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). This week was posted early Wednesday morning.
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Note: Because of the high volume of news regarding the coronavirus outbreak, that news has been published separately:
- 28 Mar 2021 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 28March 2021
- 28 Mar 2021 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 28March 2021
We’re now seeing a small but definite increase in new Covid cases in the US; the 7-day case counts have been creeping higher every day. New cases during the week ending March 27th were 8.5% higher than during the week ending March 20th, and the highest since the week ending March 6th. The increase is being driven by a surge in New York and the states around it, including Pennsylvania, which is in turn being driven by two mutant strains, B.1.1.7, aka the English strain, and B.1.526, the New York strain, and also by an increase of cases in Florida, where the more contagious B.1.1.7 predominates. There is also a surge of new cases in Michigan, also led by an increase in the B.1.1.7 variant.
Since the increase in new US cases is relatively recent, it has not yet played into other Covid metrics; US hospitalizations for Covid were down 2.3% week over week and down 73.5% from the peak 7-day average, while this week’s US covid deaths were 9.3% lower than last week’s, and down 71.3% from the peak 7-day average in January. A record 3.4 million doses of vaccine were administered in the US on Friday alone; as of this writing, the CDC reports that 19.4% of those of us over 18 are fully vaccinated, and 35.4% of us have had at least one dose. All vaccines currently being administered are said to be effective in preventing B.1.1.7.
Globally, the Covid data is much worse. New cases worldwide for the week ending March 27th were 16.1% higher than for the week ending March 20th, and 53.5% higher than for the week ending February 20th, which was this year’s low water mark globally. Covid deaths worldwide this week were 7.4% higher than last week, and 12.0% higher than two weeks ago. The global increase continues to be driven by a surge in Brazil and rising cases in India, France, Italy, Poland, and other European countries. The European surge is driven by the more infectious B.1.1.7 strain (which England has controlled), whereas Brazil has two Covid mutations endemic to that country, including P1, which is reinfecting those who had the original Covid-19 strain the first time around.
Some of the COVID-19 graphics presented in the articles linked at the beginning of this post have been updated below.
Summary data graphics:
Below is a copy of today’s graph of new US cases from WorldOMeters so you can get a visuallization of what the growth and decline of this thing looks like (data through March 30):
New cases globally continue to increase. (See Johns Hopkins graph below.) This graphic shows the daily global new cases since the start of the pandemic up through 30 March.
Globally deaths are rising again. (See Johns Hopkins graph below.) This graphic shows the daily global deaths since the start of the pandemic up through 30 March.
Here’s the week’s environment and energy news:
Ohio health officials monitoring residents for exposure to Ebola in Africa — Health officials are monitoring 44 Ohioans who may have had exposure to Ebola after returning from areas of Africa with active outbreaks. In a five-page statement explaining Tuesday why he vetoed Senate Bill 22, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said it is believed that all of those individuals are at a “very low risk” of having contracted the deadly virus.The World Health Organization has confirmed the first confirmed cases of Ebola since the outbreak in West Africa between 2014 and 2016 that killed more than 11,000 people. On Feb. 14, WHO declared an Ebola outbreak in Guinea after three fatal Ebola cases were confirmed in the the rural community of Gouéké in N’Zerekore prefecture.Guinea was one of the three hardest-hit countries during the last outbreak, the largest since Ebola was first discovered in 1976. The virus emerged in Guinea and ultimately infected more than 28,000 people in that country and in Sierra Leone and Liberia before the emergency was lifted in March 2016.In a Feb. 26 statement, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is closely following the outbreak in not only Guinea, but also the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The CDC said the outbreaks were centered in remote area of those countries, with the risk of Ebola spreading to the United States being “extremely low.”In accordance with public health measures, travelers returning to the U.S. from those two countries are being sent to one of six airports, where they are being asked to share information that will be passed onto to state and local health departments that will monitor them for symptoms.
Preservative used in hundreds of popular foods may harm the immune system -A food preservative used to prolong the shelf life of Pop-Tarts, Rice Krispies Treats, Cheez-Its and almost 1,250 other popular processed foods may harm the immune system, according to a new peer-reviewed study by Environmental Working Group. For the study, published this week in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, EWG researchers used data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxicity Forecaster, or ToxCast, to assess the health hazards of the most common chemicals added to food, as well as the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, which can migrate to food from packaging.EWG’s analysis of ToxCast data showed that the preservative tert-butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, has been found to harm the immune system both in both animal tests and in non-animal tests known as high-throughput in vitro toxicology testing. This finding is of particular concern during the coronavirus pandemic. TBHQ is a preservative that is pervasive in processed foods. It has been used in foods for many decades and serves no function besides increasing a product’s shelf life. Using new non-animal test results from ToxCast, EWG found that TBHQ affected immune cell proteins at doses similar to those that cause harm in traditional studies. Earlier studies have found that TBHQ might influence how well flu vaccines work and may be linked to a rise in food allergies. Processed foods can be made without these potentially harmful ingredients, so shoppers should read labels carefully. TBHQ is often, though not always, listed on the ingredient label. It will be listed if it has been added to the product during manufacturing. But it can also be used in food packaging, particularly plastic packaging, in which case it may migrate to food.
Even small increases in NO2 levels could be linked to heightened risk of heart and respiratory death – — Even small increases in nitrogen dioxide levels in the air may be linked to increases in cardiovascular and respiratory deaths, according to research published by The BMJ today. The findings suggest a need to revise and tighten the current air quality guidelines, and to consider stricter regulatory limits for nitrogen dioxide concentrations. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a common air pollutant formed by burning fuel for things like transport, power and industrial processes. It is measured in micrograms (one-millionth of a gram) per cubic meter of air or μg/m3. World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines currently recommend that nitrogen dioxide levels should not exceed an annual average of 40 μg/m3. Many studies have reported the effects of short term exposure to NO2 on health, but most have been based on small samples, covered limited geographical areas, or used different study designs, so results are inconsistent. To address this uncertainty, a team of international researchers set out to investigate the short term associations between NO2 and total, cardiovascular, and respiratory deaths across multiple countries/regions worldwide. Their findings are based on daily concentrations of nitrogen dioxide from 398 cities in 22 low to high income countries/regions over a 45-year period (1973 to 2018). Daily weather data, including average temperature and humidity, were also recorded, and death records were obtained from local authorities within each country/region. A total of 62.8 million deaths were recorded over the 45-year study period, 19.7 million (31.5%) were cardiovascular related deaths and 5.5 million (8.7%) were respiratory deaths. On average, a 10 μg/m3 increase in NO2 concentration on the previous day was associated with 0.46%, 0.37%, and 0.47% increases in total, cardiovascular, and respiratory deaths, respectively. These associations did not change after adjusting for levels of other common air pollutants (sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, and varying sizes of fine particulate matter) obtained from the same fixed site monitoring stations, suggesting that the results withstand scrutiny.
New study shows microplastics turn into ‘hubs’ for pathogens, antibiotic-resistant bacteria — It’s estimated that an average-sized wastewater treatment plant serving roughly 400,000 residents will discharge up to 2,000,000 microplastic particles into the environment each day. Yet, researchers are still learning the environmental and human health impact of these ultra-fine plastic particles, less than 5 millimeters in length, found in everything from cosmetics, toothpaste and clothing microfibers, to our food, air and drinking water.Now, researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology have shown that ubiquitous microplastics can become ‘hubs’ forantibiotic-resistant bacteria and pathogens to grow once they wash down household drains and enter wastewater treatment plants – forming a slimy layer of buildup, or biofilm, on their surface that allows pathogenic microorganisms and antibiotic waste to attach and comingle. In findings published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters, researchers found certain strains ofbacteria elevated antibiotic resistance by up to 30 times while living on microplastic biofilms that can form inside activated sludge units at municipal wastewater treatment plants. “A number of recent studies have focused on the negative impacts that millions of tons of microplastic waste a year is having on our freshwater and ocean environments, but until now the role of microplastics in our towns’ and cities’ wastewater treatment processes has largely been unknown,” . “These wastewater treatment plants can be hotspots where various chemicals, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and pathogens converge and what our study shows is that microplastics can serve as their carriers, posing imminent risks to aquatic biota and human health if they bypass the water treatment process. “Most wastewater treatment plants are not designed for the removal of microplastics, so they are constantly being released into the receiving environment,” “Our goal was to investigate whether or not microplastics are enriching antibiotic-resistant bacteria from activated sludge at municipal wastewater treatment plants, and if so, learn more about the microbial communities involved.”
Microplastics and Algae Tangle in the Great Lakes – Great Lakes algae is catching huge amounts of microplastics. Researchers found that one type of algae, which has greatly expanded its range within the Great Lakes and is one of the most abundant algae by weight there, could catch up to one trillion pieces of microplastic in the Great Lakes.”It’s just a massive amount of these microscopic particle pollutants that are now part of our environment,” Julie Peller, a professor of chemistry at Valparaiso University whose recent research revealed the microplastics-algae dynamic, told EHN.Peller and colleagues say the study may offer insight into how we can stop the microplastic pollution – any plastic debris less than five millimeters long – from getting into the lakes. However, in the meantime, algae are often used as shelter for freshwater species at the bottom of the food chain, so the findings suggest that these microplastic hiding spots could be contaminating Great Lakes fish – and the people that eat them.There are a lot of microplastics in the Great Lakes, one of the world’s largest freshwater ecosystems and thedrinking water source for 30 million people. While less well understood than ocean plastics, the tiny bits of plastic are pretty much ubiquitous throughout the five lakes. Research shows they’re in tap water and beer brewed with water from the Great Lakes. Surface water samples show huge numbers of microplastics, but statistical models always predict more microplastics are in the lakes than are found by sampling.Finding them in algae helps close some of that gap.”I think that we found one of those reservoirs where some of the microplastics have been, for lack of a better word, hiding,” said Peller, whose recently published study in Environmental Pollution documented the close interactions between algae and microplastics. This study examined the most abundant group of algae in the Great Lakes: Cladophora. Cladophora, which looks a bit like green hair, readily tangles up with plastic microfibers, which are shed from synthetic clothing, carpets, and other cloth.Nearly every penny-sized sample of Cladophora collected from the lakes contained at least one microfiber, Peller said. Even samples from apparently pristine locations, like near Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in the northwest corner of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, contained microplastics.Peller’s team also took clean, living Cladophora samples and added plastic microfibers to them. Plastic microfibers quickly adhered to the algae in a process called adsorption, in which two substances stick together because of a molecular attraction.
U.S. Military Ordered ‘Clandestine Burning’ of Toxic Chemicals in Low-Income Neighborhoods, Study Finds -New research conducted by environmental justice scholars at Vermont’s Bennington College reveals that between 2016 and 2020, the U.S. military oversaw the “clandestine burning” of more than 20 million pounds of Aqueous Fire Fighting Foam in low-income communities around the country – even though there is no evidence that incineration destroys the toxic “forever chemicals” that make up the foam and are linked to a range of cancers, developmental disorders, immune dysfunction, and infertility.”In defiance of common sense and environmental expertise, the Department of Defense (DOD) has enlisted poor communities across the U.S. as unwilling test subjects in its toxic experiment with burning AFFF,” David Bond, associate director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College, said in a statement earlier this week.Noting that scientists, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and even Pentagon officials have warned that “burning AFFF is an unproven method and dangerous mix that threatens the health of millions of Americans,” Bond characterized the decision of the military to dump huge stockpiles of AFFF and AFFF wastewater into “a handful of habitually negligent incinerators” as a “harebrained” operation as well as a manifestation of environmental injustice.”In effect,” he added, “the Pentagon redistributed its AFFF problem into poor and working-class neighborhoods.”After months of compiling and analyzing data – obtained last year from the Pentagon and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation – the team from Vermont launched an interactive website this week that publicizes for the first time the results of their investigation into all known shipments of AFFF to hazardous waste incinerators in the U.S.The Bennington College researchers summarized their findings as follows:
- Over 20 million pounds of the toxic firefighting foam AFFF and AFFF wastewater was incinerated between 2016-2020;
- The U.S. military, the EPA, and state regulators all expressed serious concern about the ability of incineration to destroy the toxic chemicals in AFFF during this time;
- Six incinerators were contracted to burn AFFF. Each is a habitual violator of environmental law. Since 2017, three of the incinerators were out of compliance with environmental law 100% of the time while the other incinerators were out of compliance with environmental law about 50% of the time;
- 35% of known shipments of AFFF (7.7 million pounds) was burned at the Norlite Hazardous Waste Incinerator in Cohoes, New York, located within a densely populated urban area and less than 400 feet from a public housing complex. Norlite burned 2.47 million pounds of AFFF and 5.3 million pounds of AFFF wastewater, which likely was burned in violation of its Resource Conservation and Recovery Act permit;
- 40% of the national stockpile of AFFF (5.5 million pounds) was sent to “fuel-blending” facilities where it was mixed into fuels for industrial use. It is not clear where the AFFF-laden fuel went next, although the DOD contract stipulates incineration should be the endpoint; and
- 970,000 pounds of AFFF was burned overseas.
AFFF contains contaminants known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS); exposure to trace amounts of these synthetic chemicals is associated with a variety of detrimental health effects, and some have argued that PFAS are so risky that they not only endanger public health but threaten to undermine human reproduction writ large.
California Regulator Praised for ‘Landmark’ Proposal to List ‘Forever Chemical’ as Carcinogen — A public health watchdog on Wednesday praised California’s proposal to add the so-called “forever chemical” PFOA to the state’s list of chemicals known to cause cancer. PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid, was formerly used to make DuPont’s Teflon and other products. It’s part of a group of chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Dubbed forever chemicals because they don’t break down and can accumulate in the human body, PFAS contamination is widespread. Humans can be exposed through workplace environments, groundwater contamination, or household products. The U.S. EPA says there’s evidence PFOA can cause adverse health effects including reproductive and developmental, liver and kidney, and immunological harm.The proposed listing decision was announced last Friday by the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). It said products with PFOA should carry a warning label that the chemical is known to the state to cause cancer under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, or Proposition 65. That determination, said OEHHA, is based on findings from the National Toxicology Program.PFOA has been phased out of production in the U.S., but public health watchdogs says there remain concerns about ongoing contamination, existing stockpiles, imported products, and the fact that some replacement chemicals present health dangers of their own.PFOA is already on the Proposition 65 list, but for reproductive toxicity. Adding the cancer warning to PFOA would be good news for public health, says the Environmental Working Group (EWG), because such labeling “historically has pushed manufacturers to remove listed chemicals from their products.” “The damage to communities nationwide from PFOA-contaminated drinking water and exposure through everyday consumer products is almost unimaginable,” said Cook, “but California’s action underscores the urgency of addressing the crisis.”
Mice biting hospital patients, ravaging farms as plague escalates across NSW – Three hospital patients in regional New South Wales have been bitten by mice as the horror rodent plague escalates. “Reports of residents or patients receiving minor bites have been made … and appropriate treatment has been provided,” said a NSW Health spokesperson. Western Local Health District has received one report of a mouse-related illness known as lymphocytic choriomeningitis [LCM] in the region. “The disease is linked to mice but it’s very rare,” said public health director Priscilla Stanley. “People described sore. Red eyes are a symptom. She said she was “surprised … that we haven’t seen any increased numbers of leptospirosis”. The hospital incidents underscore how bad the mice plague has become in regional New South Wales. Farmers across the state are desperately seeking new rodent control methods to save their winter crops from destruction. Pest populations have drastically increased and so have reports of them ruining crops, destroying stored hay and invading silos, sheds and homes. New South Wales Farmers’ Association president James Jackson said urgent action was needed by the state government to control the plague. “A lever we can pull is with the APVMA [the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority], and that is to get an emergency-use permit so we can actually treat farmers’ grain that is not sterilised,” Mr Jackson said. He said the permit would give farmers permission to use the lethal rodenticide known as zinc phosphide to treat their seed. “[The permit] will reduce the cost of the poisoning program and indeed give permission to put it on fallow fields,” he said Norman Moeris, a farmer in the central west, said his property in Gilgandra was overrun. “[The mice] have done a hell of a lot of damage to hay that people were storing for the next drought … silo bags. They are just demolishing them,” Mr Moeris said. “It’s just like a wave of plague locusts on the ground. That’s how bad they are.”
“Horrific” Swarms Of Spiders, Snakes Invade Australian Homes Amid Devastating Floods- In recent years, Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales (NSW) has faced everything from drought to brushfires, a pandemic, a recent all-consuming plague of mice and now, devastating floods and massive hordes of spiders.In videos shared across social media, hundreds if not thousands of spiders can be seen scrambling through people’s homes and garages prior to an evacuation order being issued on early Saturday in expectation of the floods.In one video posted to Facebook by Melanie Williams, the arachnids of all sizes can be seen scrambling about in search of shelter from the coming deluge.The Guardian reports that Kinchela resident Matt Lovenfosse was pulling up to his home on Monday morning when he witnessed what appeared to be a sea of “millions” of spiders climbing about to escape the floodwaters.“So I went out to have a look and it was millions of spiders,” Lovenfosse said.“It’s amazing. It’s crazy,” he continued. “The spiders all crawled up on to the house, on to fences and whatever they can get on to.”The flooding has resulted in some 18,000 residents fleeing their homes since last week, with authorities warning that the cleanup could last until April.The floods have also seen thousands of snakes and insects of every kind scrambling to flee from the floods, with some snakes even leaping into rescue boats to avoid being drowned.“There were also skinks, ants, basically every insect, crickets – all just trying to get away from the flood waters,” vistor Shenae Varley told Guardian Australia. It’s just the latest reminder that Australia isn’t just another country – it may be its own entirely different world.
Florida Bans 16 Invasive Species, Including Popular Pets – Despite public resistance, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted to ban the possession and breeding of 16 high-risk invasive species.The new ruling, approved late last month, includes Burmese pythons, Argentine black and white tegus, green iguanas and 13 other high-risk, non-native snakes and lizards which “pose a threat to Florida‘s ecology, economy, and human health and safety,” the FWC wrote in a statement.So far, environmental groups have celebrated the decision, saying it will help protect Florida’s natural ecosystems, waterways and native species, while exotic pet owners and breeders who benefit from the state’s profitable animal trade have condemned it.More than 500 non-native species have been reported in Florida, 80 percent of which have been introduced through live animal trades, the FWC wrote. When these same animals are released into the wild, they reproduce and ultimately out-compete native species.”I’m very sensitive to the people in the pet trade and enthusiasts. But this action is a result of the invasive species that continue to get into the wild,” FWC Commissioner Robert Spottswood said in a statement about the ruling. “We have so many of these species now: pythons, tegus, iguanas. These animals are doing lots of damage and we are incumbent to do something.”The public hearing lasted four hours and included more than 80 people from across the country, many of whom called in to oppose the rule, The Washington Post reported. Some exotic pet owners expressed concern over losing pets they considered family members. “If you take them away, “I would be really messed up,” said one caller who owns pythons and iguanas, according to the Washington Post.The green iguana, first spotted in Florida in 1960 and deemed an “exotic curiosity,” is now considered an environmental threat that carries salmonella, enters sewers and digs up sea walls, The Guardian reported. The FWC is now encouraging locals to humanely kill iguanas found on their property in order to prevent them from causing further ecological damage, The Guardian added.The ban will not require current owners to get rid of their pets as long as owners meet new compliance rules. It also gives businesses three years to “get rid of their breeding stock,” The Washington Post reported.
U.S. House panel divides on party lines over how to better conserve public lands – In a preview of the arguments likely to be repeated as the Biden administration and Congress work toward conservation goals, Democrats on a U.S. House panel Tuesday outlined what they say is a need for aggressive action on climate. But Republicans worried increased federal involvement would be counterproductive to conservation goals while hurting rural economies. Democrats and most Republicans present at the first hearing of the year for a House Natural Resources subcommittee that oversees public lands agreed conservation was a worthy goal, but had differing visions of what increased conservation should look like. Republicans voiced fears that added conservation efforts would bring more restrictive designations of public and private lands, making the management of forest fires more difficult and endangering livelihoods tied to ranching, mining and forestry. Democrats, while arguing that more aggressive federal lands management was a necessary part of mitigating climate change, downplayed the scope of federal protections and said increased conservation could bring more – not fewer – jobs to rural communities. Molly Cross, a scientist and climate change adaptation coordinator at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said the changing climate affects the supply of clean air and water, wildlife protections and natural disasters, but could be mitigated by conservation. “The scientific consensus is clear: The earth’s climate is changing and human activities, including fossil fuel emissions and land conversion, are the reason,” she said. “The good news is there are actions we can take.” Members of the panel’s Democratic majority spent much of the morning responding to what full committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva called “misinformation” about the scope and purpose of increased conservation designations. “Despite what some have suggested, protecting lands is not about locking them up,” Grijalva (D-Ariz.), said. “We also need to acknowledge that merely extraction, whether it’s mining, oil, gas, or clearcutting… is not conservation, no matter how you dress it up.” Republicans, including Idaho Gov. Brad Little, who was a witness at the hearing, said they favored “active conservation” but that some existing federal laws made effective land management harder and hurt the environment. Little made a distinction between what he called well-intentioned efforts at preservation – which he framed as completely restrictive of any human use that did more harm than good – and a widely popular “active conservation” approach that allows for multiple use of public lands, including grazing and forestry. “The no-action approach generally does little more than incubate dangerous conditions, prevent active management and hurt rural communities,” Little said. Several Republicans on the panel expressed willingness to work with Democrats on conservation goals, but said they opposed what they’d seen so far from the Biden administration and the Democratic-led House. “We desperately need to do conservation, we desperately need to take care of what we’ve got and leave it in better hands for future generations,” committee ranking member Bruce Westerman, (R-Ark.), said. “If you’re talking about that kind of action, I think you can get a lot of support across the aisle. But if you’re talking about truly locking stuff up in wilderness areas, as the definition of wilderness is, then it’s going to be hard for us to support that.”
Biden Pushes Colombia to Restart Glyphosate Spraying Program – After a six-year halt, Colombia plans to restart the toxic aerial spraying of glyphosate on coca crops as early as next month – drawing “most welcome” support from U.S. President Joe Biden and sharp criticism from 150 regional experts who wrote to Biden, “your administration is implicitly endorsing former President Trump’s damaging legacy in Colombia.”On March 2nd, the Biden administration welcomed Colombia’s decision to restart its aerial coca eradication program in Biden’s first annual 2021 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report: “The government of Colombia has committed to re-starting its aerial coca eradication program, which would be a most welcome development.” Colombia halted the controversial spraying program in 2015. In 2018, Colombia’s then-new President Ivan Duque vowed to resume the program but has yet to restart the aerial spraying The country faced increasing pressure from the United States to restart the program. “You’re going to have to spray,” former US President Donald Trump told Duque at the White House during a March 2, 2020 meeting. Aerial fumigation had been a central component of Plan Colombia, the 2005 multi-billion dollar U.S. program to finance the Colombian government war on coca cultivation and their war on FARC, which was Colombia’s largest rebel group before being disbanded in 2017. But in 2015, the Colombian Supreme Court ruled that the spraying must end if the spraying of glyphosate was creating health problems. Also, in 2015, the World Health Organization found that glyphosate – also known as “Roundup” – was harmful to the environment and health, potentially causing cancer.VICE News is reporting: More than 150 experts on drugs, security, and environmental policy in the region have written an open letter to Biden, saying Duque’s spraying campaign is “misguided” and Biden’s decision “could not have come at a worse time.” “The recently announced decision sends an unfortunate message to the Colombian people that your administration is not committed to abandoning the ineffective and damaging war on drugs internationally, even as your administration takes bold steps to mitigate its multiple impacts on Black, Indigenous, and people of color in the United States,” says the letter, spearheaded by the Center for Studies on Security and Drugs at the Bogotfl-based Los Andes University. “By backing fumigation, your administration is implicitly endorsing former President Trump’s damaging legacy in Colombia,” the letter says. “It was your predecessor who, shortly after taking office, intensified demands on our country to resume spraying with glyphosate, which has been shown to pose significant health and environmental risks to affected populations.”The experts point to how aerial spraying with glyphosate can cause serious health problems, such as cancer, miscarriages, and respiratory illness, and environmental destruction – biodiversity loss, soil damage, and contamination of water sources.The aerial fumigation program using glyphosate in Colombia continued throughout the US presidencies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.
Deforestation, forest conversion and palm oil plantations linked to disease outbreaks – Deforestation, certain types of reforestation and commercial palm plantations correlate with increasing outbreaks of infectious disease, shows a new study in Frontiers in Veterinary Science. This study offers a first global look at how changes in forest cover potentially contribute to vector-borne diseases–such as those carried by mosquitos and ticks–as well as zoonotic diseases, like Covid-19, which jumped from an animal species into humans. The expansion of palm oil plantations in particular corresponded to significant rises in vector-borne disease infections. “We don’t yet know the precise ecological mechanisms at play, but we hypothesize that plantations, such as oil palm, develop at the expense of natural wooded areas, and reforestation is mainly monospecific forest made at the expense of grasslands,” says lead author Dr Serge Morand, “. “Both land use changes are characterized by loss of biodiversity and these simplified habitats favor animal reservoirs and vectors of diseases.” Deforestation is widely recognized to negatively impact biodiversity, the climate and human health generally. Deforestation in Brazil has already been linked to malaria epidemics, but the global consequences of deforestation and forest cover changes on human health and epidemics has not been studied in detail. Morand and his colleague looked at changes in forest cover around the world between 1990 and 2016. They then compared these results to the local population densities and outbreaks of vector-borne and zoonotic diseases. Confirming past hypotheses, they found that both deforestation and afforestation had significant correlations to disease outbreaks. They found a strong association between deforestation and epidemics (such as malaria and Ebola) in tropical countries like Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Indonesia, Myanmar and Malaysia. In contrast, temperate regions like the USA, China and Europe showed clear links between afforestation activities and vector-borne diseases like Lyme disease.
Oil palm growers’ misdeeds allow an opportunity to save West Papua’s forests – A government review has identified a massive area of forest in Indonesia’s West Papua province that has been earmarked for oil palm plantations but that can still be saved. Keeping this forested area standing could potentially prevent the release of greenhouse gases equivalent to two-fifths of Indonesia’s total annual emissions, experts say – if the concession holders can be made to relinquish their hold over the land. Twenty-four palm oil companies control a combined 576,090 hectares (1.42 million acres) of land in West Papua, of which 383,431 hectares (947,479 acres) – an area two and a half times the size of London – is intact forest. A recently concluded government review of oil palm license holders has determined that this area remains untouched because of a litany of administrative and legal violations by the companies that prevents them from clearing the forest and starting to cultivate oil palms. This forested area holds an estimated 185.5 million tons of above-ground carbon dioxide, according to Arief Wijaya, the climate and forests senior manager of the think tank World Resources Institute (WRI) Indonesia. That’s equivalent to nearly 40% of Indonesia’s total emissions in a year. “Saving these 383,000 hectares of intact forests in Papua is significant in reducing emissions,” Arief told Mongabay. “If it can be done, then it could strengthen the achievement of reducing deforestation, our climate target, as well as supporting the commitment of the government of West Papua in conserving 70% of its area.” The recent license review, carried out by the West Papua government working with the national anti-corruption agency, or KPK, found 13 of the 24 concession holders had not yet started operating on the ground. It found most of the companies in violation of laws and regulations on permits and taxes, among other things. The findings are in line with a 2019 government audit of the palm oil industry, which found more than 80% of plantations in Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of the crop, violating numerous regulations, such as by encroaching into protected areas and failing to comply with national sustainability standards. In the case of the West Papua concessions, the companies’ violations give local authorities leverage to win back control of the concessions and prevent them from being cleared.
Pension and endowment funds linked to conflict-plagued oil palm in DRC — Well-known investment funds in the U.S., Europe and South Africa are financing a set of oil palm plantations that have been at the center of more than a century of discord in the northeastern quadrant of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a new report from the Oakland Institute, a California-based policy think tank. People from communities around the Boteka, Lokutu and Yaligimba plantations managed by Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC) say that their ancestors’ land was stolen from them for a massive palm oil-producing plantation when Belgian colonial officials were in control. The oil palm concessions cover more than 107,000 hectares (264,000 acres) in three separate locations in DRC. Today, residents say their rights to the land and their livelihoods continue to be sidelined in favor of profits sought by the company and outside investors. The Oakland Institute and other organizations say workers on the plantations are paid little for arduous and dangerous work, including exposure to pesticides used to keep the rows of palms producing their oil-bearing fruit. They have also raised concerns about the nutrient-rich runoff from the plantations that enters local tributaries of the Congo River. A map shows the locations of the three oil palm plantations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Image courtesy of the Oakland Institute. Despite the publicity around these issues, several major foundations, endowments and pension funds based in the United States, the United Kingdom and South Africa have continued to invest in funds that support PHC’s operations. In the past decade, European development banks have also funneled tens of millions of dollars into the plantations. “While several of the investors claim to promote socially conscious and environmentally sustainable investments, they have turned a blind eye to the legacy of abuses in the PHC concessions,” Andy Currier, the report’s author, said in a statement. Currier added that complicated ownership structures allow these funds to “maintain distance from the extensive history of documented abuses against the local communities, while seeking a profitable return on their investment.” The most recently documented of those abuses came in mid-February 2021, when a resident of a community near the Lokutu plantation named Blaise Mokwe was arrested. He was accused of having stolen oil palm fruit from the plantations and arrested by PHC-contracted security guards. While Mokwe was in custody, he was beaten, and days later, he died.
Podcast: Palm oil plantations and their impacts have arrived in the Amazon – – Today we discuss a new investigative report by Mongabay’s contributing editor for Brazil, Karla Mendes, that looks at the impacts of the palm oil industry’s growth in the Amazon. In an article titled “Déjà vu as palm oil industry brings deforestation, pollution to Amazon,” Mendes details the results of a year-long investigation into allegations that the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of the palm oil industry’s operations in southeast Asia are now being felt by Indigenous communities in the Amazon rainforest. We speak with Mendes on the program today. She tells us about visiting the Turé-Mariquita Indigenous Reserve in Brazil’s Para state, where she experienced the effects of pesticide use in a nearby oil palm plantation firsthand. Members of an Indigenous community within the reserve say that they have been experiencing health problems like headaches, skin rashes, and stomach ailments since the plantation was put in with no buffer zone between it and their community. We also speak today with Sandra Damiani, a researcher at the University of Bras’lia who led a study to determine whether or not these increasing health issues were the result of oil palm plantations’ activities. Damiani’s study found herbicide and pesticide residues in both the surface water and the groundwater of the Turé-Mariquita Indigenous Reserve. While the levels of these residues found by Damiani’s study fall within legal limits in Brazil, elsewhere, such as in the European Union, those levels far surpass what’s allowable. Our third and final guest on today’s show is Fel’cio Pontes Júnior, a federal prosecutor in the Amazon region who is trying to hold palm oil companies accountable for polluting Indigenous communities. Pontes Júnior helped file a lawsuit on behalf of the affected communities all the way back in 2014, and has been fighting in court ever since to have a forensic investigation done in order to prove whether or not oil palm operations are responsible for the pesticide contamination and other social, environmental, and health impacts in the Turé-Mariquita Indigenous Reserve and elsewhere.
The US wood shortage can be traced to a decades-old beetle infestation in Canada –Lumber is in such short supply in the US that its prices have skyrocketed to an all-time high – so much so that the expense of building the average single-family home has risen by $24,000 since last April to reflect the cost of wood. The reason, in significant part, is the changing climate – and how it enabled a beetle species to infest forests in the Canadian province of British Columbia years ago. In the US, since the spring of 2020, the price of lumber has risen by more than 180%, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Futures contracts in lumber now hover around $1,000 per thousand feet of board, nearly four times their April 2020 prices. Robert Dietz, the chief economist of the NAHB, noted that around 81,000 new homes across the US are awaiting construction in part because of the rising cost of materials like lumber. The NAHB and other housing industry associations have written to the US government, seeking “immediate remedies.” But the shortfall in supply is also part of an older saga, involving Dendroctonus ponderosae: the mountain pine beetle, a quarter-inch insect with a shiny black exoskeleton. The beetle has been in Canadian forests for decades, but they’re usually kept in check by cold winters, said Kevin Mason, managing director of ERA Forest Products Research, a Montreal-based research company. But in the late 1990s, the beetles started to live longer and reproduce quicker – an outcome, scientists believe, of a warming climate. They swarmed through the pines of British Columbia, attacking more than 44 million acres of forest, an area four times the size of Switzerland. “You could go up in an airplane above British Columbia and see the damage,” Mason said. “I’m a little color-blind, but others could see it better than me. The dead pines had a red tinge to them, so you could fly an hour and just see this red kill.” Before the infestation, British Columbia used to provide 15-17% of the lumber going into US markets, making up half of Canada’s lumber exports across the border. After the infestation, those numbers dropped, Mason said: “There were points where, for British Columbia, the figure was below 10%, and Canada now is at around 25%.“ The after-effects of the infestation Many pines killed by the beetle could still be harvested for a period of 5-10 years, and the government of British Columbia offered incentives to the industry to process these dead trees. Mason thinks roughly 800 million cubic meters of dead pine was harvested over a period of 15-odd years, until 2015 or thereabouts. But once that was done, forests had to regrow.”We’re talking about a diminished harvest in British Columbia for decades,” Mason says.
A bug acquired the DNA of a toxic plant, and now it’s running rampant – Over the course of the pandemic, the novel coronavirus has morphed into new variants that have featured genetic changes capable of altering its behavior. Whether it’s a single-cell organism or a multi-cell being, any living creature can go through mutations that will allow it to adapt better to its surroundings.But researchers have just observed a rare phenomenon. A bug known as a whitefly received a gene from a plant, and that DNA influx completely changed it in the most unexpected way. The bug has been causing massive damage to tomato, potato, and tobacco crops, as the new gene allowed it to evade protections that plants develop against these pests. Humans will now have to alter the genetic code of affected plants to reenable protection. “As far as we know, ours is the first example of horizontal transfer of a functional gene from plant to animal,” Ted Turlings told Inverse of the new study published in Cell magazine detailing the surprising genetic change.A professor of chemical ecology at the University of Neuchâtel and co-author of the research, Turlings explained that horizontal gene transfer occurs when a species gets genetic code from another species and then incorporates those genes in its DNA. Genes are typically transmitted vertically, from parents to offspring, and don’t involve inter-species crossover. Horizontal gene change is common between bacteria but very rare between multicellular organisms.The researchers found that the whitefly (B. tabachi) obtained a gene dubbed BtPMaT1, which gave it protection against toxins found on plants – toxins that should protect them from insects like the whitefly. The researchers fed the whiteflies a diet containing the toxic phenolic glycosides, with a control group receiving a solution without the toxin. That’s how they proved the bug received the gene from a plant and then incorporated it into its DNA. The whitefly would have to ingest those phenolic glycosides when feeding on the tomato plant and that would usually kill it. But the BtPMaT1 gene neutralizes these toxins, so the whitefly can continue to destroy crops undisturbed. Essentially, the whitefly incorporated the plant’s defense mechanism into its own genome to beat the plant.
Texas reports 111 dead from February winter storm that knocked out power and water for millions —The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) reported the official statewide death toll from winter storm Uri now stands at 111. This surpasses the 103 deaths attributed to Hurricane Harvey in 2017, one of worst disasters in Texas history. The reported deaths occurred between February 11 and March 5, with the majority being associated with hypothermia. The DSHS stated the first deaths from the extreme weather came toward the beginning of February, but due to long-term effects, some Texans succumbed to illness and injury as late as March 11. Texas workers continue to grapple with the physical and economic devastation along with an enduring emotional toll. Deaths related to the storm had a range of causes. Most victims succumbed to hypothermia amid record low temperatures, such as an 11-year-old boy who froze to death in his family’s bed in Conroe. The storm caused many other kinds of deaths as well, including accidents on frozen roads, falls and fires. Some people’s medical equipment stopped working without power and others died of carbon monoxide poisoning as they desperately tried to heat their homes or keep warm in their cars. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo called it a “disaster within a disaster,” stating there were at least 300 calls regarding carbon monoxide poisoning in her county, which includes Houston, the fourth largest city in the US. The new death count is nearly twice what officials estimated last week and will likely continue to grow. Locales such as Tarrant County, which includes Fort Worth, have yet to report any deaths related to the storm. Harris County reported 31 deaths, more than in any other county. Travis County, home of the state capital Austin, saw nine deaths. Galveston County saw six deaths, and the rest were scattered in 47 other counties around Texas. The latest DSHS report includes three deaths in Dallas County, the county’s first confirmed deaths. The county’s medical examiner is investigating as many as 17 deaths that could be related to the storm. Officials fear an accurate number will never be available. Texas was devastated when the state’s power grid collapsed because of the frigid temperatures and a record demand for electricity. More than 4 million homes and businesses lost power at the height of the crisis. As the temperatures dropped, the demand for electricity soared, all while supply plummeted as power facilities started falling offline. Millions lost access to water in their homes for days on end, forced to queue for supplies in frigid temperatures. The storm spread ice and snow over nearly all the state, crippling power generation and forcing millions to weather the conditions in dark and poorly insulated homes. Even after the storm passed and temperatures rose, it took days for power to return and even longer for water service to be restored across the state.
The Water Crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, Is a Dire Warning Sign – Jackson, Mississippi, is finally on its way out of a nightmare water crisis. Freezing winter storms wreaked havoc on Jackson’s old and crumbling water infrastructure. In mid-February the city experienced over 80 water main breaks, leaving tens of thousands of residents without running water. But while the Texas blackouts dominated the news cycle, Jackson’s water crises received far less attention, even as it extended into its fourth week. Jackson’s residents, 80 percent of whom are Black and nearly 30 percent of whom live below the poverty line, have been forced to boil water to drink, bathe, and use the bathroom. They’ve collected rainwater to flush their toilets and bought bottled water to brush their teeth. In the middle of a pandemic, residents of Jackson haven’t had reliable access to clean water to wash their hands. This water crisis was years in the making. For the past 50 years the Republican-led state government has been cutting taxes and neglecting to invest in infrastructure repairs. Jackson’s shrinking tax base has been exacerbated by white flight and the fact that, unlike other capital cities, Jackson doesn’t make money off property taxes for state-owned buildings. The city of Jackson has a $300 million budget. According to Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Jackson’s wastewater and drinking water systems require at least $2 billion of repairs. “It isn’t a matter of if these systems will fail, it’s a matter of when these systems will fail,” Lumumba tells Nathalie Baptiste on the Mother Jones Podcast. “Pipes were bursting throughout the system because they are over 100 years. They’re like peanut brittle.” On March 17, the city of Jackson Mississippi finally lifted its boil water notice. But Jackson’s water crisis laid bare the budget, infrastructure, and equity issues that leave cities like Jackson vulnerable to future extreme weather events.
Storm drops snow, pushes strong winds across New Mexico – A storm dropped snow and pushed strong winds across much of northern and central New Mexico on Wednesday as authorities warned of difficult travel conditions in some areas. A high wind warning was in effect into Wednesday afternoon in the Albuquerque area where the National Weather Service said gusts of up to 68 mph were recorded at the airport. Snowfall accumulations were expected to range from several inches to up to a foot, the weather service said. Low visibility and other travel impacts were expected in the Aztec and Bloomington area of San Juan County in northwestern New Mexico, along Interstate 40 east of the Sandia and Manzano mountains and on Interstate 25 between Santa Fe and Raton, the weather service said. Weather conditions were expected to gradually improve Wednesday afternoon but another storm was expected to drop additional snow on the northern mountains and northwestern New Mexico late Thursday and into Friday, the weather service said. Scattered closures include public schools in Gallup and Las Vegas.
First of two snowstorms hits Southwest Colorado –getting hit with snow overnight, Southwest Colorado can expect to see rain, sometimes mixed with snow, Wednesday through early Friday. Wednesday morning, Durango reported 3.2 inches of snow overnight. Elsewhere, Cortez reported 3 inches; Telluride, 7 inches; Olathe, 4 inches; Aztec, 1.5 inches; Ouray, 2.5 inches; and the area southwest of Navajo Dam, 6 inches. “You could see up to 2 more inches during the day (Wednesday) in Durango, but it might fall as rain. It’s hard to tell this time of year,” said Brianna Bealo, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. Cortez weather watcher Jim Andrus said Cortez has received 9.8 inches of snow in March, 181% above the monthly average for March 5.4 inches. The water equivalent from this month’s precipitation in Cortez is at 0.81 inch, compared with a monthly average of 1.04 inches, which 78% of the average. John Palmer, Colorado Department of Transportation deputy superintendent of maintenance, reported winter conditions Wednesday morning on highways across Southwest Colorado. “We have adverse weather conditions across the region, especially along highways leading into New Mexico and on our high mountain passes. Air temperatures are hovering at or below freezing, so road surface conditions will be wet and slick at lower elevations and in valleys, and snowpacked and icy on mountain passes,” Palmer said Wednesday morning. “This nasty weather is sticking around through Friday, so travelers should really pay close attention to weather forecasts and to road condition reports.” he added. “Chain laws or highway closures can be put into place or lifted with swift-changing conditions.” On Wednesday morning: U.S. Highway 550: Chain laws in place from Purgatory Resort to Ouray for all vehicles.U.S. Highway 160 on Wolf Creek Pass: Oversize loads prohibited. Roads snowpacked, slushy and icy in spots.U.S. Highway 160 east: Closed at La Veta Pass, between Alamosa and Walsenburg.
Double-digit snow totals possible as third wave of snow rolls through Colorado –Following snow on Tuesday that dropped more than a foot of accumulation in parts of Colorado and another storm that dropped big totals over the past weekend, more snow is on the way. While winter storm alerts are still active in parts of southern Colorado through Wednesday evening (calling for a few more inches of snow and slick driving conditions), another round of snowfall is set to hit later this week. The next wave of powder is set to fall from Thursday through Friday night, according to Joel Gratz of OpenSnow.com, likely to drop around a foot in parts of southwest Colorado near Wolf Creek pass, Durango, and Telluride. Snowfall will likely take place elsewhere in Colorado’s mountains, though will likely be in the range of a few inches (See full mapping and resort-specific predictions on OpenSnow.com). The National Weather Service has posted a ‘hazardous weather outlook’ that mirrors predictions on OpenSnow.com, specifying that the highest snow totals are expected along the mountains of the Continental Divide and in the eastern San Juans, with up to a foot of snow possible in this mountain range. Snow accumulation will likely be restricted to the state’s mountainous areas where colder temperatures will be present. While precipitation is predicted along parts of the Front Range metro on Friday, highs in the 40s will likely keep conditions too warm for much to stick if any snow does fall.
Unseasonal snow grips Istanbul following mostly dry winter, Turkey (videos) Heavy snowfall hit Istanbul, Turkey, on Wednesday, March 24, 2021, after a mostly dry winter season the country’s third-warmest winter in the last five decades. The snow was also an unusual occurrence for this time of the year in the city, which experienced two brief but heavy snow spells in the last two months.Heavy precipitation first gripped Istanbul’s Asian side early Wednesday, before heading to the European side, bringing morning traffic to a standstill in some areas. A brief hailstorm was reported in some districts.Stranded motorists had to wait for hours, especially on sections of the D-100 Highway. Meanwhile, a road accident occurred at a road connecting Arnavutkoy and Hadimkoy districts as a truck drifted on the icy road and overturned. The sudden snow also delayed travel as bus stops and stations were crowded. An underwater rail service linking the city’s European and Asian sides were also packed with passengers who avoided traffic on bridges over the Bosporus.
Heavy rain and snowfall persist in Jammu and Kashmir, landslides leave hundreds stranded – (videos) The Jammu-Srinagar national highway was closed on Tuesday, March 23, 2021, following heavy snowfall in the Jawahar Tunnel area that led to multiple landslides, stranding more than 300 vehicles. Heavy precipitation continued into Wednesday, March 24, for the fourth consecutive day, resulting in a temperature drop in much of Jammu and Kashmir.Persistent rainfall in most parts of the highway triggered landslides at almost a dozen areas between Banihal and Chanderkote, leaving more than 300 vehicles stranded on both sides.According to Parul Bhardwaj, Deputy Superintendent of Police Traffic, a few hundred vehicles were stuck on the road since Monday night, March 22.”Despite incessant rain and the lurking threat of shooting stones, the men and machinery kept the highway open. The majority of the stranded vehicles in Ramban were cleared last night itself,” he told PTI news agency.Heavy precipitation continued into Wednesday, bringing fresh snowfall in the mountainous regions of Kashmir while the plains were drenched by rain. Officials reported up to 0.3 m (1 foot) of snow in Gulmarg, a popular skiing destination.Fresh snowfall also occurred in other areas of the valley, including Sonamarg in the Ganderbal district and Pahalgam in the Anantnag district. Around 0.3 m (1 foot) of fresh snow was recorded in Sadhana Top and Z-Gali in Kupwara District, while other areas registered about 15 cm (6 inches).The meteorological department said there is a chance of further rain and snow in the valley for the next few days.
Taiwan cuts water supply amid worst drought in 50 years (video) Taiwan has further reduced its water supplies as the country faces its worst drought in 50 years. The government has issued its first red alert on water supply in six years on Wednesday, March 24, 2021, warning that reservoirs in the central region are dropping at dangerously low levels.Authorities in Taiwan have stepped up their battle against the country’s worst dry spell in five decades, further reducing water supplies to many areas, including a major hub of semiconductor manufacturing.Water supply will also be cut by 15 percent to companies in two major science parks in Taichung, according to economics minister, Wang Mei Hua. Non-industrial users across Taichung and Miaoli County will lose water supply two days a week beginning April 6, Wang added. The government is reportedly under pressure to ensure continuous supply to water-intensive industries, such as semiconductor manufacturing, at a time when companies are clamoring for chips. Meanwhile, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) said the restrictions would not affect their production.”Some TSMC fabs will slightly increase the proportion of water from tanker trucks to improve flexibility. The new requirement for us to cut water usage by 15 percent starting April 6 will not impact our operations,” it stated.Wang noted that earlier in March, Taiwan had enough water reserves to keep its technology companies operating smoothly until May, when seasonal rains often replenish supplies depleted during drier winter months.
‘Prolonged and Widespread Drought’ Predicted for Much of U.S. in New NOAA Report — Drought, warmth are the big story of NOAA’s spring 2021 outlook – YouTube – A megadrought worsened by climate change is creating and exacerbating problems across the Western U.S. as NOAA predicts precipitation levels below historical norms through June. NOAA’s official spring outlook, released late last week, predicts expanding and worsening drought from Louisiana to Oregon and unusually warm temperatures in almost the entire country – which in turn make drought worse. “We are predicting prolonged and widespread drought,” National Weather Service Deputy Director Mary Erickson told the AP. “It’s definitely something we’re watching and very concerned about.” Shrinking snowpack means even less water will be available for everything from drinking water to hydropower to irrigation, and reservoirs such as Lakes Mead and Powell are already at below-normal levels. Climate change exacerbates drought in multiple ways, including by creating weather patterns that, “leav[e] the southwestern states mostly warm, dry, and prone to wildfires,” Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, told Bloomberg. As reported by CNN:The greatest area of snow drought expansion has been in the Sierra Nevada where no large storms have occurred since the strong atmospheric river in late January. This has left almost all of t he Sierra Nevada weather stations below the 30th percentile of snow water equivalent, and a few locations in the Southern Sierra are even below the 10th percentile.But what is bad for some can be good for others in terms of snowpack. It’s the ultimate dichotomy.That’s because unlike in some previous years, that lack of snowmelt means flooding will be less severe across the Plains and Midwest, but it also means lack of necessary water for the western states that rely on it to keep drought conditions in check.
Massive dust storm engulfs West Texas, causing near-zero visibility – A line of severe storms brought a massive amount of dust in West Texas on Monday afternoon, March 22, 2021. The dust storm turned skies into dark orange and left motorists with near-zero visibility.A massive dust storm kicked up by severe storms blanketed the skies over West Texas on Monday afternoon, leading to extremely low visibility.The thick dust turned the day into dark as an orange hue engulfed parts of the South Plains, blocking sunlight in the late afternoon.A dust storm warning was issued for Lubbock and surrounding counties by Monday evening due to damaging wind gusts over 96 km/h (60 mph) and near-zero visibility due to blowing dust.Dust storms are usually caused by intense thunderstorms. They often occur in areas with dry soil as loosely bound particles are lofted into the air, remaining suspended due to high winds.Most dust storms in the U.S. occur in the South or Southwest, specifically Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California.
Suez Canal: EverGiven Container Ship Got Stuck in High Winds, Dust Storm –The Ever Given, the massive container ship stuck in the Suez Canal, Egypt, was grounded by high winds and a huge dust storm, according to authorities.The 1,300-foot-long cargo ship ran aground at around 7.40 a.m. local time on Tuesday, the ship’s technical manager Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) said in a statement to Insider.As of midday Wednesday local time, tugboats and cranes were attempting to free it without success. An Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity on Wednesday, told the Associated Press that freeing the ship could take at least two days. Images show the Ever Given blocking to the channel and barring traffic in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, which connects Europe to Asia.A smaller second channel of the canal, opened in 2015, may allow some traffic to move. It is unclear if it is in use.Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, chair of the SCA, second right, speaks to other staff onboard a boat near the stuck cargo ship MV Ever Green Wednesday, March 24, 2021. Suez Canal Authority via APAuthorities have blamed the accident on weather conditions. Lieutenant-General Osama Rabie, chair of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), said it probably happened due to “strong winds and a dust storm that obstructed the view,” according to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm. This meant the ship was unable to steer, Reuters reported the SCA as saying.
Worst floods since 1971 hit parts of New South Wales, Australia — About 18 000 people have evacuated their homes after torrential rains hit New South Wales, Australia, causing severe flooding in many parts of the state on Saturday and Sunday, March 20 and 21, 2021. More evacuations are expected as the severe weather is forecast to continue mid-week.
- The deluge has inundated coastal areas of NSW, including parts of Sydney, prompting authorities to warn eight million residents to avoid unnecessary travel.
- Several hard-hit areas recorded 250 mm (10 inches) of rain in a 24-hour period, while most of the coast has seen March rainfall records broken.
- The government has signed 34 natural disaster declarations, as of March 21.
Heavy downpours began Friday, March 19, causing severe flooding which as described by the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) as “potentially life-threatening”. As the severe weather continued into the weekend, hundreds of schools were shut and about 18 000 people have been forced to evacuate. Parts of the state experienced the worst flooding in 50 years, authorities said Sunday.Floodwaters raged from Bellingen to Port Macquarie, Mount Seaview, Wauchope and Gloucester, and Wingham. The Kindee Bridge peaked at 12.1 m (40 feet) on Saturday, March 20, breaking the 2013 major flood record.By Saturday afternoon, officials had issued nine evacuation orders for 15 areas.NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian stated that the region was experiencing a “one-in-100-year” event, and 34 areas have been declared natural disaster areas.”I don’t know any time in a state history where we have had these extreme weather conditions in such quick succession in the middle of a pandemic.”She added, “Whilst we don’t think things will worsen on the Mid North Coast, definitely conditions will continue, so the rainfall will continue across the parts that have already been affected.”
Persistent heavy rains trigger flooding and landslides, affecting more than 3 000 homes in Peru – Heavy rains have caused flooding and landslides in northern Peru over the past few days, affecting as many as 3 000 homes. Around 160 mm (6.2 inches) of rain fell in a 24-hour period in Yurimaguas, capital of Alto Amazonas Province in Loreto Region, which is more than half the city’s March average rainfall of 257 mm (10.1 inches). Torrential rains caused flooding and landslides in the northern region, flooding as many as 3 000 homes. In Yurmaguas, around 160 mm (6.2 inches) of rain fell in a 24-hour period to March 20 but much of the total fell in a three-hour period. Several areas of the city were submerged in 2 m (6.5 feet) of floodwater. About seven districts in the city were flooded, particularly around Yurimaguas Airport. Parts of the San Martin region were also inundated. According to disaster authorities, around 20 homes were damaged or destroyed in Rioja, prompting more than 30 people to evacuate between March 16 and 21. Meanwhile, around 400 people were impacted in Moyobamba from March 21. As of March 22, people in Yorongos were left isolated after a road collapsed on the Rioja highway.
Severe weather leaves 45 people dead, more than 2 000 homes damaged in Colombia – As many as 45 people have died while more than 2 000 homes have been damaged as a result of severe weather in Colombia since March 1, 2021, according to a statement by the country’s National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) on Tuesday, March 23. Recently, heavy rains have caused major flooding in the municipality of Dabeiba in Antioquia on Monday, March 22.A total of 318 severe weather events were reported in 193 municipalities and 20 departments, leaving around 451 families affected, UNGRD said.At least 45 people have died while three others were missing. About 23 people were also injured. As many as 2 382 homes have been damaged, while 30 houses were destroyed.The disaster risk management added that there were 175 landslides and 89 floods, including flash floods, during this period, as well as storms, hail, and strong winds.The highest number of recorded severe weather events have been Cundinamarca with 35, Huila 29, Narino 24, Valle del Cauca 23, and Antioquia 21.In Antioquia, heavy downpours triggered severe flooding in Dabeiba Municipality on Monday. The Dabeibba Municipal Risk Council reported damage to at least 10 vehicles, markets, and businesses, while about 50 families have been affected. There were no injuries, according to preliminary reports
Hurricanes, unchecked pandemic produce humanitarian disaster in Nicaragua – A humanitarian disaster has developed in Nicaragua as the government of President Daniel Ortega crawls before corporate interests, particularly US imperialism, in its response to compounding political, economic and environmental crises. Most pressingly, four months after two major hurricanes devastated much of the impoverished northern Caribbean region of Nicaragua, hundreds of thousands remain deprived of basic necessities. About half a million people in the northern Caribbean coastal region remain without running water, according to UNICEF, and “are relying on rainwater for consumption and sanitation” as the dry season begins. The agency adds that 1.8 million people are still in need of humanitarian aid, including 720,000 children. The predominantly Miskito indigenous communities in the Caribbean region have been struggling for months with limited food, power and no water, while they struggle to reconstruct their homes from fallen trees. An Onda Local report published last week found that the government aid has been limited to insufficient zinc sheets, nails and kitchenware, while residents demand wood, water, food and clothes. Moreover, relocations of entire towns and solid infrastructure for homes, roads, bridges, public buildings, water treatment and power are urgently needed as experts warn of a further intensification of storms due to global warming. At Haulover, which had more than 1,000 inhabitants, the economy was based on receiving tourists attracted to its beaches, now turned into a mosquito-ridden wasteland. At Wauhta Bar, which depends on agriculture, a woman explained: “Before the hurricane, we raised animals, sold fish. … But we are now entirely paralyzed.” Families have no money to invest in grains, animals or boats, the report adds. The United Nations World Food Program estimated that the population going hungry multiplied by four in the last two years in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, with 1.7 million suffering an “emergency” level of food insecurity. Food scarcity is particularly critical along the Pacific region, which has been dubbed “The Central American Dry Corridor” after years of severe droughts. Meanwhile, the coronavirus continues to spread unhindered. The Health Ministry has reported a total of 6,582 coronavirus cases and 176 deaths – the lowest official death toll per million in the Americas, except for Haiti. However, the Ortega administration never implemented a shutdown of schools or nonessential activities, and these figures are a gross undercount. Reports of overwhelmed hospitals and nightly burials as early as May 2020 were followed by a wave of firings of outspoken health care workers.
Major Damage Reported After Tornado Hits Near Birmingham, Alabama –A severe storm with radar confirmed tornadoes was being tracked across north-central Alabama on Thursday afternoon. The storm has moved more than 130 miles from Bibb County all the way to Calhoun County by 3 p.m. CDT.”This is a particularly dangerous situatiton. Take cover now!” the National Weather Service warned after declaring a rare tornado emergency.A tornado was first confirmed near Moundville, Alabama, at 12:21 p.m. CDT, the National Weather Service said. It moved across northern Hale County into Bibb County.Bibb County’s Emergency Management Agency reported damage to several houses and mobile homes around the Mount Carmel area in West Blocton, according to WBMA. No injuries had been reported.By 1:30 p.m., the storm was nearing Pelham, Alabama, about 15 miles south of Birmingham, in Shelby County, WVTM reported. Radar indicated debris over the very populated area, the station reported.The Fire Department in Helena, just northwest of Pelham, was responding to a collapsed structure, the NWS said. The Helena Police Department said, “Helena has received major damage as a result of the tornado.”The Pelham Fire Department was also responding to numerous calls.Several trees were downed at Pelham High School. Damaged homes and extensive tree damage was reported at Heardmont Park, near Oak Mountain State Park northeast of Pelham. Power lines and trees were down in Indian Springs Village.The Pelham Police Department said numerous houses were damaged in the Chandalar community and utility lines were down along U.S. Highway 31 and State Highway 119. The Pelham Civic Complex also was damaged. Bearden Road at Crosscreek Trail was not passable.Numerous structures were damaged in the Eagle Point and Greystone subdivisions, the NWS said. The Hoover Fire Department treated one person for injuries in Greystone Farms, and an ambulance was called to transport a second person, the Hoover Sun reported.Shortly before 2:30 p.m., a tornado was spotted near Ragland in St. Clair County. It was approaching Ohatchee.Earlier, another tornado was reported near Aliceville, Alabama, near the Mississippi state line.
Tornado leaves at least 1 dead in Newnan, Georgia – A severe tornado that tore through a Georgia county early Friday has left at least one person dead, with widespread damage to buildings and houses also reported. ABC’s Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV reported that officials in the city of Newnan, located in Coweta County, said that at least one person who had a medical emergency died as first responders attempted to rescue the man. Other minor injuries were reported, and Coweta County Schools were closed Friday as residents woke up to heavily damaged or destroyed homes, with photos and aerial footage posted to social media showing downed trees and toppling buildings. The National Weather Service for Atlanta tweeted Friday evening that preliminary reports indicated it was a EF-4 intensity storm, with wind speeds racing up to 170 mph in the hardest hit areas. The storm came after the Weather Service issued a tornado warning and a special tornado emergency Thursday evening as it received reports of a large tornado moving from Heard County to Coweta County, according to local NBC affiliate WXIA-TV. Keith Stellman of the National Weather Service said at a press conference Friday, “It’s clear it was a tornado that went through here last night.” The storm downed power lines, prompting power outages throughout the city, with WXIA-TV reporting that several residents were still without power Friday afternoon. Officials also told the local outlet that they had to begin recording 911 calls on paper after the power outages downed their emergency operating system.
Extensive damage after deadly tornadoes rip through Alabama, U.S. (several videos) At least 23 tornadoes touched down in Alabama and Georgia on March 25, 2021, leaving extensive damage, at least 5 people dead outside of Birmingham, Alabama, and multiple injuries. This is the second tornado outbreak in the region since March 17.Severe storms started affecting the region mid-afternoon and continued in several waves through the early evening and into the night. About 50 million people were in the path of severe weather, NWS Storm Prediction Center (SPC) said, with portions of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee at most risk.The SPC issued a high risk of severe weather risk in the South for the second time this month. This was the first time the center has issued 2 high risks for severe weather in the month of March since 1991.Most of the tornadoes moved across Alabama (17 of 23 reported), destroying homes, knocking over trees, and leaving more than 50 000 customers without power in Alabama and Georgia.Calhoun County Coroner confirmed the deaths of five people who died in three residential structures. Three of them were killed inside a wood-frame home in Ohatchee when a tornado touched down around 15:00 LT. Another man was killed in a mobile home in Ohatchee. The fifth victim was a woman who died in a mobile home in Wellington, Alabama.Alabama Governor Kay Ivey issued an emergency declaration for 46 counties ahead of the storm, opening shelters in and around Birmingham.
Deadly Tornado Outbreak Strikes Alabama and Georgia –At least five people have died in a tornado outbreak that roared across the U.S. South Thursday and Friday, destroying homes and downing power lines.As many as eight tornadoes may have toucheddown in the state o Alabama on Thursday, Birmingham National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist John De Block told AL.com. One of them travelled around 100 miles across the state. The deadliest scythed diagonally through the rural Calhoun County.”Five people lost their lives and for those families, it will never be the same,” Calhoun County Sheriff Matthew Wade said at a Thursday evening briefing reported by The Associated Press. The tornadoes also caused injuries and extensive damage, including in the counties around Birmingham.In the city of Pelham, 60 homes were damaged, 22 of them majorly, AL.com reported. Rick Partridge, who lives with his wife in the Cahaba Valleys Estates community in Pelham, said more than a dozen homes in the community were damaged or destroyed.”It was horrible,” Partridge said. “It didn’t take 10 seconds.”The storms also wreaked havoc on an airport in Centreville. “Airplanes strewn like toys, it was unreal,” Centreville Mayor Mike Oakley told AL.com.Alabama Emergency Management Agency Director Brian Hastings estimated that the number of homes damaged or destroyed across the state was in the hundreds, as NPR reported. At the height of the storms, around 30,000 people were without power.De Block said the Alabama tornadoes were part of a “super cell” that later moved on to Georgia. A tornado likely touched down in the city of Newman, which is located southwest of Atlanta, around midnight Friday, NPR reported. The storm downed power lines and knocked out power for around 5,000 people, according to The Associated Press. It damaged buildings, including Newman High School.”Crews tell me they’ve never seen a storm cause this much damage here,” Atlanta-based journalist Sabrina Silva tweeted. Extreme weather lashed a large swathe of the South, threatening flooding and thunderstorms in Tennessee, Kentucky and the Carolinas, as The Associated Press reported. In Ohio, thunderstorms knocked out power for more than 100,000 people. There is evidence that the traditional “tornado alley” is shifting east, away from the Great Plains and towards the U.S. South. This makes tornadoes deadlier, since the South is more populated and people are more likely to live in vulnerable mobile homes. In addition, tornadoes in the region often strike at night. There is some evidence that the climate crisis is behind the shift.
NOAA Updates Extreme Weather Forecasting Ability –Long-lasting droughts, unprecedented rainfalls and sudden cold snaps are becoming a reality for people across the country, but accurate forecasting models to predict when the next extreme weather event might hit lags behind, AP News reported.In response, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Monday announced an upgrade to its Global Forecast System, boosting its weather forecasting capabilities across the country. The new model improves its ability to accurately predict hurricanes, rainstorms, snowstorms and other weather events, NPR reported.”This is going to have a fundamental impact on the forecasts that are provided day to day,” Louis Uccellini, director of the National Weather Service, told NPR.While most weather occurs in the troposphere, the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere, NOAA’s new model will also improve resolution in the stratosphere, the next layer up, helping predict sudden warming events, The Washington Post reported. The cold snap in Texas and other parts of the southern U.S. in mid-February, for example, was brought on by a “sudden stratospheric warming event” that “spurred the disruption of the polar vortex, which, through a chain reaction of events, unleashed an outbreak of bitter Arctic air,” The Washington Post reported. Better resolution in the upper atmosphere will also allow forecasters to track changes in the jet stream, which can carry storms across the country.
High level of volcanic gases measured close to the eruption site at Fagradalsfjall, Iceland -A volcanic eruption in Geldingadalur near Fagradalsfjall on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula continues since March 19, 2021. Lava fountain activity is still low and mapping of the lava flow is in progress. While no volcanic ash has been detected, a high level of volcanic gases has been measured close to the eruption site. The public is advised to stay away from the area.The Aviation Color Code for the Reykjanes Peninsula remains at Red, signifying an eruption in progress.Specialists went yesterday to perform gas measurements at the eruption site. There are indications that gas emission is slightly lower than the day before, however, gas concentrations close to the lava flow were measured above the danger threshold.SO2 concentration close to the volcano can surpass over 9 000 µg/m3, and CO2 can also gather in valleys in the landscape, the Icelandic Met Office (IMO) said on March 23.The health protection limit is 350 µg/m3.IMO is advising residents and visitors to leave the area before 17:00, keeping away from valleys and following the marked path.
Strong explosions at Pacaya volcano producing thick ash columns, Guatemala (pictures, videos) Increased eruptive activity continues at the Guatemalan Pacaya volcano, with strong ash emissions and lava flows.Moderate to strong explosions continue at the volcano, generating thick ash columns up to 4 km (13 120 feet) above sea level, moving N, NE, and NW to a distance of approximately 50 km (31 miles) on March 23, 2021.Lava flows are 1 500 km (4 920 feet) long on the southwest flank and 500 m (1 640 feet) on the eastern flank.
Ariane 44L rocket launched in 1992 creates fiery spectacle over Brazil – video – The body of Ariane 44L rocket launched in 1992 re-entered Earth’s atmosphere over Brazil at around 21:46 UTC (18:46 LT) on March 16, 2021, two days after schedule. The event created spectacular fiery scenery above the Brazilian state of Para and was mistaken for a meteor fireball by many people.
Atlantic Coast Sea Levels Are Rising at Fastest Rate in 2,000 Years, Study Finds – Yet another study has confirmed the unprecedented impacts of the climate crisis: Sea levels along the eastern U.S. are rising at their fastest rate in 2,000 years. Researchers led by a team at the University of Rutgers studied sea level rise at six sites along the Atlantic coast. They found that the rate of change between 1900 and 2000 was more than double the average for the period between year 0 and 1800, Rutgers Today reported. “The increasing influence of the global component is the most significant change in the sea-level budgets at all six sites,” the study authors wrote. The research, published in Nature Communications on Tuesday, focused on sea level sites in Connecticut, New York City, North Jersey, South Jersey (Leeds Point and Cape May Courthouse) and North Carolina. The scientists examined sea-level budgets, which are the totality of regional, local and global factors that influence sea level change. Examples of regional factors include land subsidence, or sinking, while local factors include groundwater withdrawal, Rutgers Today explained. The study is the first to examine these factors across a large time frame at the Atlantic sites. Most sea level budget studies have only focused on the 20th and 21st centuries, and only on the global level. The research found that the dominant force driving sea level change had shifted. During the totality of the 2,000 year period, land subsidence caused by the retreating Laurentide ice sheet drove the change. However, in the last century, global forces took over. “Where it used to be this regional land sinking being the dominant force, now it’s this global component, which is driven by the ice melt and warming of the oceans,” The findings aren’t only important for understanding the scale of the current crisis, but also for helping policymakers deal with its consequences. Rising sea levels can increase sunny-day floods and make storms such as 2012’s Hurricane Sandy more extreme. “Having a thorough understanding of sea-level change at sites over the long-term is imperative for regional and local planning and responding to future sea-level rise,” Walker told Rutgers Today. “By learning how different processes vary over time and contribute to sea-level change, we can more accurately estimate future contributions at specific sites.”
Harp Seal Pups in Trouble in Quebec Due to Low Sea Ice – The sea ice cover in Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence is the lowest it has ever been since measurements began, and that is seriously bad news for the harp seals that are typically born on the ice.A cold-water mammal, Harp seals rarely spend any time on land, National Geographic explained. Instead, they feed in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, but every year return to the sea ice where they were born to give birth to their own young. But this year, the seals that usually return to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to give birth on the ice around the Îles de la Madeleine in late February and early March were in for a shock.”This year, there is absolutely no ice,” wildlife photographer and expedition leader Mario Cyr told National Geographic. “These seals are out of options.”Instead, hundreds of pups have washed up on a beach in Blanc-Sablon, Québec, where Cyr has photographed them for the magazine. Baby seals on land don’t tend to do well. They are in danger of being crushed by ice, drowned or eaten by land carnivores like coyotes.”They’re evolutionarily designed for ice. They’re not designed to survive onshore… and it puts them literally in the proximity of every predator out there. So yes, they’re in trouble,” National Geographic contributor Jen Hayes told ABC7.2021 is expected to be a bad year for baby harp seal mortality, and marine mammal expert Mark Hammill told National Geographic that it is unlikely the baby seals on the beach will make it.The Gulf of St. Lawrence is usually covered by more than 90,000 square miles of ice in March, according to ABC7. But this year, the gulf is essentially ice-free. The ice extent is the lowest it has been since record-keeping began in 1969.However, this isn’t the first time that ice cover has been so low that it has impacted the seals and the community that relies on their nurseries to bring tourism to the Îles de la Madeleine, or Magdalen Islands. This is the fifth time that the seal observation season there has been canceled in the last decade.”2010 was our rupture point,” Ariane Bérubé, sales director for the Château Madelinot hotel, told The Guardian. “It was the first year we had to cancel. It was the first time since 1958 that we had no ice. Then it happened again in 2011. And again in 2016 and 2017. And now this year.”
London Seal Attack Highlights Importance of Respecting Wildlife –A seal that had won the hearts of West London had to be put to sleep after a dog attack Sunday.The 10-month-old harbor seal, nicknamed Freddie Mercury, was taken to the South Essex Wildlife Hospital, where staff discovered he had a fractured flipper and dislocated joint, the hospital wrote on Facebook. They also said he was not eating and had a spreading infection.”At this stage we believe the only ethical and fair option we have is to end his suffering,” the hospital wrote.Freddie first gained public fame in February after being rescued from the Teddington Lock in Southwest London, where he got a fishing lure stuck in his mouth, The Guardian reported. He was released on the Isle of Sheppey off the Kent coast, but returned to the Teddington stretch of the Thames to Londoners’ delight.’We are so lucky to have these beautiful animals in our river, it’s magical,” Broni Lloyd-Edwards, a photographer whose images of Freddie appeared in Metro, told the paper.However, a dog mauled Freddie as he basked along the riverside on Sunday, The Guardian reported. Four people rushed to pry open the dog’s jaws, including a vet. The dog and its owner then left, while emergency workers from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) rushed the seal to the hospital.In a Facebook post, BDMLR concurred that nothing more could be done for Freddie. “Freddie was a wild seal and after the ferocious attack on Sunday he suffered a serious broken and dislocated flipper,” BDMLR CEO Alan Knight wrote on Facebook. “We contacted one of the UK’s leading orthopedic surgeons, and he said that unfortunately the only option was to euthanize the seal.”Both the hospital and BDMLR said the incident underscored the importance of giving wildlife the space they need.
Climate Anxiety Is an Overwhelmingly White Phenomenon – The climate movement is ascendant, and it has become common to see climate change as a social justice issue. Climate change and its effects – pandemics, pollution, natural disasters – are not universally or uniformly felt: the people and communities suffering most are disproportionately Black, Indigenous and people of color. It is no surprise then that U.S. surveys show that these are the communities most concerned about climate change.One year ago, I published a book called A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety. Since its publication, I have been struck by the fact that those responding to the concept of climate anxiety are overwhelmingly white. Indeed, these climate anxiety circles are even whiter than the environmental circles I’ve been in for decades. Today, a year into the pandemic, after the murder of George Floyd and the protests that followed, and the attack on the U.S. Capitol, I am deeply concerned about the racial implications of climate anxiety. If people of color are more concerned about climate change than white people, why is the interest in climate anxiety so white? Is climate anxiety a form of white fragility or even racial anxiety? Put another way, is climate anxiety just code for white people wishing to hold onto their way of life or get “back to normal,” to the comforts of their privilege? The white response to climate change is literally suffocating to people of color. Climate anxiety can operate like white fragility, sucking up all the oxygen in the room and devoting resources toward appeasing the dominant group. As climate refugees are framed as a climate security threat, will the climate-anxious recognize their role in displacing people from around the globe? Will they be able to see their own fates tied to the fates of the dispossessed? Or will they hoard resources, limit the rights of the most affected and seek to save only their own, deluded that this xenophobic strategy will save them? How can we make sure that climate anxiety is harnessed for climate justice?
Major climate polluters accused of greenwashing with sports sponsorship -Polluting industries are pouring hundreds of millions of pounds into sports sponsorship in an attempt to “sports-wash” their role in the climate crisis, according to the authors of a report published on Monday.The study reveals more than 250 advertising and sponsorship deals between some of the biggest corporate polluters and leading sports teams and organisation. Andrew Simms, a co-director of the New Weather Institute and one of the report’s co-authors, said:“Sport is in the frontline of the climate emergency but floats on a sea of sponsorship deals with the major polluters. It makes the crisis worse by normalising high-carbon, polluting lifestyles and reducing the pressure for climate action.”The report, by the New Weather Institute, the climate charity Possible and the Rapid Transition Alliance, identified advertising and sponsorship deals with major polluters across 13 different sports, including football, cricket and tennis. Football was found to have the most deals, receiving 57 sponsorships from high-carbon industries ranging from oil and gas corporations to airlines.Simms said: “We know about ‘greenwash’ – when polluters falsely present themselves as environmentally responsible. This is ‘sports-wash’ – when heavily polluting industries sponsor sport to appear as friends of healthy activity, when in fact they’re pumping lethal pollution into the very air that athletes have to breathe, and wrecking the climate that sport depends on.”He said “major polluters” had replaced tobacco companies as big sports sponsors. “They should be stopped for the same reason tobacco sponsorship ended: for the health of people, sports and the planet.” The study follows a high-profile campaign against UK arts institutions’ sponsorship deals with oil and gas giants. Several have now cut their ties to fossil fuel companies. The authors of the report say sport will be the next battlefield in challenging the social licence of polluting industries. The report claims that the car industry is the most active high-carbon sector courting sports sponsorship, with 199 different deals across all sports. Airlines come second with 63, followed by oil and gas companies such as Gazprom and Ineos, whose deals have previously been criticised by climate campaigns.
Major gas utility goes net-zero: Game changer or green washing? — Wednesday, March 24, 2021 — The nation’s largest gas utility, Southern California Gas, said yesterday that it would target net-zero greenhouse gas emissions within 25 years and ramp up capacity of hydrogen and biomethane – but did not commit to phasing out natural gas.
SoCalGas announces net-zero emission goal by 2045, but some stakeholders remain skeptical -Southern California Gas (SoCalGas), the largest gas utility in the country, announced Tuesday that it is aiming to ensure its operations and energy deliveries reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, the same year California is looking to entirely decarbonize its electricity. Technologies like renewable natural gas (RNG), hydrogen and carbon capture could play a role in getting SoCalGas to that goal, CEO Scott Drury told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s our view that as we decarbonize California, the infrastructure that we have in place will be an essential tool to ensure that energy stays not only clean, [but] safe, reliable and resilient,” he added. Some stakeholders, however, are skeptical about the utility’s plan. “Any gas company that’s serious about climate change and keeping energy affordable for customers needs to be planning to contract their footprint between now and 2045, and there’s nothing in their plan about reducing costs,” Merrian Borgeson, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), said. SoCalGas plans to spend more than $2 billion on modernizing its infrastructure over the next half decade, in part to help decarbonize its business. The utility believes that its existing infrastructure could play a key role in California’s broader clean energy trajectory by providing continuous sources of energy to customers and storing renewable energy for long periods of time, even months. The company is exploring multiple paths to get to that goal, including RNG and hydrogen, according to Drury. However, he did not rule out the possibility that there might still be some natural gas in the utility’s portfolio by 2045, noting that SoCalGas hasn’t completed its modelling and it’s hard to predict with certainty exactly what the fuel mix will look like in 2045. “But the value of the gas infrastructure to managing the volatility in … electricity demand is going to be incredibly important and of course our goal will be to meet that with all of the decarbonized fuels and clean gases we can – but it is quite possible, and some might say likely, that there will be some level of natural gas in that broad energy portfolio,” Drury said.
60 largest banks in the world have invested $3.8 trillion in fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement -Major banks around the world are still financing fossil fuel companies to the tune of trillions of dollars. A new report, published Wednesday from a collection of climate organizations and titledBanking on Climate Chaos 2021, finds 60 of the world’s largest commercial and investment banks have collectively put $3.8 trillion into fossil fuels from 2016 to 2020, the five after The Paris Agreement was signed.”This report serves as a reality check for banks that think that vague ‘net-zero’ goals are enough to stop the climate crisis,” says Lorne Stockman, a Senior Research Analyst at Oil Change International, one of the organizations authoring the report, in a statement released with the report. “Our future goes where the money flows, and in 2020 these banks have ploughed billions into locking us into further climate chaos.”On an annual basis, total fossil fuel financing dropped 9% in 2020. But the report attributes that to Covid-19-related restrictions on demand.The report also found that “fossil fuel financing … from the world’s 60 largest commercial and investment banks was higher in 2020 than it was in 2016,” the first full year the Paris climate greement was in effect. It is worth noting that President Donald Trump withdrew from the international agreement in 2017. President Joe Biden rejoined The Paris Agreement on his first day in office.The three banks that did the most fossil fuel financing in 2020, according to the report, were JPMorgan Chase at $51.3 billion; Citi at $48.4 billion; and Bank of America with $42.1 billion.A representative of JPMorgan Chase told CNBC Make It that the bank could not comment on a third party report. But the bank did direct CNBC Make It to its initiatives addressing climate change, including “adopting a financing commitment that is aligned to the goals of the Paris Agreement” and facilitating $200 billion in clean, sustainable financing by 2025.Citi directed CNBC Make It to a blog post published Tuesday from Val Smith, the bank’s Chief Sustainability Officer. In the post, Citi said it will work with existing fossil fuel banking clients to transition first to a public reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and then to a gradual phase out of financing offered to companies that don’t comply in adhering to carbon reduction standards.
Oil Industry Titans Vow Climate Collaboration With White House – Chief executives of some of the largest U.S. oil companies promised to collaborate with the Biden administration in its campaign against climate change during a meeting Monday with White House National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy. The oil industry leaders pledged support for federal regulations explicitly limiting emissions of methane from wells and other oilfield equipment — a declaration that dovetails with President Joe Biden’s vow to clamp down on leaks of the potent greenhouse gas. They also cheered the U.S. return to the Paris climate agreement and urged greater government support of carbon-capture and hydrogen technology that can help the country fulfill new carbon-cutting pledges set to be unveiled next month, according to two people familiar with the session that was conducted over Zoom. McCarthy underscored how Biden’s “plans to tackle the climate crisis are centered around propelling our equitable economic recovery, positioning America to win the 21st century and creating millions of good-paying, union jobs directly in American communities,” the White House said in a statement after the session.“She made clear that the administration is not fighting the oil and gas sector, but fighting to create union jobs, deploy emission reduction technologies, strengthen American manufacturing and fuel the American economy.” The meeting, which included executives from three industry trade groups and 10 oil companies — including Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Chevron Corp. and Devon Energy Corp. — was the first of its kind since Biden’s inauguration in January. It comes after he imposed a moratorium on the sale of oil and gas leases on federal land, and as his administration prepares to unveil a new emission-reduction goal next month as part of the U.S. return to the Paris climate agreement. The meeting was described as pleasant, without the kind of acrimony that colored some of the oil industry’s exchanges with former President Barack Obama’s administration. The format did not allow for a deep, back-and-forth dialogue. Instead, McCarthy opened the meeting, followed by remarks from Laura Daniel-Davis, the Interior Department’s principal deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management, and each of the industry participants. Dave Lawler, the chairman of BP America Inc., kicked off their comments.
U.S. drillers, miners would be out billions if paid climate, health costs: study (Reuters) – U.S. coal, natural gas and motor fuel producers get implicit benefits worth tens of billion of dollars a year by not having to pay for the damage their products do to the climate and human health, a study said on Monday. As the world begins to transition to technologies that emit less pollution to generate electricity and fuel vehicles, economists are attempting to estimate the cost to society of burning fossil fuels. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Yale University economist Matthew Kotchen calculated that U.S. fossil fuel companies get direct benefits of $62 billion a year in implicit subsidies due to what he calls “inefficient pricing”. The overall health, climate and transportation costs to society are about $568 billion, the study, titled “The producer benefits of implicit fossil fuel subsidies in the United States”, said. Peabody Energy Corp got about $1.56 billion in implicit subsidies in 2018, while Arch Resources got a little over $1 billion in the same year, the study said. Natural gas producer EQT Corp got about $696 million while Exxon Mobil got about $688 million, it added.
Senators eye rollback of Trump methane rule with Congressional Review Act – Lawmakers are weighing using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to reverse a Trump era-rule that limits the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate methane. Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Angus King (I-Maine) have drafted a resolution of disapproval on the August methane rule, according to a copy reviewed by The Hill, the first step in using the CRA to unwind a regulation. The act allows Congress to nix any regulations finalized in the previous 60 legislative days, a period stretching back to mid-August. Critics described the former Trump administration’s rule as a gift to the oil and gas industry, eliminating existing requirements on oil and gas companies to install technology to monitor methane emissions from pipelines, wells and facilities. The agency argued at the time that the standards it rescinded were redundant, overlapping substantially with other regulations regarding volatile organic compounds. The rule was especially alarming to environmentalists given that methane is significantly more harmful to the planet than carbon dioxide. Some studies indicate that the climate change-linked gas is 80 times more adept at trapping heat in the atmosphere in the first 20 years than carbon dioxide. King had previously blasted the regulation calling it “the single worst thing that could be done to attack the climate.” “This is a serious national security concern and it’s a serious concern for the future of this country. I just hope these people have to face their grandchildren and explain to them why they took this step,” he said. Neither Heinrich’s nor King’s office responded to request for comment on the draft. If the lawmakers proceed to introduce the legislation, it would be the first rollback of Trump environmental policy Democrats target with the CRA. It also would come as lawmakers are rapidly approaching the deadline to use the technique, with advocates urging action prior to recess in order to safely comply with the act’s timelines. The CRA was a legislative tool favored by Republicans in the early days of the Trump administration, used by a GOP-led Congress to strike down 14 regulations from the Obama era.
Biden faces ‘moment of truth’ as he weighs key U.S. climate promise – In far-flung corners of the federal government, staffers have been busy calculating how quickly the United States could embrace electric cars or phase out the last of the nation’s coal-fired power plants. They are estimating how fast the country can construct new battery-charging stations and wind turbines, as well as how farmers can store more carbon in the soil – and how much Congress might allocate to fund such efforts. They’re urgently trying to tally up the elements of a major promise, one that could shape how aggressively the world takes on climate change.By April 22, when President Biden convenes world leaders for an Earth Day summit, he is expected to unveil a new, aggressive plan to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions between now and 2030. The moment is aimed at reestablishing American leadership in the fight to limit the Earth’s warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial levels – a threshold beyond which scientists predict irreversible environmental damage.As he crafts the much-anticipated pledge, Biden is facing conflicting political pressures at home and abroad. A sizable chunk of the Democratic Party’s base and climate activists who helped elect Biden – and a chorus of scientists – want the United States to take bold action to slash emissions at least in half by the end of this decade, compared with 2005 levels. They argue that’s critical to pressure other major economies to follow suit and to help the world avoid catastrophe. Image without a caption But many Republicans warn that societal changes needed to cut emissions so quickly could harm an already battered economy, particularly in communities closely tied to the fossil fuel industry. And they are poised to campaign against such a plan in the midterms against vulnerable Democrats in swing states, despite Biden’s argument that the shift to cleaner energies and less pollution will create a flurry of new jobs.As Biden walks that political tightrope at home, leaders around the world have been clear that they expect the United States to step up after four years of the Trump administration disparaging global efforts to fight climate change. “It’s a moment of truth for the Paris agreement,” said Laurence Tubiana, chief executive of the European Climate Foundation and an architect of the 2015 international accord to cut greenhouse gases. “We need a boost, and I do think that the U.S. announcement will be that boost.” But any commitments the United States makes must also be attainable, she said. “Nobody will be satisfied with good targets without anything backing it up.”
U.S. green energy push sets global edible oils alight, raises food inflation fears – (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s green fuel push using edible oils is helping drive up vegetable oil prices that are already near record highs, hitting key cost-sensitive consumers in India and Africa and stoking global food inflation fears.The United Nations’ vegetable oils price index has rallied 70% since last June to nine-year highs after labour shortages at Asian palm plantations and bad weather in key sunflower, rapeseed and soybean hubs pinched edible oil output and cut inventories to 10-year lows.The run-up in edible oil prices has helped fuel a rise in the UN’s broader food price index to its highest since 2014, stinging consumers in developing countries and posing a challenge to policymakers trying to spur economic growth.(Graphic: Edible oils lead the charge as global food prices push to multi-year highs: )A steep recovery in edible oil demand as consumers and businesses restocked following COVID-19 lockdowns has exacerbated the tightness, as has Biden’s election win and promised ‘Clean Energy Revolution’ that looks set to ignite biofuel demand.“There’s been a new factor which has come after the election of President Biden that has projected higher demand for soyoil, which is 100% biodiesel,” leading edible oils analyst Dorab Mistry said.“Four refineries have already said that they will terminate refining fossil fuel (and) instead start producing vegetable oil based fuel.”(Graphic: Global edible oil output, demand, imports & stocks: ) The sharp price climb in all edible oils, which are critical for food preparation and in the daily diets of billions of people, is already hurting some consumers.A 20% rise in palm oil prices in Myanmar since a Feb. 1 military coup is one of many troubling signs for vulnerable people there, the World Food Programme (WFP) said this week.Pricier oils are also stifling demand in India, the top global vegetable oil buyer, and are expected to curb imports as consumers are forced to cut back despite moves to reopen the economy from COVID-19 lockdowns.“We were expecting a recovery in demand after the country opened up, but India’s edible oil imports will remain at last year’s level at 13.2 million tonnes,” said Sandeep Bajoria, chief executive officer of Sunvin Group, a vegetable oil broker.“Earlier, 2021 imports were forecast at 14 million tonnes but higher prices are leading to demand destruction.”(Graphic: Global veg oils march to multi-year highs on tight supply, rising demand; outperform fuel prices: )
Will Clean Energy Kickstart A New Resource War? – Before a United States-owned oil well drilled into what no one yet knew was the largest single source of petroleum on the planet on March 3, 1938, Saudi Arabia was a sparsely populated country of desert nomads. Just 12 years after that first discovery, on the eve of the Cold War, Saudi Arabia’s international status had been so radically transformed that U.S. President Harry Truman was pleading allegiance to the Saudi King. The world’s geopolitical map has been drawn and redrawn by oil over the last century. After the world began to turn around the Gulf States the balance was upset and recalibrated by the United States’ shale revolution which flooded the market with cheap crude which loosened the Middle East’s chokehold on the global energy industry seemingly overnight. And now the geopolitical power of the shale revolution, too, is fading as the flood of cheap crude out of the Permian Basin slows and peak oil demand is suddenly upon us. What will the world look like when oil is no longer a leading force in global geopolitics? Some of the world’s leading research organizations, universities, and even some countries are hard at work trying to answer just that question. The Rand Corporation, which has been designing war games alongside the Pentagon for nearly 70 years, is now aiming its arsenal of brainiacs toward the newest pressing geopolitical question: what will the green energy transition do to the world? Gaming out what this will mean for peace and conflict is a tricky challenge. On one hand, clean energy will be a democratizing resource which allows countries to produce their own energy and become energy secure and sovereign regardless of what natural resources they sit on top of. “After all, a latter-day Saddam Hussein would have little reason to invade Kuwait to seize its solar parks, as he did in 1990 for its oil wells, because there would no longer be anything special about Kuwait’s patch of desert,” points out Bloomberg Green. “It would be cheaper to buy panels to put on his own.” On the other hand, many countries are sure to be left behind in the new green world order. New struggles, inequities, and competitions will arise over access to technology, infrastructure, finance, and a new set of world-building raw materials. In the near future, rare earth metals – needed to construct clean energy technologies such as photovoltaic solar panels and electric vehicle batteries – will be the new oil. As of now, China controls over 90 percent of some of these essential ingredients and has shown that it’s more than willing to wield that power for political gain and intimidation.
Ohio on track to waste billions of dollars on energy –A new report from a coalition of environmental groups reframes energy efficiency in terms that might better resonate with Ohioans across the political spectrum.“While efficiency is a correct term, what we’re really talking about is reducing energy waste,” said Miranda Leppla, vice president of energy policy for the Ohio Environmental Council.And Ohio is on track this decade to waste a lot of energy – and money.The environmental groups’ report projects that reducing energy waste by 1% to 2% per year would save Ohio ratepayers between $2 billion and $5 billion over 10 years.The March 2021 analysis was conducted by energy consulting firm Gabel Associates and funded by Ceres, E2, the Environmental Law & Policy Center, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Ohio Environmental Council, and the Ohio Hospital Association. “Efficiency investments come back to consumers as dividends that lower their costs over time,” said Tom Bullock, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Ohio. Those investments are no longer required of Ohio electric utilities, however, since the state’s scandal-tainted HB 6 power plant bailout law gutted state standards that had required utilities to achieve increasing levels of energy efficiency through 2027, among other things. While some lawmakers had tried for years to gut Ohio’s clean energy and efficiency standards, that didn’t happen full scale until HB 6 was pushed through the General Assembly by former House Speaker Larry Householder and signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019. Despite the law, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio can still authorize voluntary energy conservation programs for electric and gas utilities, but it has yet to do so despite two proposals from utilities. Ohio utilities’ energy efficiency programs have become “kind of an orphan issue that’s been left on the side of the road,” Bullock said. “It wouldn’t be, but for the corruption of HB 6.”
Rivian planning to install 10,000 EV chargers across the US and Canada by 2023 – Amazon-backed electric vehicle startup Rivian will install more than 10,000 fast chargers across the US and Canada by 2023, the company announced. The Rivian Adventure Network is designed to allow quick recharges along highways and also includes Level 2 charges at more remote locations near parks and other destinations. Rivian described the network in a blog post: Each site will have multiple chargers and will be conveniently located on highways and main roads, often by cafes and shops. These DC fast chargers will be for Rivian owners only, with details on pricing and associated programs coming soon. The company also is installing waypoint Level 2 AC chargers, each with a 11.5 kW charging speed, to add about 25 miles of range every hour for Rivian’s R1T pickup and R1S SUV. These chargers will be located along routes that Rivian thinks its drivers will take. The first such waypoint chargers are being installed in Colorado’s state parks beginning in July, and will be accessible to any electric vehicle with a J1772 plug.
On an island north of Scotland, tidal power is providing juice for electric vehicles – An electric vehicle charging point which uses tidal energy has started operations, providing road users on an island north of mainland Scotland with a new, renewable option for running their cars. The facility is located on Yell, which is part of Shetland, an archipelago of roughly 100 islands. The charging point gets its electricity from Nova Innovation’s Shetland Tidal Array, a four turbine installation in Bluemull Sound, a strait between Yell and another island called Unst. In an announcement Monday, Nova Innovation described the project as “the first ever electric vehicle … charge point where drivers can ‘fill up’ directly from a tidal energy source.” A battery storage system has also been deployed to ensure a constant supply for vehicles. The Scottish government is one of many around the world looking to move away from internal combustion engine vehicles. It wants to phase out the need for new diesel and gasoline vans and cars by the year 2030. Funding for the project on Yell has come from Transport Scotland, the country’s transport agency.
Exclusive: U.S. senators press Biden to set end date for gas-powered car sales (Reuters) – California’s two U.S. senators are urging President Joe Biden to set a firm date to phase-out gas-powered passenger vehicles as the White House grapples with how to rewrite vehicle emissions rules slashed under President Donald Trump. In an unreported letter going to Biden Monday, Democratic Senators Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein called on Biden “to follow California’s lead and set a date by which all new cars and passenger trucks sold be zero-emission vehicles.” They also urged Biden to restore California’s authority to set clean car standards. In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order directing the state’s air resources agency to require all new cars and passenger trucks sold in California to be zero-emission by 2035. Biden’s campaign in 2020 declined to endorse a specific date to end gas-powered vehicle sales, but he has vowed to dramatically boost electric vehicles and charging stations. In January, Biden said the administration would replace the federal government’s fleet of 650,000 vehicles “with clean electric vehicles made right here in America made by American workers.” The senators also say Biden should use a compromise deal that California struck with automakers including Ford Motor Co, Honda Motor, BMW AG and Volkswagen AG that falls between the Trump administration and Obama-era requirements. “We believe the national baseline should, at an absolute minimum, be built around the technical lead set by companies that voluntarily advanced their agreements with California,” Padilla, who replaced Vice President Kamala Harris in the Senate, and Feinstein wrote in the letter seen by Reuters. “California and other states need a strong federal partner.”
Your Smart TV May Be Wasting Lots of Energy When ‘Off’ –While the energy efficiency of America’s smart televisions has improved greatly since flat panel models were first introduced, some of the energy savings are at risk due to new “smart wake” features that can waste a lot of power when the TV is in standby mode.These features provide the user with the convenience of waking their TV through a voice command to a nearby smart speaker, or to seamlessly shift from watching content on a tablet or phone to the TV, without using a remote control. Our extensive laboratory testing on the standby power of 10 different models found that in many cases, enabling these features caused a TV’s overall annual electricity consumption to skyrocket by as much as 75 percent. All that extra standby power adds up. NRDC estimates it will cost purchasers of 2021 TVs who enable smart wake features an additional $750 million on their utility bills over these TVs’ seven-year lifetime, barring future manufacturer design improvements. The extra electricity consumption also will lead to more than 3 million tons of additional carbon dioxide emissions.
Hampden waste plant sale now expected by the end of June – A Pennsylvania-based company expects to finish its purchase of a shuttered Hampden waste plant by the end of June, according to the organization that represents the 115 towns and cities that send their trash to the plant. Delta Thermo Energy has told the Municipal Review Committee to expect a deal on or before June 30, according to a document posted on the committee’s website. The company has been in negotiations to purchase the $90 million plant for several months.The Coastal Resources of Maine plant has been closed since it ran out of funds to pay its bills and for a series of performance upgrades last May. Delta Thermo was one of seven companies that vied to take over the shuttered plant, and it signed a tentative agreement to negotiate the purchase in late December. The Municipal Review Committee owns the land on which Coastal Resources sits and holds the Maine Department of Environmental Protection permits that allow the site to operate. Yet the sale’s final approval has to come from a group of bondholders who hold a majority financial stake in the plant. Delta Thermo Energy specializes in a waste-to-energy process in which it mixes wastewater sludge with household trash, then burns the mixture to produce electricity.The Hampden plant is currently set up to process municipal solid waste and recyclables, but not wastewater sludge. Delta Thermo would reopen the plant using the operation’s existing technology before looking to deploy its own technology in the future, which would require new permits, Van Naarden has said.
Bitcoin, Easter Island-ism, and the Cowardice of Green New Dealers –It is hardly a secret that Bitcoin mining consumes ginormous amounts of energy (we’ll leave other cryptocurrencies out of the discussion since it’s not necessary to include them to make our case).It is also hardly a secret that Bitcoin has no legitimate use:Is there any use case for bitcoin, etc. except making illegal activity and money laundering invisible to authorities? – Steve Roth (@asymptosis) February 22, 2021“Speculation for speculation’s sake” is not a legitimate purpose; the social benefit of speculation is to facilitate price discovery in markets for assets of societal value. Oh, and possibly to provide entertainment if it doesn’t come at a high cost to the general public. There are tons of existing speculative vehicles and venues, and broadly speaking, they provide some net benefit or at least don’t do much harm. By contrast, the profligacy and and destructiveness is reminiscent of Easter Island, where a once-thriving society came to ruin by depleting its a resource for the purpose of display. I have been stunned at the failure of governments to crack down on Bitcoin and crypto due to their significant and obvious role in facilitating crime and tax evasion (although as we’ll discuss below, India has announced that it is implementing the most stringent anti-crypto policies in the world). There is or should have been no other side to this argument if anyone dimly credible with political clout had made a stink early on. Banks’ failure to act as opponents is curious but they find making nice with bad guys to be highly profitable (look at Standard Chartered’s money laundering abuses as a starter). They’ve also faffed about to see if they could devise businesses around blockchain (which has long looked like a technology hunting for an application).But libertarian world views are so deeply internalized that officials don’t bother taking a stance until lobbyists show up, although once in a while activists can get their attention.So where have the environmentalists been? Look at this excerpt from a February Truthout article:That’s part of the reason why Bitcoin mining has a growing environmental impact. In 2018, Princeton Professor Arvind Narayanan estimated in congressional testimony that the Bitcoin network accounted for slightly under 1 percent of world electricity consumption – a bit more than the electricity consumption of the state of Ohio or the state of New York. Scientists writing in the journal Nature warned in 2018 that Bitcoin’s growth could single-handedly push global emissions above 2 degrees Celsius. More recent estimates found that the carbon emissionsof Bitcoin mining “sits between the levels produced by the nations of Jordan and Sri Lanka.” The University of Cambridge Judge Business School’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index estimates that Bitcoin mining will consume more than 120 terawatt-hours of electricity globally this year – more energythan Argentina. (One terawatt-hour is equal to outputting 1 trillion watts of energy for one hour.) Researchers have also found that Bitcoin mining is more energy-intensivethan mining both gold and platinum. As the price of Bitcoin skyrockets, so do the incentives to mine it.
A “Green” Product That’s Dirty To Make, and a Fight Between Danish Manufacturers and West Virginians – Tracy Danzey wheeled herself through Copenhagen Airport with aching arms, crutches crisscrossing her lap, hands covered in blisters, her left foot bleeding. In November 2019, she had just finished a two-week, 100-kilometer march across Denmark to deliver an important message from the people of West Virginia: Rockwool International, a keystone of Denmark’s green-building industry, was outsourcing its pollution. “It wasn’t an enjoyable hike,” Danzey, 41, recalls a year later from her home in Shepherdstown, W.Va. In 2005, Danzey, a nurse, lost her right leg and hip to a rare form of bone cancer. She also suffers from thyroid disease. Danzey is intimately familiar with how pollution can destroy a community’s health: She grew up next to a DuPont chemical factory in Parkersburg, W.Va., which produced a Teflon-related chemical linked to kidney cancer, testicular cancer and thyroid diseases like Danzey’s. The class-action lawsuit against DuPont spanned nearly two decades and led to a $670 million settlement in 2017. So Danzey was paying attention when Rockwool, a producer of mineral wool insulation, broke ground for its new facility in Ranson, W.Va. – right across from an elementary school – in the summer of 2018. Mineral wool plants give off carbon dioxide and hazardous chemicals as volcanic rocks and slag are melted down in large furnaces, spun into wool, bound, cured, cooled and bagged. Rockwool says it is a “net carbon negative company” because its insulation saves “100 times the energy consumed and [carbon dioxide] emitted in its production.” Local communities bear the brunt of its emissions. Rockwool had actually started talks with West Virginia officials in 2017, under the name “Project Shuttle,” but the community says it was kept in the dark. When residents finally found out, they started making noise with elected officials and WVDEP. They hired scientists, who raised concerns about Rockwool’s air quality and stormwater permits, and suggested the plant could pollute the groundwater. Community members contend Rockwool never would have attempted such a high-emission factory across from an elementary school in eco-conscious Denmark, fearing public outcry. Indeed, Rockwool has chosen (or transitioned to) a lower-carbon and cleaner production process in plants in Norway and France – a process that is more expensive. But in West Virginia, the demonstrations have gained little traction. The state has long led the country in coal jobs and is known for being industry-friendly. Danzey and many of her neighbors believe the West Virginia location was chosen specifically because of this reputation.
Bill to require electric, utility providers to winterize right move –As the 87th session of Texas Legislature works its way through a huge raft of bills, we were given hope by the bill authored by Rep. Chris Paddie, who represents the 9th District in East Texas, that would require the state’s electric and utility providers to winterize their operations. It’s the right move. As we reported last week, Paddie’s bill would require the following:
- • Implement measures to prepare facilities to maintain service quality and reliability during a weather emergency.
- • Make all reasonable efforts to prevent interruptions of service during an extreme weather emergency.
- • Reestablish service within the shortest possible time, should an interruption occur due to an extreme weather emergency.
- • Make reasonable efforts to manage emergencies resulting from a failure of service caused by an extreme weather emergency, including issuing instructions to its employees on procedures to be followed in the event of an extreme weather emergency.
Much of this should have been done after the storm in 2011, but it’s good to see the state’s leaders taking this matter seriously – we hope. With GEUS having to take out a $20 million loan it shows how vulnerable many small providers can be if the state doesn’t take action. The next action should be focused on rolling back those excessive charges for utilities that were forced to buy power outside of their normal routes, which is exactly why GEUS was forced to make huge expenditures during the winter storm.
Scrutiny of Texas power grid failure moves to Washington – The chief executive of the Texas grid operator, a state oil and gas regulator and the mayor of Houston appeared before a congressional panel Wednesday investigating the power outages during February’s deadly Texas freeze. The testimony before a virtual meeting of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations had a familiar feel of finger-pointing, echoing the flavor of state hearings held in February related to the outages, which left more than 50 Texans dead and many millions more desperate, cold and in the dark. The hearing revealed other themes as federal officials take a closer look at how things devolved in Texas last month – already, federal agencies concerned with electricity reliability have started their own investigations. Democrats on the panel again and again linked the power outages to the consequence of a changing climate as they build momentum for proposals to increase renewable energy infrastructure nationally. The lesson, said subcommittee chair U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., is that “extreme weather events are devastating and happening more frequently.” Republicans, meanwhile, pointed to the rise of renewable energy as an Achilles heel to energy grids – even though all sources of energy failed to some extent during the exceptionally cold temperatures. Replacing nuclear plants and coal “with variable renewable sources could make (the grid) less resilient,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. Republicans also argued that grid problems were not unique to Texas as they tried to stave off federal regulation of the Texas grid. “Texans can and will solve the problem within its borders,” said Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville. Damages from the power outages, set in motion by plunging, persistent cold weather, have been pegged at nearly $200 billion. Statewide, water service was disrupted for more than 12 million people as pipes froze and burst – an estimated 325 million gallons of water were lost in Austin alone due to burst pipes, according to Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros. Testimony from the Texas witnesses Wednesday reflected the blame game that has already played out in hearings in Austin. “Time and time again, the No. 1 problem that we heard reported from (oil and gas) operators was a lack of power at their production sites,” Christi Craddick, chairwoman of the Texas Railroad Commission, told members of the panel, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. “The oil fields simply cannot run without power, making electricity the best winterization tool,” she continued. Craddick’s observation was an implicit criticism of power plant operators and the state grid operator. But Bill Magness, chief executive of the state grid operator, the Electric Reliability of Council, said, “ERCOT is not a policymaking body.” “We implement the policies adopted by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature,” said Magness, who was fired in March by the ERCOT board but remains at the helm for at least another month.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: EPA deal with Ala. polluter undercuts Biden equity pledge — Monday, March 22, 2021 — When a special team of EPA inspectors first showed up at an industrial plant belching carcinogens on the worn outskirts of Birmingham, Ala., in 2011, their findings of flagrant regulatory violations were later deemed serious enough to warrant a referral to the Justice Department. But what happened – and didn’t happen – next tells a disquieting tale of a status quo that has long left people of color and low-income communities disproportionately exposed to toxic air pollution, an E&E News review has found. And, while the Biden administration now trumpets a renewed commitment to environmental justice, the saga surrounding the ABC Coke complex, which produces a fuel made from coal, also exposes the barriers to achieving those equity goals. Among them: a regulatory system that cedes front-line oversight to state and local officials who may be unwilling or ill-equipped to crack down on influential polluters; cautious, far-removed EPA managers; and a secretive enforcement apparatus that in this instance seems to have treated a vulnerable community as an afterthought. “We’re breathing this stuff, and they should have at least been telling us something about it,” Deborah Anderson, a public school lunchroom supervisor whose home lies within eyeshot of the facility, said in an interview. “But they didn’t.” Instead, federal regulators dithered. Local officials obfuscated. And the coke plant, located less than a mile from an elementary school, has continued to spew tons of cancer-causing benzene and other hazardous pollutants each year. Almost a full decade passed before a court-enforced cleanup agreement was locked in – and that happened earlier this year only after EPA fought residents’ efforts to amend the final deal. EPA’s regional office in Atlanta said that the plant’s owner, Drummond Co. Inc., has already made most of the physical improvements required by the settlement, which was made final as a consent decree in January. A Drummond spokesperson failed to respond to written questions or phone messages. In court papers and other records, the privately held coal company denied wrongdoing and said it had made fixes even when disagreeing with EPA over regulatory requirements. Drummond has long been a force in Alabama politics; in 2018, a federal jury convicted its top lobbyist at the time in a bribery scheme aimed at avoiding Superfund cleanup liability for contamination linked to the ABC Coke complex (Greenwire, Oct. 24, 2018.)
EPA head: ‘COVID-19 created a perfect storm for environmental justice communities’ – New Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan pledged Wednesday to address the disparate impacts of pollution on underserved communities, saying the need to address environmental justice “has only become more urgent” as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In a virtual “fireside chat” at the 2021 Ceres Conference, Regan said that under his leadership the agency will explore the question of “what does real change look like in underserved communities.” “Environmental justice is near and dear to my heart,” he said, adding that “COVID-19 created a perfect storm for environmental justice communities.” Regan has a background in such issues specifically, having created North Carolina’s Environmental Justice and Equity Board in 2018 during his previous position as head of the state’s Department of Environmental Quality. “We will be driven by our convictions that every person in our great country has the right to clean air, clean water and a healthier life, no matter how much money they have in their pockets, the color of their skin or the community that they live in,” Regan said in December when then-President-elect Biden introduced him as his EPA nominee. Nonwhite Americans are more likely to live in areas with higher levels of air pollution, which can exacerbate the effects of the coronavirus, as well as comorbidities such as heart disease and hypertension. A preliminary study from last year indicated that long-term average exposure to fine particulate matter increases the risk of death from the virus. Regan also addressed what he said was the need for restoring morale within the EPA after the Trump administration. “Under my leadership we will be listening to the voices of our career public servants and EPA scientists,” he said. “There were a few times during the last administration when the voices of our scientists were not at the forefront.” He specifically pointed to the EPA’s removal of a web page on climate change, which the Biden EPA restored last week. “We’re bringing back scientific integrity and climate action. We are committed to bringing back underserved communities,” Regan added.
The Coal Plant Next Door – ProPublica – Near America’s largest coal-fired power plant, toxins are showing up in drinking water and people have fallen ill. Thousands of pages of internal documents show how one giant energy company plans to avoid the cleanup costs. – Mark Berry raised his right hand, pledging to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. He pulled his microphone close to his yellow bow tie and glanced left toward five of Georgia’s most influential elected officials. As one of Georgia Power’s top environmental lobbyists, Berry had a clear mission on that rainy day in April 2019: Convince those five energy regulators that the company’s customers should foot the bill for one of the most expensive toxic waste cleanup efforts in state history. When Berry became Georgia Power’s vice president of environmental affairs in 2015, he inherited responsibility for a dark corporate legacy dating back to before he was born. For many decades, power companies had burnt billions of tons of coal, dumping the leftover ash – loaded with toxic contaminants – into human-made “ponds” larger than many lakes. But after a pair of coal-ash pond disasters in Tennessee and North Carolina exposed the environmental and health risks of those largely unregulated dumps, the Obama administration required power companies to stop using the aging disposal sites. Berry had spent nearly two decades climbing the ranks of Southern Company, America’s second-largest energy provider and the owner of Georgia Power. By the time he was under oath that day, company execs had vowed to store newly burnt coal ash in landfills designed for safely disposing of such waste. But an unprecedented challenge remained: Figuring out what to do with 90 million tons of coal ash – enough to fill more than 50 Major League Baseball stadiums to the brim – that had accumulated over the better part of a century in ash ponds that were now leaking. Georgia Power would have to shut down roughly 30 ponds from the Appalachian foothills to the wetlands near the Georgia coast. After draining all the ponds, the company would have two options for disposing of the highly contaminated dry ash left behind: It could either move the ash into a landfill fitted with a protective liner, or pack the dry ash into a smaller footprint and place a cover on top – leaving a gaping hole in the ground that, in some places, would be larger than Disneyland. The former would cost more but vastly reduce the possibility of toxic leakage; the latter lowered expenses but would perpetually risk contaminating drinking water in neighboring communities.As scientists had grown more aware of the threat posed by coal ash, Southern states like Virginia and North Carolina had forced utilities to move ash into lined landfills. But Georgia was something of an outlier. The state historically was known as a coal ash capital, a place where lawmakers touted their pro-business bona fides by denouncing regulations, and Georgia Power had a track record of delaying or blocking efforts to regulate pollution. The company was lobbying hard for the cheaper option.
Community group created to advise TMI cleanup – Communities surrounding the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg now have a citizens committee to help guide decommissioning of the plant’s Unit 2 reactor, which partially melted down in 1979. The Community Advisory Panel is made up of 15 people who represent the plant and its neighbors, including townships, school districts, first responders, nuclear planners and state historians. Londonderry Township manager Steve Letavic will lead the group. He said they hope to make decommissioning plans more transparent. “If people aren’t engaged and you’re not getting the right information out, then they have no other options than to jump to conclusions, or draw their own conclusions,” Letavic said. Decommissioning company EnergySolutions agreed to work with a citizen committee after state regulators objected to accelerated plans to dismantle the site last year. “We’re going to get to work directly with EnergySolutions through the decommissioning process and really make sure that we’re all on the same page, we all have the same information, and we all know the next steps as we move forward through decommissioning,” Letavic said. DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell wrote to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission last April detailing concerns including unknown levels of radiation left on site and cost to dismantle. In 2018, the reactor’s then-owner reported that a decommissioning trust fund for TMI-2 held about $899 million, while the estimated clean-up costs were $1.35 billion. In December, the NRC approved the reactor’s license transfer from FirstEnergy to TMI-2 Solutions for decommissioning. The company is a subsidiary of Utah-based EnergySolutions, which aims to profit by dismantling nuclear sites under budget.
Southern Company identifies ‘likely’ nuclear construction delay on Vogtle unit – Southern Company’s Vogtle nuclear unit will come into service at least a month later than scheduled, due to additional construction remediation work the company identified in an 8-K filing on Friday. The utility’s nuclear operating company identified construction remediation work that would “likely” delay the November 2021 in-service date for Vogtle Unit 3. Delays past the service date will create approximately $25 million additional capital costs per month for Southern subsidiary Georgia Power, which holds 45.7% ownership of the project, the according to the financial disclosure. Unit 4 of Plant Vogtle was not mentioned in the 8-K filing, though Southern CEO and President Thomas Fanning said in the Q4 earnings call that the final reactor’s November 2022 in-service date is on pace for the third quarter of that year.Vogtle Unit 3 was approximately 98% complete according to the last quarterly update, but both units faced a lot of delays in construction due to COVID-19.”Since the onset of the pandemic and most acutely during the fourth quarter of 2020, the impacts from COVID-19 have included high absenteeism and disruptions to planned or ongoing work as we isolated personnel,” Fanning said in the February earnings call.Southern Nuclear Operating Company identified additional construction remediation work, and is reviewing Unit 3’s “construction quality programs and, where needed, implementing improvement plans consistent with these processes,” the filing said. The inspection and review results could require additional remediation, although, as noted in the financial disclosure, “the ultimate outcome of these matters cannot be determined at this time.”
No wonder HB 6 is still in force. Fossil-fuel bills show lawmakers still kowtow to utilities. –The March 17 story, “Lawmakers seek to limit local authority over fossil-fuel use,” best explains why House Bill 6, the allegedly corrupt legislation passed by Ohio legislators to enrich Ohio’s utilities over consumers, has still not been repealed: Elected officials are still owned by and kowtow to utilities and their big money to get reelected. House Bill 201 and Senate Bill 127 would prohibit local bans on the use of fossil fuel for power generation, while House Bill 192 would prevent local bans on oil or gas pipelines. These are local policies best left to local government. Local residents should have the power to decide where or if pipes carrying fossil fuels are allowed to potentially contaminate their backyards. State Rep. Al Cutrona of Mahoning County, who introduced HB 192, when asked why communities shouldn’t be allowed to decide these issues for themselves, responded that he was working to do what’s best for his community. Thanks, Big Brother, for protecting little ol’ me! That wouldn’t have anything to do with campaign funds for you, would it?
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