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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Meat’s Bad for You! No, It’s Not! How Experts See Different Things in the Data. — Researchers are in another fight about food.This week the Annals of Internal Medicine published studies arguing that eating red meat poses minimal health risks for most people, and that even our certainty about that link is weak. With these conclusions in hand, the authors offered a set of recommendations that most people could continue their current levels of meat consumption.Although not involved in the research, I co-authored an editorial for the journal summarizing the findings, arguing that our messaging about the harms of red meat may be falling on deaf ears. and then pointing out other messages that might work better to reduce consumption of it.The conclusions and the guideline recommendations, made by an international team led by Bradley Johnston, an epidemiologist at Dalhousie University, run counter to many by established health authorities. This week, a number of nutrition researchers wrote me to say they vehemently disagree with the publication of these papers, and feel that they could do real harm.They believe that red meat and processed meat consumption poses a health hazard to people, and that if people don’t reduce their consumption, they are putting themselves, and the planet, at risk. I agree with them on the environmental argument for eating less meat. You can read about that here. But readers may well be confused about the health risks. How can experts disagree so strongly?The following questions may help you understand why even researchers of good faith can land on different sides of a debate.
The Real Problem With Beef – The potentially unhealthful effects of eating red meat are so small that they may be of little clinical significance for many people. This finding, just released in multiple articles in the Annals of Internal Medicine, is sure to be controversial. It should certainly not be interpreted as license to eat as much meat as you like. But the scope of the work is expansive, and it confirms prior work that the evidence against meat isn’t nearly as solid as many seem to believe. (While I had no role in the new research, I co-wrote a commentary about it in the journal.)Red meat has been vilified more than almost any other food, yet studies have shown that while moderation is important, meat can certainly be part of a healthy diet.This doesn’t mean that there aren’t other reasons to eat less meat. Some point out that the ways in which cattle are raised and consumed are unethical. Others argue that eating red meat is terrible for the environment.Recently, meat substitutes have emerged as a possible solution, but the promise is much greater than the reality, at least so far. Burger King and other fast-food chains are trying out Impossible Foods burgers as a vegan answer to beef. Let’s dispense with the idea that this is “healthier” in any way. The Impossible Whopper has 630 calories (versus a traditional Whopper’s 660). It also contains similar amounts of saturated fat and protein, and more sodium and carbohydrates. No one should think they’re improving their health by making the switch. What about the environmental argument? Almost 30 percent of the world’s ice-free land is used to raise livestock. We grow a lot of crops to feed animals, and we cut down a lot of forests to do that. But beef, far more than pork or chicken, contributes to environmental harm, in part because it requires much more land. Cows also put out an enormous amount of methane, causing almost 10 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to climate change. There has been a lot of hope that Beyond Meat’s pea protein or Impossible Burger’s soy could serve as beef burger substitutes, reducing the need for cows. That’s unlikely to happen, according to Sarah Taber, a crop scientist and food system specialist. Ground beef is not the problem; steak is. If everyone gave up hamburgers tomorrow, the same number of cows would still be raised and need to be fed.”
Study predicts significant outbreaks of measles in Texas due to low vaccination rates – Last month, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a nine-month study of Texas public and private schools, which are poised for an explosive outbreak of measles due to a dramatic drop in vaccination rates.The study noted significant drops in vaccination rates in the large metropolitan areas of Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington, Austin-Round Rock, greater Houston, and another 21 metro statistical areas (MSAs) of Texas with an urban size of at least 50,000 persons.The University of Pittsburgh Public Health Dynamics Laboratory conducted the investigation at the request of the Texas Pediatric Society “to demonstrate the possibility of outbreaks in communities with low vaccination rates,” according to a press release by Pitt Health Sciences.Texas, the second most populous state, grants the greatest number of vaccine exemptions for personal philosophical and religious reasons of any state in the country. Between 2003 and 2018, the number of exemptions rose from 2,300 to 64,000, a 28-fold increase. Currently, 45 states issue non-medical exemptions for vaccinations required for attending school. Only California, Maine, Mississippi, New York, and West Virginia ban non-medical vaccine exemptions.
How anti-vaxxers target grieving moms and turn them into crusaders against vaccines – Fifteen miles west of Minneapolis, a billboard looms over a field of tall grass beside Highway 55. The sign features a photo of Evee Clobes, a baby girl with sparkling eyes, flushed cheeks and an expression frozen in wonder. Next to her face are the words, “HEALTHY BABIES DON’T JUST DIE.” The web address of a group opposed to mandatory vaccinations is at the bottom.Since her death in March, Evee has served as a literal poster child for the anti-vaccination movement. Her face and chunky legs – adorned with Band-Aids from her shots – are featured on anti-vaccination websites and billboards. The story of her death is told at protests, read aloud at statehouses, and offered up by her mother and other activists as proof of the horror vaccines can bring.Evee’s story, as her mother Catelin Clobes tells it, is of a healthy 6-month-old who died 36 hours after a checkup where she got several vaccinations. Clobes and an army of online activists now say the vaccines caused Evee’s death. That belief, and Clobes’ willingness to make Evee part of a national media campaign, have turned the grieving mom into a rising star in the anti-vaccination world. Her Facebook posts draw hundreds of thousands of views, and multiple fundraisers set up by anti-vaccination activists on her behalf have raised tens of thousands of dollars. She has become a champion of other anti-vaccination parents around the country.But there’s a problem with the story at the heart of this crusade, and with Clobes’ new role as an anti-vaccine heroine. Her local medical examiner has ruled that the evidence – collected in an autopsy and by first responders – shows Evee accidentally suffocated while co-sleeping with her mother.
Ebola Crisis Worsens, Threatening Tanzania, But New Vaccine Appears Effective – The most recent and ongoing devastating outbreak of Ebola in central Africa raging since August 2018 has claimed over 2000 lives and resulted in 3000 confirmed infections, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). And perhaps most alarming are recent new reports of possible Ebola deaths in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania at the major international port there – a surprising development given the WHO did not even rank Tanzania as among the “most vulnerable” countries for an outbreak (those listed are Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Uganda based on reported cases near busy border crossings). This after in early summer it spread from worst hit Congo to neighboring Uganda, resulting in multiple deaths, including a child. The latest reports out of Tanzania have resulted in rare travel advisories issued by the US and UK governments urging citizens to “be aware” of ‘probable’ Ebola-related deaths in the East African country. “The move follows an unusual statement from the WHO last weekend, which rebuked the Tanzanian government amid suspicion that cases of the devastating hemorrhagic disease were being covered up…”, The Telegraph reported earlier this week. Despite what looks like a spillover outbreak in Tanzania from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, which is suffering what the WHO describes as the second largest Ebola outbreak in history, the United Nations is reporting a positive development, that 1000 people have survived believed due in large part to a new “highly effective vaccine”.
CVS and Walgreens Stop Selling Zantac After Cancer-Causing Chemical Detected – Weeks after the popular heartburn drug ranitidine, known by the brand name Zantac, was found to contain a cancer-causing chemical, multiple drugstores have decided to no longer sell the medication. CVS and Walgreens will no longer sell Zantac and other ranitidine medications, as the heartburn drugs might contain substances that could cause cancer. Even though Zantac hasn’t officially been recalled, CVS is currently offering customers who recently bought Zantac or another ranitidine drug a refund. The chain will continue to sell other over-the-counter heartburn medications, like Pepcid and Tagamet, which don’t contain ranitidine. Although Sanofi, the company that owns Zantac, hasn’t issued a recall, the drug companies Apotex Corp. and Sandoz Inc. announced they’re voluntarily recalling all of their ranitidine-based products sold in the U.S. due to the risk. About two weeks ago, the FDA reported small amounts of a cancer-causing chemical called N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) were detected in several brand-name and generic heartburn medications. Even though the FDA identified the carcinogen, the organization isn’t yet recommending people stop taking ranitidine products. This affects the many people who regularly use ranitidine medications to prevent and treat heartburn, ulcers and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The FDA is investigating whether the low levels found in the ranitidine medicines create a health risk.
Bootleg Weed Vapes Found To Contain Cyanide –While investigating a spate of mysterious deaths and hundreds of hospitalizations linked to vape pens, NBC News commissioned one of the nation’s top cannabis testing facilities to sample 18 THC vape cartridges obtained from legal dispensaries and unlicensed dealers. Three of the cartridges bought from legal dispensaries were found to contain no heavy metals, pesticides or residual solvents such as Vitamin E – which should not be inhaled. 10 out of 15 samples from black market dealers, however, contained pesticides containing myclobutanil – a fungicide that converts to hydrogen cyanide when burned. “You certainly don’t want to be smoking cyanide,” said CannaSafe president of operations, Antonio Frazier. “I don’t think anyone would buy a cart that was labeled hydrogen cyanide on it.” According to David Downs, California bureau chief for online marijuana publication Leafly, “This all starts in China where you can get the empty cartridges both for the THC market and the nicotine market, as well as the additives, flavorings, and thickeners that are being put into these cartridges alongside the THC oil.” “It’s a very deep, mature, and advanced industry that starts in China and ends in our own backyard, he added. “I’ve been saying, ‘Look, if you buy a fake Gucci purse, it’s not going to give you a lung injury, but if you buy a fake vape cartridge, it just might.’”The findings are “very disturbing,” according to NYU Winthrop Hospital pediatric pulmonologist, Dr. Melodi Pirzada, who said “it’s going to cause a very toxic effect on the lungs.” The New York pulmonologist also expressed alarm about the presence of Vitamin E, which is also known to cause significant lung damage when inhaled, in the THC mixtures. “It should not be inhaled into your lungs,” she said. Pirzada has treated four patients, all teenagers, suffering from vaping-related lung damage. She said testing conducted on the same vaping mixture used by one of her patients detected the presence of Vitamin E.
‘Toxic chemical fumes,’ not oils, may be causing vaping illness, Mayo Clinic researchers find — Doctors researching the cause of a sudden respiratory illness that’s killed at least 16 people in the U.S. since July say a mix of “toxic chemical fumes,” not oils as previously expected, may be what’s making patients sick, according to a new study. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic examined lung biopsies from 17 patients suspected of having a perplexing vaping illness that’s sickened more than 805 people since April. Doctors have previously said it resembled a rare form of pneumonia caused by the accumulation of fatty substances known as lipids. However, none of the cases examined by the Mayo Clinic researchers showed any evidence of lipoid pneumonia, according to the study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. It’s the first formal study examining tissue samples of patients who have fallen ill from vaping. “It seems to be some kind of direct chemical injury, similar to what one might see with exposures to toxic chemical fumes, poisonous gases and toxic agents,” said Dr. Brandon Larsen, a surgical pathologist at Mayo Clinic Arizona and a lead author of the study. “Based on what we have seen in our study, we suspect that most cases involve chemical contaminants, toxic byproducts or other noxious agents within vape liquids.” The pathologists said research on lung injuries linked to vaping is still in its early stages and that the findings should be interpreted with caution. The vaping illness outbreak has now spread to 46 states and one territory, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public health officials in 13 states have reported deaths. The CDC has dispatched more than 100 doctors and investigators to identify the specific cause of the deadly illness. Early symptoms include coughing, shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pains, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Vaping Lung Damage Compared to Chemical Weapon Burns in New Study — People who develop respiratory illnesses after using e-cigarettes to vape nicotine and marijuana are showing symptoms akin to chemical burns in their lungs, according to new research by Mayo Clinic doctors.The illness is causing lung damage that resembles injuries from chemical weapons used in World War I such as mustard gas and those found in industrial workers after a toxic chemical spill, Dr. Brandon Larsen, an Arizona-based surgical pathologist at the Mayo Clinic and senior author of the study, told the New York Times.The doctors, who published their findings this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, examined biopsies from 17 of the more than 800 people around the country since April who have developed a deadly respiratory illness from vaping – including two who died from the illness.”All 17 of our cases show a pattern of injury in the lung that looks like a toxic chemical exposure, a toxic chemical fume exposure, or a chemical burn injury,” Larsen told the Times.The study marks the first formal research using lung tissue samples of patients with the mystery illness, and the first time toxic chemicals have been considered as the primary culprit.Previously, the prevailing theory was that oil additives in vape juice had been causing fatty acid to build up in the lungs, CNBC reported, but no cases in the Mayo Clinic study showed any evidence to that effect.Instead, the doctors observed tissue damage and cell death in the airways and lungs suggestive of pneumonia from inhaling “noxious chemical fumes.” According to the New York Times, when the body tries to heal the damage, swelling tissue and fluid build up can make breathing even more difficult. “Based on what we have seen in our study, we suspect that most cases involve chemical contaminants, toxic byproducts or other noxious agents within vape liquids,” Larsen said in a press release. Finding out exactly which chemicals are causing the illness will require additional research, Larsen told CNN, but researchers have begun to hone in on patterns across the cases that could eventually point to the cause.
Vaping illness outbreak surpasses 1,000 cases, 18 deaths with no sign of slowing, CDC says – The number of cases of a deadly vaping illness continues to rise “at a brisk pace” with 18 confirmed deaths and more than 1,000 cases throughout the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC has identified 275 new cases over the last week and is investigating several other deaths that are suspected of being caused by vaping, Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC’s principle deputy director, told reporters on a conference call Thursday. Schuchat called it a “very concerning outbreak” with no signs of abating. “We haven’t seen a measurable drop in the occurrences of new cases,” she said. “The data that we’ve seen doesn’t suggest it has peaked, it doesn’t suggest this is declining.” The CDC has confirmed 1,080 probable cases across 48 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands so far. Doctors still don’t know what’s making people sick, Schuchat said. Of the 578 cases where doctors know what patients were using, roughly 78% of them said they vaped THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, while 17% percent said they exclusively used nicotine, according to the CDC. “In light of the seriousness of this condition,” consumers should stop vaping, particularly THC and especially anything bought off the street, she said, or any substance not intended by the manufacturer. The number of confirmed fatalities jumped from 12 last week to 18 this week, the CDC said. It’s proving to be an especially deadly illness for older adults. “The fatalities that we’re seeing tend to be a bit older,” she said, adding that the median age among the deceased is close to 50 while the median age among all patients is 23.The CDC has dispatched more than 100 physicians and investigators since the lung disease started to emerge as a public health threat in July. Doctors initially said the illness resembled a rare form of pneumonia, caused by oil in the lungs, but new research casts doubt on that theory.
Even Small Spikes in Air Pollution Can Threaten Children’s Mental Health, Research Suggests — Climate change is making air pollution worse and is exacerbating smog-related health risks such as heart and lung diseases, pregnancy complications and development issues. Now, a study by the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has identified another health risk associated with rising air pollution: childhood psychiatric issues. According to the study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, short-term spikes in ambient air pollution are linked with an increase in hospital visits for childhood psychiatric issues. Also, children in low-income neighborhoods with poor access to healthcare appeared to be more susceptible to the mental health effects of air pollution.CNN reported that while previous research has shown an association between particulate matter pollution in the air and adult mental health issues, this is the first time researchers have looked into its effect on children.During the five-year study, researchers focused on a very small type of particulate matter called PM 2.5 – fossil fuel-powered vehicles and power plants, cooking, dust and brush fires are all sources – can be easily inhaled and end up in organs and the bloodstream, causing inflammation in the lungs or brain, and, in the long term, may trigger cancer and heart attacks.The researchers looked at more than 13,000 visits by children to Cincinnati Children’s emergency psychiatric unit and compared it with data on the concentrations of PM 2.5 where they live. Results showed that spikes in PM 2.5 concentration were associated with increased childhood psychiatric visits one or two days later for adjustment disorder, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, while same-day visits were usually related to schizophrenia. All daily exposures to PM 2.5 in the study were below levels set in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’sNational Ambient Air Quality Standards, researchers said. These spikes in air pollution increased the risk of hospitalization for suicidal thoughts by 44 percent overall, the Daily Mail reported, but the risk for children from disadvantaged areas was almost double that. These children were also 39 percent more likely to need treatment for anxiety.
A closer look at infant mortality in two of the most impoverished U.S. regions – “The most dangerous of wealthy nations for a child to be born into.” That’s how global health researchers characterized the United States in a January 2018 report published in Health Affairs that sounded alarm bells about the country’s high infant mortality rate. U.S. babies, they found, were three times as likely to die of premature birth and 2.3 times as likely to die of sudden infant death syndrome than infants in comparably rich countries.Anne Driscoll, a demographer and statistician at the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, has been analyzing possible causes for years and has previously looked at maternal age, the rural-urban divide and other factors. Driscoll and her colleague Danielle Ely teamed up in a report released Wednesday to delve into infant mortality in two of the country’s most impoverished regions: Appalachia and the Mississippi River Delta region. The former includes 26 million people in 420 counties stretching from New York to Georgia, and the latter includes 9.8 million people in 252 counties in eight states in the South. Both have been hit hard by the epidemic of people addicted to opioid painkillers.Driscoll and Ely chose these areas because they are clearly defined (they are part of federal-state partnerships that encourage business development, infrastructure upgrades and otherwise try to jump-start the areas’ economies), and because they suspected, based on other studies about health outcomes there, that the regions might disproportionately suffer from infant mortality. They were right.In the study published Wednesday, they looked at the characteristics of mothers of the nearly 400,000 babies born in 2017 in the Delta and Appalachia regions and how their children fared. They found that women in the Delta were most likely to be teenagers, unmarried and not have a college degree – characteristics associated with poor infant outcomes. The infants born in the Delta were most likely to be born preterm, have a low birth weight, and die within the first 12 months. The infant mortality rate in the Delta was 8.17 deaths per 1,000 births, with a rate of 6.82 in Appalachia and 5.67 in the rest of the United States.
Teething gels can contain ‘potentially harmful ingredients’, dentists and researchers warn –Parents hoping to aid their children through the pain of teething could be using products that contain “potentially harmful ingredients”, dentists and researchers warn.A new study of 14 teething gels, including Anbesol, Dentinox, Calgel, Bonjela Junior and Boots own brand, found that two contained sucrose (table sugar), six contained alcohol and six contained an anaesthetic used to numb tissue called lidocaine.Nigel Monaghan, lead researcher from Public Health Wales (PHW), said there is little evidence that the products are actually effective in reducing teething pain.The British Dental Association (BDA) has agreed and is now urging parents to be aware of ingredients in teething products. Mick Armstrong, BDA chairman, said: “Parents buying teething powders to save infants from distress won’t always realise they’re offering their kids sugars, alcohol or lidocaine.
Nestle Steps Up Coffee Bean Testing on Glyphosate Concerns -Nestle SA is increasing checks on the coffee it buys, after recent tests showed beans from some countries had levels of the weedkiller glyphosate that are close to a regulatory limit. The world’s largest coffee roaster has informed suppliers of Indonesian and certain Brazilian beans of the new procedures, which go into effect starting Oct. 1, according to memos seen by Bloomberg. The company says the new measures “should be temporary” until producing countries correct the application of glyphosate. The move comes at a time when many countries have either banned or are seeking to prohibit the use of glyphosate, used in the Roundup weedkiller.Bayer AG, which spent $63 billion buying the product’s maker, Monsanto, is now facing billions of dollars worth of lawsuits claiming it causes cancer. “We actively monitor chemical residues, including glyphosate, in the green coffee that we purchase,” Switzerland-based Nestle said in a statement. “This monitoring program has shown that in some green coffee lots chemical residue levels are close to limits defined by regulations.” The new measures have the potential to complicate global coffee trade-flows. The additional testing requirement is mostly for beans being shipped to factories in Europe, Australia and Malaysia, where legal limits on glyphosate are stricter than most other countries. The Brazilian memo was directed to suppliers of conilon, as the nation’s more bitter robusta beans are known.
Major Brands Source Palm Oil From Illegal Plantation Inside Orangutan Haven, Report – Major consumer brands including Nestlé, Kellogg’s and The Hershey Company have been getting some of their palm oil from an illegal plantation inside a protected forest that holds the highest density of critically endangered orangutans anywhere on Earth, a new report says. The report is based on field investigations, interviews and transaction records analyzed by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN). It shows that local brokers are buying palm fruit from oil palms planted illegally inside the nationally protected Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve in Indonesia’s Aceh province. These brokers, the report says, are then supplying the fruit to processing mills located immediately next to areas of illegal encroachment in the Leuser Ecosystem, of which the wildlife reserve is a part. RAN reports that these mills then supply the processed palm oil to global traders, namely Singapore-listed Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) and Indonesia’s Musim Mas Group. These companies, in turn, sell palm oil, directly or indirectly, to a who’s who of household consumer brands, including Nestlé, Unilever, Mondelēz International, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Mars and The Hershey Company, according to RAN. All of these palm oil traders and brands have adopted policies committing them to “No Deforestation, No Peatlands, No Exploitation” (NDPE) in the sourcing of their raw ingredients. By contrast, the mills where the Rawa Singkil-sourced palm fruit is processed lack the necessary procedures to trace the provenance of the crop, RAN says.RAN’s investigation also calls out global banks, including Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Dutch bank ABN Amro and Singapore’s OCBC, for continuing to finance major palm oil traders, particularly GAR. “The authors of this report are demanding that companies caught contributing to this destruction stop buying palm oil sourced from the rogue mills identified here, or financing the culprits processing and shipping illegal palm oil to the global market, until transparent and verifiable monitoring, traceability and compliance systems are established to ensure they are only sourcing truly responsible palm oil,” said RAN.
Palm Oil Is in Everything, and It’s Hurting More Than the Orangutans – We cook with it. We bathe with it. We use it for mood lighting. Palm oil is an ingredient in processed foods, cosmetics, hygiene products, biofuels and candles; experts estimate it’s found in 50 percent of the items on grocery store shelves. Inexpensive to produce, palm oil contains no trans fats, and has a high melting point, making it versatile and easy to spread. The result: increasing demand. In 1996, global production totaled 16 million metric tons. By 2017, it was 60.7 million.But there’s a problem. Palm oil may not cost much to produce, but it exacts a high price on the environment. The story of palm oil begins with clearing tropical rainforests and peatlands for plantations of oil palm trees, which thrive on warmth, sunlight, and copious rainfall. The trees – native to West Africa – produce clusters of orange-red fruit year-round, and can be harvested every 10 – 14 days when mature. For the most part, oil palms don’t need much help, but some farms do use herbicides and insecticides. Oil palms produce 3.8 metric tons of oil per hectare annually – eight times as much as soybeans (.5 t/ha), and almost five times the yield of canola (.8 t/ha).The U.S. Department of Agriculture says palm oil is the most consumed oil in the world, and its non-food uses are also increasing. India, China, Europe and Pakistan are the top importers, collectively using more than half of the global supply. In Asia, it’s used in home cooking. In Europe and the U.S., most demand comes from manufacturers for everything from Oreos to toothpaste. You can find it in Silk soy milk, Secret deodorant, Nutella, Jergens lotion, instant noodles and Girl Scout cookies. Malaysian and Indonesian plantations make up about 85 percent of the industry, with Guatemala, Benin and Thailand among the other top producers. Areas with low wages and abundant labor often welcome palm plantations – despite the industry’s history of slavery, child labor, and land-theft – because of their potential to lift workers out of poverty. . During conventional cultivation, forests are cleared for plantations, bringing biodiversity loss, human-wildlife conflict, and habitat destruction affecting many species, notably the orangutan. A recent International Union for Conservation of Nature report notes that 50% of all deforestation on Borneo between 2005 and 2015 was driven by palm oil development. This deforestation also contributes to climate change; the conversion of forests to palm oil plantations releases carbon dioxide that had been absorbed by old-growth forests. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimated in 2013 that 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from tropical deforestation.
GMO Mosquitoes to Control the Spread of Disease Carries Unknown Risks – Every year, around one million people die of mosquito-borne diseases according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Consider, for example, dengue fever. This mosquito-borne virus is a leading cause of hospitalization and death among children and adults in several countries in Asia and Latin America. In 2016, member states in three of the six WHO regions reported 3.34 million cases. In the absence of an effective vaccine for dengue fever, Zika fever, chikungunya and other mosquito-borne diseases, researchers have developed genetic strategies to reduce mosquito populations. One such strategy involves the release into the wild of genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes that express a lethal gene – a strategy believed to have little impact on the overall DNA of wild populations of mosquitoes. The transfer of new genes from GM organisms to wild or domesticated non-GM populations is a key criticism of GM crops like soybean and corn. There are concerns that the introduction of GM genes into non-target species could have negative consequences for both human and environmental health. Oxitec, a company that spun out of research at Oxford University in the early 2000s, developed and trademarked GM Friendly™ mosquitoes (also known as strain OX513A of Aedes aegypti). These male GM mosquitoes have what the company describes as a “self-limiting” gene, which means that when these so-called friendly mosquitoes mate, their offspring inherit the self-limiting gene which is supposed to prevent them surviving into adulthood. In theory, when these mosquitoes are released in high numbers, a dramatic reduction in the mosquito population should follow. According to research published by Oxitec researchers in 2015, field trials involving recurring releases of Friendly™ mosquitoes demonstrated a reduction of nearly 95 percent of target populations in Brazil. In these field trials, experiments were not performed to assess whether GM mosquitoes might persist in the wild. A recent study from the Powell lab at Yale University has since confirmed that some of the offspring of the GM mosquitoes didn’t succumb to the self-limiting lethal gene and survived to adulthood. They were able to breed with native mosquitoes and thereby introduce some of their genes into the wild population. The Yale researchers found that mosquitoes captured at six, 12 and up to 30 months post-release carried DNA from the GM mosquito population, thereby disproving “the claim that genes from the release strain would not get into the general population because offspring would die.” Meanwhile, the impact of mosquitoes carrying these new genes remains largely unknown. One significant worry is that a new breed of mosquito might emerge that is more difficult to control. These new genes could also potentially alter evolutionary pressures on viruses carried by mosquitoes, like dengue fever, in unpredictable ways. This includes potentially increasing their virulence or changing their host-insect interactions. These are hypothetical risks that have been raised by scientists, and reflect the need for further study.
Science Catastrophe In South America Could Kill Millions – The releases of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) into the natural environment is having a catastrophic and irreversible impact on our planet. A company known as Oxitec, based out of the United Kingdom, which had announced plans to release genetically-engineered, or transgenic, mosquitoes into the wild. Oxitec’s stated goal was to eradicate native mosquito populations carrying potentially deadly diseases like Zika by infiltrating their ranks with transgenic impostors. These impostor mosquitoes, we were told, do not have the ability to reproduce, and thus pose no risk of causing long-term changes to the natural ecosystem, according to a report by Natural News. However, it appears that Oxitec was wrong about their GMO mosquitoes. As revealed in a new study, which was published in the esteemed journal Nature, Oxitec’s transgenic mosquitoes are not only able to reproduce, but their presence within native mosquito populations is actually causing super-mosquitoes to spawn. The world will have to face an onslaught of super-mosquitoes that are more resilient than the ones that previously existed in nature. “To summarize the findings of the study, this mad science GMO experiment managed to create a super mutant population of mosquitoes that now carry genes that are potentially tied to enhanced insecticide resistance, making them harder to kill than ever before,” Mike Adams wrote for Natural News. “The experiment utterly failed to achieve its promised outcome of wiping out mosquitoes, too.” Failure is an understatement. Since the goal was a decrease in the mosquito populations that carry infectious diseases, this quote from the conclusion of the study bears mentioning:The results of our tests of the infectivity of one strain each of the dengue and Zika viruses in females of the OX513A strain and the Jacobina natural population (before releases) indicate no significant differences (Fig. 3). – Nature The mosquitoes are still carrying infectious diseases at the same rate as before the GMO mosquitoes were released. The study states that this whole plan broke down because the natural female mosquitoes prefer to mate with male mosquitoes that were known to be fertile, and not the infertile GMO mosquitoes released by Oxitec.
Oops! Gene editing not as precise as advertised — Sometimes a headline gives you practically the entire story. Take this one: “Gene-Editing Unintentionally Adds Bovine DNA, Goat DNA, and Bacterial DNA, Mouse Researchers Find.” The writer details how this happens, of course. And, there is an important subtext. The problem is chalked up by scientists and regulators to incompetence on the part of the company doing alterations to create cattle without horns. But the real news is this according the author: “[F]oreign DNA from surprising sources can routinely find its way into the genome of edited animals. This genetic material is not DNA that was put there on purpose, but rather, is a contaminant of standard editing procedures.” [My emphasis.] At the risk of sounding like a broken record (remember records?), as Garrett Hardin, the author of the first law of ecology, reminds us, “we can never merely do one thing.” Why is this truism so hard to accept, so hard that I feel compelled to refer to it in consecutive posts? The simple answer is that as long as there is profit in ignoring it and as long as it is possible to pass the bad consequences on to others, people will act as if Hardin’s first law was never spoken. Unfortunately, we ignore Hardin in practically everything we do. For example, we discover the convenience of tough, clear plastics and create health damage with the chemical that makes them that way. We later discover that plastic degrades into very tiny particles that are now ubiquitous on the planet and in our bodies as well. In each case the damage is spread around as the profits mount for the makers. But even they can no longer escape their handiwork. The damage now makes its way into the corporate suites and penthouses. Any thinking person can understand the system we now have. Each company and its employees, even if they know they are degrading the environment and undermining the health of their customers with their products, focus on doing these anyway believing that somehow they can “get away with it.” But when contaminated food, dangerous products and environmental damage are generated by competitors and practically every other business on the planet, no one can escape.
Turkish Scientist Sentenced to Prison for Publishing Paper Linking Pollution to Cancer – A Turkish food engineer, columnist and human rights advocate was sentenced to 15 months in prison last week for publishing an environmental paper that linked pollution to a high incidence of cancer in Western Turkey, according to Science Magazine. The court in Istanbul found that Bülent Şık, former deputy director of the Food Safety and Agricultural Research Center at Akdeniz University, had disclosed classified information when he published the results of his study in a Turkish newspaper in April 2018. Amnesty International described the sentence as “a travesty of justice,” as Agence-France Presse reported and Phys.org published.” Bülent Şık fulfilled his duty as a citizen and a scientist and he used his right to freedom of expression,” his lawyer, Can Atalay, said in his closing statement, as Science reported.Şık carried out his study with several other scientists from 2011 to 2015 to test whether soil toxicity, water pollution and food had a link to the high rates of cancer in Western Turkey. The study, which was commissioned by Turkey’s Ministry of Health, found dangerous levels of pesticides and heavy metals in various food and water samples from several provinces in western Turkey. Water in a few residential areas also tested positive for unsafe levels of lead, aluminum, chrome and arsenic pollution, according to Science. Şık published his findings in the newspaper Cumhuriyet after three years of lobbying the government to take action, but realizing his pleas were falling on deaf ears. The study “clearly revealed the extent to which water resources were contaminated by toxic materials,” said Şık to reporters after the verdict, as AFP reported. “The court ruling shows that the results of a study that directly concerns public health can be hidden. This is unacceptable.”
Microbes in warm soils released more carbon than those in cooler soils – As one descends a mountain, the temperature steadily increases. A new study by a team including Andrew Nottingham, a research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and post-doctoral fellow at the University of Edinburgh, took advantage of this principle to predict what would happen as tropical soils warm. The team discovered that warmer tropical soils released more car-bon, the species of soil microbes changed and microbial activity increased. A major cause for concern associated with global warming is the possibility that as soils warm, additional carbon stored in soil organic material may be released into the atmosphere. This would con-tribute to climate warming and warm the soil even more, a ‘positive feedback loop,’ because global warming is caused by the accumulation of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere that traps heat from the sun on the Earth’s surface. “If one accepts the current projections of a 4 to 8 degree Celsius increase in global temperatures during the next century, tropical soils could cause roughly a 9% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide this century,” Nottingham said. “The fate of soil carbon in response to global heating remains one of the greatest sources of un-certainty in our predictions of future climate,” “Tropical soils have a particularly large influence on the global carbon cycle and are home to unique biodiversity, but their response to warming remains poorly understood.”
Google and NASA campuses sit on a hazardous waste site with contaminated soil. It’s part of a toxic legacy across Silicon Valley. In 2012, Google moved 1,000 employees to a campus in Mountain View, California, about 3 miles from its Silicon Valley headquarters. The site formerly housed a Fairchild manufacturing plant that produced semiconductors – an element in computer chips. To clean these parts, the factory relied on a colorless liquid called trichloroethylene (TCE), a chemical now understood to be cancerous to humans. There’s also evidence that TCE increases the risk of miscarriages, birth defects, and developmental issues in children. The chemical was widely used by factories in the area from the 1950s to the 1990s, resulting in extensive contamination across Silicon Valley. In 1989, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated the Fairchild plant a Superfund site – a label given to hazardous waste sites that pose a risk to human health or the environment. In total, Santa Clara County, where the Google complex is located, has 23 active Superfund sites – more than any other county in the US. Decades later, the pollution is still a concern for local workers. From the 50s on, Silicon Valley was overrun by factories like the Fairchild plant that produced computer parts. For decades, TCE either leaked from those factories or was dumped into the environment by manufacturers. From there, it seeped into soil and groundwater. Other Superfund sites in the area used to hold Intel and Raytheon facilities involved in semiconductor manufacturing. Together, these sites form a massive Superfund area known as Middlefield-Ellis-Whisman (MEW). TCE from these plants also migrated through the ground toward NASA’s nearby Ames Research Center. That land had already been contaminated with TCE from another source, though: Before NASA took over the facility in 1994, it was a military base known as the Moffett Naval Air Station. Military operations there likely used the chemical to clean engines or other aircraft parts. A 2008 report identified TCE as the “principal contaminant” at the base, which is now its own Superfund site. The EPA has worked with the Navy, NASA, and various Silicon Valley computer-hardware manufacturers to clean the area’s contaminated groundwater.In the 1990s, the EPA oversaw the treatment of groundwater at NASA’s Ames campus, which it continues to monitor. The agency has also removed over 76,000 pounds of contaminants from groundwater at the MEW site.
Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ Detected in California Drinking Water – Toxic synthetic chemicals, known as “forever chemicals” for their extreme hardiness to resist degradation once they are released into the environment have been detected in 74 California water sources that deliver water to more than 7.5 million people, according to new research from the Environmental Working Group (EWG). These chemical per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are marked by their bonds of fluorine and carbon, which are extremely persistent once they enter our bodies or the soil. In very low doses, they have been linked to a host of health problems, including increased cholesterol level, low infant birth weight, a weakened immune system, thyroid issues and even some cancers, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as CNN reported. PFAS detections in the California water systems exceeded one part per trillion (ppt), which the EWG deems unsafe. It is worth noting that the EWG’s threshold for PFAS in water is a fraction of what the 70 ppt that the EPA considers the threshold for adverse health impacts. However, it is worth noting, there is not an actual legal limit for PFAs in water.However, EWG did find that 40 percent of water systems it tested had samples that exceeded the EPA’s 70 ppt limit, which leads to lifetime health advisories. In fact, some of them were several times the EPA limit, including a well that serves the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. That well had concentrations of 820 ppt for several different PFAS, according to the EWG. Camp Pendleton officials stopped using that well after the test, spokesman Capt. David Mancilla said, as the AP reported. “The drinking water at MCB Camp Pendleton is safe to drink and meets or exceeds all regulated standards,” he said. Other areas that had high levels of “forever chemicals” were in Corona, Oroville, Rosemont and the area around Sacramento.
EPA Carries out Trump Threat, Cites San Francisco for Water Pollution Linked to Homeless Crisis — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cited San Francisco for violating the Clean Water Act by allowing used needles to spill into the ocean. The violation notice executes a threat Trump laid out a few weeks ago and ratchets up California’s environmental policies feud with the White House, according to the AP.A couple of weeks ago Trump claimed that waste from storm drains, especially needles, near San Francisco’s homeless encampments was running into the ocean. The city officials disputed Trump’s inaccurate claim that water pollution was linked to the city’s homeless crisis. Yet, without citing evidence of Trump’s claim or Trump’s threat, EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler accused the city of improperly discharging waste into the bay, as The Guardian reported.Instead, the EPA’s letter, which is addressed to Harlan Kelly, Jr., general manager of the city’s Public Utilities Commission, states that the city’s sewage and storm water systems have failed to trap pollutants like heavy metals and bacteria, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported.The letter said that the data showed “it discharging approximately one and a half billion gallons of combined sewage annually onto beaches and other sensitive areas, including areas where recreation takes place,” according to The Guardian. “The failure to properly operate and maintain the city’s sewage collection and treatment facilities” caused force main and pump station failures “that have diverted substantial volumes of raw and partially-treated sewage to flow across beaches and into the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean,” the letter said.
Majority of West Virginia counties rank worst in US for water quality – Nearly two-thirds of all counties in West Virginia have among the worst one-third of water systems in terms of drinking water quality and record of compliance in the United States, a new study finds. “Watered Down Justice,” an analysis published September 24 by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Coming Clean and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance focuses on the concentration of water quality violations in areas with sizeable racial, ethnic and linguistic minority populations. The report uses the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) violation records. The report maps counties by severity and length of time in violation as well as the racial composition of affected populations. Virtually every urban area and most of the Southwest US are rated as severely impacted by poor water quality. The environmental justice groups designate minority populations in terms of the World Health Organization’s definition of “vulnerability,” a condition measured by “the degree to which a population, individual, or organization is unable to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impacts of disasters.” The data in the NRDC report is a staggering documentation of widespread water quality problems across every region of the United States. Between June 1, 2016 and May 31, 2019, the report found 170,959 violations of the SDWA by 24,133 water systems. Nearly 40 percent of the American population – 129,907,275 people – were found to be obtaining water from these systems. The health threats associated with these violations include “cancer, impaired brain development, decreased kidney function, and potentially life-threatening gastrointestinal disease.” The report cites Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 19.5 million Americans are sickened each year from E. coli and other pathogens contaminating public water systems. Additionally, the report found 5,634 water systems serving 44,980,846 people that had racked up 23,040 of the most severe health-based violations. These violations are strongly associated with cancers and other fatal conditions, birth defects, and compromised fertility. As bad as these figures are, the report stresses that it is “likely that the full scope of the problem is much bigger,” since samples were taken only at the “point of entry” into the distribution systems, not in the pipes where other contaminants can enter.
Drought threatens drinking water supplies in Southern WV counties – By the time an unusually dry September drew to a close, moderate drought had spread across the southern half of West Virginia, leaving water flow in some streams at volumes more than 75 percent below long-term median flow.All official climate monitoring sites in the state recorded less than 1 inch of rain during September and, as of Monday, Huntington, Beckley and Clarksburg were on track to set new historic rainfall records for the month.The drought left the Greenbrier River at Durbin flowing at a rate of 3.06 cubic feet per second on Monday, compared to its long-term median rate of 30.0, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Downstream at Hilldale, in Summers County, Monday’s volume of 43.7 cubic feet per second was about one-fourth the median flow rate for the site.Greenbrier County’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management posted notices on its Facebook page Sunday and Monday cautioning residents to “do your part to conserve our drinking water” to avoid the possible imposition of mandatory conservation measures. “Just look at the status of the Greenbrier River and its headwaters in Pocahontas County to see the current impact.”Last week, the Lewisburg Municipal Water System urged its customers not to use water for non-essential purposes, like washing cars, watering lawns or gardens, filling swimming pools or operating pressure washers, since “the Greenbrier River is extremely low.” The National Weather Service late last week elevated many counties in Southern West Virginia from a D0 “abnormally dry” rating to D1, “moderate drought.” The D1 designation indicates that streams, reservoirs and wells will run low and water shortages are developing or imminent.
Beekeepers Seek to Save Honeybees From a Colony-Invading Pest – Last January, California’s beekeepers were worried they wouldn’t have enough bees to pollinate the almond bloom, their biggest money-making event of the year. Gene Brandi, a California beekeeper and the former president of the American Beekeeping Federation, said winter losses were “as bad or worse than I believe it’s been.” It turns out he was right. It was another grim year for America’s beekeepers, already reeling from more than a decade of colony losses that threaten the commercial honeybee industry. An annual survey released in June by the Bee Informed Partnership (BIP), a nonprofit collaboration of leading research labs and universities, found that beekeepers lost 38 percent of their colonies last winter, the highest winter figure since the survey began 13 years ago. Managed honeybees play a crucial role in the nation’s food production, contributing an estimated $15 billion to the U.S. economy each year by helping to pollinate at least 90 crops. Virtually everyone in the beekeeping business will tell you that the biggest threat facing honeybees isn’t pesticides, starvation, or even the mysterious affliction known as colony collapse disorder that made big news a dozen years ago. Instead, they’ll blame Varroa destructor, a parasitic Asian mite that snuck into the country more than 30 years ago. When asked to cite the three biggest risks to honeybees, Susan Cobey, a renowned expert on bee breeding at Washington State University, says, “Varroa, Varroa, Varroa.”
Collapse of desert bird populations likely due to heat stress from climate change – As temperatures rise, desert birds need more water to cool off at the same time as deserts are becoming drier, setting some species up for a severe crash, if not extinction, according to a new study from the University of California, Berkeley. The team that last year documented a collapse of bird communities in Mojave Desert over the last century – 29 percent of the 135 bird species that were present 100 years ago are less common and less widespread today – has now identified a likely cause: heat stress associated with climate change. The researchers’ latest findings, part of UC Berkeley’s Grinnell Resurvey Project, come from comparing levels of species declines to computer simulations of how “virtual birds” must deal with heat on an average hot day in Death Valley, which can be in the 30s Celsius – 90s Fahrenheit – with low humidity. These temperatures are, on average, 2 C (3.6 F) hotter than 100 years ago. The birds that the model predicted would require the most extra water today, compared to a 100 years ago, were the species that had declined the most in the Mojave Desert over the past century. The desert straddles the border between California and Nevada. The most threatened turn out to be larger birds, and those that have an insect or animal diet. “We often think that climate change may cause a mass mortality event in the future, but this study tells us that the change in climate that has already occurred is too hot, and in certain areas, animals can’t tolerate the warming and drying that has already occurred,”
7 Elephants Dead of Suspected Poisoning in Sri Lanka – Seven elephants have been reported dead of suspected poisoning near a protected habitat refuge in Sri Lanka. “Since Friday, we have found the remains of seven cow elephants, including a tusker,” police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera told the Agence-France Presse (AFP). The elephants were discovered at Sinharaja Forest Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site encompassing the “last extensive patch of primary lowland forest” in the nation. The region is afforded the highest level of legal protection under national lawsFour carcasses were discovered on Friday, including a pregnant female, and another three the following day. It is believed that all seven elephants belong to the same herd, the BBC reports. The publication adds that another elephant was found dead on Monday from a gunshot wound, but it is not yet clear whether the deaths are related. Every year, the AFP reports that nearly 200 elephants are killed, many by farmers protecting their crops. On the other hand, elephants kill roughly 50 people annually when they come into growing villages encroaching near their habitat. As food and water become scarce, the animals will often feed on agricultural products, leading to conflict between the humans and elephants.
First Wolf Sighted in Belgium in 100 Years Was Likely Shot With Her Cubs -Naya made wildlife history when she became the first wolf to be spotted in Belgium for more than 100 years in January 2018. But the wolf, who was carrying cubs, has not been seen since May. Belgium’s Nature and Forest Agency (ANB) says it is “virtually certain” she has been killed, according to The Guardian.”The death of the wolf and her pups is a shame for Belgium,” the Belgian office of WWF said in a statement reported by AFP.The evidence that Naya was killed illegally by hunters is extensive. For one thing, her mate, August, who joined her in the country in August 2018, is now acting like a lone wolf.”He hunts less, walks in different directions. It is clear that he no longer has to deal with his partner or his children,” Jan Loos of WelkomWolf (Welcome Wolf) told the Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper, as The Telegraph reported. Furthermore, female wolves do not die in childbirth or move away from a territory after giving birth, Sil Janssen of the Natuurhulpcentrum animal shelter in Oudsbergen, near Naya’s Eastern Flemish territory, said. And if she had been hit by a car, it would have been discovered.
41% of UK Species Have Declined Since 1970, Major Report Finds – Brexit may have dominated the headlines in recent weeks, but another crisis is underway in the UK: One in seven of its wildlife species face extinction, and 41 percent have declined since 1970. Those figures are from the most recent State of Nature report, released Friday. It is the “most detailed report ever” on the state of the UK’s wildlife, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). It looked at nearly 7,000 species and drew on the expertise of more than 70 organizations, BBC News reported. “We know more about the UK’s wildlife than any other country on the planet, and what it is telling us should make us sit up and listen,” lead report author and RSPB scientist Daniel Hayhow said, as BBC News reported. Here are some of the report’s key messages, according to BBC News, The Guardian and The Natural History Museum:
- More than one quarter of UK mammals face extinction.
- Almost one half of its bird species are at risk.
- Nearly one-fifth of plant species, 15 percent of fungi and lichens, 40 percent of vertebrates and 12 percent of invertebrates also face extinction.
- One quarter of moths and almost one fifth of butterflies have already gone extinct.
- In total, 133 of the species assessed have gone extinct since the 1500s.
- Sixty percent of so-called “priority species” have declined since 1970.
- The most threatened mammals are the Scottish wildcat and the black rat.
- Since the 1950s, hedgehogs have declined by 95 percent, turtle doves by 98 percent and common toads by 68 percent.
- Ninety-three percent of beached northern fulmar seabirds had eaten plastic.
- In three Crown Dependencies and 14 Overseas Territories, which include important oceanecosystems, 40 percent of sharks and rays, 36 percent of reptiles and amphibians, 11 percent of mammals and eight percent of birds are threatened.
- In positive news, one quarter of species have increased, including the bittern and the large blue butterfly.
The report builds on other alarming findings. A 2018 study found that a fifth of UK mammals could be extinct within 10 years. The last State of Nature report, in 2016, found that the UK was “among the most nature depleted countries in the world,” according to The Guardian. The major drivers of biodiversity loss are agriculture, the climate crisis, urbanization, pollution, hydrological change, invasive species and woodland management, the report said.
Illegal Wildlife Trade Thrives on Facebook, Internet Forums – The lizards are frantic and the turtles plodding, but both scrabble to escape the perspex containers that hold them. The reptiles, some in small boxes and fetching prices of up to thousands of euros, are on sale at the Terraristika – Europe’s largest reptile trade fair and a suspected wildlife-trafficking hub. Thousands of enthusiasts descend on the German city of Hamm four times a year to buy exotic creatures ranging from coin-sized glass frogs to tarantulas and venomous snakes. In the wild, some of these animals are becoming dangerously scarce. As well as the physical marketplace, the Terraristika is a center of a global online community of reptile traders and hobbyists. Customers browse animals on the web and collect them at the fair, sometimes on the unsupervised fringes of the event. Sellers arrange pickups via Facebook groups, owners share care tips on internet forums and YouTubers post videos of themselves “unboxing” animals bought at fairs.In Germany, live reptiles make up the majority of wildlife traded online, a report into wildlife cybercrime byconservation group International Fund for Animal Welfare found in 2018.The researchers found most adverts in internet forums, not social media, but they also saw closed Facebook groups with names suggesting they are used to trade reptiles.DW also found endangered reptiles for sale in Facebook groups such as ‘Terraristika Hamm – “MARKTPLATZ”‘ and ‘Hamm and Houten Reptile Classifieds.’ Some of the species on offer are listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), an agreement signed by 183 countries that restricts trade in threatened wildlife. The animals were not necessarily poached – specimens of endangered species are often bred in captivity – but conservation groups fear that, because online trade is so difficult to regulate, endangered animals are being trafficked online.
More than 2 million animals perish in Bolivia wildfires – More than two million wild animals, including jaguars, pumas and llamas, have perished in weeks of wildfires that devastated huge swaths of Bolivian forest and grassland, environmental experts said Wednesday. The fires devastated the Chiquitania tropical savanna in the east of the country. “We have consulted the biologists of Chiquitania and we have exceeded the estimate of more than 2.3 million missing animals in many protected areas,” Professor Sandra Quiroga of Santa Cruz University told AFP. Latin American ocelots, and other wild cats like pumas and jaguars, as well as deer, llamas – and smaller forest animals like anteaters, badgers, lizards, tapirs and rodents – were victims of the fires, according to biologists investigating the scale of the damage. Local media showed images of charred animal carcasses in the smouldering forests and birds fleeing to zones spared by the flames. The fires, which have devastated more than four million hectares (10 million acres) since August, has completely destroyed the “primary forest” extending over 100 hectares in the Tucavaca reserve in the eastern Santa Cruz department. “The forest is totally charred and the damage is irreversible. It will never get back to normal,” said Quiroga. The eastern department of Santa Cruz has been the hardest hit of Bolivia’s nine departments since the fires began in May and intensified in late August Bolivia in August enlisted special firefighting planes, a Supertanker Boeing 747 and a Russian Ilyushin, as well as helicopters, 5,000 firefighters, soldiers and police but the fires have still not been extinguished. Environmentalists blame laws enacted under leftist President Evo Morales, who has encouraged burning of forest and pasture land to expand agricultural production. The government attributes the blazes to dry weather and flame-fanning winds.
Amazon Fires: Bolivia experiences worst wildfires in living memory – Wildfires are still raging in the Amazon rainforest.Twelve million hectares have burnt so far, three times more than last year. This means an area nearly the size of Greece.Brazil paid the hardest price, but the flames are ravaging also some other of the nine countries the Amazon spans to. In Bolivia, 5,000 people are fighting the blaze, but it is still out of control.It has been dubbed as the worst fires in living memory. Since January, 5 million hectares of forest and savanna were lost in Bolivia, two million just in the past two months. The flames are threatening 1,200 species. As a result, Amazon’s indigenous communities say this is an ‘environmental genocide’.Euronews’s Monica Pinna reported from the Community of Tierra Hermosa in Bolivia:“We’ve had flames up to thirty meters high. On the side of the Community of Tierra Hermosa, we had 20 water discharges, and still, the fire couldn’t be stamped out. On this other side, we had 120 discharges, and each helicopter was carrying 2500 litres. But still, the fire went on”.The department of Santa Cruz, its Chiquitania dry forest region was the worst affected. Local authorities say around 40 fires are still active and the flames have expanded also new areas. Many locals are still actively involved in putting out fires, like Gregorio Nuñez, a cattle breeder in the community of Guadalupe.“The first day I came here by myself. I was worried that my pasture could burn, if so, what would my cattle eat? Then we organised some groups and we came by eight, ten, twenty people to put out the fires”.Experts say one of the causes of the fires is the ancestral practice of ‘chaqueo’, consisting of slash and burn the forest for farming. It is said to have got out of hand this year because of strong winds and high temperatures. Bolivia’s first-ever indigenous president, Evo Morales, has been accused by environmentalists and locals of encouraging the blazes by signing a decree last July that legalised the burning in order to turn forests into pastures. Morales, who is running for a controversial fourth term, has requested the EU intervention after massive protests calling for International support.
South America’s Second-Largest Forest Is Also Burning – and ‘Environmentally Friendly’ Charcoal Is Subsidizing Its Destruction – The fires raging across the Brazilian Amazon have captured the world’s attention. Meanwhile, South America’s second-largest forest, the Gran Chaco, is disappearing in plain sight. The Gran Chaco, which spans from Bolivia and Brazil to Paraguay and Argentina, is extremely bio-diverse, with more than 3,400 plant and 900 animal species – including quebracho blanco trees, tapirs and jaguars. It is also home to at least 30 indigenous peoples, including the Ayoreo, some of whom live in voluntary isolation in their historic homelands as well Mennonite colonies. Now, due to the some of the fastest deforestation in the world, this once enormous ecosystem may soon be gone outside of protected areas. Since 2001, more than 31,000 square miles of forest were felled to make way for agriculture and cattle ranching in the Gran Chaco. More than half of that deforestation took place in Paraguay, a small South American country of 7 million. As in the Amazon to the north, cattle ranching and farming are the primary drivers of deforestation in Paraguay’s Gran Chaco. But beyond beef and soy, the cleared land of the Gran Chaco produces some pretty unexpected stuff, too – everyday products that are exported and sold abroad to consumers who may never know their purchases contribute to the destruction of South America’s second largest forest. Paraguay, the eighth largest exporter of beef globally, sells 350,000 tons of beef each year to Russia, Israel, Chile and beyond. There are at least 14 million head of cattle in the Paraguayan Chaco and over 4 million hectares of land devoted to cattle ranching – an area larger than Belgium. Paraguay’s beef industry is based on grazing, rather than the feedlot model prevalent in the U.S. To clear forest land for grazing, both legally and illegally, Paraguayan cattle ranchers use what’s called “chaining.” That means leveling the forest with tractors that drag heavy chains. Then they burn the fallen trees.. Rather than just incinerating the wood in their fields, some Paraguayan ranchers turn it into carbón – or charcoal, in English. Across the Paraguayan Chaco, large brick kilns located off of main roads slowly bake the wood cleared from nearby forests, transforming it into charcoal that fuels weekend cookouts worldwide. That charcoal is then stacked high on trucks that carry it to Paraguayan exporters, who ship it to Europe, the Middle East and the United States, among other major markets. Paraguayan charcoal is often labeled it as “natural” or “environmentally certified“, suggesting that they are sustainable.
Man-Made Rain Helps Lower Indonesia’s Hotspots by 90%: Ministry – Artificial rain created to deal with Indonesia’s massive wildfires has helped significantly lower the number of hotspots across the archipelago, authorities said. The number was down to 136 on Saturday, compared with 1,374 last Monday, according to the country’s Environment and Forestry Ministry. Since Friday, Indonesian agencies have scattered more than 200,000 kilograms of salt for cloud seeding and 317 million liters of water to put out the forest fires plaguing the country, the ministry said. As many as 32 forest fire hotspots were still detected in the Kalimantan region, mostly in mining-rich East Kalimantan, while the number in Sumatra had dropped to 22, it added. The blazes are largely caused by illegal slash-and-burn methods some Indonesian farmers use to clear farmland for cash crops, despite government efforts to stamp out the practice over the years. The resulting haze from the fires has disrupted air travel, prompted the closing of schools, and also affected Indonesia’s neighboring countries, including Malaysia and Singapore.
‘Why is the climate changing like this?’ – Wayanad is no longer the cold, misty place it once was. From a maximum of 25 degrees Celsius by early March, temperatures here now easily cross 30 degrees by that time of the year. And the number of warmer days has more than doubled in Vadakil’s lifetime. In 1960, the year he was born, “the Wayanad area could expect about 29 days per year to reach at least 32 degrees [Celsius]” says a calculation from an interactive tool on climate and global warming posted online by the New York Times this July. “Today the Wayanad area can expect 59 days at or above 32 degrees per year, on average.” The changing weather patterns, Vadakil says, hurt heat-sensitive and vulnerable crops like pepper and orange trees that were once abundant in this district in the Western Ghats at the southern tip of the Deccan Plateau. Vadakil and his wife Valsa own a four-acre farm in Cherukottur village in Mananthavady taluk. His family left Kottayam for Wayanad around 80 years ago to try their luck in the booming cash crop economy here. But over time, the boom seems to have gone bust. “If the rains prove to be erratic, like they have been in the last year, then the [organic Robusta] coffee we grow is doomed,” says Vadakil. “Coffee is profitable, but the weather is the biggest problem in its growth. Heat and erratic rainfall ruin it,” adds Valsa. The ideal temperature to grow [Robusta] coffee is between 23-28 degrees Celsius, say those working in the sector. All of Wayanad’s coffee, which is of the stronger-in-body Robusta family (a tropical evergreen shrub), is cultivated between December and late March. The coffee plant needs its first rain by late February or early March – and starts to flower a week later. It is crucial that there are no rains for a week after the first shower as that destroys the delicate flowers. The second shower is needed a week after the first one for the coffee fruit or ‘cherries’ to start growing.’ Once the flowers bloom and fall off the tree, the cherries that contain the beans begin to mature.
Record-breaking snowstorm unleashes feet of snow, hinders travel in parts of northern Rockies – The first big snowstorm of the season blasted the northern Rockies over the weekend. The early season storm unloaded up to 3-4 feet of snow in spots, caused blizzard conditions and set several new daily snowfall records across Montana. “The combination of a storm from the Pacific Ocean, a fresh injection of cold air from northern Canada, moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and a northeast-ascending flow that squeezed extra moisture from the atmosphere produced the amazing snowfall,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said Blizzard conditions were reported across the northern and southern Rocky Mountain front. They were also confirmed at the Cut Bank, Montana, Airport Sunday where observations reported moderate to heavy snowfall with one-quarter to one-half mile visibility and sustained winds around 30 mph. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock issued an executive order declaring a winter storm emergency in the state on Sunday. “The storm brought heavy, wet snow with accumulation amounts up to three feet in some locations. High winds have downed trees and power lines resulting in road closures, emergency travel conditions, intermittent cellular service and power outages,” the governor’s office said in a press release.The storm was winding down early Monday, but many roads remained snow covered and icy. Forecasters also cautioned against an additional threat once the snow subsided.In the wake of the storm, unseasonably cold conditions will delay snowmelt in some areas and bring the end of the growing season for some agricultural producers.The hard freeze could bring additional agricultural impacts to farmers who already were dealing snow-covered fields.Winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories were in effect for parts of the northern Rockies, Cascades and Sierra Nevada early on Sunday morning as snow continued to fall. Most of those warnings and advisories were canceled by Monday morning. The magnitude and timing of the storm prompted the National Weather Service to declare it as “historic” last week. The highest snowfall amount as of Sunday night was 48 inches, in Browning, Montana. Browning Public Schools announced they would be closed on Monday.
Scientists Race to Stop ‘Ebola’ of Coral Diseases From Spreading in U.S. Virgin Islands – Scientists are racing to save coral reefs off the coast of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands from a virulent, deadly disease, Reuters reported Thursday, taking the unusual step of removing infected coral from the reef. Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) was first discovered in Florida in 2014. It begins as white patches that take over the coral, killing 66 to 100 percent of the species it infects. Between 2013 and 2018, it led to a coral decline in Florida’s Upper Keys of more than 40 percent.”I have never seen anything that affects so many species, so quickly and so viciously – and it just continues,” Marilyn Brandt of the University of the Virgin Islands told Reuters. “All the diseases I’ve studied in the past could be considered like the flu. They come every year, seasonally, and sometimes there are worse outbreaks. This thing is more like Ebola. It’s a killer, and we don’t know how to stop it.”The disease was first spotted close to the U.S. Virgin Islands in early 2019, The BVI Beacon reported Tuesday. Once it infects a coral, it spreads quickly, at a rate of a couple of centimeters per day. “Within a month, you’ll have the entire coral head gone,” Association of Reef Keepers Director Dr. Shannon Gore told The BVI Beacon. Between corals, it moves at a rate of about five kilometers (approximately three miles) per month. Since its discovery in Florida in 2014, it has impacted more than 96,000 acres of reef and spread 250 miles down the Florida coast. SCTLD has also been spotted off the coasts of St. Maarten, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Jamaica. In Florida, it has impacted half of the stony corals that make up the Florida Reef Tract, including five endangered species, Newsweek reported.
Why Are Hurricanes Like Dorian Stalling, and Is Global Warming Involved? – Hurricane Dorian’s slow, destructive track through the Bahamas fits a pattern scientists have been seeing over recent decades, and one they expect to continue as the planet warms: hurricanes stalling over coastal areas and bringing extreme rainfall. Dorian made landfall in the northern Bahamas on Sept. 1 as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, then battered the islands for hours on end with heavy rain, a storm surge of up to 23 feet and sustained wind speeds reaching 185 miles per hour. The storm’s slow forward motion – at times only 1 mile per hour – is one of the reasons forecasters were having a hard time pinpointing its exact future path toward the U.S. coast. Recent research shows that more North Atlantic hurricanes have been stalling as Dorian did, leading to more extreme rainfall. Their average forward speed has also decreased by 17 percent – from 11.5 mph, to 9.6 mph – from 1944 to 2017, according to a study published in June by federal scientists at NASA and NOAA. The researchers don’t understand exactly why tropical storms are stalling more, but they think it’s caused by a general slowdown of atmospheric circulation (global winds), both in the tropics, where the systems form, and in the mid-latitudes, where they hit land and cause damage. Hurricanes are steered and carried by large-scale wind flows, “like a cork in a stream,” said Tim Hall, a hurricane researcher with NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and author of the study. So, if those winds slow down or shift direction, it affects how fast hurricanes move forward and where they end up. NOAA hurricane expert Jim Kossin, co-author of the June study, said scientists suspect the overall slowing of winds is at least partly due to rapid warming of the Arctic. The temperature contrast between the Arctic and the equator is a main driver of wind. Since the Arctic is warming faster than lower latitudes, the contrast is decreasing, and so are wind speeds.
Record-Breaking Hurricane Lorenzo Becomes the Second Category 5 Storm This Year – Hurricane Lorenzo strengthened to a Category 5 storm Saturday night, becoming the strongest storm ever recorded so far north and east in the Atlantic, CNN reported. It has since weakened to a Category 2 storm, but is still expected to be a “large and powerful hurricane” when it passes near the Azores early Wednesday, according to the most recent advisory from the National Hurricane Center (NHC). The NHC has issued a hurricane watch for the islands of Flores, Corvo, Faial, Pico, São Jorge, Graciosa and Terceira and a tropical storm watch for São Miguel and Santa Maria. The storm is expected to dump two to four inches of rain over the western Azores, which could cause “life-threatening flash flooding,” the NHC warned. It is unusual for hurricanes to reach the Azores, according to The Weather Channel. Since the mid-nineteenth century, only seven hurricanes Category 2 or higher have blown within 200 nautical miles of the islands. Those include Ophelia in 2017, which knocked down a few trees and caused some flooding when it passed south of the Azores, and a 1926 hurricane that passed over São Miguel. Per NOAA’s historical database, only 7 Cat. 2+ #hurricanes have tracked within 200 nautical miles of the #Azores. We’ll see if #Lorenzo will maintain at least that intensity next week.pic.twitter.com/oY4vSOJy7S Lorenzo could also join Ophelia in being the rare former hurricane to impact the UK. Its weakened winds could veer northwest and lash Ireland, CNN meteorologist Haley Brink said. “Ophelia did the same thing and impacted the region in 2017, bringing with it very strong winds,” Brink told CNN. While Lorenzo is unusual for its intensity so far east, The Weather Channel noted that it is also part of a growing trend of hurricanes impacting the eastern Atlantic. Hurricane Leslie almost reached Portugal in 2018, and Hurricane Alex hit the Azores with a freak January strike in 2016.
Hurricane Lorenzo Blasts the Azores, Sets Its Sights on Ireland — Hurricane Lorenzo, the weirdest storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, struck the Azores on Wednesday and is forecast to continue its jaunt across the eastern Atlantic toward Ireland. It could make a rare landfall there with hurricane-force winds and crippling surf.The freak hurricane rapidly intensified into a Category 5 monster over the weekend, setting a record as the strongest hurricane to ever form that far north or east in the Atlantic basin. It has since dwindled back down to a solid Category 1 storm, and it hit the westernmost Azores islands on Wednesday with winds of up to 90 mph. Rain and pounding surf also affected the islands with the local weather agency warning that waves could swell as high as 70 feet. The storm has reportedly caused power outages on a number of the islands as well.All told, Lorenzo marks the fifteenth tropical cyclone (the generic name from tropical storms and hurricanes) to come within 200 nautical miles of the Azores since the 1840s, according to a database kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The last to brush the island chain was 2016’s Alex, which passed by as a tropical storm. With winds of up to 90 mph, Lorenzo is among the strongest storms on record to pass over the islands.The National Hurricane Center expects Lorenzo to transition to an extratropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds in the next day or so. Extratropical cyclones are one of the many flavors of swirling storms. What differentiates them from the tropical variety is that extratropical cyclones have cold air at their core (tropical cyclones have a warm core). They also tend to latch onto other weather patterns as they head poleward.In Lorenzo’s case, it will latch onto the jet stream in the coming days, which will accelerate its migration to the east. It’s expected to slam into Ireland by Thursday evening with powerful winds of up to 80 mph and what Met Éireann, the Irish weather service, calls “squally rain.” Most trees still have their leaves, and soil is saturated from recent rains, which the agency said could lead to downed branches and trees. In addition, Met Éireann is also calling for waves of up to 12 meters (40 feet) to hammer the coast. If this whole thing sounds eerily familiar, may I point you to 2017’s Hurricane Ophelia. That storm reached Category 3 status, and until Lorenzo, it held the title of the fiercest northerly hurricane. It also plowed into Ireland, leaving more than 120,000 people without power and generally wreaking havoc.
Hurricane Lorenzo heads for Britain as 80mph gales hit Ireland – A powerful storm hit Ireland as it hurtled towards the British Isles.Although it has now been downgraded to a storm, ex-Hurricane Lorenzo whipped up frighteningly powerful winds of 165mph as it blasted its way across the north Atlantic.People on the west of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland battened down the hatches as the storm neared.Met Eireann has warned that winds will reach mean speeds of 50mph, with individual gusts hitting 80mph.Five counties across the country have been issued with Status Orange wind warnings as coastal regions brace for flooding.It is predicted that Lorenzo will hit mainland Britain tomorrow.There are eight flood warnings in force in England today – and two in Wales – ahead of Lorenzo crashing into the UK.The Environment Agency has also issued 36 flood alerts for England – and one for Wales – meaning flooding is also possible in these areas.The organisation has warned of flooding in England’s north-west and Midlands – and in the south-west and north-east of Wales.A large search and rescue operation was launched in Ireland yesterday after a surfer went missing in the storm. A spokesperson for the Irish Coast Guard told The Irish Independent: “The kite surfer came down hard in the storm and broke his leg. Ambulance services called in the Coast Guard to rescue him and then the [air and sea] helicopter to evacuate him.” Hurricane #Lorenzo had decreased in strength to an extra-tropical storm by the time it reached the west coast of #Ireland on Thursday, October 3. One resident in the western county of Mayo recorded the high storm waves at Blacksod Lighthouse. pic.twitter.com/QMqlfe1UzK – WeatherNation (@WeatherNation) October 3, 2019
Rising Seas Threaten Hundreds of Native American Heritage Sites Along Florida’s Gulf Coast – Native North Americans first arrived in Florida approximately 14,550 years ago. Evidence for these stone-tool-wielding, megafauna-hunting peoples can be found at the bottom of numerous limestone freshwater sinkholes in Florida’s Panhandle and along the ancient shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico. Specialized archaeologists using scuba gear, remote sensing equipment or submersibles can study underwater sites if they are not deeply buried or destroyed by erosion. This is important because Florida’s archaeological resources face significant threats due to sea level rise driven by climate change. According to a new UN report, global sea levels could increase by over 3 feet by the year 2100. Archaeological sites contain evidence of what people ate in the past, what kinds of houses they built, how they buried their dead and what they did to memorialize stories, leadership and community. These places literally embody human lives, and are the only records we have of prehistoric indigenous peoples of the New World. Between the years 1500 and 1850, 2.5 million Europeans migrated to the New World. As a consequence of their arrival, 50 million indigenous people died from disease, massacres and slavery.As scholars who study anthropology and archaeology, we believe that the genocide of these oral historical and literate societies, native to North, South and Central America, makes it even more important to preserve their ancient sites. Without them, we may never be able to learn the history of the first peoples of this land.
Bye-Bye Beaches: How Parts of SoCal’s Iconic Coast Could Disappear in Our Lifetime — The stretch of coast from Santa Monica to Malibu is iconic and quintessentially Californian. It’s also ridiculously beautiful – and it’s clear, based on the latest science, it could be unrecognizable by the end of the century. As the planet warms, sea levels will continue to rise, threatening some of our most beloved stretches of coastline. A few feet of sea level rise might not sound very alarming, but every vertical foot could mean roughly 20 feet farther that the ocean encroaches inland (depending on a lot of factors, like the slope of the coastline), according to Patrick Barnard, a research scientist at the US Geological Survey. The state’s 2018 sea level rise guidance laid out different scenarios based on how much we curb our greenhouse gas emissions.
- Low emissions: 66% chance of between 0.9 and 2.3 feet of rise in Santa Monica by 2100, and similar rise in other parts of Southern California.
- High emissions: 66% chance of between 1.5 and 3.3 feet of rise, with a .5% probability we’ll see 6.8 feet.
As a precaution, the report recommends that state officials anticipate 10 feet of rise when building crucial infrastructure along the coast. Keep in mind some researchers think we’ve been underestimating just how bad things could get. According to a paper co-authored by Barnard, SoCal could lose between 31% – 67% of its beaches by 2100. And areas like Malibu could be threatened in the coming decades.”I mean these are very, very narrow beaches. They’re already having lots of issues, and just a bit of sea level rise and they’re going to be completely gone,” said Barnard, adding that Malibu could see a major loss of its beaches in the coming decades.
Could Massive Storm Surge Barriers End the Hudson River’s Revival? – Two months earlier, Lipscomb told me, American Rivers had named the Hudson the second most endangered waterway in the nation. It wasn’t pollution that put the river on the conservation group’s 2019 watchlist, though parts of it are, in fact, polluted. Nor was the river particularly imperiled by diversions or urban sprawl, like others on the list. For the first time in its history, American Rivers had singled out a waterway solely on the possibility that massive in-river storm surge barriers could rise in its lower reaches, representing an existential threat to a river in the midst of much-heralded ecological recovery.Plans to build barriers in New York Harbor were set in motion by Superstorm Sandy, which in 2012 barreled up the East Coast, killing 72 people in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast and causing $65 billion in damage. To protect the metro area’s people and property from future Sandys, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has devised five possible schemes for erecting walls to hold back the sea during future catastrophic storms. But environmental advocates say such storm surge barriers will do nothing to shield against expected sea level rise from climate change and – judging by the impact of barriers elsewhere – may even destroy the ecological integrity of harbors they’re meant to protect. The most extreme of the proposed alternatives is a five-mile-long barrier that stretches from New Jersey to Long Island. Bracing against the wake of a passing ferry, Lipscomb unfurled a harbor map and showed me where the Army Corps proposes to build. He started with the most extreme of its proposed alternatives: a five-mile-long concrete and steel barrier that stretches from New Jersey’s Sandy Hook to Long Island’s Rockaway Peninsula. This outer harbor barrier, which could potentially be topped with a multi-lane toll road, would have 300-foot-wide lift gates and two pairs of curved gates that pivot together to form a wall that rises 30 feet above the sea’s surface. “And don’t forget there’s 10 miles of shoreline fortifications attached to each end of the barrier,” Lipscomb said. A second giant barrier would close off the western outlet of Long Island Sound, where it meets the East River estuary.
Antarctica Just Lost a 347 Billion Ton Iceberg, but This Time the Climate Crisis Is Not to Blame – A 315 billion tonne (approximately 347 billion U.S. ton) iceberg has broken off of Antarctica‘s third largest ice shelf, BBC News reported Monday. It is the biggest berg to calve from the Amery Ice Shelf in more than 50 years. The iceberg is 1,636 square kilometers (approximately 632 square miles), roughly the size of Scoltand’s Isle of Skye and slightly larger than the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu. It is so large that it will have to be carefully observed because it could pose a risk to shipping. But scientists were quick to reassure the public that it was part of the ice shelf’s normal calving cycle, and not a sign of the climate crisis.”While there is much to be concerned about in Antarctica, there is no cause for alarm yet for this particular ice shelf,” professor Helen Fricker from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography told BBC News. A 1600 km² iceberg broke off Amery Ice Shelf, as seen in @CopernicusEU Sentinel-1 radar images. This part, coined the “Loose Tooth” by @helenafricker and colleagues, has been hanging by a thread since 2002 (https://t.co/IUhXDCWOFF) and finally gave way last week.@sentinel_hub pic.twitter.com/GG60Sk52GB – Bert Wouters (@bert_polar) September 30, 2019 The calving was caught on U.S. and European satellites between Sept. 24 and 25, AFP News reported. Scientists had long been expecting a piece of the Amery Ice Shelf – known as “Loose Tooth” because of its resemblance to a child’s tooth – to break away, according to BBC News. Fricker predicted in 2002 that it would calve between 2010 and 2015. She was off, slightly, both about when and where the iceberg would detach. Instead of finally losing its tooth, the ice shelf lost a larger piece of ice slightly to the west, which scientists are calling D28.
Ice sheet melting: it’s not just about sea level rise –You’ve probably heard that climate change is melting the polar ice caps – but what does this actually mean? It refers to the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets, which are large systems of interconnected glaciers, kilometres thick. They are formed by snow falling on land, which compacts into ice and slowly flows downhill towards the ocean. When the ice sheets come into contact with a warming atmosphere or ocean, they begin to melt faster than new ice can form. This releases cold, fresh meltwater into the surrounding ocean. The most well-known consequence of this process is sea-level rise, as the volume of the ocean increases. Unfortunately, there are other side effects beyond sea level rise.The oceans around Greenland and Antarctica are unusual because they are the only regions of the world’s oceans with significant vertical mixing. Everywhere else, the ocean is stratified, forming layers of water organised by density, with the lightest water at the surface and the heaviest water at the seafloor. The layers don’t interact with each other very much. But in a few locations around the coast of Antarctica, as well as in the North Atlantic Ocean near Greenland, surface water becomes cold and salty enough to sink into the deep ocean. Then it slowly travels around the world for about a thousand years, like a deep-ocean conveyor belt, before resurfacing. This process of “deep water formation”, occurring in just a few regions, affects deep ocean currents which transport heat around the world and influence climate patterns worldwide. But what happens when ice sheetmeltwater is released into these deep water formation regions? How are the ocean currents and climate patterns affected? In our simulations, ice sheet melting slowed down the rate of nearby deep water formation. The fresh meltwater reduced the density of the surface ocean, making it more difficult for surface waters to sink. In the North Atlantic, this reduction in deep water formation altered the pathways of nearby ocean currents. The Gulf Stream, which travels up the east coast of North America, and its extension the North Atlantic Drift, which cuts across the Atlantic towards Europe, were redirected such that less heat was transported from North America to Europe. While both locations still warmed (due to climate change), eastern North America experienced a bit of extra warming, while in Europe some of the warmings were canceled out. Furthermore, temperatures became more variable in many regions, indicating a greater prevalence of extreme weather.
How climate change is melting, drying and flooding Earth – in pictures – Nature’s pick of the best science images is this month dedicated to climate change – and the researchers who study it.
Cutting air pollution would not cause ‘near-term spike’ in global warming — A reduction in air pollution brought about by shifting away from fossil fuels would not inadvertently cause a short-term acceleration of global warming, a new study says.Earlier modelling work using scenarios where fossil-fuel burning ends instantaneously had suggested that a rapid decline in aerosol emissions could remove their cooling impact on the climate and cause a spike in warming.However, the new study, published in Nature, finds that “even the most aggressive” shift from fossil fuels to clean alternatives to limit warming to 1.5C “provides benefits for climate change mitigation and air quality” at all timescales. The study makes the “clear and important point” that “aerosol cooling is no reason not to mitigate our emissions”, another scientist tells Carbon Brief, but “we need to be mindful of the potential regional climate implications of rapid removal of air pollution”.In addition to emitting greenhouse gases, such as CO2 and methane, burning fossil fuels also releases tiny particles known as aerosols. They typically linger in the atmosphere for three to five days.Sulphur dioxide, for example, is emitted from power stations and vehicle exhausts. It reacts in the atmosphere to form sulphate aerosols.Aerosols have a mixed influence on the climate, explains co-author Dr Chris Smith, a research fellow at the University of Leeds. He tells Carbon Brief:“Their presence [directly] reflects more incoming sunlight back to space, cooling the atmosphere, but they also have effects on changing the reflectivity and lifetimes of clouds, which may have larger and more uncertain effects.” The impact of these cloud changes depends on their type, says Smith: “Low clouds are generally cooling and high clouds generally warming, but evidence suggests that low clouds win out and cloud effects due to aerosols generally cool the climate.”
From Antarctica to the Oceans, Climate Change Damage Is About to Get a Lot Worse, IPCC Warns — As the planet warms, diverse ecosystems – from mountain glaciers to the icy Arctic to the oceans – are already seeing dangerous effects fromclimate change. Future warming will threaten food supplies, force the migration of countless species and dramatically change the icy regions of the world. The changes are coming. How much is up to us, scientists warn in a new report released Wednesday by the United Nations. The changes are happening faster than many scientists expected to see, and they’re often intricately connected, with cascading effects that can ripple through ecosystems. As global temperatures rise, time is running out. The cryosphere – areas of the planet that are frozen – is shrinking as glaciers and sea ice melt, snowpack declines and permafrost thaws. At the same time, oceans have absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat and about a quarter of the carbon dioxide from human activities, leading to greater acidification that harms shellfish and corals and lowers oxygen levels in the water. “The world’s oceans and cryosphere have been taking the heat for climate change for decades,” said Ko Barrett, vice chair of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which produced the report on climate change’s impact on the oceans and cryosphere. “The consequences for nature and humanity are sweeping and severe.”Just how severe the impacts will become – whether sea level rise stops at 1 to 2 feet by 2100 or continues to rise as high as 3.5 feet; whether the planet sees 20 times more marine heat waves or 50 times more – depends on how, and how quickly, humanity responds to the crisis, the report found.The report brought together 104 scientists from 36 countries with a variety of expertise. As they reviewed the existing research, the diverse group found interconnections and a magnitude of change that hadn’t been as clear before. “What’s at stake is the health of ecosystems, wildlife and, importantly, the world we leave our children,” Barrett said.
EIA projects global energy-related CO2 emissions will increase through 2050 – The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy-related sources will continue to grow in the coming decades. EIA’s International Energy Outlook 2019 (IEO2019) projects that global energy-related CO2 emissions will grow 0.6% per year from 2018 to 2050 in its Reference case. However, future growth in energy-related CO2 emissions is not evenly distributed across the world: relatively developed economies collectively have no emissions growth, so all of the future growth in energy-related CO2 emissions is among the group of countries outside the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).Countries outside of the OECD collectively have more population, a larger gross domestic product, more energy consumption, and higher energy-related CO2 emissions compared with aggregated values from OECD countries. In IEO2019, growth rates for these data series are also higher for non-OECD countries than for OECD countries. As non-OECD countries continue to grow, so does their demand for air conditioning, electronics, personal vehicles, and other energy services. These countries also have relatively energy-intensive industries, primarily because energy-intensive industrial processes often shift to non-OECD countries. Energy consumption in non-OECD countries increases by 1.6% per year from 2018 to 2050, and energy-related CO2 emissions increase by 1.0% per year. EIA projects that coal-related CO2 emissions in non-OECD countries, especially China, will grow at the slowest rate among fossil fuels as natural gas replaces coal in power generation and in industrial applications. China emits the most energy-related CO2 emissions in the world, and EIA projects that it will remain in that position through 2050. Although India’s coal-related CO2 emissions increase 2.8% annually from 2018 to 2050 – the highest among the eight countries in EIA’s international outlook – China remains the single largest emitter of coal-related CO2 emissions in the world.
Humans Release 40 to 100x More CO2 Than Volcanoes, Major Study Reveals = Scientists have done the math, and human activities like burning fossil fuels and clearing forests generate as much as 100 times the carbon emissions of volcanic eruptions every year, AFP reported Tuesday. The findings are part of a 10-year study by the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO), a global team of around 500 scientists. In a series of papers released in the journal Elements on Tuesday, the team produced an in-depth account of the Earth’s carbon.While volcanoes and other natural processes release 0.28 to 0.36 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide per year, DCO said, human activity released more than 37 gigatonnes in 2018 alone, according to AFP. In total, annual human emissions are 40 to 100 times greater than those of volcanoes, DCO explained in a press release.”Climate sceptics really jump on volcanoes as a possible contender for top CO2 emissions but it’s simply not the case,” The studies didn’t just focus on anthropogenic carbon releases. They provided a general account of where all of the Earth’s carbon is stored and how it moves through the environment, as BBC News explained. What they found is that the vast majority of Earth’s 1.85 billion gigatonnes of carbon is below ground, with two thirds in the core. Only 43,500 billion tonnes (approximately 47,951 U.S. tons) are above ground in the oceans, land and atmosphere. This represents just two-tenths of one percent of Earth’s carbon.
7.6 Million Join Week of Global Climate Strikes – More than 7.6 million people worldwide participated in the global climate strike between Sept. 20 and 27, according to the current tally reported by 350.org. That number could grow as counting continues, but the week of strikes is confirmed as one of the largest global protests in history. For comparison, the massive 2003 protest against the Iraq War drew between six and 11 million.”This week was a demonstration of the power of our movement. People power is more powerful than the people in power. It was the biggest ever climate mobilization, and it’s only the beginning. The momentum is on our side and we are not going anywhere,” Fridays For Future International said.Four million people participated in the first round of strikes on Friday, Sept. 20, making it the largest climate mobilization in history. But that number grew with strikes on Sept. 27. Large turnouts on the 27th were reported in New Zealand, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Canada, according to The Guardian and BBC News.The day began in New Zealand, where more than 3.5 percent of the country participated, The Guardian reported. Demonstrators delivered a letter signed by 11,000 people to the country’s parliament asking it to declare a climate emergency, according to another Guardian report.”Our representatives need to show us meaningful and immediate action that safeguards our futures on this planet,” School Strike 4 Climate national coordinator Raven Maeder said, as The Guardian reported. “Nothing else will matter if we cannot look after the Earth for current and future generations. This is our home.” Organizers counted 170,000 people through a combination of speaking to people on the ground, talking to councils and police and viewing drone footage, New Zealand’s Stuff reported. It’s a number of historic proportions, In Italy, meanwhile, more than one million people participated, according to ANSA. “There are 200,000 people in Rome, which attracted the biggest crowd, followed by 150,000 in Milan,” Gianfranco Mascia of Fridays For Future said. “There are around 80,000 in Naples, 50,000 in Florence, 20,000 in Turin and Bologna and 10,000 in Palermo and Bari.”
It’s Kids vs. the World in a Landmark Climate Complaint – On Monday, Greta Thunberg and 15 other young people filed a potentially world-changing climate complaint. On an abnormally steamy day in New York, when sweat built on the brows of the dark-suited diplomats funneling into the United Nations for a major climate summit, the group of teens cranked up the heat even further. They announced that they’re suing five of the world’s major carbon polluters on the grounds that the countries are violating their rights as children. If the suit is successful, the United Nations would classify the climate crisis as a children’s rights crisis. And more importantly, it would compel Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, and Turkey – the five countries named in the suit – to work with other nations to forge binding emissions’ reduction targets, a sharp change from current international efforts that have so far basically rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic. “This is all wrong, I shouldn’t be up here,” Thunberg said, addressing the General Assembly and shaking with rage. “I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. You have stolen my dreams, my childhood with your empty words. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line.” The youth climate activism movement has over the past year exploded prior notions of what’s possible in the realm of climate politics. Greta Thunberg’s solitary strike outside the Swedish parliament every Friday starting last August has spawned a global movement. This past Friday, an estimated 4 million young adults and their supporters took to the streets around the world to demand climate action. “Young people above all – young people are providing solutions, insisting on accountability, and demanding urgent action,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said opening the Climate Action Summit. “They are right.”
Teens seek emergency climate declaration in New Mexico – (AP) – Student activists including several Native American high school students urged New Mexico’s Democratic governor Monday to take more aggressive action to address climate change, insisting that her targets for reducing pollution from vehicles, power plants and oil rigs are not ambitious enough. About 20 climate activists – mostly high school students – urged Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to declare a climate emergency and set aside state income from the oil and gas industries to pay for the transition to an economy without greenhouse gas emissions. “In the last year, we have seen increased oil and gas production from our state and do not believe we are on track to meet carbon reduction goals nor end our dependence on fossil fuel revenues,” said a letter from two climate action groups, including Youth Unified for Climate Crisis Action. State government and school districts in New Mexico rely heavily on income from oil and natural gas production amid a surge in petroleum production in the Permian Basin that underlays parts of southeastern New Mexico and West Texas. The governor’s chief of staff, John Bingaman, met briefly with the protesters, promising to take their concerns into consideration and highlighting the governor’s commitment to a long list of initiatives and alliances to address climate change. Lujan Grisham was attending indigenous feast day events at the Taos Pueblo community of Native Americans and sent a letter expressing solidarity with protesters.
‘Thousands’ expected for Greta Thunberg’s Iowa City visit – – Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg’s visit in support of student climate strikers Friday is expected to draw thousands of people to downtown Iowa City, according to a release from the city. The rally with Thunberg and other activists has been moved to the intersection of Dubuque Street and Iowa Avenue, beginning at noon Friday. The speakers are expected to finish around 1 p.m. Thunberg, 16, has drawn international attention for her climate change protests and advocacy and spoke to the United Nations last week. Thunberg will join a local movement of students and activists led by two 13-year-old boys who started walking out of school in March and whose activism has led to action from the Iowa City school board and the Iowa City Council. They are now pressuring the University of Iowa to stop burning coal. The city is planning road closures and parking bans in anticipation of the visit. Road closures are Dubuque Street from East Jefferson Street to East Washington Street and Iowa Avenue from South Linn Street to North Clinton Street. Roads will be closed from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, and vehicles parked in that area will be towed between 2 and 6 a.m. Friday. Vehicles can be moved to a downtown parking ramp or to on-street parking spaces outside the towing area. Several bus routes will be detoured during the event, and some bus stops will be closed.
Jeremy Clarkson called Greta Thunberg a ‘spoilt brat’ but his daughter shut him down — Jeremy Clarkson has become the latest over-privileged white middle-aged man to come for a 16-year-old child trying to save the planet and it’s barely news because this is the world we live in now. He decided to dedicate his entire column for The Sun to calling Greta Thunberg a “spoilt brat” and basically suggesting she should be grateful to his generation for… Well, it’s unclear exactly what. Being in the army and inventing iPhones, by the sounds of it. Pause for a moment to consider how soundly you sleep at night, knowing that adults are building and servicing and flying Sweden’s fighter planes to keep you safe. We gave you mobile phones and laptops and the internet. We created the social media you use every day and we run the banks that pay for it all. Luckily, irrational bullying of teenagers doesn’t run in the family, and Clarkson’s daughter Emily wasn’t having it. She very visibly subtweeted her dad, wishing all “middle aged blokes” could speak about Thunberg as positively as comedian John Bishop.The family feud of Twitter dreams didn’t stop there – Jeremy decided to weigh in and got dragged. And it doesn’t stop there, Emily expertly shut down the rest of the inexplicably angry boomer dudes trying to come for her. (see twitter embeds)
Greta Thunberg Changes Her Twitter Bio to Mock Putin After He Criticised Her UN Speech – Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a session at an energy forum in Moscow, when he addressed teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg’s impassioned and powerful speech at the United Nations Climate Action Summit.At the summit, Greta accused world leaders and politicians of being apathetic towards climate change and also destroying her childhood with their empty words and promises.At the session, Putin said that Greta Thunberg may have had good intentions and was sincere, but was poorly informed and has little or no idea about conditions in developing countries. He also said that adults must do everything they can so as to avoid dragging kids into extreme situations.A few days ago, Greta had changed her Twitter bio to “A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future”, after US President Donald Trump’s sarcastic comments. Now, after Putin’s statements, she’s changed it to “A kind but poorly informed teenager”.
Climate protesters spray 1,800 liters of ‘fake blood’ over UK Treasury building – Climate change activist group Extinction Rebellion has used a fire engine to spray fake blood over the steps and entrance to the U.K. Treasury building in Westminster, London. The group live-streamed the event on Facebook, which showed police officers now guarding the entrance. The organization also posted an image on Twitter which shows the fire engine covered in part with a banner that read “Stop funding climate death.” The group’s website said 1,800 liters of fake blood had been sprayed. It added that the ‘blood’ is made from water colored with food dye that can be washed off the building. It added that the protest is being held to “highlight the inconsistency between the U.K. Government’s insistence that the U.K. is a world leader in tackling climate breakdown, while pouring vast sums of money into fossil exploration and carbon-intensive projects” Speaking on U.K. radio on Thursday, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he had sympathy over the right to protests and that the world did face a climate emergency. Khan warned, however, that police resources to contain public disorder was strained and that anyone who wanted to protest “must do it lawfully and peacefully.”
Drastic Climate Action Needed Now… Let’s Ban Private Jets! – As the din of climate hysteria grows ever louder, the eco-pious and super-rich call for immediate and drastic action on climate change. Justin Trudeau, still licking his wounds from being outed for his multiple episodes of blackface and brownface, took more heat today as he’s criss-crossing the country ahead of the forthcoming federal election with not one, but two private jets. Calls for immediate climate action are accelerating, in fact we’ve seen numerous trial balloons floated from a complicit mainsteam media (or as Canada’a reigning Liberals call it “Approved Media”).These trial balloons / admonitions include:
- Eating less meat, or no meat, or perhaps eat maggots or eat people, to reduce carbon output.
- Driving less, fewer cars on the road, ban on gas powered vehicles, to reduce carbon output.
- Have less children, or no children, to reduce carbon output.
- And of course: Fly less. Let’s have fewer planes in the air, to reduce carbon output.
These guidelines are understandably hard sells for Joe Public, as many common people like to eat meat, or need a car to get to-and-from work, and children, as demanding as they can be, eventually grow up and can mow our lawns and do chores around the house. So if we’re serious about drastic climate action, right now, before the world ends, we need to do something that has maximum bang for the buck, while disrupting as few lives as possible. This way, the rabble masses will see that our leaders and elites are serious and they have the will to take whatever action necessary to make this happen. According to The Independent, the most popular private jet is the Cessna Citation XLS, which I believe climate alarmist Leonardo Di Caprio may be boarding in the picture below, having been shunted to the runway via a private helicopter… It’s back-of-the-napkin, but let’s say a typical jet does 4 legs per week, at 3 hour legs. We get: 17,947 jets X 6,030 kg CO2/flight X 4 flights/week X 52 weeks = 22,509,845,280 kilograms of Co2. Over 22 billion kilos of C02. Per year. But if we banned private jets, with immediate effect, no exceptions, very few working class and middle class people would be affected.
The Zombie Climate of Civilization — Why did the mainstream climate movement fail? To understand this we first need to understand what this movement was, where it came from, why it was confected, what it was really trying to accomplish.Look in the corporate media and its “alt” followers and you’ll see a new surge of interest and excitement around the climate-industrial movement. With Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion we have a new injection, a new brand, a new chic. This seeming rejuvenation of the hoary mainstream comes at the same time as new ideas are rising, as a small but growing movement of writers, activists, and scientists is saying that the mainstream movement has failed, that its ideology and goals were all wrong in the first place, that its forecasts always have been grossly distorted to the linear and optimist side which is why its forecasts so consistently are outstripped by events, and that the prescriptions of the mainstream are absurdly insufficient to meet the crisis as well as destructive in themselves.From the perspective of ecological fact and all of modern history, what’s happening is nothing but the attempted resurrection and zombification of a corpse. Thunberg is being used as figurehead for the same old lineup of corporate NGOs while Extinction Rebellion, for all its direct action, is dedicated to kettling all action within the capitalist framework and the framework of making “demands” on the very governments driving the destruction as fast as they can as hard as they can. Indeed a modern government can be defined pretty well as a way to organize a society for the maximum destruction of the Earth. So there’s our two big movements of the moment, both sheep-herders on behalf of the destroyers of the Earth. It’s clear that we have here yet another manifestation of the “reform” faction within the organized crime framework. Reformed ecocide, green ecocide. It’s all based on the lie propagated by the IPCC that civilization still has a “carbon budget” (such capitalist-technocratic verbiage) to work with, when in fact civilization has been deep into the red for many years now. The debt keeps mounting and the bill is about to come due in full.
Understanding Why the Green New Deal Won’t Really Work – Gail Tverberg, aka Gail the Actuary – The reasons why the Green New Deal won’t really work are fairly subtle. A person really has to look into the details to see what goes wrong. In this post, I try to explain at least a few of the issues involved.
- [1] None of the new renewables can easily be relied upon to produce enough energy in winter. The world’s energy needs vary, depending on location. In locations near the poles, there will be a significant need for light and heat during the winter months. Energy needs will be relatively more equal throughout the year near the equator. Solar energy is particularly a problem in winter. In northern latitudes, if utilities want to use solar energy to provide electricity in winter, they will likely need to build several times the amount of solar generation capacity required for summer to have enough electricity available for winter.Wind energy (Figure 3) comes closest to being suitable for matching the winter consumption needs of the economy. In at least some parts of the world, wind energy seems to continue at a reasonable level during winter.
- [2] Depending upon burned biomass in winter is an option, but we already know that this path is likely to lead to massive deforestation.
- [3] Battery backup for renewables is very expensive. Because of their high cost, batteries tend to be used only for very short time periods. There seem to be several related costs associated with the use of batteries:
- The cost of replacements, because batteries are typically not very long-lived compared to, say, solar panels
- The cost of recycling the battery components rather than simply leaving the batteries to pollute the nearby surroundings
- The loss of electric charge that occurs as the battery sits idle for a period of time and the loss related to electricity storage and retrieval
- At a 3-day storage level, batteries do nothing to smooth out season-to-season and year-to-year variation. We can get some idea of the cost of batteries from an analysis by Roger Andrews of a Tesla/Solar City system installed on the island of Ta’u. The island is in American Samoa, near the equator. This island received a grant that was used to add solar panels, plus 3-day battery backup, to provide electricity for the tiny island. Any outages longer than the battery capacity would continue to be handled by a diesel generator. The goal was to reduce the quantity of diesel used, not to eliminate its use completely. Based on Andrews’ analysis, adding a 3-day battery backup more than doubled the cost of the PV-alone system. (It added 1.6 times as much as the cost of the installed batteries.) The catch, as I pointed out above, is that the cost doesn’t stop with purchasing the initial batteries. At least one set of replacement batteries is likely to be needed during the lifetime of the system. And there are other costs that are more subtle and difficult to evaluate.
Big Tech’s eco-pledges aren’t slowing its pursuit of Big Oil – Employee activism and outside pressure have pushed big tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google into promising to slash their carbon emissions. But there’s another thing these tech giants aren’t cutting: Their growing business ties to the oil and gas industry. When Microsoft held an all-staff meeting in September, an employee asked CEO Satya Nadella if it was ethical for the company to be selling its cloud computing services to fossil fuel companies, according to two other Microsoft employees who described the exchange on condition they not be named. Such partnerships, the worker told Nadella, were accelerating the oil companies’ greenhouse gas emissions. Microsoft and other tech giants have been competing with one another to strike lucrative partnerships with ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP and other energy firms, in many cases supplying them not just with remote data storage but also artificial intelligence tools for pinpointing better drilling spots or speeding up refinery production. The oil and gas industry is spending roughly $20 billion each year on cloud services, which accounts for about 10% of the total cloud market, according to Vivek Chidambaram, a managing director of Accenture’s energy consultancy. It’s not yet clear whether the extraction industry is getting its money’s worth, although experts remain bullish about the application of advanced technology to oil and gas exploration.
Why Vladimir Putin Suddenly Believes in Global Warming – President Vladimir Putin needs to go green quickly to stop the permafrost from melting, so that Russian oil and gas companies can keep pumping the hydrocarbons that are warming the planet and making the permafrost melt. Even I’m struggling with the warped logic of that one, but it’s the conclusion I’ve reached from Russia’s sudden ratification of the Paris climate accord and from reading the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Until now, climate change has been seen as a “good thing” for Russia – at least in part. Warming waters have opened up the Northern Sea Route across the top of the country and made it practical, if not necessarily economic, to search for and exploit oil and gas resources beneath the Arctic seas. Who remembers the Shtokman gas project?Yet the warming that is opening up the Arctic seas may be starting to have a less beneficial effect on the frozen landmass of northern Russia, the heartland of the country’s oil and gas development and production. “Permafrost is undergoing rapid change,” says the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate report adopted by the IPCC last week. The changes threaten the “structural stability and functional capacities” of oil industry infrastructure, the authors warn. The greatest risks occur in areas with high ground-ice content and frost-susceptible sediments. Russia’s Yamal Peninsula – home to two of Russia’s biggest new gas projects (Bovanenkovo and Yamal LNG) and the Novy Port oil development – fits that bill. The problem is bigger than those three projects, though. Some “45% of the oil and natural gas production fields in the Russian Arctic are located in the highest hazard zone,” according to the IPCC report. The top few meters of the permafrost, the so-called active layer, freezes and thaws as the seasons change, becoming unstable during warmer months. Developers account for this by making sure their foundations are deep enough to support their infrastructure: including roads, railways, houses, processing plants and pipelines. But climate change is causing that active layer to deepen, which means the ground loses its ability to support the things built upon it. The loss of bearing capacity is dramatic and it’s already well under way, as this chart shows:
Dutch Farmers In Mass Revolt Against Green Fascism – Thousands of Dutch farmers descended on the Netherlands capital to protest against onerous environmental restrictions that threaten their livelihoods. The demonstrations were sparked after the coalition government proposed that “Dutch livestock farming should be slashed to meet commitments on reducing nitrogen emissions,” reports Dutch News NL. Farmers traveled to the Hague in their tractors, causing tailbacks in excess of 620 miles and huge traffic jams around and in the city. Farmers are protesting in the Netherlands and it is now the biggest traffic jam we’ve ever seen, thousands of tractors are driving on the highways right now #boerenprotest is even worldwide trending on twitter right now pic.twitter.com/mIcWzq3BnS Some protesters also used their tractors to demolish fences that been put up by the government. Over 2000 dutch farmers are protesting. The government put up fenced to keep them out. Meanwhile: farmers drive over those fences with their tractors and cause around 1100km traffic jams around the big citiesWe love farmers. No farmers =no food#boerenprotest pic.twitter.com/efVkQw766o The protests appear to have widespread support from the Dutch population. Populist leader Geert Wilders made an appearance at one of the protests. The scenes were reminiscent of the early days of the Yellow Vest movement in France, which was also partly a rural backlash to environmental taxes.
Trump Officials Agree on Plan to Boost Ethanol, Biodiesel – The Trump administration has agreed to a new plan for boosting renewable fuels and offsetting waivers exempting oil refineries from mandates to use them, according to three people familiar with the matter who asked for anonymity before a formal announcement. The tentative agreement, which follows weeks of negotiations, would allow the Environmental Protection Agency to offset those waivers in response to criticism from industry advocates and Midwestern politicians that the exemptions have hurt demand for corn-based ethanol and soybean-based biodiesel. Under the deal, the EPA would factor recent waivers into new annual biofuel quotas, by adjusting the targets to reflect a three-year rolling average of exemptions. White House officials also rejected a bid by oil industry allies to prevent spikes in the prices of biofuel compliance credits refiners use to prove they have fulfilled the targets. The agreement reflects a deal pitched by farm-state senators to the president earlier this month. Ethanol producers surged on the news. Green Plains Inc., which had been trading below Monday’s closing price, rose as much as 2.5%. Pacific Ethanol Inc. jumped as much as 9.4%. Renewable Identification Numbers tracking 2019 conventional biofuel consumption targets jumped 12% to 19 cents a piece — the steepest one-day gain since Sept. 16, according to broker data compiled by Bloomberg.
Big Oil Pushes Back Against Minnesota Clean Car Announcement -Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced last week that the state would be adopting a pair of clean car standards following California’s lead, even as the Trump administration tries to revoke California’s authority to set stricter standards under federal law. But Minnesota’s move is already prompting pushback from oil industry defenders and organizations tied to the Koch network, which is unsurprising given that fuel-efficient and electric vehicles are a clear threat to the profits of petroleum producers and refiners.It’s a fight that is playing out across the country – including in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Minnesota is now the fourteenth state to join California in developing stronger vehicle standards, a key policy pathway in the fight against climate change. In Minnesota and nationally, the transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Clean car standards are intended to reduce transportation-sector emissions. “Climate change threatens the very things that make Minnesota a great place to live, from our magnificent 10,000 lakes to our farmable land and clean air,” said Governor Walz. “If Washington won’t lead on climate, Minnesota will.”The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) will be implementing both a low emissions vehicle (LEV) standard and a zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) standard. The LEV standard requires new automobiles sold in the state to produce less pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, while the ZEV standard mandates that automakers provide more options for ultra-low and zero-emission vehicles including electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. The two policies combined could reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by two million tons by 2030, according to apress release from the governor’s office. In addition to the climate benefits, the initiatives – dubbed Clean Cars Minnesota – are expected to improve public health while saving consumers money and increasing consumer choice.
Thousands of Ships Fitted With ‘Cheat Devices’ To Divert Poisonous Pollution Into Sea -Global shipping companies have spent billions rigging vessels with “cheat devices” that circumvent new environmental legislation by dumping pollution into the sea instead of the air, The Independent can reveal.More than $12bn (£9.7bn) has been spent on the devices, known as open-loop scrubbers, which extract sulphur from the exhaust fumes of ships that run on heavy fuel oil.This means the vessels meet standards demanded by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) that kick in on 1 January.However, the sulphur emitted by the ships is simply re-routed from the exhaust and expelled into the water around the ships, which not only greatly increases the volume of pollutants being pumped into the sea, but also increases carbon dioxide emissions.The change could have a devastating effect on wildlife in British waters and around the world, experts have warned.A total of 3,756 ships, both in operation and under order, have already had scrubbers installed according to DNV GL, the world’s largest ship classification company. Only 23 of these vessels have had closed-loop scrubbers installed, a version of the device that does not discharge into the sea and stores the extracted sulphur in tanks before discharging it at a safe disposal facility in a port.
China’s Renewable Boom Hits The Wall – When earlier this year China announced subsidies for 22.79 GW of new solar power capacity, those following the country’s renewable energy story must have started to worry. The capacity subsidized is half the amount approved in 2017, at 53 GW. And chances are that solar and wind additions will continue to fall.Subsidies are one reason. In January, Beijing said it will only approve solar power projects if they are cost-competitive with coal. Judging by the size of subsidies announced in July, more than 22 GW in projects can boast cost-competitiveness with coal.Yet there is another reason: curtailment. China-based journalist Michael Standaert wrote in a recent story for Yale Environment 360 that China’s solar and wind farms continue to produce electricity that is wasted because there is not enough transmission capacity.Renewable energy is a top priority for China as it fights one of the worst air pollution levels in the world while subject to an uncomfortably high degree of reliance on energy imports, namely oil and gas. At the same time, it is one of the biggest – if not the single biggest – driver of global energy demand as its middle class grows fast and with it, energy demand. Now, it seems, energy demand is taking the upper hand.China has substantially increased subsidies for shale gas exploration and methane separation from coal, Standaert writes. He also quotes a former IEA official as saying, “Though China is the largest clean energy market in the world, wind and solar only accounted for 5.2 percent and 2.5 percent of China’s national power generation in 2018.” What’s more, Kevin Tu, now a fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, tells Standaert that “Against the backdrop of an ongoing U.S.-China trade war and a slowing Chinese economy, political priority of climate change in China is unlikely to become very high in the near future, indicating great difficulties for Beijing to further upgrade its climate ambitions.” In short, renewables won’t cut it when you need cheap power to feed growing energy demand.
Sark’s energy hits prices only billionaires can afford — You might remember that earlier this year that Sark’s monopolistic energy company, Sark Electricity, had threatened to switch the electricity off entirely on the “dark sky” island after an independent price control commissioner had told the company to slash its high electricity prices. Although a temporary resolution to the crisis had been found, with the island’s government – “Chief Pleas” – agreeing to buy out the company within a few months, the islanders weren’t convinced this would translate into a permanent one. Indeed, they were sceptical that a mutual agreement on a fair price for the buy out could ever be reached. Well it seems like they were right: there has been no buyout and although there appears to have been some kind of truce over the summer, which is peak tourist season, the crisis is once again escalating. On Friday, Sark Electricity, which brings in diesel on boats from Guernsey and then converts that into electricity, wrote to the island’s residents to inform them that electricity prices were going up still higher. It was a strange letter. Not just because it was dotted with typos – “Tis made it easier for you”; “we suggest you dimply set us up like any other payee” – but also because CEO David Gordon-Brown seemed to bury the lede. The punchline about customer electricity prices being hiked by 29 per cent from 66 to 85 pence per kilowatt-hour came only after an extended note about how the way customers pay their bills is changing. But when it was delivered, it was feisty to say the least: As many of my customers are much richer that my shareholders, we cannot continue this “Reversed Robin Hood” situation any longer, so effective with the beginning of this month I have to raising [sic] the price of electricity by 13.5p to let us break even, and a further 5.5p to try to recapture some of the losses from earlier this year. So your next bill will show your electricity price at 85p. The assertion that some of Sark Electricity’s customers are “much richer” than the shareholders (who, it should be noted, are Gordon-Brown’s own family members) is not without justification. But 85 pence per kwh is an eye-watering price even for billionaires. It’s more than six times higher than the 14 pence paid on average in the UK (which Sark is not part of). Freelance journalist Rob Byrne, who used to report on the Channel Islands for the BBC, has estimated that it’s also more than anyone pays for electricity anywhere on Earth (that is known of, anyway).
Northeast heating oil industry looks to biodiesel to reduce carbon emissions –The Northeast heating oil industry plans to begin pressing New England states to mandate certain standardized levels of biodiesel content in home heating oil. At an industry summit in Rhode Island on Sept. 19, member companies of the New England Fuel Institute and related companies voted unanimously in favor of a resolution to work toward a 15% reduction in carbon emissions by 2023, 40% by 2030, and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Sean Cota, president and chief executive of the Massachusetts-based organization, said they hope to reach these goals by dramatically boosting the use of biodiesel in home heating fuel. Biodiesel is a biodegradable fuel manufactured from vegetable oils, animal fats, recycled restaurant grease and other materials. Much of the heating oil used in New England already contains some biodiesel, but its use is not required in every state. “Some companies have been very aggressive. Others have been less aggressive,” Cota said. “We need to have some standards. Part of our future effort will be to have everyone at similar levels as quickly as possible.” Charles Uglietto, the owner of Cubby Oil in Somerville, started with 5% biodiesel – referred to as B5 in industry shorthand – and gradually upped the levels. Now he delivers a B40 blend to all of his customers. “This product has worked seamlessly both in old equipment and newer equipment,” he said. “And it burns cleaner than our ultra-low-sulfur heating oil.”
Philadelphia wants to ban highly polluting oils burned to heat buildings –Philadelphia lawmakers want to ban the dirtiest kinds of oils used for heating in some buildings. Experts say phasing out these heavy fuel oils is low-hanging fruit when it comes to reducing air pollution. “It will substantially improve air quality in Philadelphia,” said Joe Minott, director of the Clean Air Council. Heavier fuel oils – classified by numbers 6, 5, and 4 – are generally used in older commercial and residential furnaces and boilers. These oils contain about 300 times higher amounts of sulfur than lighter oils, and they release more pollutants, including particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, mercury, and nickel – linked to asthma, and heart and lung diseases. A bill introduced by Councilmember Blondell Reynolds Brown in September, and approved unanimously by the council’s Committee on the Environment Wednesday, proposes to phase out the use, sale, and storage of heavy fuel oils over the next five years. “It’s a very dirty fuel,” Minott said. “So the people that want to continue using oil will have the option of switching to a lower-sulfur oil or switching out from fossil fuel altogether, which obviously would be where the Clean Air Council would urge this whole process to go.” New York City passed a similar rule in 2011. About 10,000 structures, including 200 public schools, affected by the regulation were responsible for more than 85% of the soot pollution coming from buildings, as reported by The New York Times.
67 arrested at Bow power plant protest; largest NH green action since 1970s – Sixty-seven activists were arrested Saturday for trespassing at the Merrimack Station coal-burning power plant, in what organizers said was the largest environmental civil disobedience action since the Clamshell Alliance demonstrations against the Seabrook nuclear plant in the 1970s. The group had been planning the action for weeks, and the arrests were not unexpected. They chose the Bow plant on the Merrimack River because it has two coal-fired steam units, along with two kerosene-powered turbine units. The coal-fired units “serve as seasonal and peak demand resources,” according to the website for Granite Shore Power, which purchased the plant from Eversource in early 2018 as part of the state’s deregulation of the electric market. Those arrested were part of a group of about 300 people from across New England who attended a “No Coal, No Gas” rally held in the ballfield across from the plant. For three hours, folks of all ages sang, chanted and cheered as speakers called for action on climate change – starting with shutting down the nearby power plant. Lilly Tague-Bleau, 15, a sophomore at Manchester Central High School, told the crowd that climate change demands an immediate response. “As sea levels rise and events of extreme weather continue to occur at alarming rates, we are left with no choice but to take action and step in now,” she said. “We must work before this movement becomes nothing but damage control.” “It seems like our leaders only care about the short term, but ‘I’ll be dead when it matters’ does not apply to me and my children,” she said, as the crowd erupted in cheers.
FERC majority would have upheld contested ISO-NE capacity auction results – The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would have upheld contested results of the ISO New England’s most recent forward capacity market auction that went into effect by operation of law, according to a joint statement released Friday by the agency’s Republican majority. The auction, FCA 13, was held February 4 for the June 2022 through May 2023 commitment period, producing the lowest clearing price in six years at $3.80/kW-month. Those results were challenged by Vineyard Wind. An offshore wind developer formed through a joint venture between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners K/S and Avangrid Renewables, Vineyard Wind specifically expressed frustration that it was unable to fully participate in the auction as a renewable energy resource (ER19-1166). FCA 13 was notably the first ISO-NE capacity market auction to run under “competitive auctions with sponsored policy resources,” or CASPR, rules, a new two-step construct to accommodate state-subsidized and state-procured energy resources. CASPR’s secondary substitution auction allows resources interested in retiring to transfer their capacity supply obligations to new state-sponsored resources that did not clear in the primary auction. The construct allowed the Vineyard Offshore Wind Project to successfully secure 54 MW in FCA 13’s substitution auction, prompting consumer advocacy group Public Citizen to assert that FERC and the ISO-NE “botched” the auction. Full participation of the offshore wind project in the capacity auction would have lowered the clearing price paid to all resources by 66.7 cents/kW-month, or more than $270 million, the group argued. In a separate joint protest, a group of generators — ArcLight Capital Holdings affiliate Great River Hydro, NRG Power Marketing subsidiary NRG Power Marketing, Carlyle Group subsidiary Cogentrix Energy Power Management, and Vistra Energy — argued that the offer floor price appeared to be inconsistent with prevailing market conditions. They specifically questioned the grid operator’s internal market monitor’s approval of a unit-specific offer floor for NTE Energy’s planned 647-MW natural gas-fired Killingly Energy Center project in Connecticut.
Judge’s ruling on Jefferson County power plant could cost Ameren – A federal judge’s ruling Monday on pollution at a Jefferson County power plant could cost electric utility Ameren Corp. hundreds of millions of dollars.The 157-page ruling, from Judge Rodney Sippel, ordered Ameren to install so-called “scrubber” technology at its Rush Island Energy Center in Festus to address pollution that he found in 2017 had violated the Clean Air Act.Implementing that technology, called flue-gas desulfurization, could cost $650 million to $960 million, the order said, citing estimates from engineering firms.It also ordered Ameren to install another technology, dry sorbent injection, at its Labadie, Missouri, plant, which could carry capital costs of $55 million and annual operating costs of $53 million. That was ordered to remedy for excess emissions at Rush Island.The case dealt with Ameren’s decision not to seek a Clean Air Act permit for a rebuild of Rush Island, which was completed in phases in 2007 and 2010.Sippel wrote that Ameren should have obtained the permit and that his order would satisfy the purpose of the law, passed in 1970 and amended to deal with modified power plants in 1977. “We are reviewing the court’s lengthy opinion regarding the case,” Ameren Missouri Chairman Michael Moehn said. “As we have indicated previously, we believe the court has misapplied and misinterpreted both Missouri law and recent Supreme Court rulings regarding administrative law.”
Georgia Power questioned on plan to add $200 annually to average bill – Georgia Power’s chief executive testified before state regulators Monday, urging approval of the company’s request to add about $200 a year to the average residential customer’s bills.Paul Bowers’ presence highlighted the $2.2. billion case’s importance for the state’s largest utility: It was the first time in his nine-year tenure as CEO that he faced questions and comments from the public as he testified before the Georgia Public Service Commission.“Our current rates are no longer sufficient to cover the costs of the business,” Bowers said. Still, under questioning from an attorney for the state, Bowers acknowledged that in three of the last five years the company has earned profits above a target band set by the PSC, topping out above 12%.Some members of the public who spoke at the hearing insisted Georgia Power bills would rise too high. And they said it would cover some costs – particularly for the cleanup of potentially toxic ash pits from coal plants – that the company should pick up itself rather than put on its 2.6 million customers.“The rate increase will cripple our community,” Gloria Woods of Atlanta told the PSC’s five elected commissioners. “We ask that you set aside any relationship you might have with Georgia Power and do what is right.”Typical Georgia residential customer bills would rise by $16.48 a month, once the proposed increases are fully phased in over three years, with the first of the hikes requested to take effect in January. And a bigger chunk of each bill would be in the form of higher fixed charges, nearly double the current $10 a month. That would mean consumers would have less ability to keep costs down by using less electricity.
Plant McIntosh continues coal ash cleanup – Georgia Power is moving forward with the planned cleanup of the ash pond at Plant McIntosh in Rincon. The company will begin the process of removing and cleaning up the water from the 24-acre ash pond this month. The mandated cleanup of the coal ash ponds across the state comes as Georgia Power is also seeking to increase rates in part to pay for that clean-up. Georgia Power hired Pittsburgh-based Evoqua Water Technologies to perform the cleanup. Another third-party company is monitoring and reporting water quality data from the site and from an upstream and downstream location on the Savannah River. Reports, including analyses by an independent, accredited lab, will be publicly available on the Georgia Power website. Coal ash is the residue that remains after coal is burned to produce electricity. It contains pollutants including arsenic, lead and mercury that have been linked to cancer, heart disease, reproductive damage and brain damage. The ash has been stored in unlined ponds on site at power plants, but that practice can allow pollutants to leak out over time or be washed out in flooding. Georgia Power is in the process of closing 29 ash ponds at 11 current and former coal-fired power plants across the state. The dewatering process has already begun at five other Georgia Power plants: Bowen, McDonough, McManus, Branch and Yates.The company plans to completely excavate 19 ash ponds with the remaining 10 being closed in place. But a report from the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice released in January showed coal ash pollutants have been detected in groundwater at 11 power plants in Georgia, including Plant McIntosh, where arsenic and lithium were detected at triple the safe level.
Advocates banking on new Illinois coal ash law to protect rivers and wells – Amid federal uncertainty, two of the state’s most notorious coal ash storage sites will likely test new cleanup rules adopted this year.Two months ago, Illinois became the fourth state to pass new regulations on coal ash storage and cleanup, following North Carolina, Michigan and Virginia. Now environmental groups are invoking the law to ensure more stringent cleanup than might happen under federal coal ash rules being rolled back by the Trump administration. The first test cases appear to be two of the state’s most notorious coal ash repositories: the NRG-owned Lincoln Stone Quarry southwest of Chicago and a former Dynegy coal plant along the Vermilion River’s Middle Fork in central Illinois.Lincoln Stone Quarry and the Vermilion site are unlined, as are most of Illinois’ coal ash sites. Under federal rules adopted by the Obama administration, they must begin closure by October 2020, though that deadline could change given the Trump administration’s review. The Vermilion coal plant shut down in 2011, and the Joliet coal plant that long disposed of ash in Lincoln Stone Quarry was converted to natural gas in 2016. Both plants are going through the closure process under the federal coal ash rule, which includes a mandate to publicly post closure plans. The new Illinois law calls for state standards that are at least as strict as federal standards, and it requires a public process including the opportunity for public meetings. The new state statute orders the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to draft specific coal ash rules by March 2020, and, after public input, the Illinois Pollution Control Board must finalize the rules within a year. Environmental advocates and attorneys say that while the specifics of the state rule are still to be determined, the law is already in effect and should be taken into consideration as companies propose their closure plans. “Even though the rulemaking will flesh out a lot of details about how these permitting programs are going to work, we know what the floor of the rules is – that they have to be at least as protective as the federal ones,” said Jenny Cassel, an attorney representing environmental and citizen groups in the Lincoln Stone Quarry proceeding. “We have an option to do better, and the rules will further define what that means.”
NC environmental groups concerned over EPA coal ash proposal – Several opponents of deregulating coal ash with North Carolina ties spoke at a public hearing in Northern Virginia Wednesday, urging the Environmental Protection Agency to reject a proposal that would loosen restrictions on how much coal ash can be used in construction projects and alter how piles of the material could be managed. “Until the government can prove that this coal ash is safe in our water, soil and air, and that it is not responsible for any cancers or illnesses in each of these towns across the country, environmental rollbacks should not even be considered,” said former Mooresville resident Susan Wind, whose teenage daughter was diagnosed with thyroid cancer more than two years ago. “Parents like me should not have the burden of proving coal ash is dangerous.” After her daughter Taylor’s diagnosis, Wind heard from parents across her community who were in similar situations. She said she discovered that coal ash “was treated like dirt throughout our area,” used under roads, homes and even as topsoil in landscaping. Wind raised more than $100,000 to fund a private study by Duke University scientists. Iredell County had cancer rates nearly double the statewide average from 2012 to 2016, and two southeastern and southwestern parts of the county had rates even higher, The Charlotte Observer reported previously. Wind and her family have moved to Florida because of health concerns, her husband Dave Wind said. Under current EPA rules, anyone asking to use of more than 12,400 tons of coal ash as environmental fill has to prove it won’t harm the environment. Under the proposed changes, that cap would be removed entirely in favor of site-specific criteria. Another proposed change would alter how temporary storage piles of ash are managed, requiring those at power plant sites and away from them to be handled the same. “EPA is trying right now to create as many loopholes as they can,” said Larissa Liebmann, a Waterkeeper Alliance staff attorney. “It’s a revision intended to benefit industry, and it comes directly out of industry comments and complaints.”
Avner Vengosh: Duke prof heads to EPA hearing to fight proposal to loosen coal ash restrictions | abc11.com— Nearly six years after a busted drainage pipe at a Duke Energy coal ash containment pond turned the Dan River into an oily sludge, the Trump administration is considering a move to roll back some of the Obama-era rules that ban the disposal of coal ash in soil or pits and landfills that aren’t lined to protect the environment. At his Duke University lab, ABC11 caught up with the geochemistry professor headed to the EPA hearing about the issue scheduled for Wednesday morning. The EPA is considering amending the 2015 Obama-era coal ash rule to remove the safeguards like lined landfills as long as the ash is dumped or spread for a “beneficial use,” like fill. Back in the labs at Duke, Vengosh and his team are running experiment after experiment — suggesting that when coal ash interacts with water — like it will if it’s spread on soil or buried without protective liners — the highly-toxic contaminants easily leach out of the ash, potentially into drinking water or the air. His testimony to the EPA Wednesday about the rule changes: Don’t do it. “Basically, I think that those amendments to their own regulation is a setback to protection of the environment from coal ash.” For Duke Energy’s part, the company said the hearing is a non-issue for them. The company is not attending the EPA hearing and said it did not submit comments.
As EPA preps coal ash rollback, study finds heightened risks of water, soil contamination – With the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) poised to loosen coal ash rules for dry onsite storage and large fill projects, a new study from Duke University finds that leaving those contaminants exposed may significantly heighten the risk of toxic contamination to nearby soil and waterways.The research finds that health-threatening compounds “can be leached out from coal ash under oxidizing conditions, similar to what one would expect from uncontrolled placement of coal ash on soil, or even buried in soil,” Duke Earth and Ocean Sciences Professor and author of the study Avner Vengosh said in testimony to the EPA on Wednesday, during a public hearing on the proposed new rules.Not only do the EPA’s proposed rules heighten the risk of environmental exposure, the current monitoring requirements from the agency do not fully measure the mobility and leachability of coal ash, according to Vengosh, who said more extensive monitoring should be required.The risk of coal ash contaminating waterways has long been a concern for environmental groups, but the preliminary evidence of Vengosh’s study suggests that the dangers associated with fly ash and water are more prominent than previously realized. Mixing the contaminant with water results in elevated levels of hexavalent chromium, a “highly toxic” carcinogen.” Uncontrolled disposal of coal ash to the environment and placement of coal ash on soil without liners or other barriers to water would create new sources of leached contaminants that will infiltrate into the subsurface, contaminating soil and water resources,” Vengosh said in his testimony. EPA’s proposed rule would eliminate monitoring on large coal ash fill projects, except for sites with “geologic vulnerabilities.” Industry has long used the material for “beneficial use,” for example, as a structural fill for retaining walls, highways or to level ground for parking. Under the Obama-era coal combustion residual (CCR) rules, any project larger than 12,400 tons had to meet certain monitoring requirements to ensure the surrounding environment was not impacted by the toxins.
EPA Put on Notice Over Coal Ash Proposal: ‘See You in Court’ – Environmental advocates Oct. 2 claimed that EPA’s coal ash proposals are illegal because companies may be allowed to reuse this material without proper monitoring and public protections. Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans told the Environmental Protection Agency at a public hearing in Arlington, Va., that the coal ash proposals ignore scientific evidence that the byproduct from burning coal in power plants is hazardous waste. She said the proposal allows “unlimited volumes” of toxic ash to be placed in playgrounds as fill material, and near drinking water wells, “with no notice, no monitoring, no liners, no requirements whatsoever – even though coal ash fill projects contaminate groundwater, drinking water, soil, and air.” But Thomas H. Adams, executive director of the American Coal Ash Association, testified that there has been no evidence of environmental damage resulting from power plants stockpiling coal ash for reuse purposes. The hearing focused on the EPA’s proposed changes to the Obama-era-EPA’s 2015 coal ash disposal rule (RIN:2050-AG88), being made in two phases. The proposed changes include less stringent groundwater monitoring requirements, as well as discretion for states and coal-fired utilities to decide when substances leaking from coal ash ponds and landfills have to be cleaned up. They also include a demonstration or test to ensure coal ash that is stored in ponds or landfills without protective coverings could still be used “in an environmentally protective manner,” such as being used in landscaping or playgrounds and as structural fill for road construction. Coal ash pollutes groundwater and soil with toxic chemicals such as arsenic, mercury, hexavalent chromium, lead, and radium, Evans said.
Study: No coal ash in soccer field dirt near Kingston coal-fired plant – There is no coal ash in the top three inches of dirt under children’s feet at soccer fields in the Swan Pond community, a report reveals. The Tennessee Department of Health says testing by the Tennessee Valley Authority and state regulators ruled out the presence of coal ash – a toxic stew of chemicals, heavy metals and radioactive material – in the top three inches of dirt underneath the grass-covered soccer fields at the Swan Pond Sports Complex in Roane County. That same testing revealed the presence in the dirt of most of the ingredients in coal ash, though at levels considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency. The health department report shows the dirt is particularly rich in two coal ash ingredients – arsenic and chromium – but also at levels considered safe by the EPA and typical of soil throughout Tennessee. “All metal and radionuclide levels in the soil were below levels that would be a health hazard,” the health department report stated. “Children recreating at these areas should not have health concerns.”
Coal has always been king in the South. Now that’s changing – Duke Energy Corp. is one of the largest coal burners in America. But the North Carolina-based utility’s coal fleet is running less and less, an E&E News review of federal data shows. In a sign of mounting economic distress, nine of the company’s 13 coal plants ran less than half the year in 2018. Eight of those facilities averaged annual run times of less than 50% between 2014 and 2018. Only two of the company’s coal facilities produced more electricity in 2018 than they did five years earlier. Duke has started to close more coal plants in response. On Monday, the utility filed a plan with North Carolina regulators that moved up the retirement dates of three coal units. That followed a release of its plan with Indiana regulators in June that advanced the closure of seven coal units there. More early retirements could be announced when the company’s second North Carolina subsidiary files its rate case with regulators in the coming weeks. “These unit retirement dates have been adjusted due to sustained, low gas prices making some of the older (and less efficient) units less competitive, especially at sites where we have no plans to add dual fuel or gas co-firing,” Erin Culbert, a Duke spokeswoman, wrote in an email this week. Duke is a central character in a wider story about coal plants in America. Coal facilities generally carry high fixed costs but are able to generate electricity relatively cheaply because they churn out large quantities of electrons around the clock. But as more natural gas and renewable power comes online, coal plants are running less. That undermines their economic viability. Yet utilities are not always quick to close those coal plants down, prompting charges from critics that they are saddling customers with additional costs and pumping millions of tons of additional carbon into the atmosphere. The story is particularly noticeable in the Southeast. A 2017 study by the Department of Energy found that coal retirements in the region lagged behind other parts of the country. But large Southern coal plants are increasingly huffing and puffing to stay alive, an E&E News review of generation data collected by the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows. Power plant run times, often referred to as capacity factors, are a key indicator of economic health, especially for coal plants, which are designed to run around the clock. DOE’s 2017 study found 70% of the plants that shut down between 2010 and 2016 posted a sub-50% capacity factor the year prior to their retirement. Seven of the Southeast’s 10 largest plants ran less than half of the year in 2018. Four of those averaged annual run times of less than 50% between 2014 and 2018. None produced more electricity in 2018 than they did five years earlier. Several of the country’s largest coal plants are flirting with the 50% threshold. Southern Co.’s Scherer and Bowen plants in Georgia are the largest and second-largest plants nationally in terms of capacity. In 2018, they reported capacity factors of 51% and 48%, respectively. The company’s Wansley plant, also in Georgia, posted a measly 18% for the year.
Interior Taps Former Ohio Regulator to Lead Mine Cleanup Program –
- Lanny Erdos, former Ohio mine reclamation boss, named to lead OSMRE
- Erdos, who has not been confirmed by Senate, becomes ‘principal deputy director’
Lanny Erdos, the former head of Ohio’s abandoned mine land program, was given the “functions, duties, and responsibilities” of the federal government’s mine reclamation agency Sept. 30. In taking the job of principal deputy director of the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement, Erdos assumes responsibility for managing the nation’s mine cleanup effort and overseeing state programs. He will also have to weigh in on the many unfolding reclamation disputes arising out of the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming, where several big mines are now changing hands. Erdos has not been confirmed by the Senate.
More closures likely at US met coal mines soon, analyst says – At least one analyst believes that more U.S. metallurgical coal mines are likely to shut down in the coming weeks and months following Murray Energy Corp.’s announcement that it is shutting down its Maple Eagle coal mine West Virginia. Due to soft demand for steelmaking coal around the world, Murray’s decision to temporarily idle its metallurgical coal operation is likely only the beginning of an “accelerated number of mine shut-ins in the U.S.” Seaport Global Securities LLC analyst Mark Levin wrote in a Sept. 30 note. While the sector has been slow to respond as prices dipped in the past, it is reacting with greater urgency to shut down mines that are losing money this time around, the analyst added. “At the end of the day, we think it’s fair to say the market is in tough shape, and it’s not abundantly clear to us why it would get a whole [lot] better any time soon,” Levin wrote. Levin estimated that about 10 million tonnes of U.S. metallurgical coal could be at risk if prices do not meaningfully improve. At least a quarter of that production could come offline in the next 90 to 120 days, with higher-cost and lower-quality supply likely to be the first to go, Levin wrote. “Operators typically eliminate weekend and overtime shifts before idling mines, but we suspect pricing has gotten to the point where tougher decisions will have to be made,” Levin wrote. Levin added that U.S. exports of thermal coal used to generate power are also likely “off a lot” in 2020. Aside from some success from Consol Energy Inc. partnering with coal marketer Xcoal Energy & Resources, very few thermal coal exports have been contracted for 2020, Levin wrote. “Not one industry player with whom we have chatted expects U.S. thermal exports to be down any less than 20% next year,” Levin wrote.
U.S. Coal Giant That Pressed Trump for Bailout Faces Default – Murray Energy Corp., the U.S. coal giant that had pressed the Trump administration for help averting bankruptcy, may be headed toward default. The largest closely held coal miner in America failed to make multiple payments to lenders this week, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Creditors have agreed not to take legal action until Oct. 14, buying Murray some time to figure out how to shore up its balance sheet, the St. Clairsville, Ohio-based firm said. Murray Energy is struggling to stay afloat, along with the rest of America’s coal miners, as cheap natural gas and renewable energy resources cut into coal’s share of the U.S. power market. At least four companies including Cloud Peak Energy Inc. and Blackjewel LLC have gone bankrupt this year, laying bare the decline of a fuel that once accounted for more than half of all U.S. power generation. Today it’s less than 25%. Prices for thermal coal — the kind burned by power plants — have slumped, which may have left Murray short on cash, said Lucas Pipes, a coal analyst with B Riley FBR Inc. “You can’t make payments out of thin air if the money isn’t in the bank,” he said. The company idled some of its mines in West Virginia last month, citing “severely depressed coal markets.” Murray’s potential default comes more than a year after the Trump administration’s efforts to subsidize struggling nuclear and coal-fired power plants — particularly ones that Murray supplies — failed, shot down by President Donald Trump’s own appointed energy regulators. Chief Executive Officer Bob Murray, an early Trump supporter and a big donor to his campaign, was instrumental in setting his energy agenda and has hosted multiple fundraisers for him.
Coal States Urge Trump Administration to Tackle Plant Closures – Bloomberg – Six coal states are pressing the Trump administration to wrap up an almost two-year inquiry into whether coal and nuclear plant retirements are threatening the electric grid. In letters to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which overseas U.S. power markets, utility commissioners from Alabama, Kentucky, Montana, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming warned that plant closures are accelerating and “bringing increased attention to grid resilience and fuel security.” The appeal comes almost two years after the commission rejected a Trump administration bid to bail out money-losing coal plants, dismissing the proposal as unlawful. But the agency left the door open to future action, by opening an inquiry into whether regulatory changes are needed to keep the lights on. More than 200 comments have been filed with the commission since then, and more than a dozen coal-fired power plants have been decommissioned. Now the states hardest hit by coal’s decline are asking the energy commission to finalize its review of the electric grid and, again, consider imposing market rules that could curb the closure of fossil-fuel generation. They may find a sympathetic ear in commission Chairman Neil Chatterjee, a Kentucky Republican and a longstanding champion of the coal industry who has faced criticism for pushing an ill-fated proposal to curb coal retirements by paying generators for having fuel on-site. Chatterjee has since said that the independent agency can’t put its thumb on the scale to favor any one source. Chatterjee said he would address the issue of grid resilience this fall and, on Oct. 21, will co-host a University of Kentucky energy forum in the heart of coal country. Speakers include Bob Murray, the chief executive officer of coal producer Murray Energy Corp., who has repeatedly called on the Trump administration to take steps to revive the domestic coal industry. The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, which represents coal producers, said it was time for the agency to take action to “help address concerns over grid resilience as a result of the continued retirement of fuel-secure coal units across the country.”
Rick Perry Stepping Down From Energy Department – Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who has aggressively championed fossil fuels and expressed skepticism that the climate crisis is man-made, will step down from his post by the end of the year, The New York Times reported. Perry is one of the few people in the Trump administration to remain despite unprecedented turnover, Twitter-storms and scandals. He has been a steadfast ally of the fossil fuel industry and appears to have avoided the president’s ire. However, his ability to steer clear of scandal may have come to an end in the wake of the recent revelations of Trump’s attempt to strong-arm the Ukrainian president into digging into Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. That inquiry has called into question Perry’s trip to Ukraine President’s Volodymyr Zelensky’s inauguration in May where he promoted Ukraine’s oil and natural gas exports, according to The New York Times. However,POLITICO reported that two people familiar with Perry’s plans said he had been planning to leave for several months, well before the recent scandal surfaced. So far, no evidence has emerged that Perry pressured Zelensky to investigate the Biden family, according toThe Washington Post. The Department of Energy would not confirm that Perry is planning to depart. “While the Beltway media has breathlessly reported on rumors of Secretary Perry’s departure for months, he is still the Secretary of Energy and a proud member of President Trump’s Cabinet,” Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes told CNN. “One day the media will be right. Today is not that day.” Perry’s time at the Department of Energy is notable for his resistance to renewable energy. He has fiercely promoted oil and gas exploration and touted coal and nuclear energy as the future of America’s energy sector, even though he has tried and failed to prop up coal-fired and nuclear power plants. Meanwhile, he has also approved plans to reduce funding for wind, solar and other renewable energy sources, according to The New York Times.
House Bill 6 ads: Are the Chinese taking over Ohio’s energy grid? No, say the people who run the grid – You’ve heard it on the radio and while watching TV and seen it on hard-to-miss fliers in your mailbox: China and other foreign entities have invaded our energy grid. The claim is at the center of the campaign to block a repeal of House Bill 6, an energy bill passed in July that provides $150 million a year in ratepayer subsidies for two Ohio nuclear power plants. The latest ad, released last week, claims “foreign entities have infiltrated our energy grid.” Have they? The people who run the grid say no. The grid refers to the production, transmission and distribution of power. Ohio gets its electricity from a 13-state regional transmission organization called PJM Interconnection, which is part of a larger Eastern Interconnection grid. PJM is the nation’s largest power grid, supplying power for 65 million customers. Susan Buehler, PJM’s chief communications officer, was adamant about the security of the grid. “We work very closely with our utility partners, our government agencies and entities, and are extremely vigilant about the safety and security of the grid,” Buehler said. Buehler said PJM does not finance power plants nor monitor how they are funded and has not taken a position on House Bill 6.
Attorney general launches ‘petition blocker’ investigation – Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on Monday said his office is gathering evidence into possible election fraud tied to physically aggressive “petition blockers” hired by supporters of Ohio’s nuclear bailout law.“My job as attorney general is to call balls and strikes like I see them, and this one is a wild pitch,” he said. “It’s time to knock it out.” In a letter to U.S. attorneys, the Republican attorney general said potential charges could be filed against someone found to have threatened or intimidated someone into not signing a petition to put House Bill 6 on the November, 2020, ballot. He said the investigation could overlap into federal jurisdiction. The bailout law, set to take effect Oct. 22, requires consumers to pay surcharges on their monthly electric bills – ranging from 85 cents for residential customers to $2,400 for big industrial factories – beginning in 2021 to fuel a $170 million-a-year fund, with the vast majority of that money going to rescue Ohio’s two nuclear power plants. Before the law’s passage, FirstEnergy Solutions had said it would begin decommissioning its Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Oak Harbor by May 31, 2020, and its Perry plant east of Cleveland a year later. The plants have been unable to compete in this age of cheap and abundant natural gas.Now a group opposed to the bailout is collecting signatures in an effort to subject the law to a voter referendum in November, 2020. The petition drive has drawn fiery TV ads from Ohioans for Energy Security that have painted a picture of a Chinese takeover of America’s energy grid and suggested that signing the petitions would hand personal information to the Chinese government. The position of Ohioans for Energy Security has been closely aligned with bankrupt FirstEnergy Solutions, its investors, and the nuclear plants, while the position of the law’s opponents is closely aligned with the competing natural gas industry..Since that ad began airing, people circulating the petitions have reported being harassed while they’re in the field by professional petition trackers. “I have read with great interest recent media and online reports of petition circulators being targeted, harassed and intimidated by individuals opposed to the referendum effort,” Mr. Yost wrote. “This activity must stop and I intend to use this Office’s resources to protect the integrity of the process.”
AG to investigate HB6 circulators – Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is investigating new allegations that people circulating petitions for a statewide referendum on a controversial energy bill are being offered cash to quit the campaign and to sell signed petitions to the opposing side. It’s the latest chapter in a costly, contentious fight over House Bill 6, which was signed into law in July. It mandates Ohio’s 4.8 million utility customers pay monthly fees to bailout aging nuclear power plants owned by Akron-based FirstEnergy Solutions and two coal-fired plants owned by the Ohio Valley Electricity Corp. The bailouts add up to more than $1 billion. Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts, which faces an Oct. 21 deadline to collect 265,744 valid voter signatures, alleges that opponents of their campaign have offered their circulators as much as $10,000 to quit and one of their petition circulating vendors was offered $100,000 to pull out.On Saturday, opponents of the referendum went door to door at a Columbus hotel where petition circulators were staying and offered to buy petitions that had already been signed, according to Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts.Buying or selling a petition is a fifth degree felony, under state law.Opponents of the referendum said their employees aren’t engaged in such activity.Generation Now, a dark money group backing House Bill 6, hired FieldWorks to discourage voters from signing the pro-referendum petition.Another dark money group, Ohioans for Energy Security, is running more than $3-million in TV ads alleging the Chinese are behind the referendum effort and paying people to circulate an alternative petition that opposes ‘foreign ownership of our electric grid.’
Editorial: Can US still build complex projects? 2 SC nuclear failures demand changes – Editorial – Is the United States losing its managerial and technical ability to build big, complex projects? Both the scuttled mixed-oxide fuel plant at the Savannah River Site near Aiken and the abandoned V.C. Summer nuclear reactors beg the question. The failed projects, both of which sucked billions of dollars into a black hole, should prompt some deep soul searching within the Department of Energy, as well as among leading engineering and construction firms in the private sector. After all, the French have been reprocessing spent reactor fuel since 1976 and, over the past decade, the Chinese have successfully completed four Westinghouse AP1000 reactors like the two for the failed V.C. Summer expansion. Politics no doubt played a big role in dooming MOX, but so did poor planning and lax oversight. Because what good is our scientific know-how if we can’t build what we conceive? MOX represented the first big U.S. nuclear project in decades, yet apparently no one sufficiently questioned the government’s ability to manage and complete such an ambitious project, despite the fact that nuclear physicists knew that processing weapons-grade plutonium into reactor fuel would be far more complicated and dangerous than reprocessing spent reactor fuel, as is done in France. But once the money started flowing and stockpiles of plutonium started arriving at SRS from around the world, the DOE began fielding a flurry of complaints from contractors about their inability to find and retain workers with exacting fabrication and construction skills, mistakes made in material purchases and an endless stream of uncoordinated design changes. Anne Harrington, put in charge of overseeing MOX for the National Nuclear Security Administration in 2010, summed it up this way: “The decision-makers at the time naively thought that U.S. capacity was sufficient to handle this kind of large nuclear project,” Harrington said. “This program helped bring back lost skills, but it brought them back at a huge cost.” The ultimate responsibility – and blame – for the failed project lies mainly with the DOE, which now must figure out a way to keep its promise to South Carolinians and move some 12 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium out of the state. That’s a big challenge in light of the United States still having no comprehensive policy for reusing or disposing of fissionable material. The Trump administration, however, is pushing the idea of reprocessing part of the plutonium into bomb cores, with the work split between SRS and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Federal Ruling Due In January On Management Of Seabrook Nuclear Plant’s Concrete – Watchdog groups and neighbors of the Seabrook nuclear power plant had what they called their day in court last week. A federal administrative hearing with a panel of judges wrapped up Friday. It focused on whether Seabrook owner NextEra has adequately studied the degrading concrete at the plant. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved NextEra’s concrete monitoring plan based on that study and relicensed the plant earlier this year. Seabrook is the only nuclear plant in the country known to be experiencing the chemical reaction that causes concrete to develop hairline cracks. “There aren’t really the right protocols to figure out, for the NRC, guiding them to how to deal with this,” says Natalie Treat, executive director of the nonprofit, C-10. She spoke on NHPR’s The Exchange Monday. Treat’s group brought the complaint that resulted in last week’s hearing. Their star witness was a national third-party expert on the type of concrete degradation Seabrook is experiencing. During the hearing, the judges of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board’s law panel questioned C-10, NextEra and the NRC on their views of the concrete issue and how it has been studied and is being overseen. The panel also took public comment at the start of the proceeding, which took place in Newburyport, Mass. In a statement as the hearing wrapped up, Seabrook spokeswoman Lindsay Robertson said NextEra welcomed this latest chance for “public dialogue.” She says their concrete monitoring program is effective and approved by regulators. Seabrook is one of two nuclear plants and three reactors still operating in New England. The region’s other nuclear facility is Millstone in Connecticut. Together, they supply about a third of the region’s electricity.
India-Pakistan Nuclear War Could Kill 100 Million And Trigger Global Cooling – Every geopolitical analyst is currently observing and studying the developments that are occurring along the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan. Any major flare-up in flighting between both countries could ignite a nuclear war that would kill hundreds of millions and trigger global cooling. The scenario for nuclear armageddon between India and Pakistan was highlighted in a report by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com titled Pakistani Kashmir Chief: Standoff With India May Spark Nuclear Armageddon. Now, a new report in Science Advances, titled Rapidly expanding nuclear arsenals in Pakistan and India portend regional and global catastrophe, has modeled what a nuclear war could look like between both countries. “Pakistan and India may have 400 to 500 nuclear weapons by 2025 with yields from tested 12- to 45-kt values to a few hundred kilotons. If India uses 100 strategic weapons to attack urban centers and Pakistan uses 150, fatalities could reach 50 to 125 million people, and nuclear-ignited fires could release 16 to 36 Tg of black carbon in smoke, depending on yield,” the study said. Alan Robock, a professor in environmental sciences at Rutgers University who co-authored the paper, said more than 100 million deaths on both sides of the LoC could be seen, followed by global mass starvation and global cooling. “The smoke will rise into the upper troposphere, be self-lofted into the stratosphere, and spread globally within weeks. Surface sunlight will decline by 20 to 35%, cooling the global surface by 2° to 5°C and reducing precipitation by 15 to 30%, with larger regional impacts. Recovery takes more than 10 years. Net primary productivity declines 15 to 30% on land and 5 to 15% in oceans threatening mass starvation and additional worldwide collateral fatalities,” the study continued. Some of the most dangerous hot flashes in decades between India and Pakistan have been seen this year. We’ve documented several instances earlier this year, where both countries were on the brink of a major conflict. The first was in February when Pakistan shot down Indian fighter jets. There have been other examples of flare-ups this summer. One example was when India decided to cluster bomb Pakistan several months ago.
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