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:
- 18 Jul 2021 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 18July 2021
- 18 Jul 2021 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 18July 2021
New cases of the virus are surging in both the US and globally, with the US now among the countries leading the global surge. New cases reported in the US during the week ending July 17th were 54.5% higher than those reported during the week ending July 10th, and – to skip the over weeks with holiday data – 140.0% higher than those reported during the week ending June 26th. Again, despite that jump, new cases this week were still only 12.0% of those of the peak week in January, so this wave is still small by comparison. To follow up on the 3-day average we checked last week (to omit July 4th and 5th data), new cases during the three days ending Friday July 16 were 55.0% higher than the same three days of the prior week (July 7, July 8 & July 9), so it’s not much different than the full week.
US deaths attributed to the virus this past week were 13.3% higher than those of the prior week, but they’re still 16.2% lower than the deaths reported during the week ending June 26th. Again, the 1,807 US Covid deaths reported this past week were still only 9.3% of the 24,220 Covid deaths recorded during the worst 7-day period in January, when more Americans were dying from Covid than from heart disease and cancer combined.
Worldwide, new Covid cases reported during the week ending July 17th were 15.0% higher than those reported during the week ending July 10th, and 29.4% higher than those reported during the week ending July 3rd. The incidence of new cases globally peaked at the end of April. This week’s cases are only 40.0% below the global high. The 7-day average of deaths from Covid has seen little change since the beginning of July, and as of July 17th deaths were just 0.2% higher than the prior week.
Other than the US, which is now seeing the 5th most new cases globally, new cases in Indonesia now lead the global totals, surpassing India’s cases early this past week, then overtaking the 7-day average of new cases in Brazil on Thursday. Similarly, the UK passed India to record the third highest 7-day average of new cases on Thursday, and then passed Brazil to move into the 2nd spot globally sometime in the past 24 hours. I have seen no explanation on how Britain, which is reportedly 70% vaccinated, could be seeing more new infections than India, which has twenty times the UK’s population.
New cases in the US are now 20% below those of India’s, and 21.5% below those of Brazil, and, as we noted, rising at a 55% week over week clip. With India’s new cases falling 8% week over week and Brazil’s falling 16%, it should just be a matter of days before the US is recording the 3rd most new cases worldwide. I have seen no explanation on how we could end up worse off than Brazil and India, with their dysfunctional politicians and strained health care systems, but that’s what we’re looking at for next week.
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 20):
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 20 July. The third graphic shows the cummulative total vaccine doses delivered to date.
Here’s the week’s environment and energy news:
J&J recalls Aveeno, Neutrogena sunscreens over cancer risk – Johnson & Johnson is recalling five of its Neutrogena and Aveeno spray sunscreens after the company found low levels of benzene, a cancer-causing chemical, in some samples. The company said customers should stop using the affected products, which were distributed through stores nationwide. The recall covers the Aveeno Protect + Refresh aerosol sunscreen, and four Neutrogena sunscreens: Beach Defense aerosol sunscreen, CoolDry Sport aerosol sunscreen, Invisible Daily Defense aerosol sunscreen and UltraSheer aerosol sunscreen. Benzene, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says can cause leukemia or other cancers after long-term exposure to high levels, is not an ingredient in the affected sunscreens, J&J noted. The pharmaceutical giant said it’s investigating how the chemical might have gotten into some of its products.
New Zealand, where Covid-19 is dormant, fights another respiratory virus –Strict lockdowns in New Zealand last year appear to have contributed to a recent outbreak in children of respiratory syncytial virus, or R.S.V., a highly contagious, flulike illness whose symptoms include a runny nose, coughing, sneezing and fever.Children in New Zealand were mostly stuck indoors amid lockdowns last autumn, which runs from March to May in the Southern Hemisphere. After the country reopened last winter, health officials say, few of them contracted seasonal viruses and infections, probably because they had been underexposed to germs.In a typical year, New Zealand sees a peak of cases of respiratory infections from June to September. But in 2020, the country experienced “the complete absence of an annual winter influenza epidemic,” with a 99.9 percent reduction in flu cases and a 98 percent reduction in R.S.V., according to a study published in Nature in February.This year, however, the same children have been more vulnerable than usual to those same ailments.Since the start of winter five weeks ago, during which there have been no coronavirus restrictions, children’s wards in New Zealand have seen dozens of patients, many of them infants, battling the sometimes deadly disease, while some elementary schools have reported having as many as half their students absent because of respiratory illnesses.The country has reported 969 cases of R.S.V. in five weeks, compared with an average of 1,743 cases over the entire 29-week winter season in the five years before the pandemic, according to New Zealand’s Institute of Environmental Science and Research.The recent surge has yet to reach a plateau, said Dr. Sue Huang, a virologist at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research and the lead author of the Nature study.”The exponential increase is very sharp,” she said in a statement. “The absence of R.S.V. last winter meant there is a young cohort of children from last year, plus a new cohort this year, who have not been exposed to the seasonal virus.”
Texas patient becomes U.S.’ first monkeypox case since 2003 -A Dallas, Texas, resident who recently returned from Nigeria has tested positive for monkeypox, a rare virus similar to smallpox, local officials said Friday. Though this is the first confirmed case of the virus in the U.S. since 2003, officials said the public should not be concerned. “While rare, this case is not a reason for alarm and we do not expect any threat to the general public,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a statement from Dallas County’s health department. Because passengers were wearing masks on the flight and in the airport, the health department said, “It’s believed the risk of spread of monkeypox via respiratory droplets to others on the planes and in the airports is low.” Monkeypox, which is in the same family of viruses as smallpox, is a rare but potentially deadly viral infection that begins with flu-like symptoms and progresses to a rash on the face and body, according to the CDC. It tends to last two to four weeks. People who do not have symptoms are not capable of transmitting the virus, the health department said. Laboratory testing confirmed the patient is infected with a strain of the virus that is mainly seen in West Africa, which includes Nigeria. Monkeypox infections of that strain are fatal in about 1 in 100 people, affecting those with weakened immune systems more strongly, according to the CDC. Prior to this case, there have been six other cases of monkeypox in travelers returning from Nigeria. The CDC said this case is not believed to be related to any of the prior cases. This is the first reported case of monkeypox in Dallas County, according to the health department’s statement. The person is currently in isolation at a hospital in Dallas and is in stable condition. The CDC said it is working with local health officials to contact airline passengers and others who were in contact with the infected traveller during their flights from Lagos, Nigeria, to Atlanta on July 8, and Atlanta to Dallas on July 9.
17-million-gallon sewage spill at Los Angeles’ largest treatment plant closes miles of Southern California beaches — Miles of beaches in Los Angeles were closed to swimmers Monday as 17 million gallons of sewage from the city’s largest treatment plant spilled into Santa Monica Bay the night before. A mechanical failure “at the Hyperion plant last night caused untreated sewage to be discharged into the ocean,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said on Twitter. “Water samples are being tested and I’m getting more information about the scope of the problem. Beaches from El Segundo to the Dockweiler RV Park are closed for swimming.”Closure signs were posted in the areas around El Segundo and Dockweiler State Beaches, as well as Grand Avenue Storm Drain, and officials urged visitors not to go into the water. The beaches, which in all total about four miles, will remain closed until water sample tests come up negative for bacteria, the County Department of Public Health said in a news release.The Hyperion plant is both the city’s largest and oldest sewage treatment facility and has been in operation since 1894. The plant was designed to accommodate a daily flow of 450 million gallons of water per day. Executive Plant Manager Timeyin Dafeta said in a statement that the facility “became inundated with overwhelming quantities of debris, causing backup of the headworks facilities.””The plant’s relief system was triggered and sewage flows were controlled through use of the plant’s one-mile outfall and discharge of untreated sewage into Santa Monica Bay,” Dafeta said.Wildfires in the United States: Over 50 large fires are burning in 10 states across the western US. Here’s how they stack in history.About 6% of the facility’s daily load was discharged as an emergency measure to prevent the plant from going offline and spewing even more raw sewage, the statement said.”Bacteria and viruses in raw sewage are extremely dangerous to people and can carry a variety of diseases,” environmental advocacy group Heal the Bay said. “Debris such as tampons and plastic trash, when released into the Bay, can harbor bacteria and can cause entanglement of wildlife, but it seems in this case those debris were successfully filtered out of the spill before it made it to the Bay.””It’s the amount of material and the kind of materials that came through that caused the problem.”
Hundreds of syringes found washed up on New Jersey beaches – Beach patrollers discovered hundreds of syringes washed up on the beaches of the Jersey Shore over the weekend, causing numerous safety closures on Sunday following days of intense storms from Tropical Storm Elsa.Beach patrollers were shocked to find hundreds of syringes on the Shore. On Sunday alone, patrollers found dozens in the sand of Monmouth Beach, according to NBC News 4. They are now warning beachgoers to stay out of the water as there is a high risk of stepping on a needle.Officials speculate that the needles are from sewage overflow miles away. Previous investigations suggest people with diabetes flush used needles down the toilet and storm water carries them to beaches, according to the local report. “I had gloves on and I had a picker thing, so I didn’t touch any of them,” beach patroller Kathrine Gough, who was one of many to clean up the beaches, told NBC News. “But it was pretty weird because people were asking questions and we don’t know what happened.” While some areas are still closed, other sites reopened Monday after crews closely inspected the area. Seven Presidents Oceanfront Park, a part of the Monmouth County park system on the Shore, gave the “all clear” on their website Monday morning, allowing beachgoers to enjoy the park freely.
Report: Masks, Gloves A Significant Source Of Beach Pollution – CBS Los Angeles – – Single-use masks and gloves have become a significant source of beach pollution in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Surfrider Foundation’s Beach Cleanup annual report. From June to December of last year, more than 2,270 single-use masks and gloves were removed from beaches and waterways during the San Clemente-based foundation’s cleanup program. Nearly 90% of all items removed from U.S. beaches are plastic, according to the report. “Plastic pollution is a global crisis,” Jennifer Hart, the foundation’s plastic pollution coordinator, said. The pandemic forced the group to modify its beach cleanup program, switching from large-scale events to solo cleanups and allowing individuals to log their own cleanup data in the foundation’s database. However, the changes actually increased the foundation’s efforts with 927 cleanups held in 2020. Coverage increased by nearly 55% and more than 80,000 pounds of trash were removed form the nation’s beaches and waterways, according to the report.
Massive red tide fish kill cleanup in St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida (video) Several beaches around St. Petersburg and Tampa are closed due to harmful algal bloom (red tide) after the passage of Hurricane “Elsa,” Live Storms Media noted in their latest video report.The National Weather Service has issued a special beach hazards statement warning of the effects on people’s respiratory system through Monday evening, July 12.As seen in the video, thousands of fish that have been killed are floating to the shore.Around 120 employees have been taken from their normal jobs to assist in 24-hour a day cleanup efforts. 15-tons and counting of dead fish have been removed so far, according to the City of St. Petersburg.
Florida Manatees Die in Record Numbers From Lack of Food –A record number of manatees have died in Florida this year due to food scarcity in the Indian River Lagoon, officials said.The loss of seagrass in the waters has caused manatees to die from starvation and malnutrition, according toTCPalm. A total of 841 manatees died, with 312 deaths occurring in Brevard County’s segment of the 156-mile long lagoon from Jan. 1 to July 2 of this year.Some biologists speculate that water pollution has devastated seagrass beds in the area, according to The Guardian.”Unprecedented manatee mortality due to starvation was documented on the Atlantic coast this past winter and spring,” Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute wrote, as reported by The Guardian. “Most deaths occurred during the colder months when manatees migrated to and through the Indian River Lagoon, where the majority of seagrass has died off.”Wildlife officials declared the deaths of the sea cows as an Unusual Mortality Event, which helps the government to work with Florida and nonprofits to adequately investigate the cause of the high death rate, according to USA TODAY.The previous death record for manatees was in 2013 when 830 manatees died from subjection to red dye toxins, according to TCPalm.In addition to the scarce food supply, at least 63 manatees have perished from boat strikes, according to CBS News.Once classified as endangered, the sea cows were reclassified as threatened in 2017. Some environmentalists are urging officials to consider the animal endangered once again, according to CBS News.Republican Congressman Vern Buchanan wrote a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in June, asking them to consider recategorizing the “beloved, iconic mammals” as endangered, as reported by CBS News andWTSP Tampa Bay.Around 6,300 manatees call Florida home. This number has increased by around 1,300 since the 1990s, as reported by The Guardian.
2021 marks deadliest year for manatees in Florida recorded history – At least 841 manatees have died in Florida waters so far in 2021, marking the deadliest year for manatees in the state’s recorded history, according to Treasure Coast Newspapers. According to data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), nearly 53 percent of the dead manatees were found in five neighboring counties: Volusia, Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin. FWC data found that 312 manatees died in Brevard County, the outlet reported. The previous record was set in 2013, when 830 manatees died over the course of the entire year. Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) said in its report that manatees are starving to death during the winter and springtime, when the majority of seagrass has died out. Pollution of waterways through urban and agricultural development is contributing to the deaths by putting into the water nitrogen and phosphorus that feeds algal blooms, which choke off seagrass, a major food source for manatees. FWRI also said that boating accidents are a factor in manatee deaths, with 63 manatees dying due to boat crashes, Treasure Coast Newspapers reported. The FWC in March declared manatee death as an Unusual Mortality Event, which allows state and federal government officials to aid FWC in its investigation of the cause and in preventing any more deaths of the animals. According to Treasure Coast Newspapers, 16 environmental groups and clean water-dependent businesses have urged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to declare a state of emergency on the growing issue.
Pet Goldfish Dumped in Minnesota Lakes Are Growing Huge and Disrupting Ecosystems – Authorities in Minnesota have instructed residents and goldfish owners to stop dumping goldfish into the state’s waterways after abnormally large goldfish were found in a local lake.The city of Burnsville tweeted photographs of the huge goldfish with the caption, “Please don’t release your pet goldfish into ponds and lakes!”Groups of large goldfish, which can grow to be the size of a football, were found in local waters. The City of Burnsville said that when the fish grow bigger they “contribute to poor water quality by mucking up the bottom sediments and uprooting plants.”The act of releasing unwanted fish is called “illegal fish stocking,” and it’s happening all over Minnesota, disrupting the balance of the natural ecosystems and fish communities, according to NPR.The city is working with Carp Solutions, a start-up company that develops new technologies to control carp, according to ABC News.This is not the first time the state has dealt with this issue. In November, officials removed around 50,000 goldfish from local waters. Paul Moline, Carver County’s water management manager, said goldfish are an “understudied species” with “a high potential to negatively impact the water quality of lakes,” according to The Guardian. An adaptable fish of the carp family, goldfish can survive low levels of oxygen and easily reproduce, according to The Guardian.
With Snake River spring, summer Chinook on a ‘quasi-extinction threshold,’ NW tribes call for dam removals – Tribes across the Northwest are calling for immediate action to remove the four Lower Snake River dams. During a two-day salmon and orca summit in Western Washington last week, the group called on President Biden and congressional members to “take bold action, now.”Many tribal leaders placed support behind Idaho Republican Congressman Mike Simpson’s broad concept to breach the dams while still finding ways to support the resulting holes in industries like energy development and agricultural irrigation.Washington Gov. Jay Inslee spoke on the second day of the conference, connected virtually from off site. He continued to call for more talks on how to move forward – at one point jumping in to tell Suquamish Chairman Leonard Forsman, “We should have daily discussions.” Inslee and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington have not signed on to Simpson’s $33.5 billion dollar concept. In May, they said solutions for the Snake River dams controversy need more work.During the conference, Inslee called this a “critical” moment. Climate change, and the recent heatwave, make the urgency even more apparent, he said.”I believe we should be – and have to be – committed to getting down to business to define what can provide the services that these dams provide, so we can take the next steps in this regional discussion … to define how to replace these services so that we can build more support in our communities to taking the next step in the dam breaching discussion,” Inslee said.He said that should happen “in the months ahead.”In the online chat discussion, attendees called Inslee’s comments “encouraging” news for dam breaching.”Well, I didn’t expect to hear the Gov say ‘breach the dams!’ explicitly, but he did come as close as I think he dared, with his statement about the next step being to replace the services provided by the dams!”
Mississippi Claims Memphis is Stealing its Groundwater, Supreme Court to Decide – The battle over water rights is heating up. Please consider the State of Mississippi v. City of Memphis and Memphis Light, Gas, and Water now on the Supreme Court Docket. Mississippi’s complaint alleges that MLGW has “forcibly siphoned” off its water to the tune of billions of gallons. Compl. 23. And that without modern pumping technology none of that water would be available to Tennessee. Id. at 24. To make matters worse, Mississippi says Tennessee has removed groundwater far beyond “the water’s natural seepage rate.” Id. Evidence of Tennessee’s heist, Mississippi claims, can be seen in “substantial drop in pressure and corresponding drawdown of stored water in the Sparta Sand” and the “cone of depression” that extends into north Mississippi. Id. at 25, 30. Because Tennessee is allegedly stealing water at such a rapid rate, Mississippi must now drill wells to substantially greater depths. Id. at 54(b). Naturally, that practice has increased the costs on Mississippians who rely on the Aquifer for their groundwater. Mississippi now seeks both declaratory relief and money damages for the taking of its groundwater. The declaratory judgment would establish Mississippi’s “sovereign right, title and exclusive interest in the groundwater stored naturally in the Sparta Sand formation” which would not be available to the Defendants without pumping. This suit has been brewing for years. But analysts strongly favor Tennessee. For example, the University of Chicago Law Review writer Joseph Regalia says Mississippi’s Plea to the Supreme Court That It “Owns” Its Water and That Tennessee Is “Stealing” It Is Just Wrong. States have been fighting over water for a long time, and usually, the U.S. Supreme Court has settled those disputes by using a doctrine called equitable apportionment: a flexible standard that allows the High Court to balance the states’ competing interests in water and issue a decree that splits the water up between those interests. But what’s new is that Mississippi has tried to resurrect an old theory to avoid the normal equitable apportionment process, seeking to hoard water for its own uses without sharing. Mississippi’s theory is misleadingly simple. The state says it ownsthe water in its borders and that Tennessee is stealing it. After the case was sent to a Special Master, Tennessee moved for summary judgment, but the Court denied it (surprising many of us), and the case has been percolating for years now.
Proposed WV water quality standard update draws controversy for allowing case-by-case evaluation of toxin levels – Environmentalists again are rankled over West Virginia water quality standards.The state Department of Environmental Protection is proposing updates to 35 water quality criteria to match the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2015 updates of nationally recommended criteria. The proposed changes include a provision for evaluating human health criteria on a case-by-case basis. The West Virginia Rivers Coalition views that as a loophole for chemical manufacturers. Human health ambient water-quality criteria represent specific levels of chemicals or conditions in a body of water that are not expected to cause adverse effects to human health, according to the EPA’s definition.The provision would allow, as part of the water pollution permitting process, case-by-case evaluation of the total human exposure to water toxicants from ingestion of water and fish from an ambient waterbody. Permit limits based on revisions to the criteria would be subject to a 45-day public comment period and EPA review. But permit limits would not be subject to review by the West Virginia Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee, a panel of lawmakers from the Senate and House of Delegates that usually signs off on rule modifications.The DEP is required by the federal Clean Water Act to review the state’s water quality standards every three years. The state requires all revisions to be approved by the Legislature before final EPA approval.West Virginia Rivers Coalition Executive Director Angie Rosser views the newly proposed provision as an unwelcome divergence from that process. . “It puts the public interest at a disadvantage, because the public would only have 45 days’ notice to know about the site-specific request to take a look at the science,” Rosser said.
Human activity imperils one of the Earth’s great survivalists: dragonflies — Dragonflies are among the Earth’s oldest existing groups of animals. Based on exceptionally preservedfossil specimens, our best estimate is that the ancestor of modern-day dragonflies originated more than 200 million years ago. Some pre-historic dragonfly ancestors werequite large, but, for the most part, fossils indicate that ancient dragonflies and their relatives looked fairly similar to what we have today. This means that dragonflies have been around in their current form since before iconic dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus or Triceratops roamed the Earth, since before the continent of North America broke off from Eurasia and since before flowers first bloomed.You may or may not spend much time considering the dragonflies that you see today, but I imagine you can appreciate their impressive record of survival through the ages. Given this remarkable run of stability, it is ominous for the rest of us animals that there are warning signs that dragonflies may now be in some trouble.The decimation of 35 percent of the world’s wetlands through over-useand global warming threatens many dragonflies – a group of animals that withstood a worldwide drought so severe that the tropics received less rain than the Sahara Desert does today. Dragonflies, like frogs, spend their juvenile stage developing in the water and then undergo a metamorphosis. With lakes and streams currently drying and draining, dragonflies have fewer places to live than they did even a hundred years ago. After 200 million years of developing in the water, it is quite unlikely that they will suddenly learn to develop on land, which makes the drying and destruction of wetlands perhaps the most serious threat facing dragonflies today.Even among the waterbodies that have not yet disappeared completely, shallower lakes and more stagnant streams allow for lower concentrations of the dissolved oxygen that juvenile dragonflies need to breathe. As a result, some remaining waterbodies are now poorly suited for the growthand survival of many dragonfly species.The influx of novel chemicals into our waterways also endangers many dragonflies – a group of animals that survived global storms of acid rainthat made water bodies uninhabitable to many other organisms. Pesticides like carbaryl and malathion are used to control pests like ticks and fruit flies, but these chemicals are often encountered by dragonflies after they runoff into streams and lakes. Researchers have shown thatdragonflies die when exposed to pesticide concentrations that can be found in many waterbodies. High levels of metals and man-made pollutants also accumulate in the ponds and wetlands that are constructed near highways. Although dragonflies often inhabit these highway-adjacent wetlands, the chemicals that accumulate in these ponds can damage the dragonflies’ DNA molecules, rendering them extremely susceptible to harmful mutations and the degeneration of their bodies’ cells.
Maine Has a Dangerous, Small, and Very Itchy Problem – Climate change is keeping temperatures higher in the fall, setting up browntail-moth caterpillars to boom in summer. The caterpillar is roughly an inch and a half long with a fuzzy coat, brown but for two white stripes that flank its back and two red-orange dots near its rear. It has a soft visual texture that makes it seem harmless, charming even, tempting enough to stroke.But touch a browntail-moth caterpillar at your own peril.”Browntail-moth-caterpillar hairs are barbed and hollow. And inside that hollow tube, there’s a reservoir of a toxin,” says Allison Kanoti, the state entomologist for Maine, which is in the middle of a massive browntail-moth outbreak. Until recently, the insect was constrained to a few coastal areas of the state. This year, they’ve been spotted in nearly every one of Maine’s 16 counties. Portland, Maine’s largest city, has had to temporarily relocate its farmers’ market to avoid the insects’ uncanny habit of dropping down from the trees where they nest. In June, Waterville, a city of 16,000, declared a public emergency because of the caterpillars. And all across the state, shoppers covered in itchy abrasions have stripped drugstore shelves bare of witch hazel and cortisone, key ingredients in a DIY compound designed to soothe the downy beast’s ferocious burn. Brushing up against a browntail-moth caterpillar or otherwise encountering its hairs – on a picnic table, on a dock, on a bit of clothes hung out to dry – can leave a person itching for days as a poison-ivy-like rash creeps across the flesh. And as the caterpillar sheds its hairs, they can go airborne, causing wheezing if they’re inhaled. Both reactions can be so severe it necessitates a trip to the emergency room. Research suggests that getting a hair of a browntail-moth caterpillar in your eye can even cause blindness (though this is exceedingly rare). The hairs can remain toxic for up to three years.
Farmers Braced for Water Shortages as Reservoirs Dry Up in Mexico – Mexico is in the grip of a severe drought, which has left reservoir levels dangerously low and threatened agricultural production throughout much of the country. And despite the fact that, with the notable exception of northwestern provinces like Chihuahua and Sonora, rains are forecast to bring some relief over the summer, barring a radical regulatory shift, it appears only a matter of time before the agricultural shocks of 1996 and 2011 are eventually repeated in the country. The present drought is already among the worse in memory, with the outlook expected to deteriorate further in certain regions as summer temperatures heat up. Currently, around 70% of the country is experiencing drought conditions, 20% of which falls under the ‘extreme’ classification. Over the previous decade, the typical percentage of territory experiencing extreme drought would fall somewhere under 5% on average. Some of the worst-affected states at present include Durango, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, and Sonora. As an arid/semi-arid country, Mexico is no stranger to parched conditions. However, Mexico’s hydrological baseline has been consistently deteriorating on the back of supply- and demand-side pressures. On the demand side, intensive urbanization and industrialization are drawing more water than is able to be replenished by natural systems. For example, the 10 largest pairs of cities along the US-Mexico border have grown from a total of 560,000 people to over 10 million people today. Mexico City’s growth from 3.4 million in 1950 to nearly 22 million in 2021 has made it a global byword for urban sprawl; unsurprisingly, the city is also at the center of Mexico’s water concerns. Big agriculture is also another major consumer of water, with some 76.6% of available national supply going toward irrigation. And, similar to the case of California, some of the crops its being diverted to are water-intensive and thus exacerbate the scarcity; for example, lettuce and alfalfa. On the supply side, warming temperatures are increasing evaporation in Mexico’s surface reserves – a phenomenon that is particularly pronounced in arid regions such as the west of the country. This ebb and flow of gradually intensifying drought is important to keep in mind when considering impacts on the country’s water supply, which are becoming more pronounced with every passing year. Some 77 of Mexico’s 210 major reservoirs are currently running below 25% as of the end of June. This number is a notable increase from 2020, when 56 reservoirs were below the 25% mark, and 2019, when 40 were. Moreover, satellite imaging reveals dramatic declines at some key reservoirs, such as Villa Victoria, which provides most of Mexico City’s water supply.
Record highs fall in the Southwest as intense heat continues -An abundance of excessive heat warnings have spilled across the Southwest as residents continue to bake under record heat. Most notably, the heat wave has stamped new record highs in the weather history books in Las Vegas, Nevada, andDeath Valley, California.On Friday, the temperature at Death Valley soared to 130 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the previous daily record high of 129 set back in 1913, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). This mark fell just 4 degrees shy of the highest temperature ever measured on Earth, which was set in Death Valley on July 10, 1913. The mercury then rose to 129 and 128 on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. A normal high at this point in the year is 116. The temperature in Death Valley is averaging over 8 degrees above normal so far this month.On Saturday, Las Vegas soared to a high of 117 and tied the city’s all-time record high temperature. The first time the city ever climbed to 117 was back in July of 1942. In the nearly 80 years since that first reading, the mercury has only topped out at 117 four times, including Saturday. Las Vegas also set a new daily record-high temperature on Friday of 116, breaking the previous record of 113, which was set back in 1943 and tied in 2012. Flights at Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport were delayed on Friday due to excessive heat. According to Flight Aware, 364 flights in the airport were delayed.NV Energy asked that customers conserve energy each evening over the weekend due to supply shortages caused by the weather conditions. The company asked that customers turn off the lights, avoid using large appliances and electronics, unplug electronics when they are not in use and turn off pool pumps.On Saturday, St. George, Utah, also experienced some impressive heat. According to the NWS, St. George reached 117 degrees on July 10. If this temperature is confirmed after a more thorough investigation, it would tie for the hottest day on record for the entire state. An array of other cities also broke or tied daily and all-time records on Saturday and Sunday. Desert Rock, Nevada, tied its all-time record of 113 degrees, which was originally recorded in 2013, at the beginning of the weekend. Barstow-Daggett, California, tied its all-time record of 118 degrees set back in 1994, which was then reached again in 2007.Bishop, California, also tied its all-time record that was set in 2002 of 111 degrees. Kingman, Arizona, reached the same temperature, tying its daily record for July 10 that was set in 2003. Needles, California, broke its daily record on Saturday when temperatures peaked at 122. The previous record was 121, set in 2003. AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tyler Roys said that the intense heat is a result of another expansive heat dome that has set up over the region.The setup is similar to what led to the extreme heat across the Pacific Northwest and western Canada at the end of June, when the region battled a round of its own record-breaking temperatures and devastating wildfires. This time, the core of the high pressure and heat has been anchored farther to the south and has allowed excessive heat to build up across the region,
Records Break and Fires Rage as U.S. West Sees Third Heat Wave This Summer – The West Coast of the U.S. continues to bake as high temperatures fuel wildfires.The region faced its third heat wave this summer as the heat dome effect that smothered the Pacific Northwest in late June settled over California and parts of the Southwest over the weekend, The New York Times reported. More than 31 million people are now living in areas under heat warnings or advisories.”This time, the core of the high pressure and heat has been anchored farther to the south and has allowed excessive heat to build up across the region,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist Adam Douty said.High temperatures were expected to impact southeast Oregon, northern California, the Mojave Desert, eastern California, and parts of Nevada and Utah, CNN reported.The effect has led to some record-breaking temperatures. Death Valley broke a daily record first set in 1913 on Friday with a temperature reading of 130 degrees Fahrenheit, AccuWeather reported. Las Vegas, meanwhile, reached 117 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday, tying the city’s all-time record. Other cities in Nevada and California also broke or tied their all-time high the same day.Meanwhile, Lake George, Utah hit a temperature of 117 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday, which may be the highest temperature ever recorded in the state, pending confirmation.One particular danger of the heat wave has bee high night-time temperatures. In parts of the Desert Southwest, the thermometer has not dipped below 90 after sunset, CNN reported. In California, National Weather Service meteorologist Sarah Rogowski predicted nighttime temperatures would be 15 to 25 degrees above average, according to The New York Times.”When you start getting those warm temperatures overnight combined with those high temperatures during the day, it really starts to build the effect,” Rogowski told The New York Times. “People aren’t able to cool off; it’s a lot harder to get relief.”This can put people at more risk of developing heat stroke and dying, according to CNN.The high heat is also fueling 55 large wildfires. Fires now cover nearly 500 square miles in six Western states,USA TODAY reported. The largest is the Bootleg Fire, which has engulfed more than 220 square miles in Oregon and is zero percent contained.Another fire in Arizona proved deadly when a plane heading to respond to the fire crashed on Saturday, killing two firefighters. California is also battling its largest fire so far this year in the Beckwourth Complex Fire, which doubled in size over the weekend, as 9&10 News reported.”There have been 3,061 people affected by the evacuation with 1,199 residences threatened,” Beckwourth Complex Fire Information spokesman Mike Ferris told CNN.
Oregon’s Bootleg Fire burns more than 150,000 acres as wildfires rage through West – The Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon nearly doubled in size from Saturday to Sunday to more than 150,000 acres as extreme heatwaves and wildfires continued to scorch the West. The intense flames in the Fremont-Winema National Forest broke out on July 6, burning for its sixth day on Sunday, according to anincident report. The out-of-control wildfire was so intense that it forced firefighters to retreat to safety zones and prompted more personnel to be deployed overnight, fire officials said.Residents in some areas of Klamath County were forced to evacuate as the wildfire continued to spread and was zero percent contained Sunday, the incident report said. Investigators have not yet determined the cause of the fire, but authorities said “dry weather and extremely dry fuels contribute to extreme fire behavior.”The fire interrupted electrical lines that transmit power from Oregon to California, energy officials said. California lost thousands of megawatts of imported power and struggled to maintain operating reserves as temperatures soared into triple digits in parts of the state. The Bootleg Fire came amid record wildfires and temperatures ravaging states across the West.The Beckwourth Complex Fire – California’s largest wildfire burning – consumed more than 80,000 acres and destroyed about 20 homes Sunday as it jumped across state borders to Nevada.The wildfire, one of several brush fires burning in California, was 8 percent contained Sunday. Federal fire officials reported some progress in holding the fire on the south and southwestern flanks.In Arizona, two firefighters were killed in a plane crash while conducting aerial reconnaissance over the Cedar Basin Fire near the Prescott National Forest, the Bureau of Land Management said in a statement.Wildfires also blazed through western Idaho and southeast Washington over the weekend, prompting both Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to declare emergencies in their states.
Bootleg Fire rages through Oregon, threatening California’s electricity supply — A fast-growing wildfire blazing across southwest Oregon has burned through more than 153,500 acres, forced hundreds of evacuations and is imperiling a major power grid as much of the West endures yet another heat wave. The Bootleg Fire, the biggest of nearly 60 large fires burning mostly in Western states, has been spreading uncontrolled for six days, doubling in size three times over the weekend. It threatened electric transmission lines that supply energy to California, leading the state to make emergency calls for power conservation. Coming so early in the season, the Bootleg Fire’s size and intensity has officials worried about the months ahead. More than 1,000 firefighters were on the scene Monday, with more expected to join the effort. “The fire behavior we are seeing on the Bootleg Fire is among the most extreme you can find and firefighters are seeing conditions they have never seen before,” Al Lawson, an incident commander for the fire, said in a statement. Across parts of Klamath County, near the California border in southern Oregon, authorities ordered evacuations, urging residents to “go now.” The Klamath County Sheriff’s Office began issuing citations and said it would make arrests to keep people out of those areas, a rare step to enforce evacuation compliance as some residents have not heeded warnings. By early Monday evening, flames had destroyed at least 50 structures, including seven homes, Gert Zoutendijk, a fire marshal assisting the response, told The Washington Post. In all, nearly 2,000 structures are at risk, authorities said. The California Independent System Operator (CISO), which manages electricity for a power grid that serves 80 percent of California, called the fire “a wild card” and said it has made transmission lines from Oregon “unreliable.” As of Monday evening, efforts by customers to conserve power had worked, keeping the grid stable, the CISO tweeted. The blaze is threatening the California Oregon Intertie, also referred to as Path 66, a key link that shuttles power between the Northwest and California. The fire “tripped off transmission lines” Friday and Saturday, the CISO said, “limiting electricity flow.” The lines can normally transport 4,400 megawatts, but are now down to just 428, said Maryam Habibi, a spokesperson for the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency that operates the intertie. The dense smoke hanging over the area is main barrier to restoring service, Habibi said.
‘If you don’t leave, you’re dead’: Fleeing Oregon’s Bootleg Fire – The growing Bootleg Fire continued to devour forest in south-central Oregon on Tuesday, after forcing hundreds of residents in the Klamath Falls area to evacuate, some of whom recounted a harrowing escape.“The sheriff pulled up, sparks and embers were coming down. Says ‘you better get the hell — if you don’t leave, you’re dead.'” Reuters visited this Red Cross evacuation center in Klamath County, where residents, including Tim McCarly, spent Monday night. “You know, before you hear reports of this and these people there and you go oh, poor people, oh poor people, oh that’s horrible. But when you’re with them, experiencing the same thing and hearing stories, it gives you a different outlook on life. It gives you a different outlook on compassion.”As of Tuesday, the Bootleg Fire had burned through more than 200,000 acres and is just one of a number of major wildfires raging nearly unchecked in drought-stricken Oregon.The fires also come amid an unseasonable heat wave, the third for the region this year, an anomaly that many experts attribute to climate change. Dale Kunce, who heads the Red Cross Cascades Region in Oregon, is among them. “So this is not the first wildfire of the season. It certainly won’t be the last. It may be the biggest at the end of it, but it won’t be the last that impacts people. And what we’ve seen as the Red Cross is really this change from a one big event a year or one big event every five years or ten years, to now we’re seeing chronic events… And, unfortunately, this fire, the Bootleg Fire, got going and without really anything to stand in its way it’s just been rampaging with big high winds and really high temperatures, and it’s just been moving and moving and moving.” The Bootleg Fire, which has been burning since July 6, is now the largest active blaze in the nation, covering an area larger than the size of New York City.
Oregon wildfire becomes biggest in the nation, burning over 200,000 acres – A wildfire raging in Oregon is currently the largest fire in the nation, burning more than 201,000 acres across the state, officials said Tuesday. The Bootleg Fire started in Klamath County on July 6, forcing officials to place more than 100 homes under mandatory evacuation orders.As of Tuesday, the fire destroyed 54 structures and 21 homes, according to CBS affiliate KOIN. The cause of the fire is currently unknown.Fire officials said the blaze will continue to spread in areas with above-average temperatures and will only be fueled by dry ground and high winds, KOIN reported. Residents living in areas with the highest evacuation levels face citations or arrest, police said. As of Tuesday night, there were three other fires across the state: The Jack Fire in Douglas County, the Grandview Fire near Oregon’s Crooked River National Grassland and the Bruler Fire near Detroit. The Jack Fire has grown to more than 12,500 acres and is 15% contained. Meanwhile, the Grandview Fire has burned over 5,700 acres and is 5% contained, KOIN reported. The Bruler Fire, which was detected Monday, is estimated to be about 60 acres, the U.S. Forest Service said. It is not currently a threat to any structures or communities, but it is 0% contained, the agency said. “This fire does have the potential to spread and the forest is very dry,” Sweet Home District Ranger and agency administrator Nikki Swanson said in a news release. “The safety of the public and the firefighters is our first priority. We’re in the process of closing several roads and trails to ensure firefighters can work efficiently and that the public remains safe. This will be managed as a full suppression fire.”In California, The Beckwourth Complex fire, a combination of two fires in Plumas National Forest, has burned more than 90,000 acres as of Tuesday night. This fire season is sparking memories of 2020, the worst year ever for California wildfires. This year, twice as many acres have already burned.
Wildfires, heat wave ravage California, Oregon, other Western states – Scores of major wildfires were raging virtually unchecked across the West on Tuesday as an unrelenting heat wave and historic drought turned a wide swath of the nation into tinder. The 67 blazes were consuming 1,562 square miles of mostly timber and brush, but an undetermined number of homes have burned and thousands have been threatened. More than 14,200 wildland firefighters and support personnel were battling the fires as of Tuesday afternoon. “The excessive heat wave in parts of the West continues to linger with potentially a few record high temperatures today in portions of California and Nevada,” the National Weather Service said Tuesday. Heat will continue to only make things worse for fire crews as high temperatures remain above average through the week and widespread readings soar to the 90s and 100s, AccuWeather said. Temperatures will only increase over the weekend and into next week, forecasters said.Through Monday, more than 33,000 fires had scorched 2 million acres across the nation, the most fires through that date in a decade, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. That’s an area larger than the state of Delaware. Large fires are burning across the western US. The largest fire in the country was incinerating huge swaths of the Fremont-Winema National Forest in southern Oregon near the California border. The Bootleg Fire was disrupting service on three transmission lines providing up to 5,500 megawatts of electricity to California. The Goldpower grid operator has asked for voluntary power conservation during evening hours. Eight fires raged in California. Blazes also were burning in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, Minnesota and Alaska amid a week of heat warnings, record-smashing temperatures and regional drought. The week-long Bootleg Fire had burned at least seven homes and more than 40 other buildings. The blaze has raced through about 315 square miles, and 2,000 homes remained threatened, state fire officials said. “Conditions were so extreme that firefighters needed to disengage and move to predetermined safety zones,” the U.S. Forest Service said in an incident report. “Fire managers evaluated conditions and looked for opportunities to reengage firefighters safely.”
Nearly All Chinook Salmon in Sacramento River Expected to Be Killed by Extreme Heat, Water Mismanagement – A drumbeat of climate-fueled heatwaves, compounded by water management practices, will likely kill nearly all juvenile chinook salmon in the Sacramento River, California wildlife officials warn.”It’s an extreme set of cascading climate events pushing us into this crisis situation,” California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Jordan Traverso told reporters. Salmon need river water at or below 56 degF to fully develop (which, in a human context, is so dangerously cold it can inhibit your ability to control your breathing).Low river levels caused by drought mean the water heats and evaporates faster, which lowers, and thus further warms the water in a vicious cycle. The salmon die-offs have increased due to diversions from the Shasta Reservoir, which was formed by damming the Sacramento River in the 1940s, to the agriculture industry across the Central Valley, itself parched by the climate-fueled megadrought. As reported by CNN: To combat the poor river conditions in the Central Valley, some fish preservation organizations have tried to save the salmon population by launching large scale trucking operations to transport millions of salmon to the San Pablo Bay, San Francisco Bay and other fish farms where they are more likely to survive, Traverso said.The CDFW announced Tuesday that it had successfully relocated 1.1 million juvenile salmon from the Klamath River in northern California, where conditions are similarly extreme.While relocating salmon is an option, there are better alternatives than the high-priced trucking process, a spokesperson for the Golden State Salmon Association said.John McManus, president of the association, said dam operators could hold on to more water to keep the fish alive, but that would require contracts to be modified between the operators and their federal and state partners who supply water to cities and farmers.A warmer California recently prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to call on voluntarily reductions of water use by 15% to protect reserves and to help maintain critical flows for fish and other wildlife.”We could lose salmon here in California if we continue with business as usual and the climate continues to warm,” McManus said. “There’s a very real possibility we could lose salmon forever here.”
Extreme Heat Sent Thousands to Emergency Rooms in May, June – Record-high temperatures that scorched the Pacific Northwest in June sent 3,500 people to hospital emergency rooms for heat-related illnesses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.Emergency room visits in May and June were recorded in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska. Most took place in the last week of June, when Portland reached 116 degrees Fahrenheit (46.7 Celsius).Average daily heat-related emergency visits in June were seven times higher in the region than in 2019. Researchers didn’t use 2020 as a baseline for comparison because the Covid-19 pandemic distorted typical patterns of hospital visits.The report highlights one of the health risks of climate change. In the northwest U.S., “increasing temperatures are projected to cause significant adverse health effects in the coming years,” the agency wrote. The U.S. records about 700 heat-related deaths in an average year, the CDC said.
Amid Extreme Heat, Humanitarian Group Reports Dozens of Migrant Deaths in Arizona Desert — The Tucson, Arizona-based non-profit group Humane Borders said Tuesday that amid the Southwest’s extreme heatwave last month, an unusually large number of migrants’ human remains were found in the desert near the U.S.-Mexico border.The group, which maps the recovery of human remains using data from the Pima County medical examiner and operates stations scattered throughout the borderlands where migrants can access water, said its volunteers counted 43 human bodies in June.At least 29 of the people whose remains were found were confirmed to have died last month, as Arizona officials recorded the hottest June on record. Temperatures reached above 110 degrees Fahrenheit in Phoenix, which typically has similar weather to the Sonoran Desert, where migrants make perilous journeys throughout the year after crossing the border.The Pima County medical examiner’s office listed exposure to the elements as the most common cause of death among the people whose bodies were found.The unusually high number of migrant deaths in the desert last month follows the discovery of 127 bodies in the border region in the first half of 2021, compared to 96 bodies that were recovered in the same period last year. According to the Associated Press, the Brooks County Sheriff’s Department in southern Texas, which also experienced extreme heat last month, reported 36 migrant deaths in the first five months of this year, surpassing the total number found in 2020.
Arizona hit hard with flash flooding in wildfire burn scar After weeks of scorching heat and devastating drought, Arizona cities have been inundated with flash flooding. Residents of the Copper State – which has been ravaged by wildfires, some sparked bylightning, both before and during the state’s monsoon season – watched, snapped photos and recorded videos as floodwaters flowed through intersections and lifted cars in residential neighborhoods. In a video posted by Golder Ranch Fire District, firefighters could be seen rescuing a man and his two daughters from the roof of their vehicle on Wednesday after it was swept away.Tens of thousands of residents were under advisories on Wednesday and the Coconino County Emergency Management officials issued a shelter-in-place order in response to the threat. Neighborhoods east of Flagstaff were primarily impacted – menacing the communities of Flagstaff, Doney Park and Winona – and rushing waters in downstream neighborhoods were expected as a byproduct of a burn scar from 2019’s 1,961-acre Museum fire.”The Museum Fire Burn Area received just over 1″ of rain today. Although the rain amount and intensity was lower today than yesterday, the rain fell over a longer period of time. Furthermore, rain from within the flood area compounded the impacts of the flooding from the burn area,” the Arizona Emergency Information Network (AZEIN)explained in a Wednesday release. “The ground in the Museum Flood Area is also becoming more saturated and the watershed is becoming more responsive. This means additional flooding is expected in future rain events, which the National Weather Service predicts for the remainder of the week and weekend.”Flash flood watches were also issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) in metro Phoenix, Tucson and large parts of central, southern and northwestern Arizona from Tuesday through yesterday evening. In the wake of the flooding, streets have been left cluttered by debris and drains have been clogged.The NWS said Thursday that more rainfall was expected to pelt the arid Desert Southwest, with afternoon and evening showers near the Four Corners region.
Anthrax, Grasshoppers, Dying Clams Show North American Heat Toll – Swarms of hungry grasshoppers are leaving little food behind for grazing cattle, shellfish are baking in coastal waters, baby birds are falling from trees and dormant anthrax is reawakening to threaten sheep.Such calamities are the result of a record heat wave and bone-dry conditions that gripped western North America in the past month, threatening animals and undermining the livelihood of farmers. What’s happening in parts of the U.S. and Canada shows the damage climate change is wreaking on agriculture. In Montana and Manitoba, hot and dry conditions have become such a boon for grasshoppers that they’re devouring pastures and some cereal crops. “The damage is going to get worse,” Rancher Gilles Stockton said he won’t have enough grass to get his 500 cattle at his ranch north of Billings through the winter, prompting him to search for feed alternatives before deciding if he needs to cull the herd in the coming months. “Nobody is going to have any hay surplus for us,” said Stockton, who’s also president of the Montana Cattlemen’s Association. “If we can get through this year with a bunch of pain, what happens next year?” In the Canadian province of Manitoba, where heat has stunted plants and caused two communities to declare agricultural disasters, the grasshopper population is on track to be the biggest since 2003. “They’re chewing the grass right down to the point where it looks like it’s been sprayed by Roundup,” Feed prices are soaring as extreme weather curbs crop growth amid surging global demand, making it harder for some farmers to feed their animals. Saskatchewan cattle producers may have to reduce their herds by as much as 40% by winter after years of well-below average precipitation “pushed livestock to the brink,” That province has also seen some sheep die after exposure to anthrax, a deadly bacteria whose spores are found naturally in soil and can lie dormant for decades until dry conditions bring them to the surface where animals graze. California dairy farmers face the added challenge of keeping cows cool and nourished during hot, dry weather while many farms are already wrestling with a lower birth rate and reduced milk production due to smoke inhalation from last year’s wildfires, said Jed Asmus, a dairy nutritionist for January Innovation Inc. “In most cases, if you pull things out of a diet you are going to lower production,” Asmus said. “Couple heat with that, it gets very hard to maintain production.” Fish and fowl are also being hurt by the heat. Dozens of baby hawks in Washington and Oregon tried escaping the sun by jumping from their nests early in the week, according to Blue Mountain Wildlife rehabilitation facility. When temperatures soared above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in northeast Oregon, one facility treated 118 birds for dehydration and injuries from falls. In nearby waters of Canada’s west coast, the stench of dead shellfish after the heat wave showed how widespread the impacts are. “Shellfish including clams and mussels were essentially baked to death during the heat dome we suffered through at the end of June,” said Chris Harley, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia. “Many other animals — crabs, snails, sea stars, barnacles — died as well. I’ve never seen anything this bad in 25 years of studying the coast in the Pacific Northwest.” Inland fish in the Pacific Northwest were also affected.
‘We were just cooked’: The heat wave that gripped the American heartland – During the 1954 Midwestern heat wave, triple-digit temperatures enveloped the heart of the nation from the last week of June to the first week of September during a time when air conditioning was still relatively new. Across a significant portion of 11 states, from eastern Colorado to South Carolina, the heat wave refused to let up. However, parts of the Midwest seemed to be the center of the heat. “We were just cooked,” 83-year-old Frances Sanner of downstate Union County recounted to OutdoorIllinois Online of the Department of Natural Resources, which dubbed July 14, 1954, “the hottest day ever.” She and her husband had been living in an apartment in St. Louis that summer.”If they could find someplace, a basement, a cellar, a cellar at a relative’s house, they would go there,” Sanner said. “On July 14, when it was 115 in St. Louis, you absolutely couldn’t stand to be inside. It was actually cooler out on the sidewalk.”Across the river, East St. Louis, Illinois, saw the mercury rise to 117 degrees on July 14, the highest recorded temperature in the state during the heat wave. The record still stands as the state’s all-time high record.For 22 days throughout the heat wave, the St. Louis Lambert International Airport recorded temperatures of at least 100 degrees. Kansas City recorded seven daily record highs, which were reached between July 11 and 19. Four of those records were reached consecutively, on July 11 through July 14. On June 13, a section of concrete one-and-a-half feet wide and 18 feet long had buckled on the fifth consecutive day of 90-plus degree weather, according to an article from The Chicago Tribune. “Only a small percentage of the people had air conditioning even in the wealthy areas, and in the poor areas, no one had air conditioning,” AccuWeather Founder and CEO Dr. Joel Myers said, adding that the problem with heat during the summer, particularly without air conditioning, is that “the heat builds up in the buildings, day after day as the cement and concrete and the brick absorbs the heat.”
EF-2 tornado hits Dexter, leaving at least 150 homes damaged, Missouri —An EF-2 tornado touched down on the west side of Dexter, Missouri on July 10, 2021, and moved through the city. This is the first EF-2 or stronger tornado in the month of July since 1971 across all 58 Paducah NWS forecast areas.At least 150 homes were damaged, according to the National Weather Service (NWS) preliminary survey results.One of them sustained major loss of roof decking and 6 or fewer had major damage mainly due to fallen trees. Most of the damage was the loss of shingles, facia, and siding.Several mobile homes were badly damaged or destroyed and one mobile home was flipped on its roof.Several garages were blown from their foundation and at least three large buildings sustained major damage, including at least three with major loss of roof structures.A hospital sustained major damage with several windows blown in, ceiling panels blown down, and one attached structure blown away from the hospital.Several vehicles at the hospital had their windows blown out or were otherwise damaged from flying debris.The twister snapped or uprooted hundreds of trees. The tornado touched down at 20:18 CDT on July 10 (01:18 UTC, July 11), 4 km (2.5 miles) WNW of downtown Dexter and ended at 20:29 CDT, 4.8 km (3 miles) E of downtown Dexter.Its path length is 8.8 km (5.5 miles) and the maximum path width of 180 m (175 yards).
The U.S. experienced 8 billion-dollar disasters in the first six months of 2021 – The first six months of 2021 brought a total of 8 billion-dollar disasters to the United States, according to data provided by the NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Disasters. The 1980 – 2020 annual average is 7.1 events (CPI-adjusted), while the annual average for the most recent 5 years (2016 – 2020) is 16.2 events (CPI-adjusted).The United States experienced 4 severe storms with damages in excess of $1 billion in the first 6 months of 2021, including tornadoes, hail and high wind damage. The nation also had 2 flooding events with damages exceeding $1 billion, 1 winter storm with a deep freeze, and 1 heat wave-influenced drought.The costliest event was the February 10 – 19 winter storm and cold wave in Texas that incurred direct losses of approximately $20 billion.The next costliest disaster was the severe weather outbreak of April 27 – 28 in Texas and Oklahoma that caused $2.4 billion in damages.The large hailstone you can see on the featured image fell on April 28, 2021, near Hondo, Texas. NCEI verified that it’s the largest hailstone on record to fall in Texas. It had a diameter of 16.29 cm (6.416 inches) and weighed 0.57 kg (1.26 pounds).According to NOAA, these events resulted in the deaths of 331 people, but the actual number might be higher as it’s still not clear how many people died in the 2021 Texas deep freeze.In 2020, the country had a record 22 weather and climate disasters, each causing at least $1 billion in damages. However, despite the record number of disasters in 2020, none of them made it among the costliest disasters ever to strike the U.S.The 2021 YTD inflation-adjusted losses from all eight disasters were also at a near-record high for the first 6 months and came in at nearly $30 billion – only behind 2011, NOAA said. The U.S. has experienced 298 weather and climate disasters since 1980 where overall damages/costs reached or exceeded $1 billion (including CPI adjustment to 2021). The total cost of these 298 events exceeds $1.975 trillion.
Here’s why FEMA is denying disaster aid to Black families who’ve lived for generations in the Deep South – Not enough people were signing up for help after a series of tornadoes ripped through rural Alabama, so the government sent Chris Baker to figure out why. He had driven past the spot where a tornado threw a 13-year-old girl high into a tree, past where injured cows had to be shot one by one, and past where a family was crushed to death in their bathtub. And now, as another day began in this patchwork of destruction, he grabbed a stack of fliers with a picture of an outstretched hand and headed to his car to let people know Washington had assistance to offer. He needn’t have bothered. “There goes FEMA,” called a woman on her porch as they drove by. Two burly White men in khaki cargo pants on a hot day – who else would it be? A majority-Black county named for an officer in the Confederate Army, Hale County is a place of little interest to outsiders; an area of dense forests, catfish farms and 15,000 residents, most of whom can trace their ancestry back to enslaved people or plantation owners. President Biden has instructed FEMA to prioritize getting help to these kinds of “too often overlooked” communities – the places that climate change is already overwhelming with more storms, floods and heat waves. And Baker was eager to do just that. “That’s why we’re knocking on what doors we can,” he said. More than a third of Black-owned land in the South is passed down informally, rather than through deeds and wills, according to land use experts. It’s a custom that dates to the Jim Crow era, when Black people were excluded from the Southern legal system. When land is handed down like this, it becomes heirs’ property, a form of ownership in which families hold property collectively, without clear title. People believed this protected their land, but the Department of Agriculture has found that heirs’ property is “the leading cause of Black involuntary land loss.” Without formal deeds, families are cut off from federal loans and grants, including from FEMA, which requires that disaster survivors prove they own their property before they can get help rebuilding. Nationally, FEMA denies requests for help from about 2 percent of applicants for disaster aid because of title issues. In majority-Black counties, the rate is twice as high, according to a Washington Post analysis, in large part because Black people are twice as likely to pass down property informally. But in parts of the Deep South, FEMA has rejected up to a quarter of applicants because they can’t document ownership, according to the Post analysis. In Hale County, FEMA has denied 35 percent of disaster aid applicants for this reason since March.
New York City Subway Flooding Demonstrates Transit System Vulnerability to Climate Change — Even on a dry day, the MTA says it pumps 14 million gallons of water out of subway stations.But on Thursday, as a month’s worth of rain deluged the city inside of two hours, the vulnerability of the subway went on full display in videos of commuters wading waist-deep into pool-like stations.The Dyckman Street station on the A line in Inwood took on 28,000 gallons of water, the MTA said, while the B and D line’s Tremont Avenue stop in The Bronx was flooded by 15,000 gallons.”If the rain is coming down at 100 gallons a minute and the pumps are 50 gallons a minute, you’ve lost the battle,” said Robert Paaswell, a distinguished professor of engineering at the City College of New York. The sudden soaking of stations in Upper Manhattan and The Bronx, which typically do not experience heavy flooding, underscored the exposure of a nearly 117-year-old subway system not built for the extreme weather wrought by climate change.The downpour also highlighted the resiliency challenges still facing the MTA and the city at large close to a decade after Superstorm Sandy swamped stations, tunnels and railyards.”This is a teachable moment,” said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA. “Unfortunately, teachable moments tend to come from other people’s misery.” The MTA displayed a warning about rain inside the 157th Street Street station in Manhattan Friday morning.Hiram Alejandro Durfln/THE CITYTransit officials said Thursday’s flash flooding – which led to service being suspended for hours along the A line – overwhelmed the hundreds of pumps in the subway system, many in locations where workers had not been posted in advance.A transit source said the storm caused 110 scheduled trips to be canceled and 116 trains to arrive late. The rain also added to the mess at flooded stations as crews encountered obstacles while en route.”They were trapped in traffic and because of closed roads,” said Sarah Feinberg, interim president of New York City Transit. “Because obviously, they’re trying to move pump trucks and equipment to those locations. It’s not like they can just bail out and walk.”That was on top of the city’s drainage system already being pushed to its limits.”If some of the gutters are not free of leaves or garbage, you have extensive flooding,” Klaus Jacob, a geophysicist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, told THE CITY. “And when street flooding occurred in this mini valley in Upper Manhattan, the subway system essentially became a default sewer system.”
Flooded NYC Subways Exemplify Why Climate Is Key to Infrastructure Fight, Progressives Say – Footage of New Yorkers struggling to wade through filthy, waist-deep water at a Manhattan subway station as heavy rainfall engulfed the city’s aging and long-neglected infrastructure on Thursday added fuel to progressive demands for a robust federal spending package that confronts the climate crisis – which is making such extreme weather more frequent and destructive.”It’s been raining for two hours and our infrastructure is flooding and overwhelmed,” tweeted Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.). “Our infrastructure package must address the climate change crisis with the urgency it deserves – with massive investments in decarbonization and clean energy.””The impacts of climate change are already here,” Bowman added. “It is urgent that our infrastructure package makes significant investments to prepare for and mitigate future emergency weather events.” One New Yorker who witnessed the scene at Manhattan’s 157th Street Station told Gothamist that “people were pacing back and forth deliberating whether they were going to brave the waters or not.” The person described the water as “real disgusting.” Other videos posted to social media on Thursday showed cars nearly halfway submerged in water as commuters attempted to navigate through the storm. One person was seen driving a jet ski on a badly flooded street. “A ‘bipartisan’ infrastructure bill isn’t big enough to stop climate change,” said Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), referring to a $579 billion White House-endorsed package that includes hardly any climate funding – an omission progressives are attempting to remedy with a separate multitrillion-dollar bill that will move through the budget reconciliation process.The fierce rainfall and heavy winds came as Tropical Storm Elsa made its way up the East Coast of the U.S., sparking tornadoes in Georgia and North Carolina and prompting warnings of additional flooding in the Northeast on Friday.”Flash flood watches were in effect for parts of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut until noon on Friday, as Elsa was expected to deliver heavy rain across the area,” the New York Times reported. “Transit officials, already girding for Elsa’s arrival, said they had crews out across the city addressing the flooding problems as quickly as possible and warned against entering stations that might still be inundated.” The tropical storm hammered the Eastern U.S. as the Pacific Northwest grapples with a heatwave that experts have characterized as “the most extreme in world weather records.” The historic temperatures, which reached as high as 121 degF in British Columbia, killed hundreds of people – and more than a billion intertidal animals – in the U.S. and Canada.
Severe flash flooding after exceptionally heavy rains hit Pennsylvania, U.S. (videos) Slow-moving thunderstorms dropped exceptionally heavy rains in just a couple of hours over parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey on Monday, July 12, 2021, shutting down highways, prompting water rescues, and forcing authorities to issue flash flood emergencies. AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Bowers said slow-moving thunderstorms, fueled by a nearly stationary front, tropical moisture and warm weather, dropped astounding amounts of rain in a couple of hours, causing serious flash flooding late Monday afternoon (LT). The National Weather Service (NWS) office of Mount Holly, NJ placed parts of Bucks County near Philadelphia and Burlington County, New Jersey, under Flash Flood Emergency at 17:00 LT. Areas under emergency included Levittown and Croydon, Pennsylvania, and Burlington, New Jersey. This is where most of the rain fell, with Croydon receiving over 254 mm (10 inches) of rainfall, Bristol Township, PA 250.19 mm (9.85 inches), Bristol (Borough), PA 220.72 mm (8.69 inches), West Bristol, PA 207.77 mm (8.18 inches), and Florence, NJ 193.80 mm (7.63 inches). The active summertime pattern of mainly afternoon/evening intense thunderstorms with heavy downpours will continue to make weather headlines through the middle of the week, NWS forecaster Hamrick noted on July 13. This especially holds true for portions of the Northeast U.S., Florida, and the Northern Plains to the Upper Midwest. A quasi-stationary frontal boundary will be nearly anchored in place across New York and southern New England, and this in combination with multiple mid-upper level impulses will fuel additional rounds of storms with high rainfall rates, and any storms that develop will have the potential to produce flash flooding. The threat for flooding will be even greater across those areas that have observed well above normal rainfall over the past few days. Afternoon and evening showers and storms are expected to be in place across the Four Corners region, and especially southern Arizona and New Mexico, as the southwest monsoon kicks into high gear. Given relatively weak steering flow aloft, many of these storms will likely be slow-moving and result in flash flooding for canyons, across burn scars, and other vulnerable areas.
Flash floods after 2 months’ worth of rain hit eastern England in just 2 hours– Heavy rainfall hit eastern England on July 9, 2021, causing traffic-disrupting flash floods and damaging homes and businesses.According to Weatherquest forecaster Dan Holley, parts of Norwich received 50 mm (1.9 inches) of rain, while Peterborough registered as much as 90 mm (3.5 inches).”That’s nearly 2 months’ rain in the space of 2 hours,” Holley said.Peterborough in Cambridgeshire was the worst affected, with more than 160 flooding incidents in just a few hours. In addition, around 20 elderly people were evacuated from a retirement home.”Heavy rainfall has caused flash flooding in Peterborough this evening. Please do not attempt to drive through flooded roads,” Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said.”Bourges Boulevard area is among the areas badly affected. Roads are looking like rivers so please avoid the area until the water subsides. Please also be aware that some manhole covers have lifted posing a risk to anyone walking through flooded roads. Please just avoid the flooded areas for now. Thank you.” “Emergency services are working together with other partner agencies to help those affected.”
Extreme rainfall causes catastrophic flooding in western Germany – (videos) At least 18 people have died and many more are still missing after exceptionally heavy rain caused massive flooding in western Germany on July 14 and 15, 2021. Numerous rivers across the region are still above flood stage or at exceptionally high levels and several dams are at the brink of collapse. The government has called in helicopters to help rescue people stranded on the top of buildings. Extreme rainfall and floods have also affected neighboring countries, including Luxembourg, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France.
- Exceptionally heavy rains hit western Germany on Wednesday, July 14, causing massive damage, leaving hundreds of thousands of homes without power and prompting mass evacuations.
- Internet and telephone communications are down, as well as power, gas, and drinking water for millions of residents.
- Parts of the region registered more than two months’ worth of rain in just 24 or 48 hours.
- Heavy rains are expected to continue on Thursday, with continuous downpour until Friday evening.
According to official reports received Thursday morning, July 15, at least 8 people are known to have died in the Euskirchen district of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The situation in the state is very critical and rescue efforts are still underway, district authorities said early Thursday morning. Communication, including internet and telephone connections, is down and the 112 emergency number is not reachable.Authorities of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate said 4 people have died in Ahrweiler county, adding that many more are reported missing.”Many of the missing people were on the roofs of houses that were washed away in the town of Schuld,” Koblenz police spokesman said. The spokesman said they estimate about 50 people were awaiting rescue on roofs.As of late July 14, the Ahr river at Altenahr reached 5.75 m (18.8 feet), well above the previous record high of 3.71 m (12.2 feet) set in 2016.The city of Hagen declared a state of emergency and called for people to evacuate their homes after the Volme river burst its banks. “If you can’t leave the house, you should move to higher floors so that you can be rescued from there if necessary,” authorities said.The same was reported in the city of Dusseldorf after the Dussel river reached a record high of 2.65 m (8.7 feet) on July 14.5 people have already lost their lives in different parts of western Germany on Wednesday, July 14. Among them is a fireman who drowned during rescue work in Altena and an 82-year-old man who drowned in his basement. Another fireman died in the line of duty in the town of Wedohl on Thursday.”We haven’t seen a disaster like this. It’s just devastating,” Rhineland-Palatinate’s state premier Malu Dreyer said, as reported by DW. “There are dead, there are missing, there are many who are still in danger,” she said. As of July 15, rivers in at least 15 locations are at the highest warning level.
Deadly Flooding Ravages Europe Belgium Germany — Dozens were killed and many others remained missing across western and central Europe Thursday after rounds of heavy rainfall caused rivers to burst their banks, producing disastrous flooding that washed away houses and roadways. And the death toll may continue to rise as floodwaters begin to gradually recede.The death toll rose to over 50 across Germany and Belgium Thursday, and several people are still missing after catastrophic flooding broke out across the countries,The Associated Press reported. The North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate regions of Germany were among the areas hit hardest by the torrential rainfall.”We have never seen such a catastrophe, it is truly devastating,”In the village of Schuld, located to the southwest of Cologne, up to 70 people were reported missing after floodwaters caused houses to collapse Wednesday night, the AP reported. The German army deployed around 200 soldiers to assist in rescue operations across western Germany. The military units used inflatable boats and helicopters to reach people stranded on roofs, but downed phone and internet connections hindered the rescues, according to the AP. Tanks were also used to clear mud, trees and debris from roadways.On Wednesday, firefighters in Hagen were called to rescue stranded motorists after streets were turned into rivers, the AP reported. Photos and videos on social media showed the torrents and water levels reaching to the hoods of cars. Roadways were also flooded in Dusseldorf, including in the A44 tunnel that runs just south of the airport. The city reported 1.89 inches (48 mm) of rain in about 12 hours Tuesday night into Wednesday. Flooding was not limited to western Germany this week with reports of flooding along eastern Germany’s border with the Czech Republic. One man went missing after being swept away in floodwaters trying to secure his property in Johstadt Tuesday night, and a disaster alert was declared in Hof County after torrential rains filled basements, uprooted trees and cut power to many in the region. Rainfall totals of 3.34 inches (85 mm) over 12 hours were reported in Hof on Tuesday. This area also received around 3.50 inches (89 mm) on July 9. According to Reuters, two men were killed by floodwaters and a 15-year-old girl was missing after disappearing near a flooded river in Belgium. There are unconfirmed reports that the death toll is higher.The Vesdre River in Belgium burst its banks after rounds of heavy rain on Tuesday and Wednesday and sent raging rapids into the town of Pepinster, the AP stated. The force of the water caused several buildings to collapse, Mayor Philippe Godin said in a press briefing.Major highways in Belgium were also submerged in floodwater and railway service was stopped. A train was derailed in the Belgian Ardennes after a portion of the track was washed away by floodwaters.
At least 69 dead amid flooding in Western Europe –At least 69 people have died amid heavy flooding in Belgium and Germany, according to The New York Times. Fifty-eight people were reported to have died in Germany in the areas hardest hit by the storm, and at least 11 more were reported to have died in Belgium. Officials said late Thursday that they were unable to account for at least 1,300 people, the Times reports. Storms caused reservoirs to break open and flash flooding to occur, resulting in collapsed buildings and people trapped on roofs.The extent of the damage is still unclear. The AP noted that many of the known deceased were discovered after floodwaters receded. Members of the European Union have dispatched assistance to aid in local rescue efforts. A flood rescue team and helicopter was mobilized from France on Wednesday to aid in rescue efforts, the European Commission said in a statement. Italy and Austria have also have also offered flood rescue teams.
Dramatic Photos of Germany’s Worst Flooding in Decades Capture Devastation – Heavy rains and floods are wreaking havoc in central Europe, with more than 100 dead in Germany and scores of people unaccounted for as houses collapsed and roads and bridges were destroyed. The scenes underscore the dangers of more extreme weather wrought by climate change, even to some of the world’s most advanced economies. Pedestrians look at cars piled up at a roundabout in the Belgian city of Verviers. The devastation struck central Europe the same week that the continent’s leaders proposed the most ambitious package of climate measures ever attempted by a major economy. While Germany was hardest hit, heavy rains Wednesday night and into Thursday also swamped parts of Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium. “Science tells us that with climate change we see more and more extreme weather phenomena that last longer,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a press conference in Dublin on Friday. “It is the intensity and the length of these events where science tells us this a clear indication of climate change and that this is something where it really really shows the urgency to act.” In Belgium, waters are still rising downstream on the Meuse river that flows through to the Netherlands. The southern province of Limburg was hit hardest in the Netherlands as thousands of people living there were forced to leave their homes and businesses closed. Liset Meddens, the director of nonprofit Fossielvrij NL who grew up in Limburg, said people have to be prepared for more natural disasters as the planet warms. “The water, the heat, the fire, the drought, it’s going to affect us all, and those in the most vulnerable positions the most,” she said. “Governments and financial institutions must stop financing the fossil fuel industry.” Some regions in western Germany smashed daily precipitation records going back seven decades. The Kall-Sistig weather station in North Rhine-Westphalia recorded 144.8 millimeters of rainfall over a 24-hour period, breaking the previous record of 82.7 mm set in 1947. “You can imagine this sort of stuff happening in Asia, but not here,” Edgar Gillessen told the BBC, as his village of Schuld suffered severe damage.
German floods: Several feared dead after landslide south of Cologne – Several people have died in a landslide in Erftstadt-Blessem in Germany’s North Rhine Westphalia state, local officials said on Friday, after dozens were killed by flooding in the country in recent days. “Houses were largely swept away by the water and some collapsed. Several people are missing,” according to a tweet from the Cologne local authority about the landslide.”There are fatalities,” confirmed a spokeswoman for the district government of Cologne to German newspaper Welt on Friday. No information could be given yet on the exact number of people who have died. The local authority said in the tweet that emergency calls were coming from houses, but “rescue is not possible in many cases”. “Our disaster control team is on the scene,” they said. German emergency responders were on Friday still searching for hundreds of missing people after the worst floods in living memory killed dozens of people in the country’s western regions. Aerial photographs distributed by the district government and photos taken by DPA photographers show landslides of enormous proportions in Erfstadt-Blessem, which is around 50 minutes from Cologne. Houses have been swept away while cars are lying in huge holes in the ground.
German Death Toll Exceeds 100 After Worst Floods in Decades – The death toll from the floods that devastated parts of western Germany rose to at least 103, with scores of people injured and many others unaccounted for after houses were swept away and roads and bridges were badly damaged. Many rail lines and streets remained blocked and tens of thousands were without electricity Friday as rescue workers toiled in the worst-hit areas in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia — which is run by conservative chancellor candidate Armin Laschet — and Rhineland-Palatinate. “Our region is experiencing a flooding catastrophe of historic proportions,” Laschet, who is the front-runner to succeed Angela Merkel after September’s election, said Friday at a news conference. Linking the flooding to global warming, he said Germany must speed up its effort to achieve climate neutrality. While Germany was hardest hit and faces a massive clean-up and reconstruction effort, heavy rains Wednesday night and into Thursday also swamped parts of Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium. RTBF TV reported at least 15 deaths in Belgium, where train and road networks have been badly disrupted in the southeast of the country. Malu Dreyer, the Social Democrat premier of Rhineland-Palatinate, echoed Laschet in warning that the disaster was more evidence of the impact of global warming. “We have more than 50 deaths to mourn and still people who are missing,” Dreyer said in an interview with ZDF television, adding that police helicopters alone had rescued more than 300 stranded on Thursday. “The pain is acute in our region and we have never seen anything like this.” Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said all of Germany’s armed forces not involved in missions abroad were focusing their resources on the recovery effort. Many smaller, family-owned businesses in the area have been hit hard, but the effects on Germany’s main industrial areas have been limited so far. BASF SE, the world’s largest chemical producer, has experienced some delays to receiving goods via barge and train, but these haven’t yet led to production outages. RWE AG was forced to halt operations at the Tagebau Inden open-cast lignite mine and one worker is missing, while Aurubis AG declared a force majeure at one of its plants which produces copper-based strip and wire used in electronics and the auto industry. The flooding is among the most severe in western Germany in decades. Residents climbed onto rooftops and into trees after houses were inundated or collapsed. Thousands of homes were without power and phone connections for hours. While the floodwaters have receded in some parts, the situation remains tense amid warnings that a key dam is at risk of bursting. Emergency crews have evacuated thousands of people living below the Steinbach reservoir, as more heavy rains are forecast. Weather conditions should normalize next week, which may provide some relief, national weather forecaster Deutscher Wetterdienst said Friday in its latest four-week forecast. But there could be more heavy rain in Germany from July 26 to early August, it said.
Catastrophic floods claim lives of more than 150 people, leave more than 1 000 missing, Europe (videos) More than 150 people across Europe have been killed and more than 600 injured after record-breaking rains caused catastrophic flooding on July 14 and 15, 2021. German authorities said more than 1 000 people are still unaccounted for. The worst affected were Germany and Belgium, followed by France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. In western Germany alone, the worst-affected region, more than 130 people have been killed after extremely heavy rains caused rivers to burst their banks, destroying roads, bridges, and homes. Numerous mudslides have contributed to the disaster which happened at an astonishing speed.According to DW, more than 1 000 people are still missing and many more remain trapped in flooded buildings. Most of the unaccounted for are in the northern part of Rhineland-Palatinate. While it’s unclear why there is such a high number of unaccounted people, it’s possible this could be due to land and mobile network outages.Many places in Germany’s worst-affected state, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), are still underwater, while others are assessing damage as floodwaters recede.Leaking gas pipes and structural damage to buildings across the state have turned some sites into death traps and authorities have warned people not to go looking for missing relatives on their own but to leave it to rescue workers, DW reports.Rhine-Westphalia minister said rescuers had carried out about 30 000 missions, airlifting people from flooded and destroyed homes and buildings. This is now considered one of the worst natural disasters in Germany’s history and one of the deadliest flood events in Europe. Parts of western Germany smashed numerous daily precipitation records going back 70 years. The amount of rain that usually falls over the space of two months fell in just twelve hours in some parts of eastern Germany and northwestern France, said Frederic Nathan, a forecaster with Meteo-France. Cologne registered 154 mm (6 inches) of rainfall over a 24-hour period, breaking the previous record of 95 mm (3.7 inches). The Kall-Sistig weather station in North Rhine-Westphalia recorded 144.8 mm (5.7 inches) during the same period, breaking the previous record of 82.7 mm (3.2 inches) set in 1947. In just 9 hours, Reifferscheid near Bonn received 207 mm (8.1 inches).”We have seen five or six cold spells since the beginning of June, which is something quite rare for this time of the year that we have certainly not seen in recent times,” Nathan said, as reported by Bloomberg.
Violent tornado hits downtown Shenxian, leaving catastrophic damage, China – A violent tornado moved directly into downtown Shenxian, China’s Shandong Province, around 13:00 UTC on July 11, 2021, causing ‘catastrophic’ damage. The twister debarked hardwood, tossed cars, leveled a number of homes, and left several people injured, according to extreme weather enthusiast Eric Wang, who described the damage as catastrophic. Wang shared what he described as ‘unbelievable footage’ …captured at the time the violent roaring wedge moved directly into downtown Shenxian. “The worst case scenario,” Wang said.
Shandong hit by largest tornado outbreak in more than a decade, China – Eastern China’s Shandong Province was hit by its largest tornado outbreak in more than 10 years on July 11, 2021. At least 10 tornadoes were reported, with at least 3 of them were violent. The reports are still coming in and the number of reported tornadoes is rising.A violent tornado moved directly into downtown Shenxian around 13:00 UTC on July 11, 2021, causing ‘catastrophic’ damage.The twister debarked hardwood, tossed cars, leveled a number of homes, and left several people injured, according to extreme weather enthusiast Eric Wang.Wang shared what he described as ‘unbelievable footage’ …captured at the time the violent roaring wedge moved directly into downtown Shenxian. “The worst case scenario,” Wang said.Another possible violent tornado flattened entire forests before moving directly into downtown Gaotang shortly after the Shenxian event.”Seems like a 1.6 km (1 mile) wide rain-wrapped wedge [tornado] moved directly into downtown Gaotang, the worst-case scenario you can imagine,” Wang said. Another possible major tornado hit BingZhou at midnight local time. This tornado destroyed manufactured houses, completely tore down reinforced concrete telephone poles and threw vehicles.
Extreme flooding hits multiple provinces of China, capital Beijing brought to standstill (videos) Prolonged heavy rainfall affecting parts of China over the past couple of days caused extreme flooding in several provinces, including Sichuan, Hebei, Shaanxi, Henan, and Shandong. Severe thunderstorms also affected the capital Beijing, bringing the entire city to a standstill. On July 12, authorities have issued an orange alert, the 2nd highest in the country’s 4-tier weather warning system.Parts of eastern China registered as much as 457 mm (18 inches) of rain in a matter of days, turning roads and rivers into raging rapids and causing extreme flooding.The storms produced what is described as Shandong’s worst tornado outbreak in more than a decade on July 11 and 12. At least 10 tornadoes were reported in the province, with at least 3 of them violent. A major tornado moved directly into downtown Shenxian around 13:00 UTC on July 11, causing ‘catastrophic’ damage.The twister debarked hardwood, tossed cars, leveled a number of homes, and left several people injured, according to extreme weather enthusiast Eric Wang.Wang shared what he described as ‘unbelievable footage’ …captured at the time the violent roaring wedge moved directly into downtown Shenxian. “The worst case scenario,” Wang said.Another possible violent tornado flattened entire forests before moving directly into downtown Gaotang shortly after the Shenxian event.”Seems like a 1.6 km (1 mile) wide rain-wrapped wedge [tornado] moved directly into downtown Gaotang, the worst-case scenario you can imagine,” Wang said.Beijing authorities said the capital is facing the biggest storm of the year and issued a stay-at-home order for the entire city on July 12.The city received an average of 80.1 mm (3.15 inches) of rainfall and a maximum of 177.6 mm (6.99 inches) from 18:00 LT on July 11 to 12:00 LT on July 12. A road-blocking landslide hit one of the city’s northern districts, according to state broadcaster CCTV.Other provinces affected by extremely heavy rains include Sichuan, Hebei, Shaanxi, Henan, and Sichuan. At least 14 rivers are in a state of flood, including tributaries in Sichuan and Shaanxi.
Felicia Becomes a Major Hurricane in East Pacific as Tropical Atlantic Stays Quiet – While the tropical Atlantic is expected to remain quiet for the foreseeable future, it’s a different story in the East Pacific, as AccuWeather forecasters say multiple hurricanes could soon be spinning in the basin.The East Pacific was devoid of activity for nearly two weeks after Enrique dissipated in the Gulf of California on June 30. This changed Wednesday morning when Tropical Depression 6-E formed well to the south of Mexico and quickly intensified to Tropical Storm Felicia. Less than 24 hours after that, Felicia became a hurricane. So far this season, Enrique and Felicia have been the only two hurricanes in the East Pacific. However, there are some differences between the two.While both Enrique and Felicia became hurricanes within 24 hours of being designated as tropical systems, Enrique turned northward toward Mexico and brought heavy rain and strong winds. Felicia is expected to bring no direct impacts to Mexico, but there will still be some effects.”Felicia will generate large swells and rough surf along the coast of Baja California Sur,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Rob Miller.He added that shipping interests in the area will encounter dangerous seas. Felicia has already become much stronger than Enrique, which peaked at Category 1 strength.Friday morning, Felicia was already a solid Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph. Felicia is the first major hurricane of the season in either the Atlantic or East Pacific basins. A major hurricane has maximum sustained winds of 111-129 mph.By Friday afternoon, the hurricane reached Category 4 status as winds strengthened to 130 mph. As of 11 a.m. PDT, Felicia was about 985 miles west-southwest of Baja California, Mexico, and moving gradually at a speed of 9 mph.
Resumption of fissure eruption close to Fagradalsfjall, Iceland – The fissure eruption in the western part of the Krysuv’k-Trolladyngja volcanic system, close to Fagradalsfjall on the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland, periodically continued since the start of July.Lava fountaining and overflows from the fifth vent were occasionally visible, and lava from the crater flowed in tubes as well as on the surface.Occasional rim collapses generated minor ash plumes on July 2 based on footage captured by a visitor, according to the GVP.The longest pause in the eruption so far, also reflected in seismic data, began near midnight on July 5 and ended early on July 7, according to a news source. Other sources mention July 11 as the re-start of the eruption.The Aviation Color Code remains at Orange due to the lack of ash and tephra emissions, though IMO warned of the potential for lapilli and scoria fallout within a 650 m (2 130 feet) radius of the active vent.Authorities warned of increased gas emissions hazards.Sigfus Steindorsson took the following video from the Hafnarfjorethur in the Reykjav’k capital area on July 11.
‘Sunny Day’ Floods Hit Record Along U.S. Coasts as Seas Rise – Record high-tide flooding washed over U.S. coasts in the past year, and rising sea levels are expected to send the deluges into streets, homes and businesses even more frequently over the next decade, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. The surges, sometimes referred to as “sunny day” or “nuisance” floods, are becoming increasingly common as the increase in sea levels continues, the agency said in an annual report. Damaging floods that used to happen mainly during storms now happen during regular events such a full-moon tide or with a change in prevailing winds. High waters are flowing into coastal economies and crucial infrastructure like waste and storm water systems, with those areas seeing twice as many high-tide flooding days than they did 20 years ago. The trend is expected to continue into 2022 and beyond without improved flood defenses, NOAA said. “NOAA’s tide gauges show that 80% of locations where we collect date along the Southeast Atlantic and Gulf coasts are seeing an acceleration in the number of flood days,” said Nicole LeBoeuf, the newly appointed director of the National Ocean Service. Flood records were set in Texas, Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia, NOAA said. Galveston and Corpus Christi, Texas, along with Bay Waveland, Mississippi, had a record 20 days with high-tide flooding from May 2020 to April 2021. Twenty years ago these locations would typically only flood two or three days a year. Such flooding occurs when the tide rises about 1.75 to 2 feet (0.53 to 0.61 meters) above the daily average high tide, with water spilling onto streets or bubbling up from storm drains. NOAA said. Oceans are rising in part to due glacier melt and because sea water expands as it warms, said William Sweet, an oceanographer with the National Ocean Service. Bodies such as the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico have been warmer than normal. There are also local influences such as passing storms that can influence the number of flood days. In some areas this is all made worse because land is sinking as underground water is withdrawn and oil and natural gas are pumped out, Sweet said. On top of this, starting in the mid-2030s, the alignment of rising sea levels with a lunar cycle will cause coastal cities all around the U.S. to begin a decade of dramatic increases in flood numbers, according to a study released earlier this month by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration researchers at the University of Hawaii.
Biden to Restore Protections for Tongass National Forest in ‘Critical Step’ for Climate –Conservation and climate action groups on Thursday applauded the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s announcement of far-reaching new protections for Alaska’s Tongass National Forest as well as a restoration of a key rule that former President Donald Trump rescinded three months before leaving office in a bid to open millions of acres to industrial logging.Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the administration would put back in place the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, also known as the Roadless Rule, which Trump exempted Alaska from in a move that outraged Indigenous communities in the region as well as environmental advocates.With the rule back in effect, companies will again be barred from road construction and large-scale logging in more than half of the 16 million acre forest, which includes five million acres of old-growth trees such as Sitka spruce trees that date back at least 800 years.The forest serves as a habitat for more than 400 species of wildlife and fish, ensures food sovereignty for Indigenous communities in Alaska – including the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples, whose traditional territories lie within the forest – and plays a vital role in mitigating the climate crisis.As one of the world’s largest intact temperate forests, the Tongass National Forest stores more than 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon and sequesters an additional 10 million metric tons annually, according to the Alaska Wilderness League. The carbon held by the Tongass amounts to about 8% of all carbon stored in trees in the United States, Defenders of Wildlife said.
Amazon rainforest now releasing more carbon than it absorbs: study – The Amazon rainforest is emitting more carbon emissions than it can absorb, according to a new study. The rainforest was once a carbon sink – meaning it absorbed more carbon than it released – but it now accounts for more than 1 billion metric tons of emissions every year, mainly due to forest fires and deforestation. The nine-year research project, published Wednesday, was led by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research in partnership with scientists from several countries, including the U.S., the Netherlands and New Zealand. Drones collected samples to measure carbon levels in four locations across the Amazon, with the study’s long timeframe allowing the researchers to account for year-to-year variations in the forest’s carbon levels. The carbon balance – the final balance between emissions and the absorption of carbon – of the Amazon showed that it released 1.06 billion metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere per year between 2010 and 2018. According to the study, 0.87 billion metric tons of emissions came from the Brazilian Amazon. Burning was the biggest source of carbon emissions from the Amazon, according to the research, accounting for 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon emissions. If there were no fires or deforestation, the agency noted, the Amazon would remove almost 0.5 billion metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere. Researchers found that regions of the rainforest where deforestation levels exceeded 30% had carbon emissions that were 10 times higher than areas with 20% deforestation or less. The most deforested areas of the Amazon had drier, warmer and longer dry seasons, the study found. Dry months saw a temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius in these parts of the Amazon, increasing the forest’s flammability and restricting its ability to absorb carbon dioxide. Emanuel Gloor, one of the researchers based at the U.K.’s University of Leeds, told CNBC the study showed a need for immediate action. “The data show that forests in large parts of Amazonia, increasingly exposed to heat, are suffering,” he said in an email. “It is yet another wake-up call that the onslaught on Amazonian forests should be stopped urgently.” Although the Amazon covers ground across nine countries, some 60% of the forest is in Brazil. In the last 40 years, the Brazilian Amazon has lost more than 18% of its rainforest, according to Greenpeace.
EPA Struggles to Track Methane Emissions From Landfills. Here’s Why It Matters – Garbage is strewn among thigh-high drifts of dirt, used to bury the filthy, weather-worn items at the Orange County Landfill in Florida and prevent the intrusion of insects, rats and pigs. Bulldozers smooth the dirt into place while tractor-trailers deliver ever more trash. Vultures and seagulls circle above. A bald eagle lands nearby. “Anything you will see out in the real world you’ll see it here,” said David Gregory, manager of the solid waste division of the Orange County Utilities Department. “Because when people throw things away, this is where it comes.” According to the Environmental Protection Agency, landfills such as this one on the edge of Orlando are among the nation’s largest sources of methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide and a major contributor to global warming. A seminal U.N. report published in May found that immediate reductions in methane emissions are the best, swiftest chance the planet has at slowing climate change. Landfills emit methane when organic wastes such as food scraps, wood and paper decompose. But the challenges to reining in methane are big, beginning with even quantifying how much leaves landfills. Industry operators insist the EPA overestimates emissions. Yet independent research looking at emissions from landfills in California and a top EPA methane expert say that the agency significantly underestimates landfill methane. The EPA has “been understating methane emissions from landfills by a factor of two,” said Susan Thorneloe, a senior chemical engineer at the EPA who has worked on the agency’s methane estimation methods since the 1980s.Part of the problem may be that the EPA’s methods for estimating landfill methane emissions are outdated and flawed, Thorneloe said. Ryan Maher, an attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project, a watchdog group, said landfill methane emissions are “a neglected problem.”We’re basing our emissions estimates on models rather than direct measurement,” said Maher, who recently authored a study that found that Maryland’s landfill methane emissions were four times higher than that state had estimated. “We do have the capacity to measure these emissions directly. And we just haven’t been.”The stakes are high for getting an accurate picture of methane emissions. Reducing methane could almost immediately curb climate change, because it stays in the atmosphere for a short time, unlike carbon dioxide, which lingers for a century or more. Landfills are one of three main sources of human methane pollution, along with livestock and the oil and gas industry. The United States is the third-biggest emitter of methane in the world.
Study: Just 25 cities account for majority of global urban greenhouse gas emissions – Just 25 cities comprise more than half of greenhouse gas emissions from a sample of 167 urban centers, according to research published Monday in the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Cities.Researchers analyzed a sample of 167 cities and metropolitan areas in 53 countries, including more cities from countries that are major emitters, such as China, the U.S. and India. They then compared the cities’ respective levels of progress in carbon reduction based on 2012 and 2016 emissions inventories, in combination with their short and long-term reduction targets.The researchers found that 25 cities accounted for 52 percent of the sample’s emissions. All but three of the 25 – Moscow, Istanbul and Tokyo – were located in China, including major cities such as Shanghai and Beijing.However, researchers wrote, the analysis also found per capita emissions are higher in cities located in wealthier countries compared to developing nations. This aligns with total contributions to worldwide emissions, which are higher overall from China but higher per capita from the U.S.When researchers broke down the missions by source, they found that stationary energy uses like fuel and electricity for residential, commercial and industrial buildings were responsible for up to 80 percent of North American and European emissions. In about one-third of the cities analyzed, more than 30 percent of emissions were from road travel, while rail, water and air transportation comprised less than 15 percent of emissions.In cities in developing countries, meanwhile, urbanization has led to increased vehicle traffic and growing transportation sectors, leading to a larger share of emissions from those sources.
Environmentalists “Feel Burned” By Biden’s Infrastructure Bill, Want Another $2.1 Trillion In Climate Spending -An environmentalist group made up of the Center for American Progress, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the League of Conservation Voters and “dozens of others” is seeking an additional $2.1 trillion in infrastructure spending after “feeling burned” by the lack of climate change measure in President Biden’s infrastructure deal.The group is now asking comrade Bernie Sanders to “include that much spending on climate measures in a package being assembled by Democrats”, according to a new report by BNN Bloomberg. A written request was given to Sanders that asks for $225 billion for clean-energy tax credits, $250 billion for a clean-energy standard and $100 billion in consumer incentives for clean vehicles.The bill also asks for “billions more” for water infrastructure, nuclear energy, electric buses and – we swear we’re not making this up – “efficient electric appliances.” The push represents what is likely going to be decades-long pressure on Democratic administrations to help fulfill Biden’s promises to eliminate carbon emissions from the electric grid by 2035 and the rest of the economy by 2050.The group likely targeted Sanders to push for their requests for a reason:Sanders previously had outlined a $6 trillion proposal covering Biden’s agenda as well as an expansion of Medicare, additional climate change items, immigration reform and a permanent extension of the child-care tax credit. But that measure is expected to shrink as agreement is sought from moderates in the caucus to pass both the budget resolution and a follow-up reconciliation bill, which requires 50 votes for passage along with Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote.The groups’ demands are “unlikely to be realized in full,” BNN wrote.
U.S. Companies Say Climate Change Is a Problem – But Still Lobby Against Solutions -While more than 80% of the largest U.S. companies have set emissions reduction goals, less than half engaged with lawmakers to advocate for science-based climate policies – and more than 20% have lobbied against them, according to report released Tuesday by sustainability nonprofit Ceres.”Claiming credit for making operational climate change commitments while undermining the necessary policy measures to achieve those very commitments poses significant reputational and financial risks to companies,” the report’s authors wrote.Ceres’s analysis comes as climate concerns are playing a larger role in capital markets and shareholder actions. So far this year, companies around the globe have issued $297 billion in green bonds, a 152% increase year-over-year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Shareholders also have been increasingly forceful in demanding change, including from fossil fuel titans Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp., which were each the target of successful resolutions demanding climate-conscious changes to corporate strategy. “This is a work in progress,” said Steven Rothstein, managing director of the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets. “The good thing is companies are highlighting their climate needs. Investors are shouting it from the rooftops in every way they can, and now it has to go deeper.” Ceres’s report included 96 members of the S&P 100 in 2019, with four companies excluded due to later mergers and other consolidations. The group scored the companies on how they assess, systematize, advocate for, and engage with science-based climate policies in disclosures and documents such as annual filings, as well as on their advocacy and trade group memberships. A science-based climate target is one aligned with the Paris Agreement goal of restricting global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius, which will require reaching net-zero emissions worldwide by 2050. Almost three-quarters of companies in the report describe climate change as a material risk in their regulatory filings, while nearly 90% have tasked their boards with overseeing climate and ESG topics. “What makes me optimistic is that so many companies are recognizing that climate is a crisis and they’re taking bold steps,” Rothstein said. One lobbying group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, came under particular scrutiny from Ceres due to its “oppositional climate change track record,” according to the report. Close to 75% of the companies Ceres analyzed are members of the Chamber, but only one – Apple Inc. – left the lobbying group over its climate stance. Earlier this year, the Chamber reversed its previous stance on climate policy and said it supports a “market-based” approach to reducing emissions, such as a carbon tax or emissions caps.
Report: Corporate giants have been lobbying against their own emissions targets – Corporate America has made a slew of pledges to reduce its emissions over the past few years. Today, 92 percent of the companies on the S&P 100, an index of leading U.S. stocks, have announced intentions to reduce at least some of their carbon emissions, according to the corporate sustainability advocacy nonprofit Ceres. But do these companies actually plan to change their business practices, and in some cases their entire business models, to meet the scale of the challenge? Or are these pledges just greenwashing? A telling way to assess how serious companies are about meeting their own goals is to look at whether they are lobbying in statehouses and in Washington for the policy changes that would make reducing emissions easier and cheaper. But a new report from Ceres published on Tuesday finds that over the past five years, only 40 percent of those S&P 100 companies have engaged with lawmakers at the state or federal level to advocate for science-based climate policy. “Those companies that are not actively lobbying for science-based climate policies are effectively working against themselves,” said Steven Rothstein, managing director of the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, in a statement. Rothstein said they were “risking both their reputations and their financial performance.” The report also looked at companies’ memberships in trade groups that have actively fought climate policy, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Nearly three-quarters of the companies were members of that group, and only 7 percent of companies disclosed that they have pushed the Chamber to change its position on climate change. Apple is the only company that left the group over its climate positions. Many of the companies on the list are oil and gas companies and utilities, whose lack of enthusiasm for climate policy is unsurprising. But companies’ low engagement across the board is significant. Earlier this year, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island told Grist that the absence of corporate lobbying in favor of climate policies on Capitol Hill makes passing them much more difficult because there’s no counterbalance to the aggressive and deep-pocketed campaigns against such policies by the fossil fuel industry.
Senate committee advances bipartisan energy infrastructure bill -The $3.5 trillion budget proposal being put together by Senate Democrats will include a raft of climate priorities, including a clean electricity standard, clean energy and vehicle tax credits and a civilian climate corps, according to a senior Democratic aide. The aide said that overall, the proposed budget resolution for fiscal 2022 will meet the goals of reaching 80 percent clean electricity and cutting carbon emissions in half by 2030. Other policies that will be included in the $3.5 trillion proposal include weatherization and electrification of buildings, polluter import fees and the creation of a clean energy accelerator. It’s also expected to fund climate smart agriculture, wildfire prevention and forestry as well as federal procurement of clean technologies. It’s not clear how much money would be directed to the climate-specific provisions. Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee agreed to the $3.5 trillion package Tuesday night. The budget would include instructions for a reconciliation package that would include the climate priorities and a host of other measures. The budgetary rules would allow Democrats to pass the package with just Democratic votes, as the rules prevent the package from being filibustered. But Democrats would not be able to afford a single defection among their members. The reconciliation package includes major pieces of President Biden’s climate agenda that aren’t included in a smaller bill that resulted from negotiations between Democrats and Republicans. The Senate is also seeking to pass that bill this summer. The smaller bipartisan deal left out the clean electricity standards and cut down spending on electric vehicles.Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who has been a leading proponent of a clean electricity standard, also said Wednesday that this provision would be included in the bill and told The Hill she hopes it will include 80 percent clean electricity by 2030.
The Green New Deal’s Big Open Secret: It Doesn’t Exist – Since its ascension in 2018, the Green New Deal has defined the terms of the global climate debate. Perhaps no other climate policy in history has been as successful. Democrats and Republicans alike have been judged by how closely they seem to hew to it. The Sunrise Movement, the highest-profile American climate-activism group, rallies for it. Abroad, the European Union has dubbed its 1-trillion-euro attempt to decarbonize its economy “the European Green Deal.” And on the histrionic fields of social media, progressives ask how society can afford flooded subways, horrific droughts,deadly heat waves, and uncontrollable wildfires but not pay for a Green New Deal.Even now, as Democrats in Congress and the White House wrangle over the terms of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill, the Green New Deal leers from the sidelines. How does the bipartisan infrastructure deal differ from the Green New Deal? Will the partisan reconciliation bill amount to a Green New Deal?With so much ballyhoo, it’s become easy to miss the central, implacable fact about the Green New Deal: It does not exist.By this, I don’t mean that it hasn’t passed. I mean something more fundamental: Nobody has written it down. Three years after the idea of a Green New Deal broke into the mainstream, you can’t find an authoritative and detailed list of Green New Deal policies anywhere. There is no handbook, no draft legislation, no official report that articulates what belongs in a Green New Deal and what doesn’t. This is more than just an academic point. It means that tens of thousands of Americans want very badly to see Congress adopt a political program that definitionally cannot pass, because there is no “it” for lawmakers to vote on. It means that Biden’s infrastructure package cannot be compared with the Green New Deal, because the contrast will not find purchase. It means that at a moment of historic possibility, American climate politics still has one leg stuck in the spectral and symbolic, when it should be knee-deep in the real. To hear most supporters tell it, the core idea of a Green New Deal is that the federal government should be the author and finisher of America’s climate transition. The government should decarbonize the country’s energy system by 2030, if not sooner, and adapt American infrastructure to a hotter, angrier world. And it should do so while reducing material inequality and remedying racial injustice. So far, so good. Onto these climate goals, the Green New Deal has tacked demands for good old-fashioned European social democracy: The original, 14-page Green New Deal resolution, which sketched broad goals and was introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey in 2019, demanded universal health care, affordable and safe housing, and protections for workers’ right to unionize. These goals made it into later versions of the Green New Deal: You could find them in Senator Bernie Sanders’s climate platform during the 2020 presidential primary, and the Sunrise Movement still demands Medicare for All and student-debt forgiveness.
Why we’re failing to stop climate chaos –Climate chaos (CC) is the largest threat to our collective prosperity. (Water scarcity, biodiversity loss, increasing vulnerability to viruses and bacteria are a few more.) But “we” (citizens of rich countries) are having a hardER time understanding and addressing CC due to a few strategic mistakes, i.e.,
- Most discussions of impacts focus on 2100, which is too far away from our time now to take seriously. It also “hides” the fact that we are now seeing weather patterns (due to changes in climate) that are harming our way of life.
- Most discussions focus on +2C increases in average temperatures, when the focus should be on increasing risks at the extremes (the changes in the distribution), i.e., fat tails or black swans causing massive damages in surprising places. Examples: Houston getting three “500-year” storms in a decade a few years ago; the Pacific Northwest recently breaking high temperature records by a huge margin; Texas facing “record” cold then “record” warmth within a month; Hurricane Sandy; etc.
- Economists recommending a global cap and trade system rather than a series of national carbon tax and rebate systems at Kyoto (1998). The former requires global coordination, a political willingness to send money to “foreigners”, and trustworthy supra-national institutions.
- Economists (led by that incompetent fraud, Nordhaus) have used flawed models to justify inaction (their logic is that action now limits growth that will give us resources in the future to deal with damages in the future) rather than implementing action now that can be tightened/loosened as we learn how taxes affect emissions affecting CC.
- Most people do not understand how the change from stationarity to non-stationarity will disrupt their habits, food production, infrastructure performance, etc. These are the same people who hesitate to take the COVID vaccine until they are offered lottery tickets. Their choice inconsistency shows they misunderstand probabilities.
- Few people understand the consequences of missing +2C targets due to lag effects. Hitting that target (a long run increase) means reducing emissions (and deforestation) at a radical rate now and still waiting for decades for forcing momentum to dissipate and warming to slow and reverse. Put differently, it would take 50-100 years for currently “baked in” forcing to manifest in CC-impacts assuming we went to zero emissions today, and another 10,000 years (plus/minus ) for current CO2 concentrations of 409ppm (a level not seen for 800,000 years) to fall back to “pre-industrial” levels of 280ppm last seen 170 years ago. We’ve passed the point of no return.
- Forgetting that non-CO2 factors matter. If all GHGs are included, then we’re looking at 456ppm CO2-equilivalent, so we’re in far worse shape than the most-discussed number would suggest.
- I’m not even talking about the problems of greed (converting rainforest into palm oil, soy beans or more oil fields), lobbying (politicians need to be re-elected often and fossil fuel companies have lots of money to pay for protection or inaction), the massive market failure/collective action problem, our psychological desire to maintain “progress” at all costs, and so on.
My one-handed conclusion is that we – humans, as a species – have put ourselves in a difficult situation that we’ve made even harder to tackle by a series of strategic communication blunders.
Billionaires descend on Sun Valley in private jets to talk about climate change – A cabal of some of the most high-profile people in media, finance and technology descended on Idaho’s resort town of Sun Valley in private jets this week to tackle, among other things, climate change. On Tuesday, the day the conference kicked off, traffic from private jets got to be so busy that the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily banned planes on the West Coast from taking off. The FAA told Fox News it briefly held planes on the ground at their departure airports to avoid congestion in the airspace around Sun Valley.The manager of the Friedman Memorial Airport in the neighboring town of Hailey, Idaho, told NPR ahead of the conference that he expected more than 90 private planes. A session preaching the perils of climate change to people who flew to the event on their own carbon-emitting Gulfstream jets rankled some business leaders that FOX Business contacted earlier in the week. “Talking climate change on his private jet?” one CEO remarked with a laugh, referring to Gates. The private conference, hosted by the private investment bank Allen & Company, has been held in July every year since 1983, with the exception of last year due to the pandemic. The event is largely a summer camp for some of the world’s billionaires. Notable attendees this year included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whose public image has taken a hit in recent months over his divorce announcement and reported ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
“Not ESG-Friendly” – 20 Tons Of Water Used To Extinguish Tesla Fire In Taiwan – As part of the great COVID reset, the transformation period has been a massive opportunity for lawmakers and corporations to push electric cars to the masses as they say these vehicles are “ESG-Friendly.”We’ll save the mining part of minerals for electric batteries for an entirely different conversation. Today we want to focus on the amount of fresh water it takes to extinguish a fire in an electric car versus an internal combustion engine. Last week, in Tainan City, Taiwan, firefighters used about 20 tons of water to extinguish a fire after a Tesla crashed and went up into flames. Fire Captain Chiu Yuan-ming told Taiwan News that around three tons of water are required to extinguish an internal combustion engine fire. However, he noted, an enormous amount of water is needed to extinguish an electric vehicle fire.The Tesla in question slammed into a residential building on Wednesday and burst into flames. The driver survived and was rescued before fire consumed the vehicle. There was no word if the Tesla vehicle was on Autopilot during the collision. It took firefighters at least an hour to extinguish the fire spraying 20 tons of water on the Tesla. Fire Captain Chiu pointed to research that said upwards of 75 tons of water are required to extinguish a Tesla fire. The reason is that the batteries are compacted with highly combustible lithium metal. Another fire earlier this month in a Philadelphia suburb had firefighters spray a steady stream of water for more than 90 minutes on a Tesla Plaid that had caught fire under what was called “strange circumstances.” Sales of electric vehicles are soaring worldwide, and firefighters have yet to have adequate training or equipment to put out a lithium battery fire quickly – so they waste 20-75 tons of water for a single-vehicle fire versus a combustion engine that only needs 3 tons. Wasting tons and tons of water for electric vehicle fires is not ESG-Friendly, especially when parts of the world are experiencing vicious megadroughts.
Heat Pumps are the Most Climate Friendly Way to Heat Homes, But Still Emit a Climate Super Pollutant, Despite the Availability of a Cleaner Chemical – Devices sold in the United States rely on hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) 410a, a synthetic chemical refrigerant that is 4,260 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide over the near term. As the refrigerant circulates between an outdoor compressor and heat exchangers within the home, a small amount of HFC-410a slowly leaks into the atmosphere. While the amount of gas they release is tiny compared to the exhaust from a gas furnace, over the years, those emissions add up.The typical heat pump system will leak 12 pounds of HFC-410a over the course of its lifetime, according to a recent assessment by the California Public Utilities Commission. Those emissions, the majority of which come when the device is destroyed at the end of its useful life, equal the near-term climate impact of 23 metric tons of carbon dioxide. That’s the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent of burning 54 barrels of oil, or driving a car for five years, according to the EPA’s greenhouse gas equivalency calculator. “It’s critically important that we get rid of these chemicals because when they do get accidentally emitted they have a very potent warming impact,” said Taddonio, a senior climate and energy advisor with the Washington-based Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development. “If we continue using 410a in air conditioners and heat pumps it will produce an outsized climate harm.”Interest in heat pumps has soared in recent years as cities and states from California to New England have proposed or enacted bans on natural gas hookups in new construction or incentivized heat pump installations. In areas where electricity primarily comes from fossil fuels, the majority of greenhouse gas emissions associated with heat pumps – roughly 80 percent – stems from electricity production. However, in places with clean electricity, the refrigerant’s contribution to the pumps’ total greenhouse gas emissions is higher. In most cases the total emissions associated with heat pumps are less than those that come from burning natural gas or other fossil fuels for heating. However, refrigerant emissions are still significant. Eliminating the use of HFC-410a and other HFCs with high global warming potential in all applications, including heat pumps, air conditioners and refrigeration, could prevent as much as 0.5 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century.
Biden Climate Czar Gina McCarthy Vows Clean-Energy Rules With Congress or Not – Congress should enact a clean-electricity standard that forces utilities to pare greenhouse gas emissions, but if lawmakers fail to deliver, the administration is prepared to act on its own, President Joe Biden’s climate chief told Bloomberg. A clean-electricity mandate is critical for catalyzing emissions reductions, White House National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy said during a taped discussion for the Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit that opened Tuesday. But she refused to say the requirement is a must-have ingredient in a broad tax-and-spending bill meant to build on a bipartisan infrastructure package. “I don’t want to say that anything is a red line, because, frankly, a lot of the work that went into the bipartisan infrastructure plan was really building a tremendous foundation for us to grow on,” McCarthy said. “We have lots of regulatory authority that we intend to use regardless, and we will move forward with those efforts to try to tackle the climate crisis.”Biden has vowed to decarbonize the electricity sector by 2035, and a clean-energy standard is seen as a vital tool for achieving that goal as well as the U.S. pledge under the Paris climate accord to at least halve the nation’s planet-warming pollution by 2030. But the mandate was left out a bipartisan infrastructure package negotiated with Republicans, and now administration officials are pushing to include it and a raft of renewable energy incentives as part of a separate tax-and-spending plan. McCarthy’s comments come even as some Democrats are doubling down on their insistence that major climate initiatives must be part of the forthcoming legislation.”The issues of climate change and infrastructure cannot — cannot — be separated from one another,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said Tuesday on the Senate floor.McCarthy stressed the importance of Congress advancing an array of climate policies — including longer-lasting and more-effective renewable tax credits that complement a utility-focused mandate. Expanded tax incentives “just means we have businesses ready,” McCarthy said. “What the clean-electricity standard says is ‘Go — don’t wait, go — because we are going to put you on a schedule that says you get out of the gate and run, and you keep running. “Without that, there’s going to have be a regulatory strategy to move that forward,” McCarthy said, “and I think we all can agree that a clean-electricity standard can actually be that motivator out of the gate that will allow us to get the kind of impacts at scale that we really need to have now.”
Cities in Ohio Want to Use the Same Clean-Energy Financing Company That Saddled Missouri Homeowners With Debt – For five years, economic development officials in Toledo, Ohio, have operated a pilot program that allows residents to borrow money for energy-saving home renovations without paying exorbitant interest rates. The program has been widely seen as a success, with only one of 61 borrowers currently delinquent on their repayments. But now officials at the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority are preparing to expand the program to other parts of Ohio in a way that has led to trouble for some homeowners in other states – by turning over the program to a private, for-profit lender. Those plans, which supporters say are necessary to grow the program to additional areas across the state, have many other local officials and housing advocates worried that borrowers will be harmed. Already, the leaders in the state’s two most populous cities – Columbus and Cleveland – have said they won’t participate.The Toledo program is known as Property Assessed Clean Energy, and it allows borrowers to pay off home upgrades through their property tax bills. By operating on a small scale with strong oversight, the Toledo pilot stands in contrast to high-cost PACE programs in other states that have been run by for-profit lenders.A ProPublica investigation in April found, for example, that Missouri’s PACE programs have charged high interest and fees, then enforced borrowers’ debts through liens, leaving more than 100 homes across the state at risk of being auctioned at public tax sales. Local and state officials exercised little oversight over the two companies that have run the programs, Renovate America and Ygrene.The loans made to Missouri homeowners have carried a median annual percentage rate of 10%. The terms have stretched as long as 20 years, burdening some borrowers with total interest and fees that exceeded the cost of the project – or even the entire value of their home. Last month, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed into law a measure that added consumer protections and oversight to the state’s PACE programs.Dave Rinebolt, executive director of Ohio Partners for Affordable Energy, which advocates for weatherization and energy assistance, said PACE programs run by governments are safer than those run by private companies “because these loans aren’t sold through contractors to poor people.” Companies like Renovate America and Ygrene, he said, sometimes lend to homeowners who can’t repay their loans, leaving them in financial peril.”And that’s who they target,” Rinebolt added. “Low-income, elderly, disabled clients.”
California has embraced clean energy, so why is it still building natural gas infrastructure? – California, the fifth-largest economy in the world, continues to up its clean electricity game, most recently with state regulators’ groundbreaking mandate for 11.5 gigawatts of new non-fossil resources to come online by 2026 to help decarbonize the grid. But at the same time, regulators are allowing continued long-term investments in climate-unfriendly natural gas infrastructure, including ratepayer-funded gas connections to new homes and rebates for relatively efficient gas water heaters, furnaces, stoves and dryers.”We have to stop digging the climate hole deeper,” said Panama Bartholomy, executive director of the Building Decarbonization Coalition. “If we don’t, we will see an escalation of the extreme weather events we’ve seen the last month and year, including in Seattle, Portland and Texas, and worsening air quality.” The coalition’s 60 members hail from the building industry, utilities, local governments and environmental organizations.Ratepayer-subsidized investments extending the life of California’s natural gas industry not only go against the grain of clean energy but also drive up already high electric rates.Rate increases from California’s investor-owned utilities have far exceeded the annual rate of inflation since 2013, potentially jeopardizing decarbonization investments, according to a white paper released in February by the staff of the California Public Utilities Commission. Pacific Gas & Electric’s rates increased by 38 percent between 2013 and the end of 2019, and San Diego Gas & Electric’s went up by 48 percent. The CPUC ratepayer advocate expects rates to spike even more. Earlier this month, PG&E, the state’s biggest investor-owned utility, filed for a 30 percent rate hike between 2023 and 2026, with half going to improve the safety of its electric and gas systems.Making matters more complicated is that as California moves toward its 2045 goal of 100% decarbonization, partly through electrifying buildings with clean electricity, costly new investments in gas infrastructure will have to be ditched. “Once constructed, these facilities become a sunk cost to the system and are typically depreciated over an expected service life of 50 to 60 years,” according to a 2019 report by Gridworks, a clean-energy consulting firm. Because the state has set a goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2045, new gas connections “could easily become ‘stranded’ well before the end of their useful lives.” The CPUC says it’s concerned about a broad array of stranded gas investments, ranging from pipelines to gas storage fields. CPUC spokesperson Terrie Prosper said in an email that the issue will be looked at as part of the commission’s Long-Term Gas System Planning rulemaking, which launched in January 2020 and is still ongoing. She said California was the first state in the U.S. to establish a regulatory framework to specifically examine “how to transition its gas system to comply with its climate goals.” It has “since been followed by other states, including New York, Massachusetts and Colorado,” she added. But the CPUC proceeding is too little, too late for decarbonization advocates, who say time is of the essence because of the worsening climate crisis.
Building Solar Farms May Not Build the Middle Class – The New York Times – To hear Democrats tell it, a green job is supposed to be a good job – and not just good for the planet.The Green New Deal, first introduced in 2019, sought to “create millions of good, high-wage jobs.” And in March, when President Biden unveiled his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, he emphasized the “good-paying” union jobs it would produce while reining in climate change.”My American Jobs Plan will put hundreds of thousands of people to work,” Mr. Biden said, “paying the same exact rate that a union man or woman would get.”But on its current trajectory, the green economy is shaping up to look less like the industrial workplace that lifted workers into the middle class in the 20th century than something more akin to an Amazon warehouse or a fleet of Uber drivers: grueling work schedules, few unions, middling wages and limited benefits.Kellogg Dipzinski has seen this up close, at Assembly Solar, a nearly 2,000-acre solar farm under construction near Flint, Mich.”Hey I see your ads for help,” Mr. Dipzinski, an organizer with the local electrical workers union, texted the site’s project manager in May. “We have manpower. I’ll be out that way Friday.””Hahahahaha … . yes – help needed on unskilled low wage workers,” was the response. “Competing with our federal government for unemployment is tough.”For workers used to the pay standards of traditional energy industries, such declarations may be jarring. Building an electricity plant powered by fossil fuels usually requires hundreds of electricians, pipe fitters, millwrights and boilermakers who typically earn more than $100,000 a year in wages and benefits when they are unionized.But on solar farms, workers are often nonunion construction laborers who earn an hourly wage in the upper teens with modest benefits – even as the projects are backed by some of the largest investment firms in the world. In the case of Assembly Solar, the backer is D.E. Shaw, with more than $50 billion in assets under management, whose renewable energy arm owns and will operate the plant.While Mr. Biden has proposed higher wage floors for such work, the Senate prospects for this approach are murky. And absent such protections – or even with them – there’s a nagging concern among worker advocates that the shift to green jobs may reinforce inequality rather than alleviate it.”The clean tech industry is incredibly anti-union,” said Jim Harrison, the director of renewable energy for the Utility Workers Union of America. “It’s a lot of transient work, work that is marginal, precarious and very difficult to be able to organize.”
How the American South is paying the price for Europe’s ‘green’ energy‘ – In 1996, scientists at the United Nations devised a method to measure global carbon emissions. To simplify the process and avoid double counting, they suggested emissions from burning biomass should be calculated where the trees are cut down, not where the wood pellets are burned. The EU adopted this methodology in its Renewable Energy Directive, allowing energy companies to burn biomass produced in the US without having to report the emissions. “The idea was to curb our addiction to fossil fuels,” said Bas Eickhout, Dutch politician and member of the European Parliament. Biomass was an attractive option for EU countries at the time, he explained, because it was much cheaper than solar or wind power and could be “mixed in” when burning coal.However, European decision-makers didn’t fully consider the repercussions of importing biomass, Eickhout said, adding they “were too naive.””The production of biomass has become an industrial process which means something has gone fundamentally wrong,” he said. “The professionalization of the biomass industry is a problem that needs attention.”The directive led to troubling consequences across the Atlantic. By failing to restrict biomass to the byproduct from manufacturing paper, furniture or lumber, Europe created a strong incentive to cut down whole trees and turn them into wood pellets.Encouraged by government subsidies, European power plants began importing biomass from the largest wood producing region in the world: the American Southeast.North Carolina has been “ground zero” for the wood pellet industry, said Danna Smith, co-founder and executive director of the environmental advocacy group Dogwood Alliance. One hundred and sixty-four acres of the state’s forests are cut down by the biomass industry every day, according to an analysis by Key-Log Economics. US-based Enviva, which owns four wood pellet plants in North Carolina, says their product is fighting climate change. Yet, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the UN body that came up with the carbon accounting methodology – states its guidelines “do not automatically consider or assume biomass used for energy as ‘carbon neutral,’ even in cases where the biomass is thought to be produced sustainably.”
Oregon wildfire robs California of critical electricity supply from Pacific Northwest during heat wave – The Bootleg fire in southern Oregon has knocked out power lines that feed electricity from the Pacific Northwest to California, leaving the Golden State without a key source of power during an intense heat wave that was already straining the grid. The power lines affected, called the California-Oregon AC intertie, can carry about 4,800 megawatts of power, enough electricity to serve millions of homes. It is a key source of electricity for California in the summer and is used to send energy north during periods of high demand here in the winter.The supply problem led California’s grid operators to issue an urgent alert for the second day running asking customers across the state to conserve power between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. to avoid rolling blackouts. The interie is operated by the Bonneville Power Administration, the Portland-based federal power marketing agency that sells electricity from federal hydroelectric dams and operates three quarters of the region’s high voltage grid. Steve Wingert, a BPA spokesman, said the Bootleg fire in Klamath County, which doubled in size overnight, was burning in or near the rights-of-way for the transmission lines. While the high voltage lines sit on large steel towers and typically escape harm from all but the largest fires, heavy smoke and particulate matter can cause them to arc and trip offline. “The lines have been tripping in and out of service and we finally took them out of service for the stability of the system,” Wingert said. He said line crews are in the area, monitoring the status of the fire and its proximity to equipment. They are in touch with dispatchers who are waiting for approval to test the lines and bring them back into service. While the capacity of the lines is 4,800 megawatts, BPA has set that limit to 428 megawatts. A megawatt of electricity can serve about 400 to 900 homes. The intertie, which also includes lines owned by Portland General Electric and PacifiCorp, was taken down shortly after 1 p.m. Saturday. Wingert said the operational status of the lines is not expected to affect utility operations in Oregon. California’s grid operator, called the Independent System Operator, was already facing challenging conditions Friday amid triple digit temperatures across much of the state. Its flex alert asks customers to set their thermostats to 78 degrees and avoid using large appliances to reduce the load on the grid. The grid operator forecast peak demand of just over 40,000 megawatts, and available capacity of 46,000 megawatts.
It’s not just mining. Refining holds U.S. back on minerals – E&E News – Republicans are questioning whether the Biden administration will embrace mining projects to ramp up the United States’ access to the minerals vital to building electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. They have taken aim at a Biden administration decision to delay a land swap that would facilitate copper mining on sacred Apache land and another to postpone orders to open Alaskan land to mineral development (E&E Daily, April 29).But experts say mining expansion isn’t a silver bullet in the United States’ quest to become competitive with China on critical minerals during the energy transition. Instead, they argue that the key problem the Biden administration must swiftly address is farther up the supply chain: the dearth of U.S. mineral processing plants and refineries. “Even if we dig up more minerals here, the majority would have to be shipped abroad for processing,” said Abigail Wulf, director of the Center for Critical Minerals Strategy at Securing America’s Energy Future.Supply chain weaknesses have captured the White House’s attention, with officials saying one of President Biden’s top priorities will be securing domestic access to the full range of minerals needed to make the United States a significant player in manufacturing technologies that can help combat global warming (Greenwire, June 8). The White House has maintained that this effort will encourage both mining and processing. Experts, however, say quickly expanding the United States’ capacity to refine minerals like nickel and lithium could prove more feasible in the short term than opening mines – a prospect that involves a lengthy regulatory approval process and often draws complaints from nearby residents about pollution. That said, people in local communities are also likely to object to new smelters and refineries. The Biden administration, too, could find its environmental justice pledges tested if the facilities encroach on poorer neighborhoods. China is the unquestioned leader in refining a range of minerals. Controlling the midstream of the supply chain has helped the country become the world’s leading producer of electric vehicles, said Wulf, who previously worked as a senior science communicator at NASA.”China has been thinking about this in a much more strategic way for much longer than we have,” she said. “They planned a while ago to leapfrog us and conquer the electric vehicle future.”The country has long been the top miner and processor of rare earth elements, a group of 17 metals, some of which are key components of clean technology. It also dominates with refining lithium and cobalt, both necessary for electric vehicle batteries. In 1992, former Chinese Communist Party Leader Deng Xiaoping said, “The Middle East has oil, and China has rare earth.” Today, the country controls about 55% of rare earth mining capacity and 85% of rare earth refining, according to a recent White House supply chain review. China went on to use the last two economic recessions to solidify itself as the top EV maker, a recent report by consulting group Horizon Advisory says. Right now, Congo mines 68% of the world’s cobalt. Chinese companies own or invest in at least a dozen major Congolese mines. And nearly 87% of cobalt ore leaving Congo is refined in China. Australia is the top miner of lithium. But the country, a U.S. ally, exports most of it to China, which accounts for more than 60% of the world’s lithium refining capacity, according to the Horizon Advisory report. China’s extensive smelting and refining capacity also allows it to recover secondary critical minerals contained in the ore concentrates tapped at mines outside that country, said Michael Moats, a metallurgical engineering professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology. “Those mineral concentrates are often exported and processed somewhere else,” he said about ore produced at U.S. mines. “The critical minerals that might have been in those concentrates leave the country and are reimported.”
EIA says U.S. 2020 coal output lowest since 1965 – The Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday said U.S. coal production fell in 2020 to its lowest level since 1965 due to low global demand in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The federal agency said in a report that U.S. coal production totaled 535 million short tons (MMst) in 2020, a 24% decrease from the 706 MMst mined in 2019. The EIA said the pandemic slowed global demand for coal, and some U.S. mines were idled for extended periods to slow the spread of the virus among workers, with exports declining significantly in April 2020. U.S. coal-fired generation fell 20% year-on-year and exports were 26% lower in 2020 than in 2019. Coal production in Wyoming, where more coal is produced than in any other state, was 21% lower in 2020 than it was in 2019, while the second-largest producer West Virginia saw an annual slide of 28%, the agency said. The EIA explained that the decline was also as a result of less U.S. electric power sector demand for the non-renewable energy source, while lower natural gas prices made coal less competitive for power generation. Coal had been the primary fuel for U.S. power plants for much of the last century, but its use has been declining since peaking in 2007. Gas overtook coal as the leading fuel for U.S. power plants in 2016, according to federal data, and has held that title ever since. As of late-May this year, U.S. power companies plan to retire or convert over 5,800 megawatts (MW) of coal-fired plants in 2021 to gas after shutting over 10,400 MW in 2020, according to EIA and Thomson Reuters data.
Black lung, a scourge of the past, still plagues Illinois mines – When Robert Cohen learned about black lung disease as a medical student, he assumed it was a relic of the past.. “I didn’t think I’d see it in my practice.” Almost four decades later, he still treats miners from downstate Illinois, their lungs scarred from breathing coal dust. They trek up to Chicago, sometimes looking out of place in the sleek hospital waiting room on Chicago’s ritzy Gold Coast, where Cohen sees patients. “The nurses love them, they are so down to earth,” said Cohen, who also founded a black lung clinic at Chicago’s public county hospital, serving miners from around the region, including many who had migrated to Chicago from Appalachia after mines there closed. Coal mining has become exponentially safer in recent decades, with far fewer miners dying on the job than at any point in history. However, an ancient and fatal scourge continues to take a toll beyond the workplace. Black lung cases have steadily increased and even spiked in recent years in Appalachia, as documented by researchers including Cohen and his colleagues at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he is a clinical professor of environmental and occupational health sciences and director of the Mining Education and Research Center.Cases are lower in Illinois than Appalachia, but still troubling, experts including Cohen say. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program, between 2010 and 2014, the latest data available online, Illinois led the country in the number of miners examined for black lung under the federal program, with 1,143 miners. Twelve of them were found to have cases eligible for benefits. During that time, 148 cases nationwide were diagnosed, 62 of them in West Virginia. Data from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health shows that in 2018, there were 120 hospital discharges in Illinois for coal mine-related pneumoconiosis, or black lung. In 2001 there were 265 hospital discharges for black lung in Illinois, perhaps reflecting higher coal mine employment in years past.
A small price to pay: Illinois mines routinely appeal safety penalties | Energy News Network – In 2012, federal mine safety inspectors discovered a dangerous buildup of combustible dust inside Murray Energy’s New Era mine in southern Illinois. On top of that, they flagged problems with the communication systems miners would rely on to escape a disaster such as a dust explosion. The Mine Safety and Health Administration proposed more than $146,000 in fines against the company. Through an appeals process, the company was able to pay less than half that amount, around $68,000. For a company that made more than $845 million in revenue that year, the fines were comparable to a $5 penalty for someone who earns $60,000 a year. The New Era mine in the last two decades has successfully appealed fines more than any other underground mine in the state, according to an Energy News Network review of federal mine safety penalties. Appeals meant that only 55% of the $14.36 million in originally proposed penalties for safety violations at New Era were paid since Murray Energy acquired the mine in 1998. (As part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, Murray Energy is now owned by former creditors and known by a different name; New Era has ceased production, though it is still listed as an active mine in federal records.) Federal inspections are the main safeguard meant to prevent accidents and deaths in an inherently dangerous industry, but critics say the penalties – even as originally proposed – are typically so small that they become a cost of doing business rather than a deterrent for unsafe equipment or inadequate protocols. Often penalties are reduced dramatically after mines take action to remedy problems. The New Era mine agreed to clean and apply rock dust to mitigate the risk of explosion, move cones so they faced the right direction, and install a two-way communication system, according to documents obtained from the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Federal ruling clears way for activist investor Carl Icahn to control two voting seats on FirstEnergy’s board – cleveland.com – – Billionaire investor Carl Icahn appears all but certain to gain control over two FirstEnergy Corp. Board seats with voting rights, as federal energy regulators approved the move on Thursday. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in an order, asserted that giving voting rights to Icahn’s FirstEnergy board appointees would not adversely affect competition or electricity rates, nor impair state or federal regulations.Andrew Teno and Jesse Lynn, both employees of Icahn’s investment firm, will expand FirstEnergy’s board of trustees from 12 members to 14 members. Teno will serve on a company subcommittee overseeing changes to FirstEnergy’s compliance policies, while Lynn will join the company’s Independent Review Committee and the Demand Review Committee. The FERC waved off arguments from utility watchdog groups, including Public Citizen and the Citizens Utility Board of Ohio, that the commission should rule on whether state regulators have the power to approve the deal involving the Akron-based utility.But it left open the question of whether Icahn’s companies should now legally be considered “affiliates” of FirstEnergy – a legal designation that would restrict interactions between the companies and require more public disclosure about their business transactions. Tom Bullock, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Ohio, said his group will petition the FERC to make such a ruling. In February, Icahn announced his intent to acquire a stake in FirstEnergy worth $184 million to $920 million. The 85-year-old New Yorker has a track record of buying large stakes in companies and influencing corporate decision-making. His interest in FirstEnergy comes as the company is attempting to navigate itself through the House Bill 6 scandal, in which ex-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four others stand accused of using $60 million in FirstEnergy money to help pass a law that benefitted the company – including a $1 billion-plus bailout of two nuclear power plants then owned by a FirstEnergy subsidiary.In addition, authorities are investigating a questionable $4 million payment to an entity tied to Sam Randazzo, then the state’s chief utilities regulator.
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