineering – and not in the best interest of our customers and communities,’’ Duke Energy said in a statement. Duke alleges that the state’s order “mandates the most extreme option for the lowest-risk basins, ignoring information that clearly shows capping the ash in place would continue to fully protect people and the environment.” The judge ruled that Duke Energy failed to state a claim for relief and dismissed the following claims:

Angry miners blocking coal train are boarding buses to get back pay – – Dozens of laid-off Kentucky miners are boarding buses bound for West Virginia to press a federal judge to get them the millions in dollars in back pay their bankrupt employer owes them.The Harlan County miners, who have been blocking a Blackjewel train car filled with coal as part of a weeklong protest, are traveling to a federal bankruptcy court hearing in Charleston, West Virginia, where a judge will decide whether to approve the sale of Blackjewel’s assets.Tennessee-based Kopper Glo Mining successfully bid for Harlan County’s Lone Mountain and Black Mountain mines, according to the results of an auction made public Sunday.Contura Energy won the bidding for mines in Wyoming and West Virginia. Other companies bought additional elements of Blackjewel’s assets. The results did not make clear whether idled mines would reopen or workers would be asked to return. Kopper Glo could not be reached Sunday. But the miners say they hope to push the judge to make sure they are paid amid the bankruptcy and sale. “Every family is hurting real bad. We just want our back pay,” miner Chris Lewis said recently at the protest, where some miners will remain on Monday.

Feds seek to bar Blackjewel coal shipment over unpaid wages – Federal officials have asked a judge to block the shipment of a train load of coal in Harlan County until employees of bankrupt Blackjewel LLC get paid for mining it. The U.S. Department of Labor filed the motion Monday. The final paycheck that Blackjewel issued to employees in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia on June 28 bounced after the company shut down July 1, costing 1,100 people their jobs. Miners say the company owes them for the two-week check period covered on the June 28 check and six days they worked in the next pay period before the shutdown. The case was winding its way through bankruptcy court with no indication when, or if, the employees would get reimbursed for the cold checks when they took matters into their hands on July 29, blocking train tracks at Cumberland to prevent coal from Blackjewel mines from moving out.The miners were mad the company had gotten paid for the coal they worked to produce, but they hadn’t gotten paid.The miners allowed CSX Transportation to move its engines, but have continued to block the tracks to prevent the cars of coal from being moved.

Trump Wage Enforcers Use Obama Tool to Aid Protesting Miners — The Trump administration’s move to back Kentucky coal miners who protested unpaid wages by blockading their employer relies on a powerful if rarely used tool criticized as overly punitive to businesses when President Barack Obama wielded it. The tactic, called “hot goods,” seeks to freeze the movement of goods produced by workers who were shorted on pay. Under prior Republican and Democratic administrations, the Labor Department utilized it against employers in garment, agriculture and manufacturing industries, sometimes to considerable blowback. When it was used against an Oregon berry farm in 2014, the fruit was at risk of rotting and the department’s Wage and Hour Division administrator was hauled before Congress. But even in a White House dedicated to overturning many of Obama’s policies, a mix of political forces and public outcry in Kentucky have cleared the path for a nonpartisan, positive reception. “I think that’s a particularly good use of the hot goods provision – when they’re trying to make sure that whatever resources are available to the employer are used to pay people that produced the goods and make them whole,” said Michael Hancock, a former Labor Department official who now represents workers at plaintiff-side firm Cohen Milsten in New York. “DOL is very careful in its use of hot goods; it doesn’t use them unless there’s some good and compelling reason.” Acting Labor Secretary Patrick Pizzella filed the hot goods motion Aug. 5 in the Charleston, W.Va., bankruptcy court overseeing the Chapter 11 case of the mine’s operator, Blackjewel LLC. If approved by the judge, transportation of coal from the Harlan County mine would have to stop until the workers are paid. The department intervened after the miners worked in shifts to block railroad tracks and prevent a train from leaving the mine when they learned they wouldn’t get their final paychecks. A former coal baron announced this week that he is donating $1 million, or $2,000 apiece to the 508 miners, but that won’t shield Blackjewel from paying the wages.

Conservation Groups Move To Protect Royalties Regulation – A collection of conservation groups announced that it will fight against a move to reduce federal regulations regarding mineral royalties. The current regulations greatly increase the amount energy companies pay to the federal government. When energy companies extract coal, oil, or natural gas from federal or tribal lands, they pay royalties meant to reimburse taxpayers for the use of public land. Until recently, energy companies could sell their minerals to an affiliated company for a price below its market value and pay royalties based on that lower figure. But in 2016, a new federal rule made it so that energy companies have to pay royalties based on the first sale of its minerals to a company they are not affiliated with. Now, energy companies have launched a lawsuit to overturn the 2016 rule and some conservation groups are jumping into the fray to keep it intact. The Powder River Basin Resource Council’s Bob LeResche said this is an important issue. “Minerals are public assets and should be paying for schools and roads and things like that rather than for high executive salaries and corporate profits,” LeResche said. The National Resources Defense Council, the Northern Plains Resource Council and the Wilderness Society are also joining the suit.

Trump’s Top Energy Regulator Invites Execs to Coal Country – President Donald Trump’s chief energy regulator has invited a group of environmentalists, energy executives and other industry leaders to the heart of Coal Country for a summit on “the future of American energy.” Neil Chatterjee, the Republican chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and a longstanding champion of the coal industry, recently sent invitations for the Oct. 21 summit. The event comes as the independent agency faces mounting criticism that it’s become more political under his charge, and as high ranking officials in the Trump administration continue to push for action to aid the coal industry. Held in partnership with the University of Kentucky, the location was chosen because “it’s a pivotal time in the Bluegrass state and a historic moment as we continue to experience changes in our generation mix,” according to the invitation seen by Bloomberg. Chatterjee’s office confirmed details of the invitation, saying in a statement that “the Chairman liked the idea of getting outside of the ‘DC bubble’ to provide a different landscape and format for these important conversations.” Confirmed guests include Tyson Slocum, energy director for advocacy group Public Citizen; Abby Hopper, chief executive of the Solar Energy Industries Association; and Joe Blount, chief executive of Colonial Pipeline, according to a statement. Chatterjee, a Kentucky native who formerly advised Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on energy policy, has been criticized for promoting policies that favor coal, including an ill-fated proposal to curb coal plant retirements by paying generators for having fuel on-site. Members of the commission are supposed to be fuel-neutral.

How McConnell’s coal guy is helping Trump remake federal energy policy – Add the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to the list of technocratic regulatory agencies thrown into turmoil as President Donald Trump’s appointees seek to steer its agenda. Current and former regulators, staffers and industry officials say Trump and his chosen chairman, former Mitch McConnell aide Neil Chatterjee, have politicized an independent agency typically known for nonpartisan rulemaking on issues including natural gas pipelines and regional power markets. The dissension has made it difficult to retain staff, fill a vacant commissioner post and issue rulings on critical issues facing the nation’s electricity supply. The tension has escalated in the past two years as the White House and Energy Secretary Rick Perry have pressed FERC to endorse financial support packages for economically ailing coal and nuclear plants – many supplied with coal or owned by allies of the president. The climate at FERC has become so politically charged that one Republican state regulator turned down a potential appointment to a vacant seat on the commission – normally a major honor – after being approached by someone on behalf of the White House, according to three sources familiar with the situation. “The current state of discourse in Washington made me question whether I would be able to influence our national energy policy, or effect any change for that matter,” said the regulator, who asked not to be identified because of ongoing business with FERC. Interviews with more than a dozen current and former FERC regulators, staff and industry officials reveal widespread concerns about the agency’s direction under Chatterjee, a former staffer for the Senate majority leader who critics say behaves more like a political operative than a regulator. “We’ve had a few eyebrow-raising departures of senior staffers who were nowhere near retirement age that are a real loss,” outgoing Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur, a nine-year agency veteran nominated by former President Barack Obama, told POLITICO last month. “I think there’s been a sense of increased politicization and partisanship that’s had an impact on the culture.”

Trump’s Top Energy Regulator Invites Execs to Coal Country – President Donald Trump’s chief energy regulator has invited a group of environmentalists, energy executives and other industry leaders to the heart of Coal Country for a summit on “the future of American energy.” Neil Chatterjee, the Republican chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and a longstanding champion of the coal industry, recently sent invitations for the Oct. 21 summit. The event comes as the independent agency faces mounting criticism that it’s become more political under his charge, and as high ranking officials in the Trump administration continue to push for action to aid the coal industry. Held in partnership with the University of Kentucky, the location was chosen because “it’s a pivotal time in the Bluegrass state and a historic moment as we continue to experience changes in our generation mix,” according to the invitation seen by Bloomberg. Chatterjee’s office confirmed details of the invitation, saying in a statement that “the Chairman liked the idea of getting outside of the ‘DC bubble’ to provide a different landscape and format for these important conversations.” Confirmed guests include Tyson Slocum, energy director for advocacy group Public Citizen; Abby Hopper, chief executive of the Solar Energy Industries Association; and Joe Blount, chief executive of Colonial Pipeline, according to a statement. Chatterjee, a Kentucky native who formerly advised Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on energy policy, has been criticized for promoting policies that favor coal, including an ill-fated proposal to curb coal plant retirements by paying generators for having fuel on-site. Members of the commission are supposed to be fuel-neutral.

FirstEnergy Solutions moves to ditch union contracts for bailed out plants, drawing Democrats’ ire –On the same day in July that Ohio lawmakers approved state-wide customer charges to give FirstEnergy Solutions a six-year $1.1 billon nuclear plant subsidy, the company told a bankruptcy court it could not honor existing contracts with unions representing power plant employees and intended to negotiate completely new bargaining agreements once it emerged as a reorganized company. That revelation emerged Friday in an objection to the company’s latest reorganization plan by lawyers representing locals of the Utility Workers Union of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The unions were among more than half dozen parties in the case filing objections. Listen to the fifth episode of our Energy Cloud podcast series and hear from experts from Navigant and Opus One Solutions as they lay out what has already been accomplished with transactive energy, and where it’s headed. In a reference to the FES reorganization plan filed July 23 – less than 12 hours after House Bill 6 had been approved by the legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine – the unions argue that the company intends to use the court to emerge from bankruptcy without its union contracts. And that contradicts the testimony of David Griffing, the company’s vice president of governmental affairs, the union filing to the court charges. Griffing assured lawmakers in April before an Ohio House subcommittee that “that new [collective bargaining agreements] were in essence agreed upon … Both parties … believe the negotiations were acceptable.” But Friday’s filing on behalf of the union locals indicates that the company has neither agreed to assume the existing contracts nor reached new ones with the unions at two of the three FES nuclear plants, Perry, east of Cleveland and Beaver Valley, near Pittsburgh.

“Nuclear energy is never profitable”, new study slams nuclear power business case – A new study of the economics of nuclear power has found that nuclear power has never been financially viable, finding that most plants have been built while heavily subsidised by governments, and often motivated by military purposes, and is not a good approach to tackling climate change. The study has come from DIW Berlin, a leading German economic think-tank, and found that after reviewing the trends in nuclear power plant construction since 1951, the average 1,000MW nuclear power plant would in an average economic loss of 4.8 billion euros ($7.7 billion AUD). The report comes amid a hot debate over the future of nuclear power in both Germany and Australia.The report published by the German Institute for Economic Research (known as DIW Berlin) reviewed the development of 674 nuclear power plants built since 1951, finding that none of the plants was built using ‘private capital under competitive conditions’.“The results showed that in all cases, an investment would generate significant financial losses. The (weighted) average net present value was around minus 4.8 billion euros,” the study says. “Even in the best case, the net present value was approximately minus 1.5 billion euros. The authors included conservative assumptions with high electricity prices, low capital costs, and specific investment. Considering all assumptions regarding the uncertain parameters, nuclear energy is never profitable.”The report authors are also pessimistic about the future of nuclear power, concluding that nuclear power will remain unprofitable into the foreseeable future.Unlike Australia, Germany has a history of nuclear power use, which as recently as 2010, supplied around a quarter of Germany’s electricity. The government led by Angela Merkel has committed to the complete phase-out of nuclear power by 2022.

South Carolina says U.S. government shipped ton of plutonium out of state – Officials in South Carolina say the U.S. government followed a requirement to remove weapons-grade plutonium from the state. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said 1 metric ton (2,200 pounds) of nuclear material has been shipped out of the Savannah River Site near Aiken. The U.S. Energy Department was ordered in 2017 to remove that much plutonium by January. Federal court records said half the plutonium was sent to Nevada. Wilson’s statement Wednesday didn’t say where the other half was shipped. South Carolina sued the federal agency after it halted a plan to turn plutonium once used to make nuclear weapons into fuel for nuclear reactors. The Energy Department owes the state $200 million in fines in part because 11 metric tons (24,250 pounds) of plutonium remain at the site.

Feds secretly remove ton of plutonium from SC as part of court order – The federal government has quietly moved a metric ton of weapons-grade plutonium out of South Carolina, chipping away at a stockpile of potentially lethal nuclear material still at the Savannah River Site. The cross-country move, done to comply with a late 2017 federal court order, was disclosed Wednesday night by S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson, who had sued the U.S. Department of Energy over the stockpile. The agency had faced a January deadline to remove the material. “Today’s news that one ton of weapons-grade plutonium has been removed from the state is a victory for South Carolinians and the rule of law,” Wilson said in a prepared statement. “The Department of Energy disregarded many of its obligations to the state, and this outcome confirms the state will not sit idly by while the department does so.”Still, more than a 11 metric tons of the nuclear material remain at the Savannah River Site, a 310-square-mile nuclear complex 20 miles south of Aiken and about 130 miles northwest of Charleston. The material is stored at an aging reactor-turned-nuclear-storehouse that has previously been described as in poor condition.The move comes at a time when Wilson and the state’s legal team are trying to get the federal government to pay $200 million in fines levied against the Energy Department for failing to remove the plutonium in a timely manner. The department has repeatedly drawn the ire of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster.Federal law had mandated, beginning Jan. 1, 2016, that the Energy Department pay South Carolina $100 million for every year it failed to process plutonium at the never-completed Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at SRS or get 1 metric ton of the material out of the state.The Energy Department had been ordered by a federal court to remove at least 1 metric ton of the material from the site by the start of 2020. The agency’s weapons and nonproliferation arm, the National Nuclear Security Administration, has now completed the effort months ahead of the deadline. To comply with the court order, a half-metric ton was shipped to Nevada prior to November 2018, according to federal court documents. That clandestine campaign incensed that state’s governor and its congressional delegation, who complained that the shipment was only disclosed after a lawsuit was filed to prevent such a move from happening.

PA Health Department to distribute potassium iodide to residents – WFMJ — Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s administration has announced that it will distribute free potassium iodide to five locations in Pennsylvania that are near nuclear power plants. The five locations are within 10 miles of the plants. The Department of Health will offer the potassium iodide on Thursday, August 22. According to the release, potassium iodide helps protect the thyroid gland against harmful radioactive iodine. The release says that potassium iodide is safe for everyone, even those that are pregnant or nursing as long as they are not allergic to it. The nuclear facilities included are Beaver Valley Power Station, Limerick Generating Station, Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, and Three Mile Island Generating Station. The Beaver Valley Mall is the closest location to get potassium iodide locally. The tablets will be distributed from 2 p.m to 7 p.m.

Radiation Spike Detected After Russian Rocket Explodes At Testing Facility — It’s been a bad week for accidental explosions in Russia, as a second massive blast killed two people and injured six at a Barents Sea military facility after a liquid-propelled rocket engine exploded. A “short-term increase in radiation” was detected in the port city of Severodvinsk at 11:50 a.m., falling back to normal range around 2 p.m. according to the Straits Times, which added that the incident happened in close proximity to shipyards where nuclear submarines are produced. “During the test of a liquid propellant jet engine, an explosion occurred and the equipment caught fire,” said a Russian spokesman. “As a result of the accident, six defence ministry employees and a developer were injured. Two specialists died of their wounds.” The blast occurred in the town of Nyonoksa, about 40km from the port city of Severodvinsk, Interfax reported. The area in Russia’s northern Arkhangelsk region is home to a weapons testing range for the navy. “There’s no radioactive contamination,” a spokeswoman for the Arkhangelsk region, told AFP. –Straits Times According to the Moscow Times, the Dvina Bay area of the White Sea would be closed to shipping for the forseeable future. The incident comes days after a series of massive explosions rocked a town near an ammunition depot in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region, killing one and injuring thirteen – including two military officers. A giant fireball and shockwave was captured on film after a fire broke out in a storage area for powdered artillery charges, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. As a result, 16,500 people were evacuated from their homes.

U.S.-based experts suspect Russia blast involved nuclear-powered missile (Reuters) – U.S.-based nuclear experts said on Friday they suspected an accidental blast and radiation release in northern Russia this week occurred during the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile vaunted by President Vladimir Putin last year. The Russian Ministry of Defense, quoted by state-run news outlets, said that two people died and six were injured on Thursday in an explosion of what it called a liquid propellant rocket engine. No dangerous substances were released, it said. Russia’s state nuclear agency Rosatom said early on Saturday that five of its staff members died. A spokeswoman for Severodvinsk, a city of 185,000 near the test site in the Arkhangelsk region, was quoted in a statement on the municipal website as saying that a “short-term” spike in background radiation was recorded at noon Thursday. The statement was not on the site on Friday. The Russian Embassy did not immediately respond for comment. Two experts said in separate interviews with Reuters that a liquid rocket propellant explosion would not release radiation. They said that they suspected the explosion and the radiation release resulted from a mishap during the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile at a facility outside the village of Nyonoksa. “Liquid fuel missile engines exploding do not give off radiation, and we know that the Russians are working on some kind of nuclear propulsion for a cruise missile.”

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