180822



# Water

Fracking is destroying Americas water supply. potable water is being lost forever in many semi-arid regions of the country, while fracking is simultaneously producing more carbon pollution that in turn is driving ever-worsening droughts in those same regions. A Duke study warns that the water footprint of fracking could jump as much as 50-fold in some areas by 2030, raising concerns about its sustainability, particularly in arid or semi-arid regions in western states, or other areas where groundwater supplies are stressed.

https://thinkprogress.org/fracking-is-destroying-americas-water-supply-new-study-9cb163923d24/amp/ 



About 800,000 people have been displaced and more than 350 have died in the worst flooding in a century in southern India's Kerala state, authorities said Sunday. Rescuers are continuing to search for residents who are stranded in the worst-affected areas. The downpour that started Aug. 8 have triggered floods and landslides and caused homes and bridges to collapse across Kerala, a picturesque state known for its quiet tropical backwaters and beautiful beaches.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kerala-historic-floods-india-rescue-efforts-continue-hundreds-killed-2018-08-19/



# Sea

A state of emergency has been declared in Florida as the worst red tide in a decade blackens ocean water, and kills dolphins, sea turtles and fish at a relentless pace. More than 100 tonnes of dead sea creatures have been shovelled up from smelly, deserted beaches in tourist areas along Florida's south-west coast as a result of the harmful algal bloom this month alone. In just the past week, 12 dolphins washed ashore dead in Sarasota County, typically the toll seen in an entire year.

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/devastating-dolphin-loss-in-florida-amid-red-tide-disaster 



A new study from the University of Hawaii has found that native sea urchins successfully reduced invasive, reef-smothering macroalgae by 85 percent on a coral reef at Kaneohe Bay on Oahu. Globally, the health of coral reefs is threatened due to rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification. In Hawaii, a number of invasive macroalgae poses serious risk as they smothering native coral.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/2018/08/13/breaking-news/study-finds-native-sea-urchins-help-clear-invasive-macroalgae-from-oahu-reef/ 



New Caledonia, a french terriritory in the Pacific ocean, has agreed to tougher protections around a huge swathe of some of the worlds last near-pristine coral reefs, in a move conservationists hailed as a major breakthrough. New Caledonia, is home to a rich array of wildlife including 2.5 million seabirds and more than 9,300 marine species such as dugongs and nesting green sea turtles, many of which thrive in and around remote zones off the island nations coast.The archipelago boasts some of the worlds healthiest reefs, including Astrolabe, Petrie, Chesterfield and Bellona, which are considered exceptional examples of coral ecosystems.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/14/breakthrough-as-new-caledonia-votes-to-protect-coral-reef 



Environmental campaigners are suing the Trump administration for allegedly failing to protect the ocean habitat of the critically endangered Orca. The Centre for Biological Diversity has filed a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service, arguing it has left the last remaining southern resident killer whales at risk. The lawsuit was issued just days after a J35 carried her dead calf for a record 17 days in a tour of grief before finally letting the body go. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/killer-whale-southern-resident-orca-population-trump-center-biological-diversity-lawsuit-sue-a8498191.html



The oldest and thickest sea ice in the Arctic has started to break up, opening waters north of Greenland that are normally frozen, even in summer. This phenomenon – which has never been recorded before – has occurred twice this year due to warm winds and a climate-change driven heatwave in the northern hemisphere. The latest readings by the Norwegian Ice Service show that Arctic ice cover in the Svalbard area this week is 40% below the average for this time of year since 1981.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/21/arctics-strongest-sea-ice-breaks-up-for-first-time-on-record





# Air

A new global forecasting system shows that the world is likely to see more extreme temperatures in the coming four years as natural warming reinforces manmade climate change. Rising greenhouse gas emissions are steadily adding to the upward pressure on temperatures, but humans do not feel the change as a straight line because the effects are diminished or amplified by phases of natural variation.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/aug/14/extreme-temperatures-especially-likely-for-next-four-years 



The past four years have been the hottest on record, but new research shows the Earth was actually in a global warming "hiatus" that is about to end. when it does, natural factors are likely to help an already warming planet get even hotter over the next four years. Rising CO2, methane, and other greenhouse gas levels have caused the temperature of the planet to rise, which has led to a global warming.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/warm-2018-2022-1.4784746 



Summer weather patterns are increasingly likely to stall in Europe, North America and parts of Asia, according to a new climate study that explains why Arctic warming is making heatwaves elsewhere more persistent and dangerous. Rising temperatures in the Arctic have slowed the circulation of the jet stream and other giant planetary winds, says the paper, which means high and low pressure fronts are getting stuck and weather is less able to moderate itself.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/20/summer-weather-is-getting-stuck-due-to-arctic-warming 



The entire contiguous United States (CONUS) “ranked hottest on record,” as the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, California tweeted out Wednesday, adding that “records go back to 1895.”

https://thinkprogress.org/hottest-may-june-july-in-us-history-ea200870459d/



The West Coast of the United States is shrouded in smoke from the 110 large fires (this does not include smaller fires within each complex of fires) that have erupted across the region during this fire season. Over 1.9 million acres are or have been ablaze. Smoke from these fires has traveled along the west to east jet stream and that stream is bringing the smoke across the country as far as the East Coast.





# Soil

US officials have announced plans to allow increased mining on land that once belonged to two national monuments. The trump administration reduced the foot prints of the parks and are selling off some of the land, despite previous pledges not to do so. The two monuments, Bear Ears and Grand-Staircase0Escalante, are both in Utah. The draft management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante includes a 98-page minerals report that outlines deposits of coal, oil and gas, tar sands and other minerals under the whole of the monument.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/16/national-monuments-grand-staircase-escalante-bears-ears 



Saturday was the hottest day in the history of Glacier National Park, and its first  ever recorded time reaching 100 degrees F. On the same day, lightning started three fires in the Montana park, which has since been partly evacuated and closed. On Sunday, hot and dry winds helped the fire expand rapidly. Authorities have deployed smokejumpers and dispatched firefighters by foot to reach the parts of the fire in rough terrain. So far, according to the National Park Service, these efforts have not been effective to slow the fires spread. Right now, every single state west of the Mississippi is at least partly in drought.

https://grist.org/article/glacier-national-park-is-on-fire-and-yes-warming-is-making-things-worse/ 



Forecasters expect hot and dry conditions to continue well into autumn, exacerbating a drought that grows deeper by the day. In Oregon, Almost 70 percent of the state is now in severe drought, with parts of Southern Oregon lapsing into extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor report issued Thursday.

https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2018/08/16/oregon-drought-monitor-portland-weather-salem-wildfires/1013366002/ 



Despite ongoing deforestation, fires, drought-induced die-offs, and insect outbreaks, the world's tree cover actually increased by 2.24 million square kilometers—an area the size of Texas and Alaska combined—over the past 35 years, finds a paper published in the journal Nature. But the research also confirms large-scale loss of the planet's most biodiverse ecosystems, especially tropical forests.

https://psmag.com/environment/the-planet-now-has-more-trees-than-it-did-35-years-ago





A trio of intense earthquakes shook several islands in the South Pacific and Indonesia on Sunday, including two on the already battered island of Lombok. An 8.2 Magnitude quake centered 280km NNE of Ndoi Island, Fiji triggered fears of a tsunami which did not materialize.  The most recent major quake was a 6.9 magnitude tremor centered just 4 kilometers south of Belanting, on the Indonesian island of Lombok. That island is still trying to recover from the devastating effects of an August 5 earthquake that killed more than 430 people. No casualties or damage were reported immediately after Sunday's quake near Belanting, and no tsunami warning was issued.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/19/asia/earthquakes-fiji-lombok/index.html



A federal appeals court on Friday ordered the Trump administration to immediately implement an Obama-era chemical safety rule introduced in response to a 2013 explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas that killed 15 people. The court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to implement the Chemical Disaster Rule, saying the agency did not have authority to delay the rule for 20 months.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-chemicals-safety/u-s-court-orders-trump-administration-to-enforce-chemical-safety-rule-idUSKBN1L222W?utm_source=reddit.com 





# Urban spaces

An enormous shipment of waste that was illegally shipped to Poland from the UK disguised as plastic is being sent back to where it came from. The UK Environment Agency (EA) has confirmed they are working with Polish authorities to return the 1,000 tons of boxes, tins, detergent packaging and engine oil to British shores. A criminal investigation has been launched into three firms after the illegal waste marked as plastic recycling was intercepted at the Polish port of Gdynia.

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/poland-illegal-waste-uk-return-plastic-pollution-environment-agency-greenpeace-a8491201.html



Following President Trump's June 1 decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement - and now the French government is fighting back.  France is allowing Researchers, teachers, and students to apply for a four-year federal grant that allows them to continue their studies or instruction in environmentally focused fields, fully financed. A website called makeourplanetgreatagain.fr touts the program and also provides information on how to move to France by obtaining a work visa and residency permit.

https://www.businessinsider.in/France-is-offering-US-scientists-4-year-grants-to-move-to-the-country-and-do-research/articleshow/59056984.cms



Federal judges have ruled against the Trump administration three times in the last week, arguing that the administration short-circuited the regulatory process in its push to reverse policies on water protections, chemical plant safety operations and the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. In each instance, the courts either reinstated the existing rule or delayed the administrations proposal from taking effect. On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the Environmental Protection Agencys move to delay new chemical and safety requirements was arbitrary and capricious. The day before, a judge on the U.S. District Court in South Carolina reinstated a rule in 26 states limiting the dredging and filling of streams and waterways on the grounds that the EPA had not solicited sufficient public input.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/08/18/trump-administration-keeps-losing-environmental-court-cases/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.809e6b2879af



 Verizon Wireless' throttling of a fire department that uses its data services has been submitted as evidence in a lawsuit that seeks to reinstate federal net neutrality rules.  Verizon's claim that the throttling was just a customer service error and "has nothing to do with net neutrality." To the contrary, "Verizon's throttling has everything to do with net neutrality," a county official said.  One of Net neutrality's major goals is keeping the internet throttle free.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/08/verizon-throttled-fire-departments-unlimited-data-during-calif-wildfire/



President Donald Trump on Monday signed into law a military spending authorization bill that includes a mandate to prepare and protect bases from floods, storms and energy supply disruptions from climate change  something Trump has said is a hoax. Adapting to climate change has been a priority for military planners long before Trumps election. The bill also directs the Defense Department to account for flood risks before starting new construction  a move that will affect roughly $10 billion per year in military construction spending. 

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/trump-signs-military-funding-bill-that-included-focus-on-energy-climate-sec?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+greentechmedia%2Fnews+%28Greentech+Media%3A+News%29#gs.CXMtvbc



# Power



For more than a decade, environmentalists, tribal groups, and ranchers have fought an $8-billion, 1,180-mile (1,900-km) pipeline that will carry heavy crude to Steele City, Nebraska, from Canadas oilsands in Alberta. U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris ruled late on Wednesday for the Indigenous Environmental Network and other plaintiffs, ordering that the U.S. State Department to do a full environmental review of the revised Keystone XL pipeline route through Nebraska. The State Department is now obligated to analyze new information relevant to the environmental impacts of its decision to issue a permit for the pipeline last year.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pipeline-court-keystone/judge-orders-keystone-xl-pipeline-review-in-setback-for-trump-idUSKBN1L10A5



The Vietnammese government has decided to construct a number of large solar power facilities in the country and has encouraged large companies to invest in the sector in order to prevent anticipated power shortages due to the recent cancellation of nuclear power plant construction projects. Thien Tan Group, a large construction and energy conglomerate and one of Vietnams largest solar power companies, now said it will spend $2 billion to build five large solar power plants by 2020 in Ninh Thuan. A 50 megawatts solar plant will start operating this year, followed by four plants generating 200-300 megawatt each. The five solar plants will generate an estimated one gigawatts, equivalent to the total power output of a nuclear reactor.

http://investvine.com/vietnam-going-solar-nuclear-power-plants-shelved/



According to a YouGov survey, over half of Brits would install solar panels and home batteries if there was greater assistance from their government. The poll revealed that 62 per cent said they wanted to fit solar and a surprisingly high 60 per cent would buy an energy storage device, while 71 per cent said that they would join a local energy scheme such as a community windfarm or solar panel collective. Solar was ranked the most popular of all energy sources in the survey. The research also found that the same amount of people, 71 per cent, believe that fossil fuel companies, whose products contribute directly to climate change, should be made to pay damages for their role in contributing to global warming and that the UK government must do more to help prepare for and adapt to climate change (62 per cent).

http://www.governmentbusiness.co.uk/news/20082018/poll-finds-public-want-install-solar-panels



An update to Bloomberg New Energy Finance's database shows that over 1TW of wind and solar generating capacity has been installed worldwide as of mid-2018. They estimate that the first 1TW of wind and solar capacity required approximately $2.3 trillion of capital expenditure to deploy. The second terawatt will cost significantly less than the first.

https://about.bnef.com/blog/world-reaches-1000gw-wind-solar-keeps-going/?link=desc



The Trump administration next week plans to formally propose a vast overhaul of climate change regulations that would allow individual states to decide how, or even whether, to curb carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants, according to a summary of the plan and details provided by three people who have seen the full proposal.  The plan would also relax pollution rules for power plants that need upgrades. The 289-page EPA report detailing the changes includes tables showing that, by the EPA's own analysis, the most likely outcome of the new rule would result in 470 to 1,400 additional premature deaths annually by 2030.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/17/climate/trump-clean-power-rollback.html?rref=collection/issuecollection/todays-new-york-times&action=click&contentCollection=todayspaper&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection



Here's a bit of good news, Renewable energy sources accounted for 81.9 percent of Brazil’s installed capacity of energy generation and 87.8 percent of the country’s total production in June.

http://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/economia/noticia/2018-08/renewable-sources-generated-88-energy-brazil-june



Hampshire College, which hosts about 1400 students in Western Massachusetts, has just become the first residential U.S. College with 100% solar electricity. The 19-acre solar panel array was built on part of the campuss open agricultural land.

http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=18-P13-00031&segmentID=4



Tesla's 129 megawatt-hour (MWh) Hornsdale Power Reserve (HPR) battery in South Australia saved residents $5.7 million in its second quarter of operation.  Through 2018, the battery has saved a total of $8.9 million in energy costs.

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/08/06/analysiys-reveals-that-worlds-largest-battery-saves-south-australia-8-9-million-in-6-months/







# People



Brazilian environmental and rights organizations announced Wednesday that Indigenous leader Jorginho Guajajara was murdered in the State of Maranhao in the Brazilian Amazon. They suspect Jorginho was killed by illegal loggers who operate in the territory of the Guajajara people, renown for their work as Guardians of the Amazon. The leaders body was found last Sunday next to a stream that surrounded the Indigenous Reserve Arariboia.

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Brazilian-Indigenous-Leader-Guardian-of-the-Amazon-Murdered-20180816-0009.html



Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder with largely unknown causes, but a A new study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry has found that elevated pesticide levels in pregnant women are correlated with increased risk of autism among their children.  The study examined whether elevated levels of persistent organic pollutants in mothers are associated with autism among children.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-08/apa-slm081018.php