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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Note: Because of the high volume of news regarding the coronavirus outbreak, that news has been published separately:
- 05 Jul 2020 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 04July 2020
05 Jul 2020 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 04July 2020
It appears we’ve lost the handle on this thing…new cases have nearly tripled since the second week of June…even states like Ohio that were doing well are seeing a surge… and in the worst states, almost a quarter of those tested are positive…air conditioning might be contributing to its spread…it’s gonna be a long, difficult summer.
Patients may be exposed to hormone-disrupting chemicals in medication, medical supplies – – Health care providers may unintentionally expose patients to endocrine- disrupting chemicals (EDCs) by prescribing certain medications and using medical supplies, according to a perspective published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Exposure to EDCs, chemicals that disrupt the body’s natural hormones, is most often associated with industrial pollution, contaminated food and water, or personal and home care products. Less appreciated is the fact that some medications and medical devices also contain these harmful chemicals. This includes both prescribed and over-the-counter medications as well as medical equipment used in the hospital, including among the most vulnerable patients in the neonatal intensive care unit. Unfortunately, most healthcare providers are unaware of these risks, and patients are unaware of their exposure. “Through the prescribing of medications and the use of medical supplies, health care providers expose patients to chemicals that can disrupt the body’s natural hormones,” said the study’s lead author, Robert Michael Sargis, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at Chicago in Chicago, Ill. “In order to provide ethically sound medical care, the health care community must be made aware of these risks, manufacturers must strive to identify and eliminate endocrine-disrupting chemicals from their products, and patients must be empowered with knowledge and options to make informed decisions that limit their exposure to potentially harmful chemicals. As clinicians, we have an ethical imperative to act on this issue to protect our patients.”
Parasite Outbreak in Bagged Salads Sickens More Than 200 in Eight States – A Cyclospora outbreak linked to bagged lettuce has sickened 206 people in eight Midwestern states and sent 23 to the hospital, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday. No one has died.The outbreak has led to several recalls of salads made at a Fresh Express production facility in Streamwood, Illinois that were sold at major retailers Walmart, Hy-Vee, Aldi and Jewel-Osco, USA TODAY reported.”[O]bviously there was some breakdown in the quality chain,” Rutgers University food microbiologist Donald W. Schaffner told The New York Times. He said the size and spread of the outbreak suggested “some rather significant sanitary breakdown in the production of this food.” The parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis causes an infection called cyclosporiasis when humans eat or drink contaminated food or water, according to the CDC. The main symptom is watery diarrhea, but it can also cause stomach cramping, appetite loss and fatigue. It can last from a few days to longer than a month and is typically treated with antibiotics. The first major foodborne cyclosporiasis outbreak was in the mid-1990s, Schaffner told The New York Times, and no one knows exactly what caused it. The current outbreak marks the third year in a row that there has been an outbreak of the illness during the warmer months.
Flu Virus With ‘Pandemic Potential’ Found in China – BBC — A new strain of flu that has the potential to become a pandemic has been identified in China by scientists. It emerged recently and is carried by pigs, but can infect humans, they say. The researchers are concerned that it could mutate further so that it can spread easily from person to person, and trigger a global outbreak. While it is not an immediate problem, they say, it has “all the hallmarks” of being highly adapted to infect humans and needs close monitoring. As it’s new, people could have little or no immunity to the virus. The scientists write in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that measures to control the virus in pigs, and the close monitoring of swine industry workers, should be swiftly implemented. A bad new strain of influenza is among the top disease threats that experts are watching for, even as the world attempts to bring to an end the current coronavirus pandemic. The last pandemic flu the world encountered – the swine flu outbreak of 2009 – was less deadly than initially feared, largely because many older people had some immunity to it, probably because of its similarity to other flu viruses that had circulated years before. That virus, called A/H1N1pdm09, is now covered by the annual flu vaccine to make sure people are protected.
Chinese researchers: New swine flu has potential to become pandemic – Researchers in China have discovered a new genetic descendant of the H1N1 swine flu virus that they say has the potential to cause a future pandemic. A survey of pig processing facilities in the country’s Hebei and Shandong provinces found around 10 percent of pig farm workers have been infected by the disease between 2016 and 2018, while the infection rate among the general population in those areas for that time period is thought to be about 4.4 percent, according to a report from CNN. Experts do not yet believe the virus is transmittable from person to person and say the only hard evidence so far points to the virus being spread from pigs to humans. Symptoms of the virus are reportedly similar to that of the regular influenza virus, which causes fevers, a cough and other common ailments. The H1N1 outbreak, which began in 2009, infected millions of people in the U.S. by the time it ended in 2010. The virus is estimated to have killed between 150,000 and almost 500,000 people worldwide during the first year the virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “This is not a *new* new virus; it’s been very common in pigs since 2016,” tweeted Carl Bergstrom, a biologist with the University of Washington. “There’s no evidence that G4 is circulating in humans, despite five years of extensive exposure. That’s the key context to keep in mind.”6
A Swine Flu in China Is Spreading to Humans With ‘Pandemic Potential,’ Scientists Warn – Scientists in China have identified a strain of H1N1 that is rapidly spreading amongst workers in the country’s pig farms. They warn that the fast spreading strain of swine flu has pandemic potential, if it is not contained quickly, according to The New York Times. An outbreak of H1N1 caused widespread fear in 2009 when it killed 285,000 people around the world. The new strain is a derivative of H1N1, according to the scientists who published a paper on it on Monday in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).The disease, which researchers called the G4 virus, now shows “all the essential hallmarks of a candidate pandemic virus,” said the study, as CNN reported.The researchers say that the disease is not yet an immediate problem, but they noted that pig farm workers also showed elevated levels of the virus in their blood, and that “close monitoring in human populations, especially the workers in the swine industry, should be urgently implemented,” as Reuters reported.Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University’s public health school, urged the public to remain calm and not “freak out,” according to CNN. “Our understanding of what is a potential pandemic influenza strain is limited,” she posted on Twitter. “Sure, this virus meets a lot of the basic criteria but it’s not for sure going to cause a hypothetical 2020 flu pandemic, or even be a dominant strain in humans.” Chinese researchers based at several institutions, including Shandong Agricultural University and the Chinese National Influenza Center, discovered the G4 virus during a pig surveillance program, according to CNN. Over a seven-year span, from 2011 to 2018, the researchers took more than 30,000 nasal swab samples from pigs in slaughterhouses and veterinary teaching hospitals across 10 Chinese provinces. Those samples revealed 179 swine influenza viruses, but only a fraction of them posed any concern to the researchers, as several only showed up in a single year while others declined to non-threatening levels. The strain in question though, G4 EA H1N1, has been common on China’s pig farms since 2016 and replicates efficiently in human airways, according to the study. So far, it has infected some people without causing disease, but health experts worry that means the virus is lurking and mutating into something different and a sudden change can happen without warning, according to The New York Times. Recent evidence “indicates that G4 EA H1N1 virus is a growing problem in pig farms, and the widespread circulation of G4 viruses in pigs inevitably increases their exposure to humans,” the study said. In the last three years of the study, researchers collected blood samples from workers on various pig farms and from people in nearby households. The study found that 10.4 percent of the workers and 4.4 percent of the others tested positive for G4 EA H1N1, and that 20.5 percent of workers between the ages of 18 and 35 tested positive for the virus, as The New York Times reported.
U.S. withdrawal from WHO threatens to leave it ‘flying blind’ on flu vaccines – Twice a year, influenza experts from 10 institutions around the world meet at the World Health Organization’s Geneva headquarters to pore over mounds of data. At the end of the weeklong meetings, they make decisions that affect people around the world: namely, which variants of the flu virus should be used for vaccinations the following season. While the selections don’t always hit the mark – influenza is notoriously hard to predict – it’s the best process health officials have to keep flu vaccines up to date and try to protect people from the annual scourge. Now, with the pending withdrawal of the United States from the WHO, the future of the process – or at least America’s involvement in it – is in question. President Trump has criticized the global health agency’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, and other earlier health crises; he has cited that as his rationale for withdrawing from the WHO, which was established more than 60 years ago. Currently, the flu strain selection group includes three seats for institutions from the United States, which uses more flu vaccine than any other country in the world. It’s unclear how the U.S. officials might try to preserve its role in the process, or whether it could. Without access to the intelligence coming from other institutions at the table, the U.S. would be “flying blind,” said Nancy Cox, who retired from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control in 2014 after leading the agency’s influenza division for 22 years. For one thing, new flu variants don’t typically emerge in the Americas; they often are first spotted in Asia. For another, countries that are reluctant to share viruses on a bilateral basis – because of fears others will profit from them – will often only share viruses with the WHO. The risk to the U.S. wouldn’t simply relate to season flu vaccine. Participants at the meetings share important intelligence on animal flu viruses – avian and swine influenza – that could pose pandemic threats. (Viruses that jump from animals to humans are called zoonoses.) “You won’t know what’s coming. You won’t be aware of what’s going on with respect to zoonotic flu cases,” said Cox. “It would be a really difficult position to be in at CDC as head of the influenza division and not have access to the information to be able to keep people within the U.S. informed about the global threats that exist out there.”
How COVID-19 Creates Food Waste Mountains That Threaten the Environment – Gluts of food left to rot as a consequence of coronavirus aren’t just wasteful – they’re also likely to damage the environment. Mountains of produce, including eggs, milk and onions, are going to waste as the COVID-19 pandemic shutters restaurants, restricts transport, limits what workers are able to do and disrupts supply chains. And as that food decays, it releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Fresh milk and eggs have been dumped, and some ripe crops reploughed back into fields, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. While consumer demand for some supermarket items has risen as a result of lockdowns, it’s unlikely to offset steep declines elsewhere, such in restaurants and school and workplace canteens. Not only is this a tragic waste of food at a time when many are going hungry, it is also an environmental hazard and could contribute to global warming. Landfill gas – roughly half methane and half carbon dioxide (CO2) – is a natural byproduct of the decomposition of organic material. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, 28 to 36 times more effective than CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere over a 100-year period, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Many export-oriented producers produce volumes far too large for output to be absorbed in local markets, and thus organic waste levels have mounted substantially,” says Robert Hamwey, Economic Affairs Officer at UN agency UNCTAD. “Because this waste is left to decay, levels of methane emissions, a greenhouse gas, from decaying produce are expected to rise sharply in the crisis and immediate post-crisis months.” Since the pandemic took hold, farmers are dumping 14 million liters of milk each day because of disrupted supply routes, estimates Dairy Farmers of America. A chicken processor was forced to destroy 750,000 unhatched eggs a week, according to the New York Times, which also cited an onion farmer letting most of his harvest decompose because he couldn’t distribute or store them.
Fueled by High Temperatures and Ample Land, Locusts Swarm Italy – Swarms of locusts have stripped thousands of hectares of pasture and cropland in Sardinia, devastating farmers already struggling from the coronavirus pandemic, farming groups said. Their numbers fueled by rising temperatures, the pests have damaged nearly 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of grazing land in the central province of Nuoro, said Michele Arbau, of the Sardinia branch of Italian agricultural association Coldiretti. “Farmers have lost the summer pasture and partly the fodder for autumn and winter … and the very few people who grew barley had to give that up too,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. During the summer months, locusts are a common phenomenon on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia – known for its idyllic beaches and exclusive resorts – but this year’s outbreak has been much larger than normal. Last year, the pests destroyed about 2,500 hectares in what was then described as the worst outbreak since the end of World War Two. More extreme weather driven by climate change can affect the development and spread of insect infestations, including locusts, according to Ignazio Floris, a professor of entomology at the University of Sassari in northwest Sardinia. Rising temperatures can cause longer dry periods, leading soils to become arid and unplanted, which creates ideal conditions for insects that like laying their eggs in dry, untilled soil, he said. More frequent extreme weather swings – including drought in 2017, too much rain in 2018 and both extremes last year in Sardinia – also seem to be spurring bigger locust invasions, said Coldiretti’s Arbau. More idle farmland on the island also is a factor, with more farmers leaving land unplanted because they can no longer sell their harvest at a profit, Arbau said. The locust invasion adds to Italy’s woes.
Climate change threat to tropical plants – Tropical plants closer to the equator are most at risk from climate change because it is expected to become too hot for many species to germinate in the next 50 years, UNSW researchers have found. Their study analyzed almost 10,000 records for more than 1,300 species from the Kew Gardens’ global seed germination database. The research, published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography recently, was the first to look at the big picture impact of climate change on such a large number of plant species worldwide. Lead author Alex Sentinella, UNSW Ph.D. researcher, said past research had found that animal species closer to the equator would be more at risk from climate change. “The thought was that because tropical species come from a stable climate where it’s always warm, they can only cope with a narrow range of temperatures-whereas species from higher latitudes can cope with a larger range of temperatures because they come from places where the weather varies widely,” Mr. Sentinella said. The researchers examined seed germination data from the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership Data Warehouse, hosted by Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in London, to quantify global patterns in germination temperature. They analyzed 9,737 records for 1,312 plant species from every continent except Antarctica and excluded agricultural crops. Mr. Sentinella said they chose seed data because it was widely available and relevant to the ability of a species to cope with different temperatures. The study discovered tropical plants do not have narrower temperature tolerances but were more at risk from global warming, because it would bring them close to their maximum seed germination temperatures. “The figures are quite shocking because by 2070, more than 20 percent of tropical plant species, we predict, will face temperatures above their upper limit, which means they won’t germinate, and so can’t survive.”
Rising water temperatures could endanger the mating of many fish species – Because fish that are ready to mate and their young are especially sensitive to changes in temperature, in the future up to 60 percent of all species may be forced to leave their traditional spawning areasIn a new meta-study, experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) have published ground-breaking findings on the effects of climate change for fish stock around the globe. As they report, the risks for fish are much higher than previously assumed, especially given the fact that in certain developmental stages they are especially sensitive to rising water temperatures. One critical bottleneck in the lifecycle of fish is their low tolerance for heat during mating. In other words, the water temperature in their spawning areas determines to a great extent how successfully they reproduce, making fish particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change – not only in the ocean, but also in lakes, ponds and rivers. According to the researchers’ analyses, if left unchecked, climate change and rising water temperatures will negatively affect the reproduction of up to 60 percent of all fish species. Their study was released today in the latest issue of the journal Science.
Ocean Warming Dooms Most Fish, Study Says – The oceans could look much emptier by 2100, according to a new study that found that most fish species would not be able to survive in their current habitat if average global temperatures rise 4.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, as The Guardian reported.The researchers of the new paper said that 60 percent of fish species face a grave threat from global heating if temperatures approach that worst-case scenario level. The species under threat include many common fish found in grocery stores, including staples like Atlantic cod, Alaska pollock and sockeye salmon, and sport fishing favorites like swordfish, barracuda and brown trout, as CNN reported.The new study, published in the journal Science, looked at how nearly 700 fresh and saltwater fish species respond to warming ocean temperatures. The problem for most fish is that as ocean temperatures rise, the oxygen level goes down, which makes it extremely challenging for embryos to survive. “A 1.5C increase is already a challenge to some, and if we let global warming persist, it can get much worse,” said Hans-Otto Portner, a co-author on the paper and a climatologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, as The Guardian reported. That 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold would result in 10 percent of marine species suffering over the next 80 years, including the aforementioned grocery staples.However, even a 10 percent decline in fish species has a large ripple effect on ecosystems as one species being pushed out effects the food supply and the habits of many other species that have evolved to be interdependent.Since we are already 1 degree warmer than the pre-industrial level and emissions are starting to rise around the world as countries reopen, it seems highly unlikely that the world will not blow past that lowest benchmark. In fact, we are currently on pace for a 3 degree increase over the pre-industrial level, as The Guardian noted. “More than half of the species potentially at risk is quite astonishing, so we really emphasize that it’s important to take action and follow the political commitments to reduce climate change and protect marine habitats,” said Dr. Flemming Dahlke, a marine biologist at Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute and one of the authors of the study, as CNN reported.
Dead fish are popping up all along the Hudson River – Dead fish are turning up in large numbers all along the Hudson River from Manhattan to Yonkers, according to environmental organization Riverkeeper. The group said finned fatalities are being reported from New York Harbor all the way north to Haverstraw Bay – and suffocation caused by climate change is the likely cause of death. The unrelenting hot summer temperatures can overheat water, which decreases available oxygen for aquatic life to the point that fish can suffocate, Riverkeeper explained. “The widespread deaths of Atlantic menhaden, and possibly other species, are most likely the result of prolonged heat and lack of rain, combined with other factors, which reduce levels of dissolved oxygen that the fish need to survive,” the group said. Riverkeeper added that the general fragility of local waterways is also contributing to the phenomenon. Meanwhile, the gradual loss of oyster beds and reefs in local waterways has led to an overgrowth of algae. “The destruction and loss of these beds killed off these filter feeders,” Riverkeeper said. “So the river starts from a compromised position, with over-nutrification from sewage and fertilizer. “Later this summer, when we get a series of rainstorms or cloudy days, we’ll see lower water temperatures and less algae growth, and we’re likely to see a reduction of fish mortality as oxygen returns to adequate levels.” “But we should consider this yet another warning that we need to restore the baseline health of the Hudson and New York Harbor in the face of climate change and ever-increasing global water temperatures,” the group added.
Hawaii’s Invasive Predator Catastrophe –It takes a lot of effort and more than a little bit of luck for researchers like Andre Raine to get to the remote mountaintops of Kauai, where they’re working to save endangered Hawaiian seabirds from extinction.”Hawaii’s bird species grew up without mammalian predators, so they’re ill-adapted to the teeth and claws that arrived with human society. The cats descended from housecats, while pigs escape from agricultural sites and rats descended from stowaways on ships. That’s why the Kaua’i Endangered Seabird Recovery Project has spent the past nine years constructing fences and establishing other predator controls – work that is proving essential in giving these native birds a chance.According to a paper Raine and his colleagues published earlier this year in The Journal of Wildlife Management, introduced predators killed at least 309 endangered seabirds at six monitored breeding colonies between 2011 and 2017. That’s quite a blow for each of these endangered species.”Newell’s shearwaters and Hawaiian petrels have suffered catastrophic declines over the last few decades,” Raine said. “Any chick that’s lost in the population is one that we can’t afford to lose.” The researchers took on the sad task of collecting the dead and examining the wound patterns to determine which type of predator made the kill. Rats, it turned out, killed the most – more than 50% of mortalities – usually from entering the birds’ rocky burrows and eating eggs and chicks. That dramatically slows recovery efforts, but the research shows that adult birds who’ve lost their chicks returned to the same burrows the following year to try again.Pigs kill fewer birds – about 10% of all tracked mortalities – but they were the most destructive, digging up and taking out entire nests. “It’s literally like someone’s taken a hand grenade and stuffed it down the burrow and blown it up,” Raine said. “They just eat whatever’s inside.” Cats were responsible for another 35% of known deaths, and Raine says the research shows those mortalities were the worst for the long-term health of the bird species. Cats target breeding birds, taking out not just the current generation but any hope of successive generations. The seabirds are very faithful to both their burrow sites and their mates, so if a cat takes out one parent the other might not breed again for several years, if at all.
In ‘Conservation Disaster,’ Hundreds of Botswana’s Elephants Are Dying From Mysterious Cause – More than 350 elephants have died in Botswana since May, and no one knows why.Poaching has been ruled out, because no tusks have been removed from the elephants’ bodies, but it is possible the animals are dying of a disease that could spread to the human population.”Yes, it is a conservation disaster – but it also has the potential to be a public health crisis,” National Park Rescue Director of Conservation Dr. Niall McCann told BBC News.A catastrophic die-off of elephants is happing in northern Botswana, and no one knows why. It’s vital that a team o … https://t.co/G4VlI5hZJA Botswana’s tourism ministry first said that it was investigating the deaths in mid-May, when 12 dead elephants were found over two weekends in the country’s Okavango Delta, Phys.org reported at the time. By the end of May, 169 elephants had died, and that number had more than doubled by mid-June, The Guardian reported. This is totally unprecedented in terms of numbers of elephants dying in a single event unrelated to drought,” McCann told BBC News. But despite the scale of the deaths, the government has not yet completed testing of the animals to determine the cause, earning the criticism of conservation groups. “There is real concern regarding the delay in getting the samples to an accredited laboratory for testing in order to identify the problem – and then take measures to mitigate it,” Environmental Investigation AgencyExecutive Director Mary Rice told The Guardian. “The lack of urgency is of real concern and does not reflect the actions of a responsible custodian. There have been repeated offers of help from private stakeholders to facilitate urgent testing which appear to have fallen on deaf ears … and the increasing numbers are, frankly, shocking.” The government, meanwhile, attributed the delay to the coronavirus pandemic. “The Covid-19 restrictions have not helped in the transportation of samples in the region and around the world. We’re now beginning to emerge from that and that is why we are now in a position to send the samples to other laboratories.” Local reports indicate that animals of all ages and sexes are dying, with some spotted wandering in circles, a sign of neurological damage. The cause is likely a poison or disease, but experts are not sure which. McCann told BBC News he had tentatively ruled out anthrax as the cause of the most recent deaths. Cyanide poisoning used by poachers is another possibility, but scavengers are not dying after eating the carcasses, The Guardian pointed out. “It is only elephants that are dying and nothing else,” McCann told BBC News. “If it was cyanide used by poachers, you would expect to see other deaths.”
Nerve agent fear as hundreds of elephants perish mysteriously in Botswana – The mysterious death of hundreds of elephants in Botswana has left experts alarmed that there could be a dangerous neurotoxin spreading through one of Africa’s largest conservationist areas. Around 400 African elephants have died since April in the Okavango Delta, a wetland area in the northwest of the country often referred to as ‘Africa’s Last Eden.’ Powerful poaching syndicates from Zambia and South Africa regularly cross into Botswana to shoot the animals with high-calibre rifles before hacking their tusks off with axes. But these deaths are different. Pictures show dozens of rotting calves and fully grown adult elephants studding grasslands and waterholes. Their tusks, which can be worth tens of thousands of pounds, have been left untouched. “The elephants have no visible wounds. Before they die, we’ve seen them wander around confused, emaciated and in distress. Their legs often don’t work properly or are paralysed,” Dr Niall McCann, Director of conservation for National Park Rescue, a UK-based charity. “They often die so quickly that they fall onto their chest and front legs, like they had been shot in the brain by a hunter.””The fact that some living elephants were seen to be losing their motor functions seems to indicate that this toxin, whatever it is, is affecting their nervous system,” Dr McCann added. “The fact that there is a currently-unidentified nerve agent in an area so close to human habitation is very concerning, particularly at a time when the transfer of disease from animals to people is on everyone’s mind.”
Koalas Face Extinction in Next 30 Years Without Urgent Intervention, Report Warns – Koala populations across parts of Australia are on track to become extinct before 2050 unless “urgent government intervention” occurs, warns a year-long inquiry into Australia’s “most loved animal.” The report published by the Parliament of New South Wales (NSW) paints a “stark and depressing snapshot” of koalas in Australia’s southeastern state. “Even before the devastating 2019-2020 bushfires, it was clear that the koala in NSW, already a threatened species, was in significant trouble,” says the report, adding that previous population estimates counting 36,000 individuals were “outdated and unreliable.” “Then came the fires. With at least 5,000 koalas lost in the fires, potentially many more, it was deeply distressing but extremely important for committee members to agree to the finding that koalas will become extinct in NSW before 2050 without urgent government intervention.” At least 5,000 animals were lost in the 2019 bushfires responsible for killing more than 1 billion animals. Conservation groups warned of the possible extinction in March after projections that the wildfires resulted in the loss of 80 percent of habitat, forcing the charismatic marsupials into “functional extinction.” Endemic only to the eucalyptus forests in the southeastern and eastern parts of the continent, koalas rely on the trees for both habitat and food, according to National Geographic. They are threatened by the destruction of habitat through the clearing and fragmentation of their unique habitat, which is further exacerbated byclimate change and ongoing drought conditions that have plagued the region for years. Philip Spark, a wildlife ecologist, warned in the report that successive extreme events in the past had reduced one koala population by as much as half and pushed another to local extinction. “With the trees dying and the streams drying there is a recipe for disaster. Koalas are really on the brink of not surviving,” said Spark. “A crisis can happen with very little warning.” Citing a report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Sparks added that by 2050, one in 100-year events are expected to occur every year with 50-degree Celsius heatwaves in the next 20 years. The committee further found that climate change has a severe impact on koalas and not only affects the quality of their food and habitat, but also compounds the “severity and threats of other impacts, such as drought and bushfires.”
Japan evacuates 92,200 households as torrential rains pound the area – Japan is evacuating tens of thousands of residents in the southern island of Kyushu amid torrential flooding.Fifteen people are already feared dead and nine are missing, Reuters reported, citing local media outlets. Authorities have already told 92,200 households in the prefectures of Kumamoto and Kagoshima to leave amid concerns of rising flood waters and landslides. “The heavy rainfall is likely to continue until Sunday, and people in the area are required to be on maximum alert,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, saying he could activate as many as 10,000 soldiers to join rescue operations. Several homes have been cut off and one bridge was washed away after the Kuma River flooded. The floods and landslides have ravaged the region, leading Japan’s Meteorological Agency to initially post its highest level of alert, though the alarm was later downgraded. This isn’t the first time heavy rains have sparked mass evacuations in the country; in July 2018, more than 2 million people were forced to leave their homes after up to 70 inches of rain led to some of Japan’s worst flooding on record, according to the Washington Post.
Puerto Rico Drought Leaves 140,000 Without Running Water -Puerto Rico’s governor declared a state of emergency on Monday after a severe drought on the island left 140,000 people without access to running water, despite the necessary role that hand washing and hygiene plays in stopping the novel coronavirus, as The Independent reported. The island will start water rationing on July 2, as 26 percent of the island is under a severe drought and 60 percent is under a moderate drought, according to U.S. Drought Monitor, as The Independent reported. According to Governor Wanda Vasquez, that means 21 of 78 municipalities are affected by the severe drought while another 29 are affected by the moderate drought.The rationing will affect 140,000 clients of the water service, including some in the capital of San Juan, according to The Associated Press, as the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority starts to shut off water for certain blocks of the day. That means some residents will be without water for 24 hours every other day as part of strict rationing measures. Puerto Rico’s utilities company asked residents not to stockpile excessive amounts of water because it would exacerbate an already bad situation. There will also be 23 water trucks spread across the most impacted parts of the island. Officials asked that anyone seeking water from the trucks wear a mask and adhere to social distancing guidelines, according to The Associated Press. Some residents in the northeastern part of the state were already rationing water earlier in June. Many residents rely on a system of reservoirs in Puerto Rico for water, but several have not been dredged for years, leaving sediment to collect and allowing the excess loss of water, according to The Hill. The water rationing efforts will target households connected to the Carraizo reservoir, one of 11 that Puerto Rico’s government operates. It has not been dredged since the late 1990s. Five other reservoirs are under a state of observation. Officials have already taken other measures, including activating water wells and transferring more than 30,000 clients from Carraizo to another reservoir, according to the AP.
Arizona reels as three of the biggest wildfires in its history ravage state — For residents of Tucson in southern Arizona, the Santa Catalina Mountains in the Coronado national forest are known as a hub for hiking, mountain biking and other outdoor recreation. But on 5 June lightning ignited a wildfire that has grown to engulf over 118,000 acres. The fires are still only 58% contained. Called the Bighorn fire, it is the eighth-biggest in state history, and it has transformed the Catalinas into a hub for the study of the impacts of climate change. Nasa satellite photos show largescar marks left by the fire. “At night you can see basically the outline of the fire on the mountain,” said Courtney Slanaker, the executive director for the American Red Cross Southern Arizona, “and then during the daytime you’re seeing that heavy smoke as it moves through different fuel sources on the mountain.”And yet, Bighorn is just one of three fires that sit in the top 10 biggest wildfires in Arizona history.The Bush fire in the Tonto national forest, about 30 miles from Phoenix, now covers 193,000 acres and 98% is contained. It is the fifth-biggest in state history. Meanwhile, the Mangum fire burning in the Kaibab national forest now covers over 71,000 acres and 67% contained. The trio of fires are bigger than Washington DC, San Francisco, Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, Minneapolis and Manhattan combined. Despite the fires’ enormous size, only one home has suffered serious structural damage. Beyond the three major fires, eight others in Arizona are either still burning or were recently contained. One of them, the Blue River fire, is over 30,000 acres and 85% contained, burning on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. Another, the Wood Springs 2 fire, now covers nearly 9,000 acres of the Navajo Nation and is only 5% contained. Both of those fires, like the Bighorn fire, ignited via lightning strikes according to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group. The wildfires come as tribal nations and Arizona face an uptick in Covid-19 cases. The Navajo Nation has the highest per-capita infection rate in the US, while Arizona currently faces an infection rate of over 28% of those tested.
Siberian Forest Fires Increase Fivefold in Week Since Record High Temperature – The number of fires in the vast north Asian region of Siberia increased fivefold this week, according to the Russian forest fire aerial protection service, astemperatures in the Arctic continued higher than normal in the latest sign of the ongoing climate crisis. The news of the increase comes a week after the small Siberian town of Verkhoyansk reported a high temperature of 100.4 deg F on June 20, a reading that, if confirmed, would mark the hottest day ever recorded in the region. “While fires are common at this time of year, record temperatures and strong winds are making the situation particularly worrying,” the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme, which is monitoring the situation, said in a statement. As the Associated Press reported:According to figures reported Saturday by Avialesookhrana, Russia’s agency for aerial forest fire management, 1.15 million hectares (2.85 million acres) were burning in Siberia in areas that cannot be reached by firefighters. The worst-hit area is the Sakha Republic, where Verkhoyansk is located, with 929,000 hectares (2.295 million acres) burning.The Sakha Republic’s fire service reported 127 natural fires in the Russian federal sector.The fires and heat are due to the climate crisis, Weather Channel meteorologist Carl Parker told Newsweek.”What climate change is doing is moving the distribution of weather events, such that historically low-frequency, extreme events occur more frequently,” said Parker. “Had the climate not changed due to man-made greenhouse gases, the heat we’ve seen in parts of Siberia would have been a 100,000-year event.”Parker warned that the fires are part of a dangerous feedback loop in the northern region.”What’s scary about the warming in Siberia is that there are huge quantities of carbon in permafrost, which can be unleashed during periods like this, particularly as fires develop in the region,” said Parker.
100.4 degree Arctic temperature record confirmed as study suggests Earth is warmest in at least 12,000 years – Less than two weeks ago, the small Siberian town of Verkhoyansk soared to 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, appearing to break an all-time record for the Arctic and alarming meteorologists worldwide. Now that temperature record has been verified by Russia’s state weather authority. The confirmation came the same day a comprehensive new study was released suggesting that present-day global temperatures are the warmest they have been in at least 12,000 years, and possibly far longer. The study used a variety of geological clues and statistical analysis methods to reconstruct ancient temperature estimates. In a press conference Tuesday, the head of science at Russia’s Hydrometeorological Centre confirmed that the town of Verkhoyansk did indeed reach 100.4 deg F on June 20th. The official confirmation was requested by the World Meteorological Organization. Ten days after that record was set, the heat wave still persists. On Tuesday, a town in the Sakha Republic, 450 miles north-northwest of Verkhoyansk, and also 450 miles north of the Arctic Circle steps from the Arctic Ocean’s Laptev Sea, hit an astonishing 93 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 40 to 45 degrees above normal. The record heat in parts of Siberia during the month of May was so remarkable that it reached five standard deviations from normal. In other words, if hypothetically you were able to live in that area for 100,000 years, statistically speaking you should only experience such an extreme period of temperatures one time. The extended Siberian heat wave is due to an usually persistent high pressure system, which more or less has remained stuck over Russia since December. And while it’s not uncommon for patterns to set up shop for extended periods of time due to natural cycles, this tenacity is extraordinary, to say the least.
South pole warming three times faster than rest of the world – Climate scientists long thought Antarctica’s interior may not be very sensitive to warming, but our research, published this week, shows a dramatic change.Over the past 30 years, the south pole has been one of the fastest-changing places on Earth, warming more than three times more rapidly than the rest of the world. My colleagues and I argue these warming trends are unlikely the result of natural climate variability alone. The effects of human-made climate change appear to have worked in tandem with the significant influence natural variability in the tropics has on Antarctica’s climate. Together they make the south pole warming one of the strongest warming trends on Earth.The south pole lies within the coldest region on Earth: the Antarctic plateau. Average temperatures range from -60℃ during winter to just -20℃ during summer. Antarctica’s climate generally has a huge range in temperature over the course of a year, with strong regional contrasts. Most of West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula were warming during the late 20th century. But the south pole – in the remote and high-altitude continental interior – cooled until the 1980s. Scientists have been tracking temperature at the Amundsen-Scott south pole Station, Earth’s southernmost weather observatory, since 1957. It is one of the longest-running complete temperature records on the Antarctic continent. Our analysis of weather station data from the south pole shows it has warmed by 1.8℃ between 1989 and 2018, changing more rapidly since the start of the 2000s. Over the same period, the warming in West Antarctica suddenly stopped and the Antarctic Peninsula began cooling. One of the reasons for the south pole warming was stronger low-pressure systems and stormier weather east of the Antarctic Peninsula in the Weddell Sea. With clockwise flow around the low-pressure systems, this has been transporting warm, moist air on to the Antarctic plateau. Our study also shows the ocean in the western tropical Pacific started warming rapidly at the same time as the south pole. We found nearly 20% of the year-to-year temperature variations at the south pole were linked to ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific, and several of the warmest years at the south pole in the past two decades happened when the western tropical Pacific ocean was also unusually warm.
Some New Climate Models Are Projecting Extreme Warming. Are They Correct? -For the past year, some of the most up-to-date computer models from the world’s top climate modeling groups have been “running hot” – projecting that global warming may be even more extreme than earlier thought. Data from some of the model runs has been confounding scientists because it challenges decades of consistent projections.”It is concerning, as it increases the risk of more severe climate change impacts,” explains Dr. Andrew Gettelman, a cloud microphysics scientist from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Boulder, Colorado.As a result, there’s been a real urgency to answer this important question in climate science: Are there processes in some new models that need correcting, or is this enhanced warming a real threat? After months of contemplation and study after study, the picture is becoming much more clear, and providing something of a breather. Along with those studies, an unprecedented international research mission, led by NOAA and named ATOMIC, aims to provide climate science with the most sophisticated insights yet into why some models point to more warming. Climate models are complicated computer programs composed of millions of lines of code that calculate the physical properties and interactions between the main climate forces like the atmosphere, oceans, and solar input. Every few years there is a new comprehensive international evaluation called the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). In the sixth such effort, known as CMIP6 and now under way, experts are reviewing about 100 models. Over the past year, the CMIP6 collection of models being reviewed threw researchers an unexpected curveball: a significant number of the climate model runs showed substantially more global warming than previous model versions had projected. If accurate, the international climate goals would be nearly impossible to achieve, and there would be significantly more extreme impacts worldwide.
Extraordinary ‘megaflash’ lightning strikes cover several hundred kilometres, smashing records – Closing the windows probably wouldn’t have made much difference to anyone stuck in the middle of the flash that developed continuously over northern Argentina on 4 March 2019, lasting a whopping 16.73 seconds. And the flash that stretched more than 700 kilometres (400 miles) across southern Brazil on 31 October last year, was equivalent to the distance between Boston and Washington DC in the United States, or between London, England, and Basel, Switzerland.The world’s greatest extent for a single lightning covered a horizontal distance of over 700 km (440) across parts of southern Brazil on 31 October 2018, by WMOThe previous megaflash distance record was 321 km (199.5 miles) on 20 June 2007, across the US state of Oklahoma, and the previous continuous duration record, was a puny-by-comparison 7.74 seconds, reached on 30 August 2012 in southern France.The new record-breaking strikes, captured by the American Geophysical Union ahead of International Lightning Safety Day on 28 June, were recorded by equipment carried on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, and their orbiting counterparts from Europe and China.The records were described by Professor Randall Cerveny, chief rapporteur of Weather and Climate Extremes for WMO, as “extraordinary”: “Environmental extremes are living measurements of what nature is capable of, as well as scientific progress in being able to make such assessments”, he added. “It is likely that even greater extremes still exist, and that we will be able to observe them as lightning detection technology improves.”
Common fireworks release toxic metals into the air – Some of America’s favorite Independence Day fireworks emit lead, copper, and other toxins, a new study suggests. These metals, which are used to give fireworks their vibrant color, also damage human cells and animal lungs. Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the study showed harmful levels of lead in two of 12 types of commercially-available fireworks sampled. Experiments using rodents and human tissue also showed that lung exposure to particle emissions from five types of firework significantly increased oxidation, a chemical process in the body that can damage or even kill cells if left unchecked. “While many are careful to protect themselves from injury from explosions, our results suggest that inhaling firework smoke may cause longer-term damage, a risk that has been largely ignored,” says study senior author Terry Gordon, PhD, a professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine at NYU Langone Health. “Although people are only exposed to these substances for a short time each year, they are much more toxic than the pollutants we breathe every day,” says Gordon.
World’s Pile of Electronic Waste Grows Ever Higher: Study (AP) – The world’s mountain of discarded flat-screen TVs, cellphones and other electronic goods grew to a record high last year, according to an annual report released Thursday. The U.N.-backed study estimated the amount of e-waste that piled up globally in 2019 at 53.6 million metric tonnes (59.1 million tons) – almost 2 million metric tons more than the previous year. The authors of the study calculated the combined weight of all dumped devices with a battery or a plug last year was the equivalent of 350 cruise ships the size of the Queen Mary 2. Among all the discarded plastic and silicon were large amounts of copper, gold and other precious metals – used for example to conduct electricity on circuit boards. While about a sixth of it was recycled, the remainder of those valuable components – worth about $57 billion – weren’t reclaimed, the study found. Discarded electronic equipment also poses a health and environmental hazard, as it contains substances such as mercury that can damage the nervous system. The authors of the study, which is produced by the U.N. University, the International Solid Waste Association and others, predicted that global e-waste could grow to 74 million metric tons by 2030.
Global e-waste surging: Up 21% in 5 years – A record 53.6 million tons (Mt) of e-waste was produced globally in 2019, the weight of 350 cruise ships the size of the Queen Mary 2; $57 billion in gold and other components discarded — mostly dumped or burned United Nations University / ITU / UNITAR A record 53.6 million metric tonnes (Mt) of electronic waste was generated worldwide in 2019, up 21 per cent in just five years, according to the UN’s Global E-waste Monitor 2020. The new report also predicts global e-waste — discarded products with a battery or plug — will reach 74 Mt by 2030, almost a doubling of e-waste in just 16 years. This makes e-waste the world’s fastest-growing domestic waste stream, fueled mainly by higher consumption rates of electric and electronic equipment, short life cycles, and few options for repair. Only 17.4 per cent of 2019’s e-waste was collected and recycled. This means that gold, silver, copper, platinum and other high-value, recoverable materials conservatively valued at US $57 billion — a sum greater than the Gross Domestic Product of most countries – were mostly dumped or burned rather than being collected for treatment and reuse. For perspective, last year’s e-waste weighed substantially more than all the adults in Europe, or as much as 350 cruise ships the size of the Queen Mary 2, enough to form a line 125 km long. E-waste is a health and environmental hazard, containing toxic additives or hazardous substances such as mercury, which damages the human brain and / or coordination system.
Microplastic in terrestrial ecosystems – Concern about microplastics (plastic particles <5 mm) polluting different environmental compartments is mounting. Research has recently begun to embrace terrestrial systems, having initially focused at least a decade earlier on marine and aquatic ecosystems (1-3). The early research agenda on microplastics in both aquatic and terrestrial systems was mainly ecotoxicological. It included laboratory tests on individual organisms, often well-established test species (4), and also targeted selected soil properties and processes. Such research is necessary to establish baseline mechanisms, which is important because microplastics differ from other pollutants. Many of their effects appear to be mediated by physical parameters, such as particle shape and size, rather than overt chemically mediated toxicity. Moreover, their effects are mostly sublethal or even nominally positive. Although the study of other global change factors has tended to focus at the level of the ecosystem, research on microplastic is only now on the verge of this wider view. Microplastics are mostly composed of carbon, among other elements. Microplastic addition to ecosystems thus represents a source of carbon independent of photosynthesis and net primary production. This polymer carbon likely has a slow turnover, because the material is mostly inert; however, the behavior and residence time of microplastics in soil are currently unknown. We also do not know the input rate of microplastic-carbon into ecosystems itself, because research hitherto has largely focused on quantifying particle numbers and types, rather than on the microplastic-derived carbon itself. Originally, most of this carbon is of fossil origin, rather than having recently been fixed from the atmosphere. Because of the resistance of microplastic to decomposition, it would be expected to accumulate in soils, where it needs to be accounted for in assessments of soil carbon storage (8), a major ecosystem function.
NJ Senate Bill Helps Environmental-Justice Communities Block Further Pollution Measure, which won early support from governor, allows overburdened communities to consider cumulative effect of pollution when another ‘dirty’ project is proposed. For the first time, New Jersey communities could be given a powerful new tool to block projects that would add to their pollution burden under a bill approved by the Senate Monday.The legislation (S-232), which cleared the Senate in a 22-14-4 vote, has long been a priority for advocates who argue the state ignores the cumulative impacts of locating a new power plant or manufacturing facility in communities where residents already suffer the effects of pollution from incinerators, hazardous waste sites and sewage-treatment plants.Its approval, after a decade of lobbying by activists, comes at a moment of reckoning for racial and environmental justice in the nation. To some, the bill is a model for the rest of the country – the most protective environmental-justice statute for communities oversaturated with toxic facilities. The legislation would allow the state Department of Environmental Protection to consider the cumulative impacts in a community when a new permit is sought for a polluting project in “overburdened communities.” Previously, the DEP could only consider impacts from the project seeking a permit.
House Democrats Unveil Bold Climate Plan Linked to Racial Justice – House Democrats are releasing an aggressive new plan to fight the climate crisis on Tuesday. The 538-page plan includes various goals to dramatically reduce the nation’s emissions. It sets a target for every new car sold by 2035 to emit no greenhouse gases, to eliminate overall emissions from the power sector by 2040, and to all but eliminate the country’s total emissions by 2050, according to The New York Times. Solving the Climate Crisis: The Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy Economy and a Healthy, Resilient, and Just America is the first major piece of legislation from the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, established last year as the Green New Deal was garnering attention, and would put the country on a path to meeting the goals of the Paris agreement, as The Hill reported. “While local communities and states and businesses take climate action, what’s been missing is the federal government,” said Rep. Kathy Castor, (D-FL), who chairs the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times. Prior to creating its bold plan to set the course for a zero emissions future, the committee heard testimony from researchers, local officials and a bevy of environmental activists like Greta Thunberg, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “Turning this plan into reality will build a safer, healthier, and fairer America, restore our global climate leadership, enhance our national security, and provide a livable climate for today’s youth and future generations,” the report says. The ambitious plan, which faces an dubious future in a Republican-controlled Senate, requires companies to pay for emitting excessive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. While that cost will pass down to the consumer, it may have the net effect of reducing consumption. It also has provisions that give money back to low- and moderate-income households, according to The New York Times. Since racial minority communities are disproportionately affected by pollution and extreme weather from the climate crisis, the report ties environmental justice to racial justice, citing the police killing of George Floyd in its opening paragraph. As The New York Times reported, the report argues that the government should prioritize racial minority communities for new spending on energy and infrastructure. “We have to focus on environmental-justice communities,” said Castor, according to The New York Times. “There is an awakening across the country to systemic racism, and this is a report that at its center, at its core, focuses on those communities.”
Democrats’ blueprint for fighting climate change sees FERC playing key role | S&P Global Market Intelligence – The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would be given sweeping new authorities to help address climate change under the recommendations of a plan the Democratic majority on the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis released June 30. House Democrats touted their proposal as a means to save the planet and build a clean energy economy providing “good-paying jobs” as the nation battles through an economic recession. In a departure from a 622-page bill passed in January that would have authorized the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to require state climate plans, the House Democrats’ plan calls for a major rewrite of the Federal Power Act, or FPA, to give FERC a greatly expanded role in efforts to achieve a 100% carbon-free power grid. Among hundreds of specific policy recommendations, the plan said Congress should direct FERC, which has exclusive authority over wholesale electricity markets and interstate power transmission, to develop “a comprehensive, long-range electric infrastructure strategy” in line with a 100% net-zero-by-2040 goal that also supports any state policies that are more stringent. Noting that a previous effort to enable the U.S. Department of Energy to relieve congested transmission corridors ran into legal trouble, the plan said the FPA should be amended to direct FERC, rather than the DOE, to designate National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors. It also said FERC should be empowered to exercise backstop siting authority within those corridors when one or more states have approved a proposed transmission line but one or more states have denied the project or withheld approval for more than two years. The recommendation is significant because permitting battles have inhibited the build-out of the nation’s high-voltage transmission infrastructure, an essential step in accommodating a high level of renewable energy penetration. Recognizing the nation’s vast offshore wind potential, the plan also would call on FERC to develop a plan for national offshore wind transmission, break down barriers to the interconnection of offshore generating facilities and develop cost allocation methodologies for those projects. The Democrats’ plan also would direct FERC to find under an amended FPA that wholesale electricity rates are unjust and unreasonable if they do not incorporate the external costs associated with planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. However, any amendment to the FPA should not preempt state clean energy programs or stricter state-level standards, the plan added.
Climate change: What AOC and House Democrats actually want to do about it – Vox – In 2007, shortly after Democrats took back the House of Representatives in the 2006 midterm elections, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi created the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, meant to gather expert testimony and develop policy plans to address climate change. Until Republicans killed it in 2011, the select committee amassed an enormous body of knowledge, which it contributed to the 2007 energy bill, the 2009 Obama stimulus bill, and the ill-fated Waxman-Markey climate bill (which died in the Senate).In 2018, just before Democrats re-took the House, Pelosi proposed reconstituting the committee. In the wake of the election, climate change activists, led by newly elected Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, demanded that the new committee have teeth – that it be charged with developing a Green New Deal. The original sit-in at Pelosi’s office, where AOC drew scads of media attention by appearing after having been elected but before being sworn in, was in part about demanding a more robust committee. Activists eventually got dozens of lawmakers to sign on to the effort.In the end, though, Pelosi gave the new select committee a purely advisory role, with neither subpoena power nor a specific legislative mandate. (I recount the fight in more detail in my Green New Deal explainer.)
For communities and climate, federal government should leave environmental protections alone – Opinion – The Columbus Dispatch – Established in 1969 by a near-unanimous vote of Congress and signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon on Jan. 1, 1970, the National Environmental Policy Act revolutionized the decision processes of federal agencies by requiring them to closely examine the environmental impacts of major government projects. For more than 50 years, NEPA has empowered citizens by ensuring the public has input into federal agency decisions that could affect the environment, the climate, and our communities. NEPA ensures transparency in government decision-making by guaranteeing citizens the right to information about the environmental consequences of proposed projects, to comment on those projects and to receive written responses to their concerns. The nation’s first major environmental statute is, however, under attack. President Donald Trump has already dismantled more than 60 environmental rules and is in the process of rolling back more than 30 more – including those that govern air and water pollution, climate change, endangered species and wildlife, toxic chemicals and our public lands.Gutting NEPA is the Trump administration’s latest attempt at silencing our voices and denying much-needed protections for our environment.One of the many attacks is a proposed rule that would exempt many U.S. Forest Service projects from public input and NEPA review. Proposals that would clear cut thousands of acres of national forest would no longer require a NEPA review. If finalized, this rule could result in the serious degradation of Ohio’s own Wayne National Forest. And this important forest recently benefited from strong NEPA protections. In March 2020 the Ohio Environmental Council and our legal partners secured a significant federal court ruling which halted the Trump administration’s attempt to open some 40,000 acres of the Wayne to oil and gas development. The federal government failed to consider numerous impacts to air, water, wildlife species and the Wayne; a failure that was in violation of NEPA. Agencies involved had declined to acknowledge, let alone consider, miles of forest-disturbing pipelines this project would entail. Unfortunately, this story is not rare. Under President Donald Trump, it is commonplace.
California set to ban all heavy diesel trucks and vans by 2045 – The days of diesel delivery trucks and vans in California are numbered. On Thursday, the state’s Air Resources Board adopted a new rule that will phase out these most polluting of vehicles from the state over the next quarter-century. Beginning in 2024, OEMs that want to sell medium- and heavy-duty trucks in the state will have to ensure that some of those trucks are zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs). Over time, the percentage of those ZEV trucks has to increase, so that by 2045, any new truck sold in the state will be emission-free. Currently, CARB estimates that 2 million diesel trucks and vans are the cause of 70 percent of smog-causing pollution in the state. The new rule excludes light trucks (8,500lbs/3,855kg and under), so the new Ford F-150doesn’t count. But it does apply to pretty much anything bigger than that-class 2b (like a Ford F-250 for example) all the way through the biggest class 8 trucks and tractors. The mandate starts gently: in 2024, only 3 percent of class 2b and class 3 trucks, 7 percent of class 4 through 8 trucks, and 3 percent of class 7 and 8 tractors have to be emissions free. And in fact, for pickup trucks-ie trucks that came from the factory with a load bed rather than some other configuration-the class 2b-class 3 rule only kicks in during 2027. But just 10 years from now, half of all new trucks and vans sold in California in classes 4 through 8-which includes everything from the package delivery van to the biggest garbage trucks-will have to be ZEVs. And by 2035, CARB says that 55 percent of all class 2b-3 trucks, 75 percent of all class 4 through 8 trucks and vans, and 40 percent of all class 7 and 8 trucks and tractors sold in the state have to be ZEVs.
Report: Renewable energy jobs vanish – 131,660 Midwest clean energy workers have filed for unemployment. Job losses damper fast-growing sector that employed 744,040 in the region at end of 2019. Before COVID-19, clean energy jobs were growing almost 4 times faster than overall economy. Clean energy jobs that were growing four times faster than other sectors have vanished because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by Environmental Entrepreneurs. Since March, when positive COVID-19 cases started to mount in Michigan and the nation, 131,660 Midwest clean energy workers have filed for unemployment, including 4,932 new claims filed in May, said E2’s Clean Jobs Midwest 2020 report. Michigan, Illinois and Ohio have been hit hardest by the clean energy job losses, said the report, which noted Michigan had been enjoying a 3 percent annual growth in renewable energy and clean transportation jobs. Michigan companies were projecting a 4 percent growth rate for 2020 before COVID-19 hit. Nationwide, more than 620,000 clean energy workers have filed for unemployment.Congress is considering new stimulus measures for clean energy and other sectors of our economy, but the clean energy industry is shedding jobs at alarming rates because of COVID-19 and the economic downturn, according to a separate analysis by Environmental Entrepreneurs, a nonpartisan group of business leaders, investors and professionals.”History has shown us that clean energy investments and stimulus have a track record of creating jobs and building our economy,” said Micaela Preskill, E2’s midwest advocate, in a statement. “As we look to economic recovery, we urge lawmakers to consider the size, scope and potential for growth of the clean energy industry. Hundreds of thousands of electricians, construction workers, technicians and factory workers work in clean energy in every corner of our region and the industry has grown year after year.”Environmental Entrepreneurs is a national, nonpartisan group of business leaders, investors, and professionals from every sector of the economy who advocate for smart policies that are good for the economy and good for the environment.
More utilities bypassing natural gas bridge and going straight to renewables – Utilities that are transitioning away from coal are starting to view the creation of a natural gas “bridge” to renewable energy as an unnecessary step. Last week utilities in Arizona, Colorado and Florida announced plans to close one or more of their coal plants and build renewables without adding any new gas-fired generation. Separately, staff at the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission recommended a similar gas-free transition when assessing the future capacity needs of the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM). Renewable energy economics have been challenging the competitiveness of coal for a while now, but these latest moves indicate a greater confidence that the switch from coal to renewables can be done cost effectively and reliably without the construction of new gas fired generation as an interim step. “Up until recently, the easy option for utilities would have been to propose using gas to replace coal. But not any longer. Rising concerns about climate change and continuing reductions in wind, solar and battery storage costs coupled with improved performance have altered the playing field,” Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said. Tucson Electric Power (TEP) and Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) both outlined their plans to skip the gas bridge as they transition away from coal in their resource plans. Meanwhile, Florida Power & Light (FPL) and Jacksonville’s municipal utility, JEA, entered into an agreement under which they will rely on existing natural gas and new solar generation to retire their jointly-owned facility, Unit 4 at Plant Scherer, the largest coal-fired plant in the US. According to the IEEFA, to replace JEA’s share of the unit’s output, the two utilities signed a long-term, fixed-price power purchase agreement under which FPL will sell electricity to JEA from one of its exiting gas-fired generation units. Under the agreement, JEA can opt to switch to solar power at the 10-year mark. TEP’s proposal calls for closing all of its coal-fired generation by 2031 and replacing this capacity with 2,457 MW of new wind and solar generation and 1,400 MW of battery storage. Similarly, CSU’s plan also calls for replacing coal capacity with wind, solar and storage generation. It plans to add 500 MW of new wind generation, 150 MW of new solar and 400 MW of battery capacity. To enable the early retirement of its 208 MW Martin Drake Power Plant in 2023, CSU will be installing temporary natural gas generators at the site “to ensure system reliability.” CSU said that it will remove these generators as its new renewable and storage projects are completed.
How do you save clean energy? This company plans to pump it underground –New York. California. Hawaii. Colorado. Maine. All of these states and a few others want to get their electric grids running mostly if not entirely on renewable energy in the next few decades. As they ramp up wind and solar farm projects, they’re also looking for ways to store surplus energy to use when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. Start-ups focused on energy storage are scrambling for the cash and opportunities to demonstrate that their system will hold more than a few hours worth of charge. Last week, Quidnet, a Houston, Texas-based company, announced that it lined up a contract with the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority to construct a pilot project for its “Geomechanical Pumped Storage” technology. Quidnet’s system is a new take on pumped-hydro storage, which takes excess energy from the grid during periods of low electricity demand and uses it to pump water up a hill from a lower reservoir to an upper reservoir. Later, when energy is needed, the water is released back down to spin a turbine and generate electricity. Pumped-hydro accounts for 95 percent of the existing energy storage used by utilities in the U.S., but most of these systems were built in the 1970s and 1980s. That’s because it’s expensive and politically difficult to set aside enough land in the mountains to build new pumped-hydropower reservoirs. Joe Zhao, the CEO of Quidnet, said the company’s technology depends on the same supply chains and expertise used by existing pumped-hydro systems, but gets around those stickier land-use problems by pushing the water underground. To “charge” the battery, the system draws excess energy from the grid to suck water from a holding pond into an underground well, where it’s stored under pressure in the rock. When the energy is needed, the water is released and rushes back to the surface, spinning a turbine similar to those deployed in traditional pumped-hydro systems. The pilot project in New York aims to store 10 hours worth of energy.
Indiana’s slowed energy transition could soon be picking up momentum | S&P Global Platts – The Indiana power market, which is guided by a renewable portfolio standard of 10% by 2023, has total generation of 26,642 MW with approximately 2,700 MW of installed wind and solar capacity, which means the RPS has been reached. Installations of new wind and solar, however, have slowed considerably in the last two years, and the share of the state’s electricity consumed that comes from renewables is approximately 6.5%, according to the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration. What Indiana, like so many other Midwestern states, relies upon are the large number of coal and gas-fired generators that, as of April, had total in-state capacity of 23,840 MW, according to data from the EIA. Sitting on large coal deposits, the state’s power generating companies have some of the country’s largest coal-fired facilities. Unlike some of its neighboring states, Indiana has never built nuclear generation. The state’s top generators, including Duke Energy Indiana, the Northern Indiana Public Service Company, Indiana Power & Light and Vectren, each own significant amounts of coal-fired capacity, but are sitting on plans to install significant amounts of new solar capacity. Duke Energy Indiana, which ran nearly 90% coal generation in Indiana in 2018, owns the Gibson County, Indiana, five-unit coal-fired facility. The plant has 3,145 MW of capacity and is among the largest coal-fired facilities in the country. According to the company’s 2018-2037 integrated resource plan, the Gibson plant’s 622-MW Unit 4 is due to be retired in 2026, while two other units aren’t due to retire until 2034 and the remaining two not until 2038. The company said, however, that it “continues” with its transition to “a cleaner energy future.” It said that since 2005 in Indiana, it has decreased sulfur dioxide emissions by 95%, nitrogen oxide emissions by 63% and carbon emissions by 21% Duke Energy Indiana’s IRP says that while coal-fired generation is “gradually retired, we expect to add 2,480 MW of cleaner burning natural gas, 700 MW of wind energy, and 1,650 MW of solar power all by the year 2037.” “We’re creating a more diverse portfolio with less carbon and less risk than other alternatives that may rely more on purchased power from the market — all while being cost competitive,” it said. A spokesperson confirmed that Duke Energy Indiana falls under its parent company’s 2050 net-zero CO2 emissions goal.
Column: Coal prices slammed on slumping India imports, China fears – Russell – (Reuters) – Seaborne coal prices in Asia have plunged to the lowest in more than a decade as shipments to the region’s top importers, especially India, have come under pressure in the midst of the coronavirus-led economic slowdown. The benchmark Australian thermal coal price, the weekly Newcastle Index, as assessed by commodity price reporting agency Argus, slumped to $48.14 a tonne in the week to June 26, the lowest since November 2006 and down 31% from the peak so far this year of $69.59 in mid-January. The price of lower quality Indonesian coal with an energy content of 4,200 kilocalories per kilogram, ended last week at $23.89 a tonne, the lowest since Argus started assessments in August 2008. In some ways it’s not surprising that Indonesian coal has been hard hit, given its main market is India, where imports have been collapsing. India’s imports of both coking and thermal coal in June are on track to be the lowest since Refinitiv started assessing vessel-tracking and port data in January 2015. Just 8.08 million tonnes of coal had been discharged, or was in the process of discharging by June 29, Refinitiv data shows. While this may still rise when cargoes from the last day of the month are included, it’s likely the total will be well below May’s 10.3 million tonnes, which was sharply lower than the 17.05 million tonnes average of the first four months of 2020. India has imposed a series of lockdowns to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, which have cut electricity demand, with coal-fired generation taking the brunt of the hit as it struggles to compete with cheaper renewable energy supplies. While India’s economy is expected to start recovering in coming months, it may take some time for coal imports to rebound, especially given the government’s ongoing policy to eliminate the bulk of imports in favour of domestic supplies. India’s imports of Indonesian coal were 3.1 million tonnes in the first 29 days of June, according to Refinitiv, lowest since records start in 2015 and less than half the 8 million reported in February, which was the strongest month this year. Australia, which almost exclusively supplies coking coal to India, also saw its numbers drop, with India importing 1.56 million tonnes up to June 29, down from the peak this year of 3.7 million in January. Coking coal prices have also been suffering, with Singapore Exchange contracts ending at $111.43 a tonne on Monday, up slightly from the recent low of $106 on June 1, which was the weakest since August 2016.China, the world’s biggest producer, consumer and importer or coal, is likely to see declining imports in coming months as the authorities are believed to be pressuring traders and end-users to restrict buying of overseas cargoes in order to ensure domestic prices are high enough for the mines to be profitable.
U.S. report touts Appalachia’s coal, gas future despite concerns – (Reuters) – A Trump administration report released on Tuesday touted a strong future for petrochemicals and coal in the U.S. region of Appalachia, despite concerns that supply gluts, waning demand and potential environmental regulation could limit growth in the industries. “There are tremendous opportunities on the horizon for Appalachia because of the shale gas revolution and the region’s abundant coal reserves,” Mark Menezes, the U.S. under secretary of energy, told reporters in a call about the report called “The Appalachian Energy and Petrochemical Renaissance.” The administration of President Donald Trump has pursued a policy of boosting fossil fuel production while slashing environmental regulations. But if Democratic candidate Joe Biden wins the election in November, the fossil fuel industry will likely see new regulations. The Trump administration has also promoted development of a petrochemical hub in Appalachia, a region including West Virginia and parts of Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania, to complement Houston’s energy complex. Trump said last year at a Royal Dutch Shell plastics project in Pennsylvania, a state he won by less than 1 percentage point in 2016, that his administration was “clearing the way for other massive … investments” in the region. But the petrochemical business in the region has been rocky. Thailand’s PTT and South Korean partner Daelim this month indefinitely delayed an investment decision on a $5.7 billion plastics plant project in Ohio. Meanwhile, U.S. coal consumption last year fell 15% to the lowest level since 1964.
Where’s the plan to help Pennsylvania coal workers? – In a recent hearing in Harrisburg, Sen. Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, vocally opposed Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposal to have Pennsylvania implement a carbon cap-and-invest program similar to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). He argued that the RGGI plan was going to force coal plants in his district to close and because of this, “communities are going to be devastated.” The senator may claim that a cap-and-invest program would devastate the coal facilities in his communities, but the hard truth is that these facilities have been in rapid decline for years and that trend will continue with or without RGGI. As recently as 2007, coal generated over 122 million megawatt-hours of electricity in Pennsylvania, but competition from natural gas generation drove that number down to just over 38 million MWh by 2019. Very soon, only five large conventional steam coal plants will be left including Homer City and Conemaugh in Indiana County along with the Cheswick, Keystone, and Montour plants. More than half of those units are over 50 years old – only one (Homer City’s Unit 3 built in 1977) is younger than 45. They are rapidly approaching retirement, and no new plants are being built in the state to replace them. As these plants age, their operation and maintenance costs will continue to rise and competition from newer gas plants and clean renewable energy will only get more intense. The companies that run these plants have seen the handwriting on the wall. Just last year, PSE&G sold its ownership stake in Keystone and Conemaugh and announced to its shareholders that it is getting out of the coal generation business entirely. We agree that the loss of jobs associated with these coal plants will be devastating for these communities. But for Pittman to blame environmental regulations for the decline of the coal industry is a red herring that detracts attention from the real cause.
Coal communities increasingly rely on federal health programs – Every July for two decades, volunteer doctors, dentists and nurses gathered at the Wise County Fairgrounds to deliver free medical, dental and vision care. The free clinic attracted thousands of central Appalachian residents, many who camped out the night before to secure their spot in line, as well as media outlets from around the world that were drawn to the dramatic images of people receiving healthcare in trailers and livestock stalls.But this year, the three-day free clinic sponsored by Remote Area Medicine won’t happen. That’s due partly to social distancing restrictions in response to the pandemic, but also because RAM’s local partners “have built infrastructure and capacity around eye, dental, and medical resources in the Wise, Virginia community,” according to a news release. Local organizations such as the Health Wagon and Mission of Mercy had grown to fill the gaps and were now able to stage regular health fairs without RAM’s support.Another contributing factor was Virginia’s expansion of Medicaid beginning in 2019. At the time of the final RAM clinic in Wise in 2019, more than 290,000 Virginians had enrolled in the program. Nearly a year later, that figure has grown to 426,613, including 3,909 people in Wise County – a little more than 10% of its total population.As coal continues to decline as an economic driver, communities in central Appalachia and Wyoming are trying to determine their next steps in maintaining critical health care infrastructure. But healthcare also remains a politically charged issue. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, also known as Obamacare, has been a flashpoint in partisan politics since it passed. The law brought sweeping changes, including incentives for states to expand their Medicaid programs to cover citizens and legal residents with income up to 138% of the poverty rate. Still, shrinking tax revenues, jobs and resources in the industry are forcing the issue in many parts of coal country, and communities are becoming more reliant on – and even warming to – federal health programs like Medicaid.
Public meetings on Alabama Power coal ash ponds start Monday – al.com – This week Alabama Power begins a series of public meetings on plans to reduce the dangers posed by several coal-ash ponds, amid criticism from environmental groups that it should be offering safer options than in-person public gatherings in a time when COVID-19 case counts are rising. The Alabama Rivers Alliance, among others, has charged that the utility “performed virtually no outreach, gave no detailed plans for social distancing precautions, and provided no option for virtual attendance.” As COVID-19 case counts rise, the group said, “We believe it is irresponsible of them to hold public meetings during this time.” “The Unintended Consequences of Convenience,” a video recently released by the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, lays out the issue: In the 20th century, numerous coal-fired power plants were built near rivers, where coal could be shipped in by barge. Coal ash often was stored in large ponds, so dust wasn’t an issue. A dam failed on such a pond in Tennessee in 2008, sending what the film calls “a slow-moving tsunami” of toxic sludge into nearby tributaries of the Tennessee River. The event raised awareness of the potential hazards of ash, which contains toxic heavy metals, and led to a new federal policy designed to present similar disasters in the future. Mobile Bay NEP says it began making its explanatory video when it was “asked by its Government Networks Committee, made up of elected officials representing coastal Alabama, to present a scientifically objective assessment of issues related to the closure of the coal ash pond at Alabama’s Plant Barry.” Its clinical tone includes many of Alabama Power’s arguments in favor of the capping approach, suggesting that the massive effort to transport the Barry pond’s contents to a landfill would delay resolution of the danger and create problems that might offset the supposed benefits. Meanwhile, Alabama Power argues that its cap-in-place strategy is more comprehensive than the name would suggest. Some of the material will moved to leave more space between the consolidated deposit nearby river banks. Water will be pumped out of the ash and treated before the site is capped, so that the dewatered mass is less likely to seep. Dikes and walls will protect against flooding and leaking, and monitoring will track the results for at least 30 years. Not everyone is convinced. Mobile Baykeeper says its own studies show that Alabama Power is overestimating the risk and difficulties of the haul-it-out solution because cap-in-place is cheaper. It also argues that the approach isn’t even legal at Barry because, given the nature of the site, Baykeeper thinks it can’t meet CCR Rule requirements.
EPA to end policy suspending pollution monitoring by end of summer The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will rescind its controversial policy allowing companies to skip monitoring their pollution by the end of the summer, the agency wrote in a letter to lawmakers. The policy, unveiled in a March 26 memo in an effort to help companies reduce regulatory burdens during the coronavirus, alerted companies they would not face penalties for failing to monitor their pollution emissions as required under a host of environmental laws. EPA said it would terminate the policy August 31, bringing to a close a directive that was previously listed as temporary but with no set end date. “Recognizing that there will be a period of adjustment as regulated entities plan how to effectively comply both with environmental legal obligations and with public health guidance … EPA has established a termination date for the Temporary Policy of August 31, 2020,” the agency wrote in a letter to lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Lawmakers on a number of committees had pressured EPA to quickly end the policy, arguing the agency had no way of knowing how much pollution might be emitted into the air or water without sufficient monitoring. “This policy had no business being put into effect, but fortunately it will be coming to an end soon. We demanded a firm end date because we had feared that the administration would not commit to one otherwise, and might attempt to keep this policy in place indefinitely,” Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.), Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior and Environment Chairwoman Betty McCollum (D-M.N.) said in a statement. The letter defended the policy at length, arguing that a number of other programs help the EPA monitor spills, leaks, and emissions. “The burden is on the regulated entity to prove to EPA that compliance is not reasonably practicable due to COVID-19,” Susan Bodine, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, wrote in the letter, adding later that the policy did not appear to be widely used by industry.
Radiation level increase in northern Europe may ‘indicate damage’ to nuclear power plant in Russia –Low levels of radiation spotted in northern Europe may have come from a malfunctioning nuclear power plant in western Russia.Nuclear safety officials from Finland, Norway and Sweden have all announced earlier this week they have detected increased radioactive isotopes across Scandinavia and in some Arctic regions.While the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority said on Tuesday it was not possible to confirm the source of radiation, Dutch authorities have analysed data from their Nordic neighbours and concluded it originated in western Russia.”The radionuclides are artificial, that is to say they are man-made,” the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in theNetherlands said on Friday.”The composition of the nuclides may indicate damage to a fuel element in a nuclear power plant [but] a specific source location cannot be identified due to the limited number of measurements.” However, the Russian nuclear power operator Rosenergoatom has denied there are any problems with its two power plants in the country’s northwest.The Russian news agency Tass quoted an unnamed spokesperson from Rosenergoatom who said both a plant near St Petersburg and another near Murmansk were operating “normally, with radiation levels being within the norm”.Radiation levels at the two plants had not changed for the whole month of June, the spokesperson added.”Both stations are working in normal regime. There have been no complaints about the equipment’s work. No incidents related to release of radionuclide outside containment structures have been reported.”
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