Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666
This is a collection of interesting news articles about the environment and related topics published last week. This is usually a Tuesday evening regular post at GEI (but can be posted at other times).
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Note: Because of the high volume of news regarding the coronavirus outbreak, that news has been published separately:
- 04 Jul 2021 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 04July 2021
- 04 Jul 2021 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 04July 2021
It appears that we might be in the early stages of what could be the fourth or fifth wave of new coronavirus cases, depending on what previous periods of increasing infections one counts as a “wave”. New cases reported in the US during the week ending July 3rd were 7.0% higher than during the week ending , but the week over week increase was limited because of an anomalously small number of cases reported on July 3rd compared to other Saturdays, which we presume was tied to the July 4th holiday; before that drop in reported cases on July 3rd, US cases were showing an 11% week over week increase late this past week. US deaths attributed to Covid during the week ending July 3rd were 22.9% lower than during the week ending June 26th, but again, similarly to new cases, deaths reported on July 3rd were half of the average of those reported on the most recent Saturdays; remove that July 3rd drop, and deaths were only down 18.2% from last week. Since disease and death reports on July 4th and 5th will be similarly skewed, it may be a few weeks before we get a clear idea how fast new US cases are really rising, if they indeed are.
Meanwhile, new cases of Covid reported worldwide during the week ending July 3rd were 2.9% higher than during the week ending June 26th, as the small US anomaly had little impact on the global totals. New case decreases of 29% in Brazil and 11% in India, which had accounted for a third of new global cases going into the week, mask the surge of new cases going on elsewhere: among other countries in the top 20. New cases were up by 38% in Indonesia, up by 67% in the UK, by 18% in Russia, by 28% in South Africa, by 17% in Iran, by 51% in Bangladesh, by 88% in Spain, by 18% Malaysia, by 16% in Iraq, by 41% in Thailand, by 59% in Tunisia, and by 24% in Mexico. So, as you can see, the global Covid surge is no longer limited to just a few countries or regions. Meanwhile, global Covid deaths are still trending lower, at least for now: during the past week, deaths attributed to Covid worldwide were down 5.6% from those of the prior week.
This week’s 67% increase in new cases in the UK should be a matter of immediate concern in the US. New cases in the UK have now increased nearly fivefold over the past 5 weeks, where the Delta mutant, originally from India, is now said to be dominant, replacing their home grown Alpha covid strain. Meanwhile, the vaccination rate in the UK is comparable to ours. In speaking of that, the BBC reported on June 25:
“So far, almost 44 million people have had a first vaccine dose – more than 80% of the adult population – and 32 million have had a second.“
So that means more than 58% of Brits have had two vaaccine doses. Meanwhile, as of June 26th, the CDC reported that 65.9% of US adults have at least one dose, and 56.5% have had two. So it appears that the UK is now a bit ahead of us on getting vaccinated, even as their new cases go through the roof.
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 are copies of graphs WorldOMeters so you can get a visuallization of what the growth and decline of this pandemic looks like in the U.S. (data through July 6):
New cases and deaths data globally are shown in the Johns Hopkins graphics below (first two graphics). These graphics shows the daily global new cases (red) and deaths (white) since the start of the pandemic up through 06 July. The third graphic shows the cummulative total vaccine doses delivered to date.
Here’s the week’s environment and energy news:
Here’s What Happens When You Eat From Plastic Containers – Drinking water is supposed to be good for you, but what happens when you diligently carry that disposable water bottle around all day, to remind yourself to take a sip? With that sip, you take in an undue amount of plastic, according to recent research. And that’s not all. Takeout cartons, shelf-stable wrapping, those water bottles, even canned goods can be the culprit. And while no one likes the idea of consuming plastic, most of us still shrug and throw that container in the microwave. Humans ingest at least 74,000 particles of microplastic a year, according to research in The Journal of Food Science. A lot of this comes from our takeout containers. In fact, we could be ingesting more than 200 particles a week, just from our plastic food storage units. Microplastics from the containers themselves flake off into the food, accounting for 30 percent of the plastic intake from those foods, according to a study in The Journal of Hazardous Materials. Keep in mind that the manufacturers set the dishwasher and microwave safe labels on your containers, not a governmental regulatory body like the FDA. You are trusting large corporations, often based outside of the United States, to tell you your food containers are safe to wash and to heat – they may not be. High heat breaks the chemical bonds in plastic, increasing the microplastic shedding. Researchers have found that water bottles left out in the sun have a higher number of plastic chemicals in them. Scientists have found that microplastics can cross the hardy membrane that protects the brain from foreign bodies in the bloodstream, at least in animals. They are carcinogenic to humans. Just as troubling, mothers may pass microplastics through the placenta to their fetuses, according to a study shared at Rutgers Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability. The chemicals leaching out of these plastics can cause long-term medical effects. The particles could releasephthalates into the body, which interfere with hormones and can reduce fertility in both men and women. TheConsumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 banned use of phthalates in toys, formula and bottles. It’s not just the phthalates. Plastics contain multitudes of chemicals, including bisphenols A, S and F (BPAs, BPSs, and BPFs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Chemicals like these have been linked to cancers, weakened immune systems, organ problems, and developmental delays in kids. Bisphenols specifically (particularly BPA) have been identified as endocrine-disrupting and linked to obesity. Research also shows that BPAs make it more difficult for women to conceive and increase the risk of miscarriages.
Biden EPA Appears to Side With Chemical Industry in Microplastics Health Conflict: Greenpeace Investigation – A Greenpeace investigation revealed Monday that the Biden administration appears sympathetic to oil and chemical industry giants – not the public, scientists, and public health advocates – regarding a push in Europe to curb the use of microplastics in everyday products.According to a report by Unearthed, Greenpeace UK’s investigative journalism unit, a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) named Karissa Kovner exchanged emails with the American Chemical Council (ACC) in April 2019 regarding a proposal by the Swiss government to list microplastic UV-328 in the Stockholm Convention, the UN’s global treaty on chemicals that don’t easily break down in nature.UV-328’s inclusion in the treaty would lead to a ban on its production and use, which is currently common in plastic products, rubber, paints, coatings, and cosmetics, said Unearthed.ACC officials forwarded an email to Kovner about the proposal, to which she said, “Wow – that’s quite a precedent. Holy moly.”The ACC then told Kovner the Swiss government’s push is the “first concrete proposal” to label UV-328 as a persistent organic pollutant (POP).”Welcome to our future,” Kovner said. Kovner’s comments were made when she was serving under former President Donald Trump, but she appears to still be leading the EPA’s work on chemicals under Biden; in late March she represented the EPA as a senior policy advisor for international affairs at the ACC’s GlobalChem conference.”While you might expect Trump’s EPA to align with the oil and chemical industry against protections for the American people from potentially harmful plastic chemicals, the Biden administration must do better,” said John Hocevar, Greenpeace USA oceans campaign director. “As much of the world works to take action to address the impacts of the plastic pollution crisis, the U.S. government should be stepping forward to lead, not echoing the world’s worst polluters.” The microplastic that Kovner, the ACC, and the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) expressed concern about regulating has been classified as a substance of very high concern because it persists in the environment and accumulates in organisms. Microplastics have been detected in oceans; birds’ eggs and minks’ vital organs in the Arctic, sparking fear among Indigenous communities there that it could affect them as well; raindrops; household items; and human breast milk.
NZ to Ban Some Single Use Plastics, Following a Familiar Distressing Pattern – By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, New Zealand environment minister David Parker today announced plans to ban some single-use plastic products, beginning next year and phased in over three stages by July 2025. Despite its reputation as a green paradise – in part fostered by Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film trilogy – New Zealand is currently one of the top 10 per-capita producers of landfill waste in the world, according to the Guardian, New Zealand to ban most single-use plastics by 2025:New Zealand has already taken some steps to address its plastics problem and banned most single-use plastic bags in 2019.And at a time when most US policy – whether at the government or corporate level is based on the sweet nothings purred by various recycling fairies, I suppose NZ’s actions should be applauded.But instead I see recurring patterns, of policy inadequate to the scale of the problem. The NZ program will be phased-in over a rather laconic, four-year time frame – and the present scheme will leave untouched some major areas of plastics waste. According to RNZ, Government announces bans on some plastic items: The three-stage plan to phase our hard-to-recycle plastic packaging will take place over the next four years. By mid-2025 all other PVC and polystyrene food and drink packaging will be outlawed. The ban also includes single-use plastic items such as drink stirrers, cotton buds, single-use produce bags, cutlery, plates and bowls, straws and fruit labels. An even bigger elephant in the room is NZ’s apparent failure to target commercial waste. According to the Guardian: The new bans were an important step, but still missed many of the largest producers of plastic waste in New Zealand, said Assoc Prof Terri-Ann Berry, the director of Environmental Solutions Research Centre at Unitec. She said that while drawing public attention to household waste was vital, “it’s very easy to forget that some of our more commercial sectors are also big plastic users”. Construction and demolition, for example, accounted for up to 50% of landfill waste in New Zealand.
80 percent of 2021 peach crop destroyed by frost, Hungary – About 80% of the 2021 peach crop in Hungary has been destroyed by spring frost, the National Agriculture Chamber said. “Hungary is good for growing peaches, but only the right types, in the right places and with the proper farming technology,” said Bela Mflrtonffy, head of the chamber’s orchard section. “Orchard growers need to gradually change over to types of peaches that can stand up better to the challenge of global climate change, he added.
It’s Some of America’s Richest Farmland. But What Is It Without Water? – – A California farmer decides it makes better business sense to sell his water than to grow rice. An almond farmer considers uprooting his trees to put up solar panels. Drought is transforming the state, with broad consequences for the food supply. In America’s fruit and nut basket, water is now the most precious crop of all. It explains why, amid a historic drought parching much of the American West, a grower of premium sushi rice has concluded that it makes better business sense to sell the water he would have used to grow rice than to actually grow rice. Or why a melon farmer has left a third of his fields fallow. Or why a large landholder farther south is thinking of planting a solar array on his fields rather than the thirsty almonds that delivered steady profit for years.”You want to sit there and say, ‘We want to monetize the water?’ No, we don’t,” said Seth Fiack, a rice grower here in Ordbend, on the banks of the Sacramento River, who this year sowed virtually no rice and instead sold his unused water for desperate farmers farther south. “It’s not what we prefer to do, but it’s what we kind of need to, have to.”These are among the signs of a huge transformation up and down California’s Central Valley, the country’s most lucrative agricultural belt, as it confronts both an exceptional drought and the consequences of years of pumping far too much water out of its aquifers. Across the state, reservoir levels are dropping and electric grids are at risk if hydroelectric dams don’t get enough water to produce power.Climate change is supercharging the scarcity. Rising temperatures dry out the soil, which in turn can worsen heat waves. This week, temperatures in parts of California and the Pacific Northwest have been shattering records.By 2040, the San Joaquin Valley is projected to lose at least 535,000 acres of agricultural production. That’s more than a tenth of the area farmed.And if the drought perseveres and no new water can be found, nearly double that amount of land is projected to go idle, with potentially dire consequences for the nation’s food supply. California’s $50 billion agricultural sector supplies two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts and more than a third of America’s vegetables – the tomatoes, pistachios, grapes and strawberries that line grocery store shelves from coast to coast.Glimpses of that future are evident now. Vast stretches of land are fallow because there’s no water. New calculations are being made about what crops to grow, how much, where. Millions of dollars are being spent on replenishing the aquifer that has been depleted for so long. “Each time we have a drought you’re seeing a little glimpse into what will happen more frequently in our climate future,” said Morgan Levy, a professor specializing in water science and policy at the University of California, San Diego.
West coast drought leads to grasshopper plague –As the Southwest remains stuck in the most intense drought of the 21st century, a plague of grasshoppers has emerged, threatening farmers’ rangelands, AP reports. The Department of Agriculture has responded by launching an extermination campaign against grasshoppers, the largest since the 1980s. Authorities have started to spray thousands of square miles with pesticide to kill immature grasshopper before they become adults. Some environmentalists worry the pesticides could kill other insects, including grasshopper predators and struggling species such as monarch butterflies, AP notes. The USDA said it would spray rangelands in sections to prevent other insect wildlife from being affected by the pesticide. The USDA released a grasshopper hazard map that shows some areas have more than 15 grasshoppers per square yard in Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska. “Left unaddressed, federal officials said the agricultural damage from grasshoppers could become so severe it could drive up beef and crop prices,” AP writes. “Drought and grasshoppers go together and they are cleaning us out,” Frank Wiederrick, a farmer in Montana, told AP.
‘Megadrought’ Along Border Strains US-Mexico Water Relations – The United States and Mexico are tussling over their dwindling shared water supplies after years of unprecedented heat and insufficient rainfall.Sustained drought on the middle-lower Rio Grande since the mid-1990s means less Mexican water flows to the U.S. The Colorado River Basin, which supplies seven U.S. states and two Mexican states, is also at record low levels.A 1944 treaty between the U.S. and Mexico governs water relations between the two neighbors. The International Boundary and Water Commission it established to manage the 450,000-square-mile Colorado and Rio Grande basins has done so adroitly, according to our research.That able management kept U.S.-Mexico water relations mostly conflict-free. But it masked somewell-known underlying stresses: a population boom on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, climate change and aging waterworks.The mostly semiarid U.S.-Mexico border region receives less than 18 inches of annual rainfall, with large areas getting under 12 inches. That’s less than half the average annual rainfall in the U.S., which is mainly temperate.The 1940s, however, were a time of unusual water abundance on the treaty rivers. When American and Mexican engineers drafted the 1944 water treaty, they did not foresee today’s prolonged megadrought.Nor did they anticipate the region’s rapid growth. Since 1940 the population of the 10 largest pairs of cities that straddle the U.S.-Mexico border has mushroomed nearly twentyfold, from560,000 people to some 10 million today.This growth is powered by a booming, water-dependent manufacturing industry in Mexico that exports products to U.S. markets. Irrigated agriculture, ranching and mining compete with growing cities and expanding industry for scarce water.Today, there’s simply not enough of it to meet demand in the border areas governed by the 1944 treaty.In the fall of 2020, crisis erupted in the Rio Grande Valley after years of rising tensions and sustained drought that endanger crops and livestock in both the U.S. and Mexico.In September 2020, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared that “Mexico owes Texas a year’s worth of Rio Grande water.” The next month, workers in Mexico released water from a dammed portion of Mexico’s R’o Conchos destined to flow across the border to partially repay Mexico’s 345,600-acre-foot water debt to the U.S. Frustrated farmers and protesters in the Mexican state of Chihuahua clashed with Mexican soldiers sent to protect the workers. A 35-year-old farmer’s wife and mother of three was killed.
Why some of the world’s biggest companies are increasingly worried about water scarcity – Major companies from across a range of sectors are increasingly concerned about the cost and availability of the world’s ultimate renewable resource: water.The availability and relatively low cost of water does not tend to capture much attention until it effectively runs out. Yet, with the climate crisis seen as a “risk multiplier” to water scarcity, analysts warn that even companies with relatively limited financial exposure to water risk should brace for disruption.It comes at a time when water prices are rising around the world. The average price of water increased by 60% in the 30 largest U.S. cities between 2010 and 2019, according to data compiled by Barclays, while California Water Futures have regularly jumped as much as 300% in recent years.In a research note published June 14, analysts at Barclays identified water scarcity as “the most important environmental concern” for the global consumer staples sector, which includes everything from food and beverages to agriculture and tobacco.Consumer staples, which was said to be the most exposed of all sectors to water risk, faces a $200 billion impact from water scarcity, analysts at the U.K. bank said. This came down to a strong reliance on agricultural commodities, an extreme vulnerability to water price fluctuation and operational risks – including disruption from extreme events such as droughts and flooding, and fines and lawsuits linked to pollution. The bank found that water-related comments in company transcripts last year jumped 43% when compared to the end of 2019, which it said reflected a growing corporate awareness of the risks associated with clean water and sanitation.Sustainable investors, meanwhile, seemed to be prioritizing other environmental concerns. “Our recent conservations with investors suggest that many are instead focusing mainly on the potential impact of rising carbon costs,” analysts at Barclays said.The research found the potential financial impact from water risk was likely to be three times higher than carbon risk.
Yellowstone is Losing its Snow as the Climate Warms, and That Means Widespread Problems for Water and Wildlife – -A new assessment of climate change in the two national parks and surrounding forests and ranchland warns of the potential for significant changes as the region continues to heat up.Since 1950, average temperatures in the Greater Yellowstone Area have risen 2.3 degreesFahrenheit (1.3 C), and potentially more importantly, the region has lost a quarter of its annual snowfall. With the region projected to warm 5-6 F by 2061-2080, compared with the average from 1986-2005, and by as much as 10-11 F by the end of the century, the high country around Yellowstone is poised to lose its snow altogether.The loss of snow there has repercussions for a vast range of ecosystems and wildlife, as well as cities and farms downstream that rely on rivers that start in these mountains.The Greater Yellowstone Area comprises 22 million acres in northwest Wyoming and portions of Montana and Idaho. In addition to geysers and hot springs, it’s home to the southernmost range of grizzly bear populations in North America and some of the longest intact wildlife migrations, including the seasonal traverses of elk, pronghorn, mule deer and bison.The area also represents the one point where the three major river basins of the western U.S. converge. The rivers of the Snake-Columbia basin, Green-Colorado basin, and Missouri River Basin all begin as snow on the Continental Divide as it weaves across Yellowstone’s peaks and plateaus.How climate change alters the Greater Yellowstone Area is, therefore, a question with implications far beyond the impact on Yellowstone’s declining cutthroat trout population and disruptions to the food supplies critical for the region’s recovering grizzly population. By altering the water supply, it also shapes the fate of major Western reservoirs and their dependent cities and farms hundreds of miles downstream.Rising temperatures also increase the risk of large forest fires like those that scarred Yellowstone in 1988 and broke records across Colorado in 2020. And the effects on the national parks could harm the region’s nearly US$800 billion in annual tourism activity across the three states.
Record high 114 temperature set in Canada –A village in British Columbia set a record high temperature for Canada on Sunday, beating a previous record of 113 degrees Fahrenheit. Environment Canada, a government weather agency, said on Twitter that the village of Lytton climbed to just over 115 degrees. CTV News is reporting that the temperature on Tuesday could get close to 117 degrees. Vancouver and the rest of the Pacific Northwest is also experiencing record heat, according to The Washington Post. The temperature at the local airport spiked to 89 degrees on Sunday, a record for the area, which usually experiences mild weather. Portland and Seattle have both recently set record temperatures at 112 degrees and 103 degrees, respectively. A “heat dome,” a stretched-out area of high pressure, over the region is being blamed for the record temperatures. Experts told the Post that climate change can increase the likelihood of extreme weather events such as this one. Cities in at least eight states across the U.S. saw record-breaking temperatures last week, and wildfires ignited across Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.
Blistering heat wave demolishes all-time records in northwestern US, Canada – To say it’s hot in the northwestern United States and western Canada is an understatement. For the second straight day, temperatures soared to unheard of levels for this part of the world on Sunday — and AccuWeather meteorologists say the summer sizzle hasn’t even reached its peak. AccuWeather’s team of expert forecasters were describing the then upcoming heat wave as “unprecedented”, “life-threatening” and “historic” as early as the middle of last week, and these descriptions have been accurate in the first days of the Northwest scorcher. The weekend marked the beginning of the extended stretch of extreme temperatures. Portland, Oregon, a city that typically experiences temperatures in the middle to upper 70s in late June, soared to a staggering 112 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday, breaking the all-time record high of 108 set just a day before. Prior to the current heat wave, the highest temperature ever recorded in the city was 107 set once in July of 1965 and twice in August of 1981. Portland is also expected to obliterate its daily record high of 100 on Monday and possibly set an all-time high temperature record for the third straight day. AccuWeather is predicting a high of 113 on Monday, which would make it the hottest day ever recorded in the city. The highest temperature ever recorded in the state of Oregon is 117, which was set inUmatilla on July 27, 1939. “Temperatures of 110 F or greater are virtually unheard of west of the Cascades,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Randy Adkins noted. Seattle soared to its own historic heights over the weekend as the thermometer skyrocketed to 102 on Saturday and 104 on Sunday, with the latter setting a new all-time high for the Emerald City. According to the National Weather Service, this is the first time the city surpassed 100 degrees two days in a row. The Emerald City will easily eclipse Monday’s daily record, which stands at 91, and will likely set a new mark for the hottest day in recorded history. Monday’s high is expected to reach a scorching 111.The all-time state record-high temperature for Washington is 118, most recently set at Burbank on Aug. 5, 1961. Temperatures in Sunnyside, Washington, located about 180 miles southeast of Seattle, may soar close to this mark by Tuesday. Average highs in June can be anywhere from the 70s in eastern Washington and Oregon to the 80s in western areas and into Idaho.
Pacific Northwest heat wave temperatures reach all-time high – Record-setting temperatures were recorded throughout the American Northwest on Monday, in some cases beating previous high temperatures observed only this past weekend, The Associated Press reports.Seattle and Portland recorded 107 degrees Fahrenheit and 115 degrees, respectively, on Monday, both exceeding records set just days ago. As the AP notes, these sorts of lingering “heat dome” extreme temperatures are unheard of in the region known for its cool climate. Less than half of Seattle’s residents have air conditioning, the AP reported, adding that the city’s average June high temperature is around 70. On Sunday, a village in British Columbia set a new record high temperature for the entire nation of Canada: more than 115 degrees. Businesses, schools and even COVID-19 testing sites have been forced to close due to the heat. On Sunday, the U.S. track and field Olympic trials in Oregon were forced to postpone after temperatures went above 100 degrees and one athlete had to be carted off the field in a wheelchair. Much of the region’s infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle such conditions, mirroring what occurred in Texas earlier this year when freezing cold temperatures brought down the state’s electric system and leaving many without heat. Light rail and street car service in Portland has been canceled as power cables melted, the AP reports. Roads and pavements have begun to buckle and pop due to expanding under the heat. Workers have been hosing down drawbridges to prevent them from expanding and interfering with opening and closing mechanisms.
Portland soared to 116 degrees – hotter than Dallas, Miami and L.A. have ever been – Portland, Oregon, soared to a searing 116 degrees Monday, hotter than it has ever been in cities such as Dallas, New Orleans and downtown Los Angeles. In fact, when it comes to major U.S. cities, only Phoenix and Las Vegas have been hotter. On the other side of the country, a parallel heat wave was in full swing, with Boston forecast to touch 100 degrees Tuesday. The culprit? A buckling in the jet stream causing amplified ridges to surge far north on both sides of the country, resulting in dangerous heat infiltrating areas unaccustomed to it. On Tuesday, 12 million Americans across much of the West were under heat watches and warnings, and 44 million were under heat alerts across the Northeast, stretching from Delaware to Maine. Monday was a textbook example of a summer scorcher, pumping heat into the entirety of the Pacific Northwest and prompting an electrical utility in Spokane, Washington, to warn that people will face more rolling blackouts amid heavy power demand. More than 35 cities tied or set records, with many areas soaring an unprecedented 30 to 40 degrees above average. The record in Seattle was smashed by 5 degrees, hitting 108, and the record high in Portland was also shattered, soaring to a sizzling 116 degrees, 8 degrees higher than the old record. The heat was so excessive that Portland streetcar power cables melted and the pavement buckled. And the heat has been so persistent that Seattle achieved a new record: three consecutive days of triple-digit temperatures for the first time. The historic heat even jeopardized several state and national records. The record high of 119 for Oregon and the record of 118 in Washington came nearly within reach when Salem, Oregon, hit 117 and Dallesport, Washington, hit 118 Monday. Most impressive, Lytton, British Columbia, recorded a high temperature of 118 degrees, establishing a new national record for Canada, and crushing the old record by 5 degrees. This temperature surpassed Las Vegas’ all-time high of 117. To put this extreme heat into perspective, the hottest temperatures in traditionally hot cities are still cooler than these new records for Portland and Seattle. Miami’s record high is a mere 100 and Atlanta’s is only 106.
Temperature records smashed amid historic heat wave in Pacific Northwest –Temperature records were smashed in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and western Canada amid a historic heat wave described by the National Weather Service (NWS) as “historic, dangerous, prolonged and unprecedented.” Daytime temperatures were pushed into the triple digits, triggering heat warnings from Oregon to Canada’s Arctic territories on Sunday, June 27, 2021.For the second consecutive day, temperatures rose to record-breaking, dangerously high levels in the Pacific Northwest on Sunday. Portland soared to 44.4 degC (112 degF), its highest temperature in more than 80 years of records. This new mark occurred just one day after recording 42 degC (108 degF), which had broken the previous all-time record of 41.7 degC (107 degF). Meanwhile, Seattle hit 40 degC (104 degF), exceeding the past record of 39.4 degC (103 degF). The Dalles in Oregon sweltered through 46.1 degC (115 degF), topping 43.9 degC (111 degF) set in 1998 and 1992.Salem in Oregon reached 45 degC (113 degF), topping the all-time record high of 42.4 degC (108 degF) from 1927, 1941, and 1981. Vancouver in Washington reached 44.4 degC (112 degF), surpassing the all-time record of 42.2 degC (108 degF) on Saturday, June 27, which tied with the record from 2009.Medford in Oregon saw its warmest June temperature with 45 degC (113 degF), exceeding the previous monthly record of 43.9 degC (111 degF). Pasco in Washington reached 46.1 degC (115 degF), topping the warmest June set in 2015 with 43.9 degC (111 degF). The abnormal heat swelled north of the international border as Canada registered its highest temperature ever recorded when Lytton in British Columbia hit 46.7 degC (116 degF). Kamloops in British Columbia reached 42.8 degC (116 degF), marking its highest temperature on record. Victoria International Airport hit 37.2 degC (99 degF), topping its all-time record of 36.1 degC (97 degF) in 2007 and 1941.Prior to the record heat, NSW warned that temperatures will be “historic, dangerous, prolonged and unprecedented,” adding, “we can’t stress enough how impactful this heat will be to nearly every person and community in the Pacific and Inland Northwest region.”NWS in Seattle and Portland described the heat as unprecedented, forecasting scores of long-standing records. More than 25 million residents from Northern California are under excessive heat warnings, which are in force until next week. Washington, Oregon, and Idaho could see their hottest June on record, NWS added, seeing temperatures of at least 45 degC (113 degF). As heat soars north of the border, B.C. and Alberta in Canada are also forecast to experience record-setting heat.”Even though we’ve had heat waves in June, they haven’t been nearly as strong as this one is forecast to be,” said climatologist Larry O’Neill. “Other past exceptional heat waves that we’ve had in the Pacific Northwest– they’ve all occurred after mid-July.” On Monday, June 28, NWS warned that the “intense, prolonged, and record-breaking heat wave will continue over the Western U.S. through much of this week.” “Numerous daily, monthly, and all-time temperature records are forecast. To put it in perspective, today will likely go down in history as the hottest day ever recorded for places such as Seattle, WA, and Portland, OR. This level of heat is extremely dangerous and can be deadly if proper heat safety is not followed.” Meanwhile, Environment Canada issued a heat warning for parts of eastern Ontario, saying excessive heat and humidity will continue through Monday in Brockville, Prescott, Merrickville-Wolford, Kemptville, Cornwall, Morrisburg and Prescott, and Russell
Portland Infrastructure Crumbles record 116-degree heat – Three days, three records. For the third consecutive day, the high-temperature page of Portland’s record book will need a rewrite.Portland has been at the epicenter of a record-shattering heat wave that has been sending temperatures soaring to previously unimaginable levels across the northwestern United States and western Canada. Among the victims left in the heat wave’s wrath have been stricken residents, buckled streets and melted power cables.Little relief has been offered even at night, and the city continued its streak of searing heat Monday, setting a new all-time record high temperature in the process. The intense Portland heat has caused streets and sidewalks to buckle. The day’s highest mark reached 116 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the one-day-old record of 112 set Sunday. That had broken the anything-but-ageless record of 108 set Saturday. However, prior to that, the all-time high truly did seem untouchable, as no day had touched the previous record of 107 F since August 1981.For a city that typically sees average highs top out in the low 80s during the year’s hottest months, in July and August, this June blast of heat was never something many in the city could have imagined.The city’s infrastructure and operations are a testament to that.On Monday, power cables supporting streetcars in Portland were stretched to the extreme, melting in some areas.Less than 50 miles south of Portland, the city of Salem, Oregon, posted the day’s highest temperature, hitting a new all-time high of 117 degrees. For reference, Las Vegas has never recorded a day warmer than that.The Oregon Health Authority reported a total of 506 heat-related visits to emergency departments and urgent care centers over the past four days, according to CNN, and at least 251 visits occurred on Monday. The heat wasn’t any less brutal in Washington where at least 676 people visited emergency departments for heat-related symptoms from Friday into Sunday. Spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Health Cory Portner told CNN that 81 of those cases led to inpatient admissions.
Extreme Heat Wave Melts Cables, Buckles Roads in Northwest -Another day, another cascade of high temperature records broken across the Pacific Northwest as a heat wave unlike any in recent memory continued into a third day.In Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia, all-time records were broken in many places for the third consecutive day: In Portland, highs topped out at 116 degF on Monday afternoon, obliterating Sunday’s record of 112 deg, which itself was a jump from the historic high of 107 deg set in August 1981.Temperatures at Seattle’s Sea-Tac airport were measured at 108 deg, topping Sunday’s 104 deg. The effects of 72 hours of extraordinary heat showed themselves in dramatic ways Monday. In Portland, the light rail and streetcar systems were suspended as the grid felt the strain – in some cases, literally, as power cables melted in the sun.Multnomah County, where Portland is located, reported a spike in heat-related emergency and urgent care visits as residents sought relief. Roads across the region buckled as asphalt and concrete expanded and cracked due to high temperatures; the Seattle Parks Department closed one indoor public pool because air temperatures in the facility were so high as to be unsafe for visitors.At Amazon’s largely un-air conditioned warehouse complex south of Seattle, some workers were kept on the job throughout Monday, even as others were sent homewith pay following reports on Sunday that departments were running “power hours,” encouraging workers to move as quickly as possible for an hour to increase productivity. Residents experienced scattered blackouts, with around 30,000 outages reported in Washington and Oregon Monday evening. Heat waves kill more people on average in the U.S. than any other weather-related event, and are expected to continue to become increasingly frequent and severe with the effects of climate change.
As Canada sees record temperature of over 118 degrees amid heat wave, police warn of deaths – Lytton, a village in British Columbia, became the first place in Canada to record a temperature above 113 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday, with the thermometer hitting 116 degrees.But that national record did not last for long. On Monday, according to government weather agency Environment Canada, Lytton saw temperatures soar to just above 118 degrees on Monday.As The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang noted, that is one degree higher than the record in Las Vegas, the desert city more than a thousand miles south of Lytton.The heat could have a devastating effect on Canada’s west, where such high temperatures are unusual, and not all residents have air conditioning. In Burnaby, neighboring Vancouver in British Columbia, local law enforcement announced Tuesday that they had responded to more than 25 “sudden death” calls in 24 hours.Though the causes of death were still being investigated, police said that many of the victims were elderly and that the heat was suspected to be a contributing factor.”We are seeing this weather can be deadly for vulnerable members of our community, especially the elderly and those with underlying health issues. It is imperative we check on one another during this extreme heat,” said Col. Mike Kalanj with Burnaby Royal Canadian Mounted Police.In nearby Surrey, officials told local reporters that they, too, were seeing an unusual number of calls related to deaths.Surrey police had responded to 22 sudden-death calls Monday and 13 by midday Tuesday, according to the Surrey Leader. Though the causes of the deaths had not been determined, police were “responding to a higher-than-usual number of deaths since the beginning of the extreme weather conditions,” The previous Canadian records for hottest temperature, both 113 degrees, were set in Yellow Grass and Midale in Saskatchewan on July 5, 1937.”It’s warmer in parts of western Canada than in Dubai. I mean, it’s just not something that seems Canadian,” Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips told CTV News on Saturday.
Canada sets new all-time heat record of 121 degrees amid unprecedented heat wave -The British Columbia village of Lytton set the country’s heat record for a third straight day Tuesday, after Portland and Seattle notched all-time highs on Monday. The most severe heat wave in the history of the Pacific Northwest has climaxed, obliterating scores of long-standing records in both the U.S. and Canada. The National Weather Service had predicted the heat wave would be “historic, dangerous, prolonged and unprecedented,” and it has lived up to its billing.Perhaps the most astonishing heat occurred Tuesday in British Columbia where the high temperature in the village of Lytton soared to 121 degrees, setting Canada’s national heat record for a third straight day. For perspective, this temperature is more extreme than the all-time high in Las Vegas, 117, and higher than most places in the Lower 48 states outside the Desert Southwest. “Words cannot describe this historic event,” tweeted Environment Canada’s British Columbia branch. According to world weather records expert Maximiliano Herrera, the 121-degree reading also set a new world record for the most extreme high temperature ever observed north of 45 degrees latitude.Lytton broke Canada’s previous national heat record of 113 degrees on three consecutive days, rising to 116 Sunday, 118 Monday and finally 121 Tuesday, which tied Death Valley for the day’s highest temperature in North America. In the Lower 48 states, while the heat eased on Tuesday in Seattle and Portland, record-setting temperatures roasted the interior Pacific Northwest. Spokane, for example, set a new all-time high of 109 degrees.A preliminary new all-time state record high temperature was set in Oregon, where Hermiston, about 185 miles east of Portland, surged to 118 degrees. This occurred just one day after Dallesport, Wash., also hit 118, preliminarily tying a Washington state record. Dallesport is located about midway between Hermiston and Portland along the Washington-Oregon border.Tuesday’s exceptional inland heat followed a sweltering Monday when locations closer to the coast saw temperatures balloon 30 to 40 degrees above normal.Portland and Seattle broke all-time records by enormous margins. Portland reached 116 degrees, the highest temperature in more than 80 years of record-keeping. It was the third day in a row the city set a new all-time high. Before this weekend, the all-time high was 107, but on Saturday it hit 108 and on Sunday 112.Seattle soared to a sizzling 108 degrees Monday evening, surpassing the all-time record of 104 degrees set the day before (which topped the previous mark of 103 from 2009). The high of 108 was 34 degrees above the normal high of 74 and higher than the all-time heat record in Washington, D.C., among many other cities much farther to its south.
Wildfire engulfs village that set Canada’s all-time heat record — Lytton, which saw 121 degrees Tuesday, was in flames Wednesday night as massive blazes erupted in British Columbia. One day after it set Canada’s all-time heat record, a British Columbia village was devoured by flames. A fast-moving wildfire roared over the village of Lytton on Wednesday evening, which shocked climate scientists when temperature there surged to 121 degrees on Tuesday, breaking Canada’s national heat record for a third straight day.The blaze was a sobering symbol of a hellscape in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada, where hundreds have died and wildfires are erupting as temperatures climb to astonishing heights. One location in Canada’s Northwest Territories, hit 103 degrees Wednesday, the highest temperature observed so far north.‘Our poor little town of Lytton is gone’: Village at center of Canada’s heat wave devastated by ‘catastrophic’ fires The Lytton blaze prompted a mandatory evacuation order at 6 p.m. local time for the village of 250 people about 150 miles northeast of Vancouver.”The fire, it took maybe 15 minutes to engulf the whole town,” Lytton Mayor Jan Polderman told NEWS 1130, a news radio station in Vancouver. “People, basically they just grabbed their keys, and ran out the door. That’s how quick the fire happened.” Canada’s Global News reported that several buildings were destroyed and that an “unknown number of injured residents” were taken out of the village by ambulance. “The town is about a kilometre [0.6 miles] long and there were flames from one end of town to the other,” Polderman told NEWS11. “I saw it with my own eyes.”Lytton burned as more than a dozen wildfires erupted in British Columbia amid the most extreme heat wave recorded in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada. Dry lightning, or cloud-to-ground bolts from thunderstorms producing little or no rain, probably ignited most of the blazes.Weather satellites sensed hot spots near the ground and revealed massive smoke plumes in the sky, as towering pyrocumulus clouds shot up into the atmosphere. The pyrocumulus, billowing clouds that can surge over 50,000 feet high during extreme fire behavior, generated a siege of lightning. Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist with Vaisala, which operates a North America lightning network, tweeted that more than 3,800 lightning events were detected. Neil Lareau, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Nevada-Reno, tweeted that some of thepyrocumulus reached up to 55,000 feet, infiltrating the stratosphere, which is very unusual and observed only during the most extreme events. For example, it occurred during Australia’s devastating fire season in 2020 when a large enough plume entered the stratosphere to circumnavigate the globe.”I’ve watched a lot of wildfire-associated pyroconvective events during the satellite era, and I think this might be the singularly most extreme I’ve ever seen,” tweeted Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California in Los Angeles. “The recent and ongoing heatwave in the Pacific Northwest (in both the U.S. and Canada) is not just another heat wave,” wrote Christopher Burt, an expert on world weather extremes, in a Facebook message. “It is the most anomalous extreme heat event ever observed on Earth since records began two centuries ago.”
Dozens Die Across British Columbia And Pacific Northwest Amid “Historic” Heat Wave –The Pacific Northwest is experiencing a multi-day heat wave that we said last week would be “historic.” The unrelenting triple-digit temperatures shattered records on Monday and Tuesday and have stressed out power grids in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. Many folks in these areas don’t have central air condition and struggle to survive in these unprecedented conditions. At the moment, dozens have died of heat-related complications since last Friday. Just north of the Pacific Northwest is Canada’s westernmost province, British Columbia, where Death Valley hot temperatures reached triple digits. Many folks in this region of the Pacific coastline and mountain ranges don’t have central air condition and found it challenging to stay cool. CNN reports more than 230 deaths across British Columbia have been recorded since Friday. The coroner for the region called it an “unprecedented time.”“Since the onset of the heat wave late last week, the BC Coroners Service has experienced a significant increase in deaths reported where it is suspected that extreme heat has been contributory,” Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe said in a statement.BC Coroners Service said it usually receives on average 130 deaths over four days, but from Friday through Monday, at least 233 deaths were reported. The chief coroner warned this number is expected to climb as new data comes in.“Environmental heat exposure can lead to severe or fatal results, particularly in older people, infants and young children and those with chronic illnesses,” the coroner’s office said. As for the Pacific Northwest, a dozen deaths in Washington and Oregon are believed to be due to heat-related complications. Temperatures in Seattle and Portland have recorded highs over 100 degrees for multiple days.
Death toll rising amid a historic heat wave in British Columbia, Canada – More than 230 deaths have been reported in British Columbia, Canada from Friday, June 25 to Monday afternoon, June 28, 2021, amid a historic heat wave in the Pacific Northwest. The number is nearly double the expected amount and is predicted to further increase as data continues to be updated. While the extreme heat wave has likely peaked, dangerous temperatures are still forecast across the region through the end of this week. A noticeable drop in temperatures is expected on July 7 and 8. The heat wave, described by the National Weather Service (NWS) as “historic, dangerous, prolonged, and unprecedented” pushed temperatures into the triple digits, prompting heat warnings in the northwest U.S. and Canada’s Arctic territories. For the third consecutive day on Tuesday, Lytton B.C. set the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada as the mercury hit 49.5 degC (121.1 degF) in the Fraser Canyon village. Several other cities in B.C. also smashed the previous national records, including Cache Creek, Grand Forks, Kamloops, Lillooet, Kelowna, and Osoyoos, all of which recorded temperatures at or over 45 degC (113 degF). Armel Castellan, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said, “There’s really no hyperbole strong enough for this. We’re just flummoxed with how much these records are breaking.” In a statement, British Columbia Coroners Service chief Lisa Lapointe said it received 233 reports of deaths over a four-day period of the scorching heat, from Friday to Monday afternoon, which was almost double the expected amount. “Since the onset of the heatwave late last week, the BC Coroners Service has experienced a significant increase in deaths reported where it is suspected that extreme heat has been contributory.” The numbers are expected to increase as data continues to be updated, she said, adding that the fatalities underscore the vulnerability of the elderly, young people, and those with chronic illnesses in sizzling weather conditions.
Record-breaking heatwave results in over 486 deaths in British Columbia The prolonged and deadly heat wave that is scorching Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest in the US has at the time of this writing resulted in more than 486 deaths in British Columbia (BC) alone. The “sudden and unexpected” deaths, reported over the five-day period between Friday and 1 p.m. on Wednesday, account for a staggering 195 percent increase in the usual number of deaths reported in such a time frame. British Columbia Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) ambulances responded to 187 heat exhaustion and 52 heatstroke calls between June 25 and 28. A staggering 15,300 911 calls were taken in the province between June 26 and 27. The emergency services were overwhelmed. There is a major backlog in calls and delayed response times, with some emergency services forced to leave behind the bodies of victims as police and ambulances continued to respond to other calls. Due to the horrifyingly high death count, even the response times of coroners is being severely delayed. “We’ve never experienced anything like this before in Vancouver,” Vancouver Police Department Sergeant Steve Addison told reporters in a Tuesday press conference. Addison said that a surge in calls occurred on Tuesday morning as “people are showing up in their parents’ house or relatives’ house and finding them deceased.” The abnormally intense weather is the result of a “heat dome,” which is a large area of high pressure that extends well up into the atmosphere. The high-pressure system traps sinking air that becomes hotter as it lowers and approaches the ground. This is compounded by heat becoming trapped within the dome, resulting in a “bubble” that prevents rain and cold fronts from entering and cooling down the temperature. East of BC, Alberta Health Services have also reported an increase in heat-related emergency calls, with about six calls per day in Edmonton and 10 in Calgary. BC’s Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe stated in a press release that the number of deaths will increase as the data continues to be updated. “It is important we do not lose sight of the fact that each reported death is a person with a family and people who cared about them,” Lapointe said at a press conference on Wednesday. Across BC, Alberta, Yukon and the Northwest Territories, over 103 heat records were shattered on Monday alone. The village of Lytton, located at the north end of the Fraser Canyon, broke the all-time record for the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada for three straight days in a row. At 5 p.m. on Tuesday, the Lytton Climate Station reported an astounding temperature of 49.6 degrees Celsius (121 degrees Fahrenheit). This surpasses any temperature ever recorded in Las Vegas, Nevada, located in the Mojave Desert some 1,300 miles to the south in the United States.
Heat Waves Cook Bird Eggs – Some birds have mastered living in the scorching, dry environment of a desert. But even desert-adapted birds can’t handle extreme temperatures like those seen during heat waves.A heat wave is said to occur when unusually high temperatures prevail for several days in a region. During one heat wave that lasted eight days, all of the eggs that zebra finches had laid or incubated failed.Native to Australia, zebra finches are flexible with their breeding. They can nest pretty much any time in a year. In February 2017, the birds were nesting during peak Australian summer when the heat wave hit. Maximum air temperatures were above 40 degC (104 degF) on all eight days.Ideal incubation temperatures for the zebra finch are 36 – 38 degC. “The temperatures that killed these embryos, they are obviously just too much for the embryos to take,” Simon Griffith of Macquarie University in Australia told EcoWatch.That summer, as part of a larger study, Griffith and his co-worker visited hundreds of nestboxes to check on their status. A handful of these had been occupied. Using a digital egg monitor, the scientists tested from time to time if the embryos in the active nests had a heartbeat. “Before the heat wave we could still see the heartbeat and then after these two or three days of heat when we checked the eggs, the heartbeat had stopped,” Griffith said.Out of 25 egg clutches, 23 had failed to hatch. Just two eggs out of the 100 hatched. Both the chicks died later. “The fact that they lost these eggs wasn’t a big problem for the zebra finch but we think it’s a bit of a warning,” said Griffith. The zebra finch is well-adapted to heat and if it is losing its eggs, Griffith said, “it probably means there are lots of other birds that we weren’t studying that also may have lost their eggs.”
2021 fire season in California: a new disaster -The current California brush and wildfire season is off to an early start and threatens to surpass last year’s record-setting wildfire season. In 2020, more than 4.3 million acres of vegetation burned, and more than 10,000 homes and buildings were destroyed. Meteorological reports indicate that year-round wildfires have become common across the state and in the Pacific Northwest. A May 2021 article in the San Jose Mercury News confirmed that the California fire season now lasts 12 months. Ominously, Red Flag fire danger warnings were issued in early May, nearly two months before the traditional start of the state’s fire season. The Red Flag warnings issued May 4 included the region on both sides of California’s Central Valley, a large area from Redding in the North to Modesto, east of the San Francisco Bay Area. The area includes Sacramento, the state capital. As of this writing, there are eight active fires, including the Willow Fire (2,877 acres burned, 26 percent contained), the Mohave Fire (2,490 acres burned, 95 percent contained), the Cow Fire (761 acres burned, 85 percent contained), the Inyo Creek Fire (586 acres burned, 30 percent contained), the Overland Fire, near the Mexican border (515 acres burned, 95 percent contained) and the Mesa Fire, north of San Diego (350 acres burned, 40 percent contained). The largest of those fires, the Willow Fire in Los Padres National Forest, has an estimated containment date of July 11, due to the very difficult terrain that fire crews have to confront. The blaze has threatened homes and businesses, leading the Monterrey County Sheriff’s Department to issue evacuation orders for the region northwest of Sacramento. Seventeen major fires have been fully contained after consuming over 17,000 acres, including the Southern Fire (5,366 acres burned), also near the Mexican border. If one adds to that figure the number of fires of 500 acres or less, 29,195 acres have already burned in 3,794 incidents. The combination of a serious drought with a terrible heat wave affecting California and the western US has led to perfect conditions for such conflagrations. Besides drying out fire-prone vegetation, the hot conditions have led to sharp losses in available water needed not only to produce electricity, but irrigate water-thirsty crops, such as almonds and cotton, and to fight the fires themselves.
Hotter than the human body can handle: Pakistan city broils in world’s highest temperatures – When the full midsummer heat hits Jacobabad, the city retreats inside as if sheltering from attack.The streets are deserted and residents hunker down as best they can to weather temperatures that can top 52C (126F).Few have any air conditioning, and blackouts mean often there is no mains electricity. The hospital fills with heatstroke cases from those whose livelihoods mean they must venture out.”When it gets that hot, you can’t even stay on your feet,” explains one resident, Zamir Alam.”It’s a very, very difficult time when it goes beyond 50C. People do not come out of their houses and the streets are deserted,” Abdul Baqi, a shopkeeper, adds. This city of some 200,000 in Pakistan’s Sindh province has long been renowned for its fierce heat, but recent research has conferred an unwelcome scientific distinction. Its mixture of heat and humidity has made it one of only two places on earth to have now officially passed, albeit briefly, a threshold hotter than the human body can withstand. With this region of Pakistan along the Indus Valley considered one of the places most vulnerable to climate change in the world, there are fears that Jacobabad’s temperatures may increase further, or other cities may join the club. “The Indus Valley is arguably close to being the number one spot worldwide,” says Tom Matthews, a lecturer in climate science at Loughborough University. “When you look at some of the things to worry about, from water security to extreme heat, it’s really the epicentre.” Mr Matthews and colleagues last year analysed global weather station data and found that Jacobabad and Ras al Khaimah, north east of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, have both temporarily crossed the deadly threshold. The milestone had been surpassed decades ahead of predictions from climate change models. The researchers examined what are called wet bulb temperatures. These are taken from a thermometer covered in a water-soaked cloth so they take into account both heat and humidity. Wet bulb thermometer readings are significantly lower than the more familiar dry bulb readings, which do not take humidity into account. Researchers say that at a wet bulb reading of 35C, the body can no longer cool itself by sweating and such a temperature can be fatal in a few hours, even to the fittest people.
Heatwaves Are Scorching Siberia and Eastern Europe Too – Residents in eastern Europe and parts of Siberia unaccustomed to high temperatures are struggling to cope with heatwaves sweeping across the region.Kyiv, Belgrade and Budapest experienced record-high monthly temperatures in June, leading to a spate of drownings in rivers and swimming pools in Serbia as crowds rushed to cool off. In Ukraine, residents ignored authorities’ warnings of an unusually high concentration of bacteria at some beaches as they sought relief in the water.Thermometers in Moscow reached 34.8 degrees Celsius (94.64 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, the highest reading for June since 1901. Temperatures in eastern Siberia rose above 30 degC. While southern European countries have become more accustomed to hot and dry weather in past years as climate change advances, such conditions are not as common in the east, so caught governments off guard.”The frequency of this kind of extremely hot summers is increasing because of the influence of humans in the planet’s climate,” said Nikos Christidis, a senior scientist at the Met Office in the U.K. “How much and how severe the impacts are going to be depends on the levels of adaptation in each particular country.” Extreme heat is likely to continue through much of the coming week, with temperatures in Bulgaria forecast to rise to 39 degC in some cities, according to the country’s national weather service. In Romania, seven counties including capital Bucharest are under code red emergency status, with temperatures reaching 41 degC in the west of the country.”It is likely that some all-time temperature records will be set during this heatwave,” said Chris Almond, the Met Office’s global forecaster. In western Russia “thunderstorms will help bring temperatures closer to normal during next week, but the east of the affected region is likely to remain hot or very hot.” The sort of extreme heatwaves that were expected to occur in southern Europe twice a century in the early 2000s are now likely to happen twice a decade, according to Christidis. The rest of the continent will get hotter and drier too. Further to the east, the region north of Kazakhstan is extremely cold for this time of the year, according to Carlo Buontempo, director at the Copernicus Climate Change Service.This pattern of hot and cold extremes is associated with variations in the jet stream, a current of strong winds that blows in the upper levels of the atmosphere from west to east. The jet stream in the northern hemisphere is also influencing weather in the western U.S., which is currently undergoing a heatwave and extreme drought.Scientists posit that conditions in eastern Siberia are related both to the jet stream and climate change. On June 20 last year, a weather station in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk registered a reading of 38 degC, the highest daily maximum temperature recorded north of the Arctic Circle. On June 20 this year, temperatures at the same station reached 33.1 degC, below last year’s record, but still much higher than average.
Destructive storm hits Moscow after record heat, Russia (videos) Destructive rains and strong winds hit Moscow, Russia, on Monday, June 28, 2021, a week after the city sizzled through record heat. Powerful gusts uprooted trees and caused damage to cars on streets, while heavy rains triggered flooding.The metro system halted some lines, while downpours caused very low visibility. The main building of Moscow State University could not be seen through the rain from street view. Lightning also caused a fire at a power station outside the city. Photos and videos on social media showed smashed windows, damaged buildings, torn branches and debris, flooded underpasses, and people walking through inundated streets. The severe weather came after an unusual heat covered western Russia, causing temperatures to soar to a 120-year record of 34.8 degC (94.6 degF),
Severe storms bring giant hail, floods and damaging winds to Germany, Switzerland and France –Severe storms, including hail, heavy rain, and gale-force winds hit parts of Germany Switzerland, and France on Monday and Tuesday, June 28 and 29, 2021, triggering widespread flooding and damage. In Germany, several road tunnels were flooded and rail services were suspended around the city of Stuttgart on Monday night, according to police and rail operator Deutsche Bahn. Photos and videos of the event showed floodwaters gushing down the streets, while car windscreens were smashed by huge hailstones. Emergency services across the southern states of Rheinland-Palatinate and Baden-Wuerttemberg reported hundreds of emergency calls, including for flooded cellars, downed trees, and landslides.In the evening, strong winds tore off a part of the roof of the Stuttgart Opera while roughly 250 people were still inside after a song recital. A huge section of copper cladding crashed in the opera house gardens, managing director Oliver Hendriks told the AFP. No injuries were reported, but the staff was still assessing the damage as rainwater also infiltrated the opera house.In Nottwill, the storms dumped hailstones up to 7 cm (2.8 inches) wide. In Fribourg, authorities received 300 calls for assistance, including to rescue a class of 16 children and two adults stranded during the hailstorm. Six of the children and one adult were taken to the hospital for injuries. At least five were also injured in the German-speaking Swiss cantons, including a cyclist who sustained head injuries. In France, hail lashed the southeastern Vosges region on Tuesday, forcing residents had to use snow shovels and snowplows to clear up the debris.
Huge swathes of farmland destroyed by hailstorms, Europe -Very heavy rain, strong winds, and intense hailstorms affecting parts of central Europe during the second half of June 2021 left more than 66 000 ha (163 090 acres) of crops damaged or destroyed. The figure doubled within just a few days and it still might rise as damage assessment continues.After the first surveys by crop insurance company Vereinigte Hagel (VVaG), they now expect damage of about 20 to 23 million euros, which is more than a double compared to the beginning of last week.The worst affected countries are France, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic.Keep in mind that these figures are from insured crops by VVaG. The actual figures are much much higher.
Texas Hailstone Confirmed as Largest Ever in State –Shattered windows, dented cars and damaged homes and businesses became reality for portions of Texas and Oklahoma this past April when a massive hailstorm pelted the two states. Hailstones from the storm ranged in size from golf balls and baseballs to grapefruits — but one stone, in particular, has made a name for itself for its record-breaking size.A report released by the National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI) on June 22 confirmed that one hailstone that fell amid the damaging storm broke the record for its “unheard of” size as the largest hailstone in the state of Texas, a State Climate Extremes Committee (SCEC) unanimously confirmed.The stone fell 1 mile south-southwest of the center of Hondo, Texas, roughly around 7:35 p.m. CDT on April 28. It measured 19.73 inches in circumference and 6.4 inches in diameter and weighed a whopping 1.26 pounds with a volume of 40.239 cubic inches.
Second tornado in just 8 days hits Belgium – A second tornado in just 8 days hit Belgium on June 27, 2021, this time in the province of Luxembourg.The tornado hit the hamlet of Bernistrap in Houffalize where a square farmhouse-castle collapsed amid strong winds. While there were no injuries, its inhabitants had to be relocated.”There’s nothing left. Everything is gone: the roofs, the walls are unstable, the house is uninhabitable,” Josette Deville told In24. The tornado also damaged parts of the nearby graveyard.Severe thunderstorms spawned a destructive tornado in the town of Beauraing in Namur province on June 19, injuring 17 people and leaving as many as 92 homes severely damaged, 10 of which were declared unfit for habitation.”The wind was incredibly strong. Houses and cars got damaged, trees were uprooted,” Beauraing Mayor Marc Lejeune told Francophone public broadcaster RTBF.
Major damage reported after large tornado hits Guyuan, Hebei, China – (video) A large tornado hit Guyuan County in China’s northeastern Hebei province on July 1, 2021, causing major damage.According to local reports, poorly anchored brick houses were destroyed and tractors blown over.”This is the second significant tornado to hit Guyuan in less than a week,” said extreme weather enthusiast Eric Wang. “Atmosphere will be extremely favorable for supercells and even a tornado this afternoon in northern parts of China,” Wang added.
Unprecedented cold and record snow engulf parts of South America – A powerful Antarctic cold mass is bringing unprecedented cold, record snow, and frosts to parts of South America, such as Argentina and Brazil.In Brazil, one of the strongest polar air masses in the past years is starting to make temperatures drop in the Rio Grande do Sul. According to MetSul, the cold is forecast to intensify, and its coverage will be very large in South America, spreading across many countries.MetSul also warned of severe frosts that will continue to impact much of Brazil, causing significant damage. Very rare snow is predicted for the country’s southern region and outside the high plains. “All numerical models analyzed by MetSul indicate the occurrence of snow in southern Brazil in this polar cold event,” wrote MetSul.In Argentina, a cold spell and rare snow have been reported in the provinces of Buenos Aires and Santa Fe this week. The observatory in the capital registered a daily high record of 8.5 degC (47.3 degF) on June 27, followed by historic overnight lows. On June 28, several areas registered their coldest mornings this year, including -4 degC (24.8 degF) in Mendoza Aero, -4.4 degC (24 degF) in Mendoza Obs, -3.9 degC (25 degF) in Saint Martin, -6.9 degC (19.6 degF) in San Rafael, and -11.7 degC (10.9 degF) in Malargue.The freezing temperatures and record snow has been ongoing in the country for weeks. On June 16, snow fell in Cordoba for the seventh time in 100 years, and it was also the first time the city was covered in white in 14 years. Snow in the area is believed to have occurred on rare occasions in the past 100 years– in 1912, 1918, 1920, 1955, 1975, and 2007.
Tropical Storm Danny Made Landfall in South Carolina Just After Forming – Tropical Storm Danny – the fourth named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season – formed off the Southeast coast Monday, then made landfall hours later in South Carolina, and will spread rain into the Tennessee Valley Tuesday. This system was first dubbed Tropical Depression Four late Monday morning as it was just over 100 miles off the South Carolina coast. A Hurricane Hunter aircraft mission Monday afternoon confirmed it contained winds strong enough to be considered a tropical storm. Danny then made landfall just before 8 p.m. EDT Monday on Pritchards Island, South Carolina, north of Hilton Head, as a 40-mph tropical storm, according to the National Hurricane Center. Danny is forecast to weaken quickly and dissipate over north Georgia or northeast Alabama sometime Tuesday. This system won’t bring major impacts to the Southeast, but some locally heavy rainfall is expected. The immediate coasts of Georgia and southern South Carolina could see a few inches of rain into Tuesday, according to the National Hurricane Center. It might also spread rain toward parts of northern Georgia, upstate South Carolina and northern Alabama by Tuesday. Localized flash flooding is a possibility in all of the areas mentioned above.
Tropical Storm “Danny” makes landfall in South Carolina, the first June landfall since 1867 (videos) Tropical Storm “Danny” — the 4th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season — has made landfall in South Carolina at 23:30 UTC on June 28, 2021. This is the first named storm to make landfall in the state of South Carolina in the month of June since Hurricane One in 1867. A Tropical Storm Warning has been issued for a portion of the coast of South Carolina from Edisto Beach northeastward to South Santee River ahead while Danny was still a tropical depression at 15:00 UTC on June 28. Danny formed at 19:05 UTC when its center was located about 95 km (60 miles) ESE of Beaufort and 70 km (45 miles) SSE of Charleston, South Carolina. Its maximum sustained winds were 65 km/h (40 mph) and minimum central pressure 1 014 hPa. The storm was moving WNW at 26 km/h (16 mph). By 21:00 UTC, Danny had maximum sustained winds of 75 km/h (45 mph). Its center was located 55 km (35 miles) E of Beaufort and 60 km (37 miles) SSW of Charleston. It made landfall just north of Hilton Head on Pritchards Island, South Carolina at 23:30 UTC on June 28 with maximum sustained winds of 65 km/h (40 mph) and a minimum central pressure of 1 010 hPa. Danny weakened to a tropical depression at 03:00 UTC on June 29 and dissipated inland over Georgia at 09:00 UTC. It produced rainfall totals of up to 76 mm (3 inches) in parts of South Carolina in a matter of hours, causing minor flash floods in populated areas. Lightning resulted in damage to some structures, while strong winds downed some trees in Savannah, Georgia. Danny produced heavy rainfall across parts of Metro Atlanta as it tracked westward.
Tropical Storm Elsa forms, could impact Florida – Tropical storm watches and warnings are up for portions of the Lesser Antilles and Caribbean ahead of Elsa, which formed Thursday morning. By early next week, the tropical storm could be a problem for parts of Florida and/or the Gulf Coast.Developing just hours after the calendar flipped to July, Elsa became the fifth named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. On average, the Atlantic doesn’t crank out its fifth named storm until the end of August.Elsa became the earliest fifth named storm ever observed, breaking the record set last year when Edouard formed on July 6. The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season produced a record-setting 30 named storms.According to Brian McNoldy, a tropical weather expert at the University of Miami and a Capital Weather Gang contributor, Elsa formed farther east than only one previous storm this early in the season. Normally, at this time of year, storms form in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, rather than east of the Lesser Antilles where Elsa was born.At 11 a.m. Thursday, Elsa was located about 680 miles east-southeast of the Windward Islands in the west-central tropical Atlantic, moving west at a swift 28 mph. Winds were up to 45 mph, and the system’s air pressure continued to fall as it intensified. Tropical storm warnings are in effect for Barbados, Martinique, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, while a watch covers Grenada and Guadeloupe.
Haiti under alert as Tropical Storm Elsa approaches. The Dominican Republic also watching –There is never a good time for a storm in Haiti. But the approaching Tropical Storm Elsa could not have come at a worse time.Already knee-deep in a political, economic, hunger and deadly gang crisis, Haiti’s emergency disaster response agency Thursday issued a yellow alert to the population, warning that rain and gusty winds are coming. The Office of Civil Protection asked Haitians to start securing important documents in plastic bags, prepare food kits and prepare to evacuate areas in danger of flooding and landslides.Boaters and fishermen around the southern coastline and the island of La Gonave were asked to take precautions. “The trajectory is South, Southeast, Grand Anse and Nippes” regional departments, the head of the Office of Civil Protection, Jerry Chandler, said. “But the message we are giving today is valid for all of the departments. I don’t want to be an alarmist, but we are asking everyone to take precautions because the vulnerability that exists in the country.” Widespread deforestation in Haiti, along with the poor conditions of rivers and ravines, means that any heavy amount of rain can lead to mudslides and tragedy. There is now the added pressure of the surging COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing gang clashes at the southern entrance of Port-au-Prince, which leads to the four regions that could be heavily impacted by Elsa. Ongoing gang battles that erupted on June 1 and remain ongoing have forced the displacement of more than 16,000 Haitians from the Martissant neighborhood and blocked motorists from crossing. On Thursday, the gang federation known as G-9 held a protest on the streets of the capital. As of June, an upsurge of gang clashes has resulted in the displacement of an estimated 14,000 civilians in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, the United Nations said. Sporadic inter-gang violence have also erupted in the Delmas 2 neighborhood of the capital and its surroundings, affecting Camp la Piste, a displacement site from the 2010 earthquake, which houses disabled people. “If push comes to shove and we get to a severe situation, we will refer to the various institutions that are on board in our disaster management system,” he said, adding that this includes the Haiti National Police and ministry of interior. “The president’s office is in constant contact with us as we are all following the evolution of Elsa.”
Japan mudslide: About 20 people missing in Atami city – CNN – At least two people are thought to be dead and some 20 people are missing after a mudslide swept across a seaside city around 60 miles southwest of Tokyo, sweeping away homes amid Japan’s rainy season.Footage posted on social media showed the powerful black mudslide shoot down a mountainside, engulfing homes and infrastructure as locals watched in horror.The giant mudslide in Atami, Shizuoka prefecture, which occurred around 10:30 a.m. local time, came after parts of the region was hit by torrential rain.Police and firefighters have been searching for the missing and prefectural officials have requested help from Japan’s Self-Defense Force.As of 2 p.m. local time, about 2,830 households in the city were out of power, according to the Tokyo Electric Power Company.The government has set up a task force to respond to the disaster and collect information as heavy rainfall sweeps areas along the Pacific coast in central and eastern Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga expressed his condolences to the victims of the landslide and stressed that members of the police, fire department service, Japan Coast Guard, and Japan Self-Defense Forces were doing their utmost to save lives, rescue people and help with evacuations.
Large Saharan dust cloud moving over the Atlantic Ocean (satellite imagery, graphics)
Taal Volcano Advisory: Vog observed over Taal Caldera, pronounced haze over the caldera region – Volcanic smog or vog has been observed over Taal Caldera resulting from continued volcanic SO2 gas emission from the Main Crater. High levels of volcanic sulfur dioxide or SO2 gas emissions and steam-rich plumes that rose as much as 3 km (9 842 feet) high have been observed from the Taal Main Crater over the past two days. SO2 flux on June 27 averaged 4 771 tonnes/day while atmospheric temperatures of 30 degC (86 degF), relative humidity of 75% and wind velocities that slowed to 1 to 0 meters/second at near-surface levels prevailed over Taal Volcano Island based on All-Weather Systems station data. These atmospheric conditions, especially the near-absence of air movement, resulted in the formation of volcanic smog or vog that brought a pronounced haze over the Taal Caldera region. Should SO2 gas emission continue at the same rate (past week average of ~4 330 tonnes/day) or increase and atmospheric conditions promote the formation of vog, communities surrounding Taal Lake are advised to take necessary precautions, PHIVOLCS warns. Vog is a type of air pollution that is caused by volcanoes. It consists of fine droplets containing volcanic gas such as SO2 which is acidic and can cause irritation of the eyes, throat and respiratory tract in severities depending on the gas concentrations and durations of exposure
Highest ever recorded SO2 emission over Taal, adverse effects reported, Philippines – High levels of volcanic sulfur dioxide or SO2 gas emissions and tall, steam-rich plumes have continued to be produced from the Taal Main Crater since this past weekend, PHIVOLCS reported on Tuesday, June 29, 2021. Unprecedented SO2 emissions were recorded on June 28, causing adverse effects on some residents living near the volcano. SO2 emission on June 28, 2021, averaged 14 326 tonnes/day — the highest ever recorded in Taal — while atmospheric temperatures of 34 degC (93.2 degF), relative humidity of 53%, and wind velocities of 1 to 4 meters/second within 3 km (1.8 miles) of the atmosphere prevail over Taal Volcano today, June 29. The high SO2 flux, water vapor emitted in plumes, weak air movement, and solar radiation will continue to produce volcanic smog or vog over the Taal Caldera region, particularly towards the northeast and eastern lakeshore communities along the current wind direction. PHIVOLCS has received reports of adverse effects on some residents of lakeshore Tanauan City and Talisay Municipality facing Taal Volcano Island, and on some workers of aquaculture in Taal Lake, have been received by DOST-PHIVOLCS. “In view of continuous and unprecedented high SO2 degassing from Taal Main Crater, we recommend that health checks be conducted by local government officials on communities affected by vog to assess the severity of SO2 impacts on their constituents and to consider temporary evacuation of severely exposed residents to safer areas,” PHIVOLCS said. Local government units (LGU) were advised to regularly check the weather and wind forecasts of PAGASA in order to assess the potential exposure of their constituents so long as SO2 emission remains elevated. Lastly, LGUs were advised to monitor activities of aquaculture workers to ensure that no one ventures too closely to Taal Volcano Island and gets exposed to lethal concentrations of volcanic SO2. Vog consists of fine droplets containing volcanic gas such as SO2 which is acidic and can cause irritation of the eyes, throat and respiratory tract in severities depending on the gas concentrations and durations of exposure. People who may be particularly sensitive to vog are those with health conditions such as asthma, lung disease and heart disease, the elderly, pregnant women and children. Alert Level 2 (Increased Unrest) remains in effect over Taal Volcano. Sudden steam- or gas-driven explosions and lethal accumulations or expulsions of volcanic gas can occur and threaten areas within and around Taal Volcano Island (TVI). Venturing into TVI is strictly prohibited.
Phreatomagmatic eruption at Taal volcano, Alert Level raised to 3, Philippines (video0 A phreatomagmatic eruption took place at Taal volcano, Philippines at 07:16 UTC (15:16 LT) on July 1, 2021, generating a short-lived dark plume up to 1 km (3 300 feet). Anomalously high volcanic SO2 gas emission preceded the eruption, averaging 14 241 tonnes/day and 13 287 tonnes/day on June 28 and July 1, respectively. A marked increase in volcanic gas upwelling also began on June 28, generating plumes that rose some 3 km (9 840 feet) above Taal Volcano Island.In view of the above, DOST-PHIVOLCS has raised the alert status from Alert Level 2 to 3.”This means that there is magmatic intrusion at the Main Crater that may further drive succeeding eruptions,” PHIVOLCS said. The agency strongly recommends Taal Volcano Island and high-risk barangays of Agoncillo and Laurel, Batangas be evacuated due to the possible hazards of pyroclastic density currents and volcanic tsunami.
Powerful phreatic eruption at Rincon de la Vieja, Costa Rica – A powerful phreatic eruption took place at Rincon de la Vieja volcano, Costa Rica at 11:40 UTC (05:40 LT) on June 28, 2021.The event lasted about 3 minutes, ejecting dense column of gas and steam, with some amount of ash, up to 4.2 km (14 000 feet) above sea level, drifting N-NW.The National Commission for Risk Prevention and Emergency Management said it had deployed a team to evaluate the situation, and urged people not to approach the site.The last eruptive phase of this volcano lasted from January 30 to November 3, 2020 (VEI 2).
Earth is trapping twice as much heat as it did in 2005 -Planet Earth is now trapping twice as much heat as it did 14 years ago, according to findings of a new study, which raise concerns about the possible acceleration of climate change. For the study, researchers looked at data from the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument, which flies on several NASA Earth-observation satellites and measures how much energy the planet absorbs in the form of sunlight and how much of that it emits back into space in the form of infrared radiation. The difference between the incoming and outflowing energy is called the energy imbalance, and the study found that in the period between 2005 and 2019 the imbalance doubled compared to the years before. The scientists used additional data from Argo, an international network of robotic sensors distributed all over the world’s oceans, which measure the rate at which oceans heat up. The researchers said comparing CERES data to Argo helped strengthen the findings as global oceans are known to absorb up to 90% of the excess energy trapped by the planet.”The two very independent ways of looking at changes in Earth’s energy imbalance are in really, really good agreement, and they’re both showing this very large trend,” Norman Loeb, lead author for the new study and principal investigator for CERES at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, said in a statement. “The trends we found were quite alarming in a sense,” he added.Loeb and his team concluded the increased heating is a result of both naturally occurring and human-made processes. Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane in Earth’s atmosphere lead to more heat being trapped by the planet. Meanwhile, the shrinking size of ice sheets, caused by the planet’s warming, leads to less of the incoming energy being reflected away from the planet’s surface.
Crushing climate impacts to hit sooner than feared: draft UN report – Climate change will fundamentally reshape life on Earth in the coming decades, even if humans can tame planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, according to a landmark draft report from the UN’s climate science advisors obtained by AFP. Species extinction, more widespread disease, unliveable heat, ecosystem collapse, cities menaced by rising seas – these and other devastating climate impacts are accelerating and bound to become painfully obvious before a child born today turns 30. The choices societies make now will determine whether our species thrives or simply survives as the 21st century unfolds, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says in a draft report seen exclusively by AFP. But dangerous thresholds are closer than once thought, and dire consequences stemming from decades of unbridled carbon pollution are unavoidable in the short term. “The worst is yet to come, affecting our children’s and grandchildren’s lives much more than our own,” the report says. By far the most comprehensive catalogue ever assembled of how climate change is upending our world, the report reads like a 4,000-page indictment of humanity’s stewardship of the planet. But the document, designed to influence critical policy decisions, is not scheduled for release until February 2022 – too late for crunch UN summits this year on climate, biodiversity and food systems, some scientists say. In response to AFP’s reporting, the IPCC released a statement saying it “does not comment on the contents of draft reports while work is still ongoing”.
WWF Says Mediterranean Heating 20% Faster Than World’s Oceans -Countries fringing the Mediterranean need to turn at least 30% of its waters into Protected Maritime Areas (MPAs) by 2030 and rein in overfishing and pollution, urged the World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) in a report published by its German branch Tuesday.The 26-page WWF report also calls for “well-connected” efforts between riparian nations to save already depleted Mediterranean seagrass beds and coral clusters – home to many fish species and vital in stabilizing coastlines and capturing atmospheric carbon dioxide.The report also warns residents they face losing fishing livelihoods and Mediterranean culture like cuisine if biodiversity is not restored and deadly industrial impacts reduced..Although it covers an area of only 1% compared to all world seas, the Mediterranean is home to 10% of all known maritime species, with a quarter of these creatures endemic to the enclosed sea basin between Africa and Europe.Suez Canal species inflows amid shipping from the Red Sea and tropical warming, especially in the eastern Mediterranean, had drawn 986 non-indigenous species, the report said.”Spreading north and west every year” this process of tropicalization was displacing old species preferring cooler waters, said the WWF, citing replacement jellyfish plaguing fishers and tourists alike and “complete” upheavals in maritime ecology.One example it gave was the shallow Israeli coastal shelf. Only 5-12% of native molluscs were still present, and that seascape had become “unrecognizable,” said researcher Paolo Albano in the report. “Voracious” rabbitfish (Siganus rivulatus and Siganus luridus) had caused a 40% reduction in native Mediterranean species in some waters. Swimming in large shoals, they gobbled up algae forests, such as large seaweeds, leaving largely rocky barrens underwater off Greece and Turkey. In Turkey’s Gokova area, a massive 98% of its herbivore fish biomass was already rabbitfish.Another invader, the lionfish (Pterois miles), first caught in an Israeli trawl in 1991, had since spread to waters off Lebanon and Greece, but also off Libya and Italy. With venomous spines, it ate “large quantities of small native fish and crustaceans,” said the WWF, and like rabbitfish was likely to spread “across the Mediterranean.”
‘The water is coming’: Florida Keys faces stark reality as seas rise — The Florida Keys is now acknowledging a previously unthinkable reality: it faces being overwhelmed by the rising seas and not every home can be saved.Following a grueling seven-hour public meeting on Monday, held in the appropriately named city of Marathon, officials agreed to push ahead with a plan to elevate streets throughout the Keys to keep them from perpetual flooding, while admitting they do not have the money to do so.The string of coral cay islands that unspool from the southern tip of Florida finds itself on the frontline of the climate crisis, forcing unenviable choices upon a place that styles itself as sunshine-drenched idyll. The lives of Keys residents – a mixture of wealthy, older white people, the one in four who are Hispanic or Latino, and those struggling in poverty – face being upendedIf the funding isn’t found, the Keys will become one of the first places in the US – and certainly not the last – to inform residents that certain areas will have to be surrendered to the oncoming tides.”The water is coming and we can’t stop it,” said Michelle Coldiron, mayor of Monroe county, which encompasses the Keys. “Some homes will have to be elevated, some will have to be bought out. It’s very difficult to have these conversations with homeowners, because this is where they live. It can get very emotional.”Once people are unable to secure mortgages and insurance for soaked homes, the Keys will cease to be a livable place long before it’s fully underwater, according to Harold Wanless, a geographer at the University of Miami. “People don’t have a concept of what sea level rise will do to them. They just can’t conceive it,” he said.On Monday, the county gave details of its plan to spend $1.8bn over the next 25 years to raise 150 miles of roads in the Keys, deploying a mixture of new drains, pump stations and vegetation to prevent the streets becoming inundated with seawater. The heightened roadways are eagerly anticipated by residents who told the meeting of cars being ruined by the salt water and of donning boots to wade to front doors.”The roads are shot, they’re full of cracks, the water is permeating up,” said Kimberly Sikora, who lives in a vulnerable neighborhood of Key Largo called Stillwright Point that is still awaiting a full road elevation proposal. “I’m just looking for some kind of relief.”But Monroe county’s budget will not cover the raising of all the roads, nor any mass buyout of homes, and an appeal to Florida state lawmakers to levy a new tax to cover these mounting costs has been rebuffed. Further costs will pile up as the county grapples with how – and who pays – to keep critical infrastructure such as sewers and power substations, as well as people’s homes, from being flooded along with the roads.
410 Million People at Risk From Sea Level Rise by 2100, Study Finds – Close to half a billion people could be in the path of sea level rise by 2100, a first-of-its-kind analysis has shown.The study, published in Nature Communications Tuesday, found that 267 million people currently live on land that is less than two meters (approximately 6.6 feet) above sea level, the range that is the most vulnerable to rising water levels. By 2100, the number at risk could climb to 410 million people.”These numbers are another wake-up call about the immense number of people at risk in low-lying areas, particularly in vulnerable countries in the global South, where people are often experiencing these risks as part of a toxic mix with other risk factors, currently also including Covid-19,” Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) contributing lead author Maarten van Aalst, who was not involved with the study, toldThe Guardian in response to the results.Beyond its urgent warning, the new study was notable because of how it took land elevation into account.”Coastal flood risk assessments require accurate land elevation data,” the study co-authors wrote. “Those to date existed only for limited parts of the world, which has resulted in high uncertainty in projections of land area at risk of sea-level rise.”To solve this problem, the Netherlands-based researchers used the first-ever model of worldwide elevation based on satellite LiDAR data. LiDAR is a method for measuring elevation by pulsing laser light down to Earth’s surface, the Nature Publishing Group explained in a press release. It has not been used before partly because it is difficult to access for much of the world.”In some countries like the Netherlands, or parts of the UK, and much of the U.S., they have excellent data for these coastal zones, because they fly Lidar every four years. It costs tens of millions of euros just to cover the Netherlands. Obviously in much of the world, people don’t have that kind of funding,” study author Dr. Aljosja Hooijer of the think-tank Deltares told The Guardian.Finally using this data enabled the researchers to understand how many people were already vulnerable toclimate-crisis-driven flooding, which is caused both by rising sea levels and increasingly severe storms, the press release explained.
Experts Warn Florida Tower Disaster Is Climate Emergency ‘Wake-Up Call’ — In the search for answers following last week’s disintegration of a high-rise condominium tower near Miami, some experts are cautiously pointing to the climate emergency as a possible culprit – or at the very least a risk multiplier in the disaster – underscoring the need for urgent climate and infrastructure action. However, officials and experts have also begun the long and daunting task of determining what caused the building to fail. A 2018 engineering report on the 12-story tower noted design flaws and “major structural damage,” including a deteriorating roof, defective waterproofing, and crumbling concrete columns and rusting rebar in the building’s underground garage. The report warned that some of these problems could cause “exponential damage” in the future. With so much well-documented existing damage, and with repairs to the building underway at the time it disintegrated, experts have been reluctant to attribute the collapse to any single cause. However, numerous scientists and other experts say that rising sea levels and more intense tidal flooding related to the climate emergency could have played a significant role in the disaster.As a 5.9-inch rise in local sea levels and 320% surge in nuisance flooding in the area since the mid-1990s attests, metro Miami is particularly susceptible to the consequences of the climate emergency. Last year, a report (pdf) from Resources for the Future, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, stated that Miami is “one of the most at-risk cities in the world from the damages caused by coastal flooding and storms.”Atorod Azizinamini, who directs the Moss School of Construction, Infrastructure, and Sustainability at Florida International University (FIU), toldThe Palm Beach Post that “climate change can play a role” in disasters like the Champlain Towers South collapse. “It can cause settlement of the ground with sea level rise, and corrosion.”Zhong-Ren Peng, director of the International Center for Adaptation Planning and Design at the University of Florida, told The Palm Beach Post that “sea level rise does cause potential corrosion and if that was happening, it’s possible it could not handle the weight of the building.””I think this could be a wake-up call for coastal developments,” warned Peng.Albert Slap, chief executive of the Boca Raton, Florida-based construction risk assessment company RiskFootprint, explained to The Washington Post that “groundwater enters the pores of the concrete and ultimately weakens it and erodes it. So the foundations are subject to a lot of geological forces that could compact the soil underneath. It could cause voids. We just don’t know.”Slap said the Champlain Towers South disaster “could be a canary-in-the-coal-mine-type event.” “It’s not just one building,” he added. “This could be something that could affect other buildings.”
Florida condo collapse highlights concerns over stability of coastal buildings impacted by effects of climate change – As rescue operations continue and desperate families struggle to find missing loved ones, more questions have arisen as to the structural integrity of other high-rises similar to Champlain Towers South and the vulnerability of countless buildings adjoining the Florida shoreline. The catastrophe in Surfside has highlighted critical dangers facing other infrastructure in the region, built in unstable areas that are being subjected to the consequences of human-induced climate change. While both the Democratic and Republican parties have largely presented the tragedy as an isolated issue, abundant evidence has emerged in recent years showing that Florida’s geological base is threatened by rising sea levels and the erosion of it’s beaches, posing significant risks to buildings all along the state’s coast line. The foundations of countless structures are made of material incapable of dealing with corrosive seawater. In an interview with the Guardian, Professor Zhong-Ren Peng, an expert on sea level rise at the University of Florida, said that the materials used for the building’s base were not built to withstand salt water intrusion, which can corrode substantial amounts of steel and concrete. “Cracks in the concrete allows more sea water to get in, which causes further reactions and the spreading of cracks,” Peng noted. Negligence of these critical defects can invariably lead to the type of structural failure witnessed in Surfside. The entire Florida peninsula region sits on top of karst limestone, a porous rock that allows rising seawater to accumulate around the base of buildings. A weakness of limestone material is that cavities can form inside them in which percolating solutions, such as salty water, can mix with minerals inside the material, thereby dissolving the rocks and undermining the foundations. Karst is a term used to describe an environment where the bulk of its rocks can dissolve, opening up sinkholes and caves, One theory that has been floated as to the cause of the Champlain collapse has been a widening sinkhole underneath the structure. The theory is plausible, as large sinkholes have opened up elsewhere in the state, swallowing up roadways, vehicles and in a few cases, entire buildings. In reviewing video and pictures of the Champlain Towers, experts have said it seems as if the collapse started around the building’s pool deck. This lines up with reports that one of those missing in the rubble called her husband just before the building fell, telling him that she saw a hole open up where the pool deck used to be moments before the collapse. The inundation of limestone with seawater on a large scale can lead to significant outbreaks of sinkholes. This has dire implications for the state’s infrastructure, since the foundation which virtually all of Florida’s buildings are built on, including its major towers and high-rises, is subject to dissolution.
Biden defends climate policies: AOC joins protests outside White House – President Biden in an op-ed published by Yahoo! News Monday pledged to do more to tackle climate change as he touted the $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal he reached with a group of bipartisan senators. Biden has faced criticism from progressives over the agreement for not doing enough to address issues such as climate change. Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) joined hundreds of protesters outside the White House Monday to demand the president act on the matter. “While the bill is missing some critical initiatives on climate change that I proposed – initiatives I intend to pass in the reconciliation bill – the infrastructure deal nonetheless represents a crucial step forward in building our clean energy future,” Biden wrote in his op-ed. “It would make the largest investment in clean energy transmission in American history, modernizing our power grid to accelerate the build-out of zero-carbon, renewable energy. It would replace thousands of gas-guzzling buses with clean, electric ones – including 35,000 electric school buses. It would cap abandoned wells leaking methane gas. “And more: The deal would deploy a nationwide network of charging stations for electric vehicles – 500,000 stations in total. It makes historic investments in rail and transit that will get passenger vehicles off the road and reduce fossil fuel consumption. There’s much more work to do to reach our ambitious climate goals, but the investments in this deal are critical in facilitating our transition to a clean energy economy.”: Ocasio-Cortez vowed to the protest crowd to push for Green New Deal policies. She noted that when the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps was introduced, they were told it was too ambitious.”We hired and mobilized a quarter-million people in three months,” she said. “We’re going to get that into this infrastructure bill.” Bush said “police violence and climate change are not standalone issues,” as she advocated to act on policies including the People’s Response Act – a bill she introduced to Congress Monday, which would create an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to research and fund alternatives to incarceration and policing.
Climate court cases would be stronger if they included extreme event attribution – Lawsuits filed against fossil fuel companies and governments for causing global warming have met a decidedly mixed fate, with most getting dismissed for failing to prove a causal link between emitters’ actions and harm done to the plaintiffs. However, that could soon change, a new study finds. Courts are an important venue for cities, states and citizens’ groups seeking carbon-cutting mandates – especially as governments fail to slash greenhouse gases fast enough to avoid potentially devastating effects. There have been a few recent successes in court cases, such as the move by a court in the Netherlands to require Royal Dutch Shell to make deeper cuts to its emissions.Now a new study published Monday in Nature Climate Change that examined 73 court cases examined in 14 jurisdictions finds that plaintiffs aren’t using the latest and most compelling scientific evidence in court.Such evidence, researchers argue in the study, could help plaintiffs prove that a particular fossil fuel company or government has caused them harm via global warming.The study finds that ongoing improvements in climate “attribution” science could help plaintiffs meet evidentiary tests for showing causation. That’s the research field that explores the extent to which human-caused climate change is altering the likelihood and severity of extreme weather events, such as heat waves and floods.The researchers found that those arguing climate cases are simply not taking advantage of the latest climate science findings. For example, the study says it’s now possible to break down the attribution of climate impacts to individual greenhouse gas emitters, such as a single oil and gas company. “Attribution science is a fundamental source of evidence for informing and substantiating causal claims about climate change impacts,” the study states. The study concludes that courts have wrongly found that it is too difficult to determine how an individual emitter has caused particular climate impacts. “There seems to be a considerable lag between scientific understanding and that filtering through into society. A much larger lag than I had expected,” Friederike Otto, a climate scientist who researchers extreme event attribution at the University of Oxford and study co-author, told Axios.”For me, as scientists, that means we really need to explain more what we do, how we do it, and what that means in terms of what we know and what we don’t know for losses from climate change,” she said.
In Video, Exxon Lobbyist Describes Efforts to Undercut Climate Action – The New York Times–The veteran oil-industry lobbyist was told he was meeting with a recruiter. But the video call, which was secretly recorded, was part of an elaborate sting operation by an individual working for the environmental group Greenpeace UK. During the call, Keith McCoy, a senior director of federal relations for Exxon Mobil, described how the oil and gas giant targeted a number of influential United States senators in an effort to weaken climate action in President Biden’s flagship infrastructure plan. That plan now contains few of the ambitious ideas initially proposed by Mr. Biden to cut the burning of fossil fuels, the main driver of climate change. Mr. McCoy also said on the recording that Exxon’s support for a tax on carbon dioxide was “a great talking point” for the oil company, but that he believes the tax will never happen. He also said that the company has in the past aggressively fought climate science through “shadow groups.” On Wednesday, excerpts from the conversation were aired by the British broadcaster Channel 4. The affiliate of Greenpeace that recorded the video, Unearthed, also released excerpts. In a statement, Darren Woods, Exxon’s chief executive, said the comments “in no way represent the company’s position on a variety of issues, including climate policy, and our firm commitment that carbon pricing is important to addressing climate change.” Mr. McCoy and another lobbyist interviewed by Greenpeace “were never involved in developing the company’s policy positions on the issues discussed,” he said. “We condemn the statements and are deeply apologetic for them, including comments regarding interactions with elected officials…
LOBBYING: Lawmakers threaten Exxon probe after climate video — Thursday, July 1, 2021 — Exxon Mobil Corp. scrambled to respond yesterday to a secretive video recording that detailed the company’s lobbying practices, but the incident could be an even greater impetus for a congressional inquiry as a House subcommittee chairman continued to warn of subpoenas for top executives.
Come Clean, Part 5 – Why Everyone’s Talking About Renewable Diesel –Renewable diesel is a popular topic in the transportation fuel space, and for good reason. For one, RD provides a lower-carbon, renewable-based alternative to petroleum-based diesel; for another, it’s a chemical twin of and therefore a “drop-in” replacement for ultra-low sulfur diesel. But, most of all, there are the large financial incentives provided by California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard, the U.S. Biodiesel Tax Credit, and other programs, which can make RD production highly profitable. Driven by these factors, there’s a lot of renewable diesel production capacity under construction or on the drawing board: everything from greenfield projects to expansions of existing RD refineries to conversions of old-school refineries so they can make RD. Today, we put the spotlight on RD and discuss how it differs from biodiesel, how it’s produced, and the new RD capacity coming online in North America. Our blog series on low carbon fuel policies in the U.S. and Canada has garnered a lot of attention. There’s no doubt about it, energy folks want to learn all they can about alternative fuels, including the impact that low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) programs could have on refined products markets. To quickly recap what we’ve said so far, in Part 1we provided an overview of various policies that have been adopted to reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transportation sector, such as fuel economy standards, renewable blending requirements, zero emission vehicle mandates, and LCFS programs in locations such as California, Oregon, British Columbia, and Canada generally via its Clean Fuel Standard. In Part 2, we focused on California’s LCFS, which was implemented in January 2011 and which grew out of a number of earlier efforts there to improve air quality and, more recently, reduce GHG emissions. The LCFS assigns a carbon intensity (CI) target value for petroleum-based gasoline and diesel fuels, as well as their substitutes, such as ethanol, biodiesel, and renewable diesel. (CI is an assessment of the GHG emissions associated with producing, distributing, and consuming a fuel, and is measured in grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per megajoule, or gCO2e/MJ.) The LCFS then sets maximum CI limits on finished gasoline and diesel fuel consumed in California each year on a gradually declining scale to meet the 2030 goal of a 20% reduction in the carbon intensity of motor fuels consumed in the state. In Part 3, we turned our attention to ethanol, the use of which in gasoline has been prevalent for many years. Ethanol is a biofuel that is found in nearly 98% of the gasoline purchased at retail stations in the U.S., in most cases accounting for 10% of the gasoline at the pump. This high-octane biofuel has grown in popularity around the world, particularly over the last 20 years, due to regulations that require or incentivize its use. As governments continue to evaluate regulations to control GHG emissions, ethanol has been overshadowed by some other biofuels lately, but it is expected to continue to play an important role as a pathway for meeting low-carbon mandates. Last time, inPart 4, we looked at biodiesel. We noted that while the incentives for producing biodiesel are substantial, there are two big catches with the fuel: a limited supply of feedstocks and properties limiting how much can be blended with petroleum-based diesel. And that’s a perfect segue to renewable diesel, which has no such “blend wall” – and which has been receiving a lot of press the past couple of years, including in the RBN blogosphere. …
The US wants to make EV batteries without these foreign metals. Should it? –The electric vehicle or EV revolution owes its existence to lithium batteries, and those batteries have a cocktail of specialized minerals to thank for their high performance. In most cases, that cocktail’s ingredient list includes cobalt and nickel, minerals that help deliver the long lifespan and range that consumers increasingly demand of EVs. But with hundreds of millions of new EVs expected to hit the streets in the coming decades, skyrocketing demand for nickel and cobalt could strain mineral supply chains. Fearing a supply shortage that would slow the EV boom, the U.S. Department of Energy is now proposing that we eliminate cobalt and nickel from batteries altogether.Earlier this month, the Federal Consortium for Advanced Batteries, a cross-agency group chaired by the Department of Energy, released the first ever National Blueprint for Lithium Batteries to guide the development of a domestic battery industry that helps the U.S. meet its climate targets. Among other goals, the blueprint calls for eliminating nickel and cobalt from lithium batteries by 2030 to develop “a stronger, more secure and resilient supply chain.” That goal is more challenging – and fraught – than it may sound. While experts say nickel- and cobalt-free batteries that outperform today’s commercial counterparts could be commercialized in the next 10 years, mass adoption by the EV industry is likely to take far longer. And while such batteries might reduce the American auto industry’s vulnerability to future supply shocks, it could also have complex impacts on mining abroad. Mining watchdogs, who worry that eliminating certain metals from batteries will increase the pressure to extract others, say policymakers and auto manufacturers should focus on responsible sourcing and battery recycling instead. EV batteries come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and chemistries, but the market is currently dominated by so-called NMC batteries, which contain nickel, manganese, and cobalt in their cathodes. All of these metals have a specific role to play: Nickel boosts the battery’s energy density and range, cobalt helps extend battery lifespan, and manganese helps batteries operate more safely at higher temperatures. The proportions favored by automakers are optimized “to give the best performance between parameters of lifetime, safety, cost and power,” said Jason Croy, a materials scientist at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. Batteries that don’t contain cobalt or nickel already exist, but there are tradeoffs. Lithium manganese oxide or LMO batteries, used in the e-bike market and some commercial vehicles, are known for their high performance and long lifespan, but they fall short of NMC batteries when it comes to energy density. Cheap and durable lithium iron phosphate or LFP batteries have made inroads in the Chinese EV market, where Tesla uses them in its standard-range Model 3 cars. However, these batteries also have limited energy storage capacity and range compared with their NMC cousins. That said, concerns over mineral scarcity and human rights abuses at mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo or DRC, where 70 percent of the world’s cobalt originates, have spurred manufacturers to significantly reduce the cobalt content of EV batteries over the past decade. The EV industry hasn’t faced the same kind of pressure to reduce its nickel use, but “there’s a lot of options on the table” should it want to, says Venkat Viswanathan, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University who is working on next-generation batteries. For instance, lithium-rich cathodes that contain little to no nickel or cobalt and store more energy than NMC batteries are an active area of research, though more work is needed to improve their lifespan for commercial applications.
Cal ISO Poised to Issue Monday Flex Alert With Temperatures Expected to Soar – (CBS SF) – California’s power grid operator is poised to call a flex alert for Monday due to high heat expected to impact much of the state. In a heat bulletin sent out Sunday, the California Independent System Operator said consumers may need to conserve energy to keep the grid stable. On Monday, temperatures in the California inland areas are forecast to be in the mid 90s to mid-100s, which is about 4 to 8 degrees above normal for Northern California and 6 to 15 degrees above normal in Southern California. Temperatures along the Southern California coast are forecast to be slightly above normal with temperatures ranging from mid-70s to the middle and upper 80s. If weather or system conditions worsen, the ISO may issue a series of notifications to access additional resources, and prepare market participants and the public for potential energy shortages and the need to conserve.
Blackout Risk And Electricity Prices Are Spiking In California – Electricity prices for Californians are spiking, but so is the danger of blackouts – both planned and unplanned. Exceptional drought forecasts for this summer prompted PG&E to warnearlier this month that it might need to implement more rolling blackouts. The utility added, however, that they would likely last less than last year’s.Then, last week, the California Independent System Operator issued a so-called flex alert, which effectively means it asked people to use less electricity between 5 pm and 10 pm because of heightened energy consumption during that time of day.Last year, RealClear Energy’s Robert Bryce wrote this week, electricity prices in California jumped by 7.5 percent. This was the highest price hike for electricity across the States and seven times the average for the country. This means that as of end-2020, Californians were paying 70 percent more for electricity than people living in other states. At the same time, the security of their energy supply is increasingly questionable.A more severe than usual drought in the state this year has depleted reservoirs and lakes, including the ones feeding some of the largest hydropower facilities. This means lower output from hydropower stations. This may well force the state with ambitious emission-reduction targets to rely more on its remaining natural gas-powered plants for baseload electricity supply.These problems, which are set to deepen with time, have their roots far in the past, according to a recent New York Times interview with Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston.According to Hirs, decades ago, California swam in excess generation capacity that sat idle for most of the year because of the mild climate. To reduce this capacity overhang, the state began closing these power plants and replacing them with wind and solar farms – and with imports.To date, the expert noted, California imports some 35 percent of its electricity.”That’s a big problem, because now it’s not just California’s grid reliability you have to worry about, it’s your neighbors,” Hirs said. “That’s what happened last August: The heat wave got everybody.”
Blackouts Loom in California as Electricity Prices Are ‘Absolutely Exploding’ -Two inexorable energy trends are underway in California: soaring electricity prices and ever-worsening reliability – and both trends bode ill for the state’s low- and middle-income consumers. Last week, the state’s grid operator, the California Independent System Operator, issued a “flex alert” that asked the state’s consumers to reduce their power use “to reduce stress on the grid and avoid power outages.” CAISO’s warning of impending electricity shortages heralds another blackout-riddled summer at the same time California’s electricity prices are skyrocketing. In 2020, California’s electricity prices jumped by 7.5%, making it the biggest price increase of any state in the country last year and nearly seven times the increase that was seen in the United States as a whole. According to data from the Energy Information Administration, the all-sector price of electricity in California last year jumped to 18.15 cents per kilowatt-hour, which means that Californians are now paying about 70% more for their electricity than the U.S. average all-sector rate of 10.66 cents per kWh. Even more worrisome: California’s electricity rates are expected to soar over the next decade. (More on that in a moment.) The surging cost of electricity will increase the energy burden being borne by low- and middle-income Californians. High energy costs have a particularly regressive effect in California, which has the highest poverty rate – and some of the highest electricity prices – in the country. In 2020, California’s all-sector electricity prices were the third-highest in the continental U.S., behind only Rhode Island (18.55 cents per kWh) and Connecticut (19.19 cents per kWh.) California policymakers are providing a case study in how not to manage an electric grid. Furthermore, that case study shows what could happen if policymakers at the state and federal levels decide to follow California’s radical decarbonization mandates, which include a requirement for 100% zero-carbon electricity by 2045 and an economy-wide goal of carbon neutrality by 2045.
TVA reports highest power demand in June since 2018 on Monday – Temperatures are rising across East Tennessee as summer starts, bringing weather that has already risen above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.The Tennessee Valley Authority said that as temperatures rise, so too does the demand for power across the region. People began turning on the air conditioning in their homes during the hot weather, leading to a peak power demand of 28,374 megawatts at 5 p.m. on Monday.Around that time, average temperatures were around 91 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the TVA. They said it was the highest June peak since 2018, and the eighth-highest June peak since 2012. They shared a post about the power demands on social media Tuesday, showing off people at work monitoring one of their nuclear plant’s control rooms.
US Northeast heat wave pushing up demand, power, gas prices through midweek – The US Northeast has been hit by this year’s second heat wave, with forecasts for increased power demand, and temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, while power and natural gas prices were above recent averages on June 28 in New England, New York and the PJM Interconnection. “A bulge northward in the jet stream pattern will allow for a dome of heat to build across the eastern US from the Appalachian Mountains east to the coast,” Matt Benz, meteorologist with AccuWeather, said in a June 28 report. Temperatures are expected to climb five to 10 degrees above normal for the final days of June, according to AccuWeather. “We are expecting another round of high heat and humidity to impact most of the state and continue through the middle of the week,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a June 27 statement. Heat indexes could reach up to 95 degrees F or more in some locations during the heatwave, with the highest heat index values occurring during the afternoon hours, the governor’s office said. The New York Independent System Operator forecasts power demand to peak at 29,731 MW on June 29, with peak load averaging 22,640 MW over the past week, according to ISO data. Peak load in May averaged 17,284 MW compared to 16,216 MW in May 2020, a 6.6% increase. Regional spot power prices crept up throughout the day as temperatures increased, with ISO-New England real-time prices averaging above $300/MWh across the footprint as of late afternoon. Mass Hub day-ahead on-peak reached its highest level since a mid-February arctic freeze to trade around $81.25/MWh on the Intercontinental Exchange, up about $10 from its previous settlement.Real-time prices at NYISO Zone K long Island reached $150.96/MWh with real-time load at just above 29,000 MW. Zone G on-peak locational marginal prices rose about $8.25 to trade around $68.75/MWh, and Zone J New York City added about $8.75 to $71.50/MWh. Real-time prices at PJM’s Dayton Zone reached $297.47/MWh by early afternoon, with a few other zones above $150/MWh.
America’s electric grid beset by aging equipment, congestion and failures of transparency – In the punishing heat wave that has struck the Pacific Northwest, about 17,000 electricity customers were without power in Washington state on Monday evening. Nearly 20,000 more were in blackouts in Idaho, Oregon, California and Nevada. Those aren’t devastating numbers, but they are a reminder that the electric grid in America is frayed and always operating close to the edge. The high temperatures come just four months after Texas power was poleaxed by the February freeze, and only two weeks after the Texas grid wobbled again in its own heat wave. A year ago, California experienced failures on a wide scale.A compromise reached in the Senate would pump billions of dollars into upgrading the nation’s electricity system, if it becomes law, but the need is immense. And at the same time the Biden administration is pushing for electric cars, trucks and buses, and a widespread conversion to electric heating, all while slashing the emissions of greenhouse gases. The nation’s already strained power grid is either at a turning point or poised to dash all those clean-power visions as it crumbles under the new stresses being placed on it. “The grid has never been as important as it is now, and in a year it will be more important,” said Dennis Kuhn, senior manager for integrated field construction design for Avangrid, which operates renewable generation plants in 22 states and utilities in New York and New England. Blackouts in Texas and California, with prices skittering dizzily up and down, are evidence that the system needs attention. On June 21, 100,000 customers in Michigan lost power after thunderstorms swept the state. And now the Northwest is trying to fend off the heat.The American grid features stressed and often barely adequate equipment on the local level, and a region-by-region governing structure that in pursuit of market savings has become so complex that it obscures the full picture. But perhaps the central issue is chronic congestion on the transmission lines that bring power from where it’s made to where it’s wanted.In the wake of February’s debacle in Texas, when a deep freeze knocked out power for days, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed reform legislation on June 8 and declared, “Everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas.”But in truth, no action by any government body could completely prepare the system anywhere in the country in time for this summer’s heat.
Power Grids Getting Fried by Heat in Preview of What’s to Come – The crushing heat smothering the U.S. Northwest is offering yet another stark reminder that the nation’s aging power grids weren’t built to withstand temperatures unleashed by global warming. Avista Corp. implemented rolling blackouts Monday for the first time after temperatures soared in Spokane, Washington, overheating its equipment as demand for electricity climbed.Heat waves like the one hitting Oregon and Washington used to be rare, but extreme weather — from fires in California to droughts in the Midwest — is becoming more frequent. That means utilities in the U.S. will need to invest about $500 billion to make their grids more resilient, according to ICF International Inc., a consulting firm. “All your expectations about the conditions you’re going to face need to be adjusted, because of climate change,” Mike Jacobs, senior energy analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in an interview Tuesday. President Joe Biden said extreme heat in the Pacific Northwest shows the need for the country to build more resilient power grids, calling the record temperatures a consequence of global warming. . One common point of power grid failure are transformers, the barrel-shaped devices on utility poles that reduce voltage as electricity is transfered from distribution lines to homes. Transformers heat up as power moves through them, and radiators — metal blocks with fins — are used to dissipate that heat into the air. But when the external temperatures are too high, they can’t shed heat as effectively, and if the transformers get too hot they can catch on fire, Jacobs said. During a 10-day heatwave in California in 2006, the state’s utilities lost more than 1,500 transformers, with each knocking out service to one neighborhood in the process. “We saw our equipment get to its limits,” Heather Rosentrater, Avista’s senior vice president of energy delivery, said during a press conference Monday. “That caused the immediate need to take action or else it would have been damaged and caused much longer outages for customers.”
Grain Belt Express Moving Forward With Land Purchases –A project to generate electricity using wind turbines in Kansas and distribute the power in the Midwest and east coast is moving forward. Invenergy has purchased nearly half of the land it needs in northern Missouri for the construction project that will begin in earnest in 2023. All of those deals have been the product of voluntary negotiations with landowners willing to sell, according to the company, although Invenergy could have used eminent domain to acquire the land. Some members of the Missouri legislature wanted to revoke the eminent domain power during its regular session that ended in May. But the effort fell short, largely because opponents pointed to the company’s approval from the Missouri Public Service Commission and the likelihood that Invenergy would bring a court challenge if it was prohibited from using eminent domain. “Eminent domain would only be a last resort. We are continuing to pursue voluntary negotiations with landowners,” said Nicole Luckey, vice president of regulatory affairs for Invenergy.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: Texas needs more electricity now – OpEd – On the weekend of Feb. 13-14, a winter storm hit Texas with ice, snow and freezing temperatures seldom experienced in Texas. The storm stretched our power grid beyond its limits and generators failed to deliver the power needed. It was immediately clear the Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas were not prepared for this worst-case scenario. At a news conference the day before the storm, they assured the public they were prepared, but they obviously were not. After hearing post-storm testimony from the PUC and ERCOT leadership, I called for all members of both boards to resign and for an overhaul of both boards. Senate Bills 2 and 3 mandate that revamped structure, including requiring that board members live in Texas and not have conflicting fiduciary interests. Senate Bill 3 requires better public communication on outages as well as the mapping of our key power resources, so their power is not cut off during an emergency – the same protections we already have in place for hospitals, police and fire stations. Senate Bill 3 also requires enhanced winterization for both natural gas and electric generation facilities. The Legislature made good progress this session, but there is more important work to be done. We need to help consumers who suffered from overpricing during the storm. We must immediately address the need for more dispatchable power that we can turn on when we need it. That main source of that power is natural gas. While Texas is the fifth-largest generator of wind in the world, and also has a supply of solar, we have learned that renewables are not reliable in severe weather. We need renewables in the mix because they are clean and keep energy prices low, but at the height of the winter storm, the wind didn’t blow, and the sun wasn’t out. Wind is not reliable in the summer either. We must build more gas plants so that our dispatchable resources have the capacity to cover our electric needs now and going forward. One option is to incentivize investors to build more plants by leveling the playing field between renewables and dispatchable thermal energy. Renewables receive massive federal subsidies as well as some state incentives.Thermal plants are also required to replace any power they cannot generate on the spot market. Wind and solar are not. That partly explains why we have seen little investment in new thermal plants over the past decade. Senate Bill 3 included a provision for the PUC to put renewables and thermal energy on a level playing field, but stronger language was stripped from the bill before final passage that would have assured a level playing field. That language should be restored.
RENEWABLE ENERGY: Ohio governor weighs bill allowing local wind, solar bans — Wednesday, June 30, 2021 — The Ohio General Assembly late Monday passed a bill aimed at giving local counties and townships increased say over whether and where wind and solar projects are developed in their boundaries.
Bill creating new hurdles for wind and solar heads to governor – Ohio Capital Journal – State GOP lawmakers passed legislation around 1 a.m. Tuesday morning that bestows new powers unto county commissioners, allowing them kill wind and solar projects early in their development.The bill, which now goes to Gov. Mike DeWine for consideration, would also allow commissioners to block wind or solar development in all or part of an unincorporated area of the county.Citizens, however, can petition to place the restricted zone up for a public vote if petitioners amass a number of signatures equal to at least 8% of the total votes cast for governor in the county.The legislation passed the Ohio Senate early Tuesday on a 21-12 vote, with four Republicans joining Democrats in opposition. It passed the House 52-43, with eight Republicans joining Democrats.The proposal essentially creates a two-tiered system in which local officials wield powerful influence over potential renewable energy development but much less control over potential natural gas or oil development, which is overseen by the Ohio Power Siting Board.Lawmakers just last week sent to DeWine legislation that prohibits counties from restricting residents’ use of natural gas or propane.The lead sponsor on the wind and solar bill, Sen. Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, has said contrasting renewable energy policy and extractive energy policy is like comparing apples and oranges. House Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, sidestepped a comparison renewables and natural gas development, calling the latter a “totally different issue.”Supporters of the legislation said local officials and residents need more say in the power siting process, which is handled at the state level and doesn’t adequately consider locals’ wishes. Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Green Twp., suggested residents of more affluent, urban counties would be up in arms about the prospect of hosting a wind or solar farm against their wishes.”They think it’s just fine to put these monstrosities all over rural Ohio, to ruin the landscape in rural Ohio, to create 600-foot-tall structures with moving parts where the blades break and the fires start and the birds and bats are shot to smithereens,” he said.”They think that’s just wonderful. Why? Because they’re not anywhere near it.”Rep. Craig Riedel, R-Defiance, said the legislation is aimed at a “quality of life” issue and giving localities a voice at the same level. After the Senate passed its version of the bill earlier this month, Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said renewable energy isn’t providing enough generation in Ohio to warrant the avoidance of a potentially lethal county commission vote, unlike coal or gas. Democrats voted against the legislation, with several drawing a line connecting the legislation to a coal and nuclear energy bailout from 2019 that’s now at the center ofwhat prosecutors describe as the largest public corruption scandal in state history. Alongside the bailouts, the legislation gutted Ohio’s renewable energy and energy efficiency standards for utilities.
What’s the Carbon Footprint of a Wind Turbine? – Yes. People have studied, in detail, the amount of carbon pollution emitted during the life of a wind turbine. In fact, this type of analysis constitutes an entire branch of research known as “life cycle assessment,” with its own handbooks, internationally agreed-upon standards, specialized software, and peer-reviewed journals. To conduct a life cycle assessment of a wind turbine, or any other product, researchers begin by diagramming each stage of its existence, from manufacturing through end-of-life disposal. Next, they inventory the energy and raw materials consumed at each stage, such as the steel, fiberglass, and plastic needed during a wind turbine’s manufacturing, the diesel burned by ships and trucks in transporting turbine parts from factory to construction site, and the energy used during construction, operation, maintenance, and eventual deconstruction and recycling or disposal.With this information in hand, researchers calculate the carbon pollution produced during a wind turbine’s life cycle – in other words, its carbon footprint.Search online for the keywords “life cycle assessment” and “wind turbine” and you’ll retrieve dozens of published papers on this topic. Here’s a non-comprehensive chart of such papers from the past five years:This chart shows how much carbon dioxide, per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated, can be attributed to a wind turbine during its life from cradle to grave. If you’re wondering about those awkward-sounding “grams of carbon dioxide-equivalent,” or “CO2-eq,” that’s simply a unit that includes both carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases, such as methane.You can see that the results vary by country, size of turbine, and onshore versus offshore configuration, but all fall within a range of about five to 26 grams of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt-hour.To put those numbers in context, consider the two major fossil-fuel sources of electricity in the United States: natural gas and coal. Power plants that burn natural gas are responsible for 437 to 758 grams of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt-hour – far more than even the most carbon-intensive wind turbine listed above. Coal-fired power plants fare even more poorly in comparison to wind, with estimates ranging from 675 to 1,689 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour, depending on the exact technology in question.
‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Is the Future – WSJ – Remember the cringeworthy “Drill, baby, drill” slogan from the 2008 Republican Convention? Maybe they were on to something, but not what you think. We’re bombarded daily with calls for sustainable, renewable and carbon chewable technologies to meet our energy needs. But the solution may be just underfoot. Dig deep enough and, no surprise, it’s hotter than hell down there. Isotope reactions in the mantle under the Earth’s crust generate 20 terawatts of constant heat flow. Typically, the temperature rises about 25 degrees Celsius for every kilometer, or 75 degrees Fahrenheit for each mile, and more the deeper you go. The steam wafting out of hot springs in Yellowstone National Park or Iceland, places where the Earth’s crust is thin, shows how much heat the mantle gives off. We already have a good-sized surface geothermal industry in the U.S. For $15,000 to $30,000, you can hire someone to dig a few hundred feet and install a heat pump that circulates heated water to keep your house cozy. But that’s just scratching the surface. There is huge upside to digging down miles and injecting water into underground reservoirs – think radiators – and then the heated water is pushed back out to generate steam and electricity. It’s carbon-free – clean, green and mostly unseen. The trick is to get a large enough surface area to do the heat exchange. A typical vertical oil well might have 1,000 to 10,000 square feet of surface area. But it turns out that the same thing that’s been perfected over the past 30 years to make America energy independent can also increase that surface area – horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. I called one of the industry pioneers, University of Texas engineer Mukul Sharma, who is sometimes called the Frack King (get it?) and has a startup named Geothermix that develops enhanced geothermal systems. Mr. Sharma walked me through the process. Millions of oil and gas wells have been drilled in the U.S. over the past century. Maps exist that show the thermal conductivity of underlying rock by region – suggesting how deep you’d have to drill to get a temperature hot enough to generate cost-effective electricity, typically 0.5 to 4 miles down. After drilling down you can then drill horizontally and hydraulically fracture the rock to create an underground reservoir. With this technique you could get 10 million to 20 million square feet of surface area for the heat exchanger, thousands of times more than a standard well. Mr. Sharma thinks we’ll have several commercially viable deep geothermal systems operating in the next five years, maybe costing $10 million to $15 million each, from his company and others like Sage Geosystems and Fervo Energy. He thinks by 2030 we’ll have second- and third-generation systems operating much more efficiently, just as fracking constantly gained in output as technology improved.
Hazy view in Big Bend? Texas officials don’t want any new rules to fix it. – State environmental regulators are proposing to do nothing new to meet federal rules that require them to manage how hazy it is at certain national parks and wilderness areas, arguing that they’re already on track to meet visibility goals.But advocates and researchers criticized how the state reached that conclusion and argue regulators are missing a critical chance to reduce pollution that not only contributes to hazy skies but also can be harmful to human health.Texas Commission on Environmental Quality commissioners are expected to vote Wednesday morning on the plan, which puts in place no new emissions controls. Staffers say that reducing pollution at sites they believe may contribute to haze – such as coal-fired power plants – is unreasonably expensive, ineffective and unnecessary. The federal regional haze rules are meant to restore “natural visibility” at specified areas by 2064. But TCEQ staff note that other policies already regulate pollution, and that human-generated haze in all but one of the nearby federally protected places is improving.”We think that this plan will continue to show improvement at those [protected] areas within Texas and then those areas outside of Texas that are impacted,” said Walker Williamson, senior project manager for the agency’s air quality division.Not everyone agrees with their analysis. To figure out if more should be done, TCEQ staff studied the effects of human-caused pollution on the places they believe Texas facilities could be affecting, including Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains national parks, plus areas in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
As the US Pursues Clean Energy and the Climate Goals of the Paris Agreement, Communities Dependent on the Fossil Fuel Economy Look for a Just Transition – New research from Resources for the Future points out that hundreds of areas like central Utah are facing painful hardships because of the clean-energy transformation that will be necessary if the United States hopes to reach the Paris agreement’s goals to slow climate change. Lost jobs and wages, a shrinking population and an erosion of the tax base that supports roads, schools and community services – they’re all costs of the economic shift that will be paid by those whose hard work fueled American prosperity for so long. “If we can address those challenges by helping communities diversify, helping people find new economic growth drivers and new economic opportunities, that might lessen some of the opposition to moving forward with the ambitious climate policy that we need,” said the report’s author, Daniel Raimi, who is also a lecturer at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.Meeting the Paris agreement’s target of keeping global temperature rise “well below 2 degrees C” by the end of the century means Americans must burn 90 percent less coal over the next two decades and half as much oil and natural gas, Raimi said.And less fossil fuel use will also affect employment, public finances and economic development region-by-region, according to Raimi. In 50 of the nation’s 3,006 counties, 25 percent or more of all wages are tied to fossil fuel energy, he notes. In 16 counties, 25 percent or more of their total jobs are related to fossil energy. The focus on what’s often called a “just transition” is increasingly part of the climate action agenda for advocates and government. The Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and the World Resources Institute are among the environmental advocacy organizations that are promoting the idea. Eighty coal-state groups have been pushing for help with the transition since before President Joe Biden took office. In January, some of them stepped up their pressure, when 13 organizations from West Virginia to the Navajo Nation in Arizona, as well as their national partners, pressed for the White House to help rebuild coal community economies.
Coal-fired plant carbon capture projects face headwinds | S&P Global Market Intelligence – Carbon capture at aging U.S. coal plants has always been a long shot financially, and the outlook for such projects appears to be dimming as private investors look elsewhere and federal support for the technology wanes under the Biden administration. None of the five proposals to retrofit coal plants with carbon capture technology in the U.S. has secured funding to construct the scrubbers, carbon absorbers and geologic storage sites needed to begin operating. Some analysts also warn that costs could escalate, ultimately leaving ratepayers and taxpayers responsible for runaway expenses should projects be abandoned. The $1.4 billion carbon sequestration and storage facility planned for the 847-MW San Juan Generating Station in New Mexico, for example, is nearly two years behind schedule. Enchant Energy, the company championing the project, now says it will need a $906 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy and another $90 million in debt financing from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Services program to continue development. Whether such public financing will materialize is uncertain. The DOE under President Biden is shifting carbon capture research and development spending away from coal plants and toward relatively new natural gas-fired power plants and hard-to-abate industry sectors such as cement manufacturing. “As you know, this office has invested a great deal of time and resources in cleaner coal,” Jennifer Wilcox, the DOE’s principal deputy assistant secretary for fossil energy, said April 30 during an event hosted by the Carbon Utilization Research Council. “But it’s fairly clear that carbon capture may not make economic sense on the remaining existing fleet of coal-fired power plants in the U.S. – plants that are mostly based off of subcritical efficiency boilers and nearing retirement over the next decade.” Meanwhile, private funding for costly carbon capture projects is drying up as banks and equity firms adopt policies discouraging coal investments.
Equipment damaged at Alabama coal mine where workers are striking, $10,000 reward offered – Warrior Met Coal is offering a cash reward of up to $10,000 for information on damage to electrical transmission and distribution equipment on the company’s property on three occasions within the last two months. The Alabama Mining Association announced the reward today, saying that the damage “impacted public utility service and can seriously endanger the health and safety of the company’s workers.” According to a news release, the damage happened on Warrior’s property on the evenings of May 15, June 1 and June 12. Deputy Jessica McDaniel with the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that several investigations are ongoing into property crimes at multiple locations. About 1,100 workers at Warrior Met Coal have been engaged in a strike against the company since April 1. The United Mine Workers of America rejected a proposed contract in April, saying that the union had already made significant concessions during its previous contract in pay, benefits, holidays and overtime to keep the company going. Warrior Met emerged from the bankruptcy proceedings of the former Walter Energy, which declared bankruptcy in 2016. Phil Smith, director of communications and governmental affairs for the United Mine Workers of America, said the union “does not condone or believe in destruction of property in any form, or violence of any kind.” Patrick Cagle, president of the Alabama Mining Association, said he did not believe “any responsible member of the mining community would do something like that.”
Panel to take on Puerto Rico coal ash, military legacy — Monday, June 28, 2021 -The House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday will scrutinize a power plant in Puerto Rico whose struggles with coal ash disposal have led to public health concerns and a major spill this year.
Power Past Coal Coalition celebrate Supreme Court’s dismissal of Wyoming, Montana case against Washington – – On Monday, the “Power Past Coal Coalition” sent out a press release in celebration of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to hear a challenge from Wyoming and Montana against a Washington state decision to deny a permit for a proposed coal export terminal.”Today, the United States Supreme Court officially dismissed the coal industry’s last remaining legal appeal of Washington State’s 2017 decision to deny water quality permits for the proposed Millennium Bulk Terminals coal export terminal, signaling the official end of the project,” the press release said.The Power Past Coal Coalition noted that courts at multiple levels have upheld Washington’s decision in the matter. The release says that the proposed Millennium Bulk coal export terminal would have been developed by Lighthouse Resources, but that this company declared bankruptcy in December 2020.Power Past Coal said that bankruptcy came “amid continued decline in demand for thermal coal and increased competition from clean energy like wind and solar.”The coalition said that the Millenium coal export terminal was the last of seven proposed export facilities “opposed by an unprecedented coalition of tribal nations, health, environmental, faith and community groups from across the Pacific Northwest and High Plains.”The coal exports terminal could have sent up to 44 million metric tons of coal per year to Asian markers, according to Power Past Coal. Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon on Monday expressed frustration that the Supreme Court had dismissed the case.”This case was never about a single permit or product,” Gordon said in a press release. “It was about the ability of one state to engage in lawful interstate commerce without the interference of another state.””Today it is coal, tomorrow it could be agricultural products or any of our state’s abundant natural resources. At some point the Supreme Court is going to need to take on this matter.”Power Past Coal members, on the other hand, celebrated the decision as a win against negative effects caused by the use of coal.
Radioactive hybrid terror pigs have made themselves a home in Fukushima’s exclusion zone. — Scientists have uncovered a new threat to humanity emerging in the area surrounding the former Fukushima nuclear power plant: indestructible radioactive hybrid terror pigs.The details emerged from studies of how radiation from the partial nuclear meltdown at the plant in 2011 had affected local wildlife, which has in many cases “rewilded” urban areas vacated years ago by populations forced to move out by the threat of radiation following the disaster.This is a familiar process following large-scale human evacuations and similar rewilding situations occurred in the area surrounding the site of the Chernobyl incident in 1986, despite the efforts of the Soviet authorities to control the animal population.The NBC-suited boffins working on the project were expecting to find wild boar in the affected zone since they have been reported in former urban areas for some years, having come down from the surrounding mountains to reclaim the towns and cities of the area as their own realm almost as soon as the humans vacated them.However, the scientists were not prepared for the true prospect that awaited them, as related in a report in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal.The local wild boar – a subspecies endemic to the region known as the Japanese Boar (aka Sus scrofa leucomystax or the White-Moustached Pig) – having created a fiefdom covering all of the locale vacated by over 160,000 displaced humans, became cocky and aggressive, and also lost their natural wariness.The marauding boar also began interbreeding with escaped domestic pigs that had made good with their trotters from local farms after their human keepers had been forced to flee. The pigs, for their part, were ill-suited to life in the wild in a radioactive, post-apocalyptic hellscape and presumably threw in their lot with the tough, wily boar as their best chance of survival. The result was a new kind of boar-pig hybrid that originated in the initial exclusion zone within 20km of the site of the nuclear plant, where radiation levels were presumably highest. The study found that the hybrids did not display any signs of mutation, despite the doses of radiation they were subjected to. Indeed, surveys of the local boar population found they are contaminated by up to 300 times the safe human dosage of the lethal isotope caesium-137 [PDF]. In other words, they are highly radioactive and seemingly virtually indestructible.
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