180815



# Intro



Wassup world? Today is August 15th, 2018 and This is Wassup World News, coming to you not so live with another Weekly Wednesday Wrap Up, where we rebreak news regarding Water Air Soil Urban Spaces Power and People.



# Water



Toxins are turning up in dozens of public water systems across the United States, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, and Delaware. The water systems are reportedly testing positive for dangerous levels of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. When dumped into the water, the air or soil, dubbed as ""forever chemicals"" some forms of PFAS compounds are expected to remain intact for thousands of years.

https://www.businessinsider.com/report-finds-toxins-turning-up-in-public-water-systems-across-the-us-2018-8?IR=T



In the swampy wetlands of southern Mexico, officials and researchers are struggling to explain the deaths of dozens of manatees, and the chubby marine mammals once confused with mermaids by ancient mariners.  since May, Fishermen who navigate the muddy waters inland from the coast of Tabasco state have discover at least 28 dead West Indian manatees, along the Bitzal River and nearby streams.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-manatee/mysterious-manatee-deaths-in-mexican-wetlands-spurs-quest-for-answers-idUSKBN1KV2DF



Oil company Shell has contaminated groundwater in Taranaki using a firefighting foam banned more than a decade ago. Foams containing perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) were banned in New Zealand in 2006, but Shell was found to be using products containing the banned chemical when it became part of a nationwide investigation into contamination in March.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/106146449/oil-company-contaminates-taranaki-groundwater-with-banned-firefighting-foam





# Air



Brazil cut its greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation in 2017 to levels below its internationally agreed 2020 climate change targets, the countryÂ’s Environment Ministry said on Thursday. Brazil reduced its emission from deforestation in the Amazon rainforest by 610 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), compared to its 2020 target of 564 million tons. In the Cerrado savanna, emissions were reduced 170 million tons of carbon dioxide versus a target of 104 million tons.  Deforestation continues despite the decline in emissions.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-climate/brazil-cuts-deforestation-emissions-below-2020-targets-idUSKBN1KV03X?utm_source=reddit.com



A recent report from Commondreams.org points out that the Pentagon uses more petroleum per day than the aggregate consumption of 175 countries (out of 210 in the world), and generates more than 70 percent of this nationÂ’s total greenhouse gas emissions, based on rankings in the CIA World Factbook. Since the start of the post-9/11 wars, U.S. military fuel consumption has averaged about 144 million barrels per year.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/07/31/climate-worst-casualty-war



A new study has shown that More than 6.1 million people worldwide die each year as a result of exposure to air pollution, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, lung disease, and cancer. In India, which contains many of the worldÂ’s most polluted cities, the annual death toll from air pollution exceeds 1.6 million. The study shows how implementing stricter emissions standards in India could save hundreds of thousands of lives each year.

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/improving-air-quality-could-prevent-thousands-of-deaths-in-india



New research suggests that soils around the globe are reacting to a warming climate, in turn converting more carbon into carbon dioxide which then enters the atmosphere. The effect of this growing imbalance not only sets more heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the air, but it also decreases the strength of the soil as a natural place to store carbon.

https://www.popsci.com/rising-temperatures-are-causing-soil-to-dump-more-carbon-dioxide-into-air#page-3



Six large new wildfires started in the United States this week, pushing the number of major active blazes nationwide to over 100, with more expected to break out sparked by lightning strikes on the bone-dry terrain. At the same time, British Columbia is facing it's 4th worst wildfire season on record and has declared a state of emergency as 566 fires burning across the province.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/12/wildfires-more-than-100-us-six-new-blazes-erupt



Two villages on the Greek island of Evia were evacuated on Sunday as a forest fire raged, fanned by strong winds. The fire brigade described the evacuation of Kontodespoti and Stavros village in central Evia, about 70 km (44 miles) from Athens, as a precaution.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-greece-wildfire/wildfire-rages-on-greek-island-of-evia-villages-evacuated-idUSKBN1KX0LV



Russia this year has suffered the most Arctic wildfires since satellite monitoring started as climate change creates the conditions necessary for blazes to start and then take hold. Monitoring by two Nasa satellites recorded 10,057 hotspots in Russia's Arctic territory by the start of August, 10 times more than were found in the same period a decade ago.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/12/record-wildfires-russian-arctic-ice-gives-way-flame/



As temperatures bust heat records across the globe and wildfires rage from California to the Arctic, a new report produced annually by a group of scientists worldwide found that last year, the carbon dioxide concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere reached the highest levels “in the modern atmospheric measurement record and ice core records dating back as far as 800,000 years.”

https://www.newsroompanama.com/environment/world-5/environment-co2-levels-at-800000-yr-high





# Soil



Monsanto has been found liable in the first roundup cancer case. In the first of many pending lawsuits to go to trial, a jury in San Francisco concluded on August 10 that the plaintiff had developed cancer from exposure to Roundup, Monsanto's widely used herbicide, and ordered the company to pay US$289 million in damages.

https://www.sciencealert.com/monsanto-has-been-found-liable-in-the-first-roundup-cancer-case-here-s-what-s-next



French Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot said Sunday he hoped the verdict against Monsanto for failing to inform the public about the risks of its product would put an end to political indifference to the danger of pesticides.

http://www.france24.com/en/20180813-france-environment-minister-hulot-monsanto-end-arrogance



The German environment ministry claimed that the use of glyphosate-based weed-killers should be halted during the current legislative period which ends in three years.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-cancer-lawsuit-germany/germany-aims-to-end-use-of-glyphosate-in-this-legislative-period-spokesman-idUSKBN1KY12U



A voracious crop-chomping pest which has wrought havoc in Africa could threaten millions of farmers in Asia, U.N. experts warned on Tuesday, as India battles the continentÂ’s first reported infestation of fall armyworm. The pest - a moth which devours crops in the caterpillar stage of its lifecycle - prefers maize but can feed on some 80 crops, including rice, vegetables, groundnuts, and cotton.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-farming-armyworm/crop-munching-armyworm-could-threaten-millions-of-farmers-in-asia-u-n-idUSKBN1KZ1JL



A federal court has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban an extensively used pesticide called chlorpyrifos which has been linked to learning disabilities in children. The judgment said that the EPA must prohibit the pesticides use within 60 days. Several environmental groups sued to force the ban after the EPA under Donald Trump decided to permit farms to carry on using the pesticide on the food products.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/09/epa-pesticide-learning-disabilities-banned-chlorpyrifo



The death toll from a massive 6.9 magnitude earthquake in IndonesiaÂ’s Lombok island has climbed to more than 320, officials said on Friday, even as relief efforts picked up the pace. The national disaster mitigation agency said it had verified 321 deaths and that over 270,000 people had been forced to flee their homes because of a series of tremors over the past two weeks.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-quake/death-toll-from-indonesia-quake-climbs-over-320-idUSKBN1KV1J6







# Sea (Ocean)



The Center for Whale Research in Washington state declares that it watched the orca (known as J35) chase a school of salmon in Haro Strait west of San Juan Island, between the US mainland and Vancouver Island, on Saturday afternoon. J35Â’s calf died soon after birth on 24 July. The mother carried the baby on her head for at least 17 days. She finally abandoned the carcass as it decomposed. Researchers say they are immensely relieved to see J35 returning to typical behavior.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/13/orca-mother-finally-abandons-dead-calf-she-carried-for-more-than-two-weeks



Half of the Great Barrier Reef has been bleached to death since 2016. Mass coral bleaching, a global problem triggered by climate change, occurs when unnaturally hot ocean water destroys a reefÂ’s colorful algae, leaving the coral to starve. The Great Barrier Reef illustrates how extensive the damage can be: Thirty percent of the coral perished in 2016, another 20 percent in 2017. The effect is akin to a forest after a devastating fire. Much of the marine ecosystem along the reefÂ’s north coast has become barren and skeletal with little hope of recovery.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/08/explore-atlas-great-barrier-reef-coral-bleaching-map-climate-change/



The Chinese goverment has evacuated more than 200,000 people as a typhoon made landfall on its eastern coast late on Sunday. A total of 204,949 people in 10 cities, including Taizhou, Zhoushan, and Wenzhou, have been evacuated and almost 21,000 fishing boats called back to port.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-newcaledonia-environment/new-caledonia-restricts-tourism-bans-fishing-at-pacific-reefs-idUSKBN1KZ0KQ



The French Pacific territory of New Caledonia on Tuesday imposed restrictions on tourists and fishing boats accessing its coral reefs to protect the underwater ecosystem and create a sanctuary for humpback whales and other marine life. The archipelago is enacting similar measures to those taken in visitor hot spots such as Boracay in the Philippines and Maya Bay in Thailand, which aim to balance tourism and the protection of ecosystems threatened by warming seas and economic activity.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-newcaledonia-environment/new-caledonia-restricts-tourism-bans-fishing-at-pacific-reefs-idUSKBN1KZ0KQ



On Monday, Gov. Rick Scott (R) of Florida declared a state of emergency in seven counties stretching from Tampa Bay south to the fringe of the Everglades. Scott promised $1.5 million in emergency funding.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/08/14/red-tide-algaes-deadly-trail-of-marine-animals-has-triggered-a-state-of-emergency-in-florida/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.8d42affeeef3





# Urban



France will be introducing a penalty system next years which would increase the costs of consumer goods with packaging  made of mostly non-recycled plastic as part of their pledge to use only recylable plastic nationwide by 2025.

http://www.france24.com/en/20180812-france-set-penalties-non-recycled-plastic s



The Democratic National Committee (DNC) approved a resolution Friday afternoon that activists say successfully reverse a ban on the fossil fuel company donations. The new decision is meant to be a nod to “forward-looking employers” which are “powering America’s all-of-the-above energy economy and moving us towards a future powered by clean and low-emissions energy technology, from renewables to carbon capture and storage to advanced nuclear technology.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dnc-fossil-fuel-donations_us_5b6dddd4e4b0530743c9ca67?utm_source=reddit.com





# Power



The Constitutional Court of Ecuador has issued a long-awaited ruling in favor of those affected by the transnational oil company Chevron, which operated through its subsidiary Texaco in Ecuador between 1964 and 1990.  Chevron will now have to pay $9.5 billion for the repair and remediation of social and environmental damage that – according to audits and expert reports – were a result of oil company operations in the Amazonian provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana.

https://truthout.org/articles/chevron-must-pay-for-environmental-damage-in-ecuador-court-rules/



The Democratic National Committee (DNC) overwhelmingly passed a resolution on Friday evening saying it welcomes donations from fossil fuel industry workers and “employers’ political action committees. Critics of the newly passed resolution are calling it a reversal of the DNC’s recently adopted ban on accepting donations from fossil fuel companies’ political organizations.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/401356-dnc-passes-resolution-on-fossil-fuel-donations



Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter,— whose entire economy is built around more than $100 billion in oil and oil-related exports a year, — has placed a $2 Billion bet on Tesla, the company whose whole goal is transitioning the world off of oil.

https://thinkprogress.org/worlds-biggest-oil-exporter-bets-2-billion-on-electric-cars-e7889388523a/



Puerto Rico is back to 100% power as the last residential customers of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority had service restored this week.  The island, which is a territory of the United States has been working on restoring power since hurricane Irma hit 11 months ago.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/us/puerto-rico-electricity-power.html



# People



German astronaut Alexander Gerst shocked by parched Earth images from space. The German astronaut's pictures showed a brown landscape around Cologne on the River Rhine in North Rhine-Westphalia and a more comprehensive image of dried-out Central Europe. The prolonged heatwave in Europe has caused a series of problems, ranging from the death of fish in unusually warm Swiss rivers to wildfires in dry forests from the Arctic Circle to Portugal.

https://www.dw.com/en/german-astronaut-alexander-gerst-shocked-by-parched-earth-images-from-space/a-44997548







# Outro



That's it for this Weekly Wednesday Wrap Up. Thanks for tunning in.



I'm John Brindley, and this is Wassup World News. Things may have changed by the time you're hearing this.  Follow this podcast for more news about the flora, fauna, and planet you care oh so much about.



Peace out World