180822



Water

A new study suggests that usage of altrazine is directly correlated to rises in birth defects.  Altrazine is a widely used herbicide and is also the most commonly detected pesticide in U.S. drinking water.  The study also found that the chemical can actually alter DNA which is passed down generation to generation causing increasingly dire effects.  The effects shown on DNA in this study are known as EPIGENETIC changes, which are not yet widely accepted by the scientific community.

https://www.ecowatch.com/generational-harm-of-pesticides-2596453994.html



Since modern plastic was first mass-produced, 8 billion tons have been manufactured. And when it's thrown away, it doesn't just disappear. Much of it crumbles into small pieces. Scientists call the tiny pieces "microplastics" and define them as objects smaller than 5 millimeters � about the size of one of the letters on a computer keyboard. Researchers started to pay serious attention to microplastics in the environment about 15 years ago. They're in oceans, rivers and lakes. They're also in soil. Recent research in Germany found that fertilizer made from composted household waste contains microplastics. Even more concerning, microplastics are in drinking water, in beer, in sea salt, in fish and shellfish.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/08/20/636845604/beer-drinking-water-and-fish-tiny-plastic-is-everywhere



The state of Kansas allowed hundreds of residents in two Wichita-area neighborhoods to drink contaminated water for years without telling them, despite warning signs of contamination close to water wells used for drinking, washing and bathing. In 2011, while investigating the possible expansion of a Kwik Shop, the state discovered dry cleaning chemicals had contaminated groundwater in Haysville. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment did not act for more than six years. 

https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article216625720.html





Air



Nearly 100 Large wildfires are currently burning in the US, 42 of which are uncontained.  531 fires are currently burning in canada, 10% more than usual for this time of year.  279 of those fires are uncontrolled.  Fires in both countries are both toward the west of the country.  El Nino, bark beatles, climate change and big water companies are all being named as causes for the unusually large amount of fires.





Ash and smoke are choking Seattle�s air for the second week in a row, as wildfires smolder in Cascades and in British Columbia. The air quality in Seattle this week has been worse than Beijing's, which is one of the world�s most notoriously polluted cities. As of Wednesday morning, the Air Quality Index in Seattle was 190, a rating classified as �unhealthy.� In parts of the city, the index rose as high as 220, which is �very unhealthy.� Other parts of Puget Sound, like Port Angeles, Washington � 80 miles from Seattle � saw the AQI rise to 205 this week.

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/8/21/17761908/seattle-air-quality-haze-smoke-wildfire-health



Carbon dioxide emissions cause the Earth to warm, but no previous study has focused on examining how long it takes to reach maximum warming following a particular CO2 emission. Using conjoined results of carbon-cycle and physical-climate model inter-comparison projects, it was discovered that median time between an emission and maximum warming is 10.1 years, with a 90% probability range of 6.6�30.7 years. Uncertainties in the timing and amount of projected additional global temperature increase resulting from an incremental emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) derive from several factors. There are carbon-cycle uncertainties associated with the magnitude and timescales of changes in uptake and release of CO2 by the ocean and biosphere. 

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/9/12/124002



Air pollution causes a �huge� reduction in intelligence, according to new research, indicating that the damage to society of toxic air is far deeper than the well-known impacts on physical health. The research was conducted in China but is relevant across the world, with 95% of the global population breathing unsafe air. It found that high pollution levels led to significant drops in test scores in language and arithmetic, with the average impact equivalent to having lost a full year of the person�s education.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/27/air-pollution-causes-huge-reduction-in-intelligence-study-reveals





The Trump administration rolled out its proposal for gutting former President Barack Obama�s most sweeping climate change regulation Tuesday � a move that could also block any future Democratic president from trying to put it back together. The proposal from the EPA goes to the core of the criticisms that the coal industry and conservatives lodged against Obama's 2015 regulation, which used a novel reading of Clean Air Act to require states to cut greenhouse gas pollution from the power sector. The replacement from President Donald Trump�s EPA would give states far more leeway to meet more modest climate goals � or even to opt of the program entirely.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/21/trump-issues-rollback-of-obamas-biggest-climate-rule-790226



Soil

On 3 August, a Federal judge in Brasilia, ruled the immediate prohibition of new licenses for products based on three chemicals: Abamectin, Glyphosate and Tiram. The judge also gave a period of up to 30 days for the withdrawal of those already released in the market. 

https://www.grain.org/bulletin_board/entries/6021-brazil-court-bans-commercialisation-and-release-of-new-pesticides-based-on-glyphosate-abamectin-and-tiram-in-the-whole-country



Climate change is melting the French Alps, say mountaineers. Permafrost �cement� is evaporating, making rocks unstable and prone to collapse with many trails now deemed too dangerous to use. The trails to the high mountain huts around Mont Blanc which are used by climbers are becoming more dangerous too, forcing the authorities to adapt and take action.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/24/climate-change-is-melting-the-french-alps-say-mountaineers



A chunk of hard ice north of Greenland has disappeared. It should be there; it's been there for longer than any other ice in the Arctic. It's never gone missing before in all the years that humans have been tracking it., scientists used to refer to it as "the last ice area," thinking it would hold out at the edge of Greenland even as the warming planet melted all ice around it. But now, according to satellite images, a big piece of that Greenland coastal ice suddenly vanished or was reduced to floating bits and slush.

https://www.livescience.com/63395-greenland-ice-oldest-melting-ocean.html



the biggest man-made contaminant of the world�s oceans is not plastic straws, or even plastic bags, but cigarette butts. A campaign, the Cigarette Butt Pollution Project, hopes to ban cigarette filters, which are made from cellulose acetate, a type of plastic that can take over a decade to decompose, according to NBC. Of the 5.6 trillion cigarettes that are made with these filters each year, as many as two-thirds are dumped irresponsibly.

http://fortune.com/2018/08/27/ocean-contamination-plastic-straws-cigarette-butts/



The giraffe population has fallen by around 40% since 1990. There are now fewer than 100,000 giraffes alive in the world, and there are now fewer giraffes than elephants in Africa. Yet in America, trade in giraffe parts is booming. A report by the Humane Society of the United States, released on Thursday, found that nearly 40,000 giraffe parts have been imported to the US over the past decade, the equivalent, they estimate, of nearly 4,000 individual giraffes.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/23/giraffe-parts-humane-society-report



The Trump administration took the first steps on Wednesday towards opening up 1.6 million acres of public land in California to fracking and oil drilling. In a notice of intent published on the Federal Register Wednesday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said it would prepare an environmental impact statement on the use of fracking on 400,000 acres of public land and 1.2 million acres of mineral estate overseen by the Bureo of Land MGMT in California counties including Fresno, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/trump-moves-to-open-1-6-million-acres-of-california-public-lands-to-fracking/5651979



Sea

Oxybenzone and octinoxate, two chemical compounds found in many sunscreens, have been identified as harmful to corals and capable of bleaching, deformation, and DNA changes.  Last May, Hawaii banned sunscreens containing these chemicals to protect their coral reefs; the ban should take effect in January 2021. However, not everyone is convinced that the findings of the study are credible enough to ban a product containing chemicals that also provides protection from skin cancer.

https://www.kinder-world.org/articles/problems/sunscreen-is-a-threat-to-hawaiis-corals-but-its-not-the-biggest-one-19111



A fleet of Japanese whaling ships caught 177 minke and sei whales during a three-month tour of the northwestern Pacific, the government said Wednesday. The three-ship mission returned home as Tokyo prepares to make its case to resume commercial whaling at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Brazil next month. During the latest 98-day mission, the ships caught 43 minke whales and 134 sei whales, the Fisheries Agency said in a statement.

https://japantoday.com/category/national/japan-fleet-catches-177-whales-in-latest-hunt



Pangolins, a type of scaly anteater considered the world's most trafficked wild mammal, have lost more than 50 percent of their range in eastern China, according to a study published Wednesday in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Researchers from Beijing Forestry University, the Zoological Society of London and Imperial College, London focused on Chinese pangolins (Manis pentadactyla), which the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species lists as a critically endangered species, and found that their range had shrunk by 52.2 percent in eastern China between 1970 and 2016.

https://www.ecowatch.com/worlds-most-trafficked-mammal-pangolins-2598223581.html



Thet �Toxic red tide blooms conotinues it's march as it begins creeping up Florida's west coast, killing marine life and irritating humans.  At least 92 manatees have been killed so far and at least one whale shark!

https://fee.org/articles/how-sugar-subsidies-are-ruining-dozens-of-florida-beaches-and-destroying-vast-quantities-of-marine-life/



Urban 



On Saturday, one year on from Hurricane Harvey�s landfall on the Texas coast, Harris County residents decided to approve a $2.5 billion bond package that will deliver funds for crucial flood mitigation and prevention projects in and around the city.

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/08/houston-is-about-to-make-a-multi-billion-dollar-bet-to-survive-the-next-harvey/



Power

In four states�Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and South Dakota�wind contributed 30 to 37 percent of each state's entire electricity generation. These are fairly unique cases, because the states are sparsely populated and benefit from areas with high wind speeds. But the fraction of wind-generated electricity is growing in many other states, too. Fourteen states had more than 10 percent of their energy come from wind. On a wider scale, wind contributed just 6.3 percent of national generation, although that's up from 5.7 percent in 2016.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/08/in-2017-four-us-states-generated-more-than-30-of-their-electricity-from-wind/



Massachusetts has joined California, Hawaii, Nevada and Vermont in the club of states where solar represents 10% or more of in-state generation. Solar made up 2.4% of total generation in the United States during the first half of 2018, with solar and wind together making up slightly less than 10%. The August 2018 edition of Electric Power Monthly, a publication by the U.S. Department of Energy�s Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows electricity generation from solar in Massachusetts growing 34% year-over-year to 1.64 terawatt-hours (TWh) in the first six months of 2018 and representing 12% of the state�s total generation.

https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2018/08/24/solar-now-makes-up-more-than-10-of-electricity-in-five-states/



It is well-established that Bitcoin mining � aka, donating one�s computing power to keep a cryptocurrency network up and running in exchange for a chance to win some free crypto � uses a lot of electricity. Companies involved in large-scale mining operations know that this is a problem, and they�ve tried to employ various solutions for making the process more energy efficient. But, according to testimony provided by Princeton computer scientist Arvind Narayanan to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Bitcoin mining now uses about five gigawatts of electricity per day which is about 1% of total global power usage.

https://theoutline.com/post/6047/bitcoin-mining-accounts-for-almost-one-percent-of-the-worlds-energy-consumption?zd=1&zi=zwpkjue3



A floating tidal stream turbine off the coast of Orkney has produced more green energy in a year than Scotland�s entire wave and tidal sector produced in the 12 years before it came online. In 12 months of full-time operation, the SR2000 turbine supplied the equivalent annual power demand of about 830 households. It produced 3GWh of renewable electricity during its first year of testing at the European Marine Energy Centre. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/scotland-floating-turbine-tidal-power-record-sr2000-scotrenewables-ofgem-a8503221.html







Oil companies are asking the taxpayers of the world they're ruining to pay for protecting them against the consequences of the world they're ruining. A new plan is focused on a stretch of coastline that runs from the Louisiana border to industrial enclaves south of Houston that are home to one of the world's largest concentrations of petrochemical facilities, including the majority of Texas' 30 refineries. Last month, the U.S. government fast-tracked an initial $3.9 billion for three separate, smaller storm barrier projects that would specifically protect oil facilities.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22822288/texas-oil-refineries-climate-change-taxpayer-money/



Lobbyists for Shell Oil Co. told members of Congress this year that Shell supports a nationwide carbon tax and encouraged lawmakers to price greenhouse gas emissions. The company�s in-house lobbyists met with lawmakers in the Senate and the House, including Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), who introduced a carbon tax bill last month. In a lobbying disclosure form dated last month, Shell said its representatives had taken part in "discussions in support of a robust, transparent federal carbon price� in the second quarter of the year.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/shell-oil-quietly-urges-lawmakers-to-support-carbon-tax/







People

An Alabama man was fined $1,500 for touching a Hawaiian monk seal as well as harassing a sea turtle on Kauai, and then posting the videos to Instagram, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Alabaman, who was vacationing on Kauai last year, agreed to pay the fine. 

http://www.staradvertiser.com/2018/08/24/breaking-news/noaa-fines-alabama-man-for-touching-a-hawaiian-monk-seal-harassing-a-sea-turtle-after-social-media-posts/



Michigan�s state health director Nick Lyon will stand trial on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter in connection with two men who died from Legionnaires� disease during the Flint water crisis. Nick Lyon was accused of not acting quickly enough in response to the outbreak of the disease, which had been linked to the deaths of 12 people. District Court Judge David Goggins of Genese County described officials who kept the public in the dark as �corrupt,� reported The Associated Press.

https://www.newsweek.com/michigan-health-director-faces-manslaughter-charges-linked-flint-water-crisis-1082070



Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM), one of the few Engineers in Congress, launched his Clean Energy Vision last week.  The plan calls does not specifically call for 100% renewable energy, but Heinrich is verbally pushing that point.  Quote We can have a future reliable, chepa, resilent grid that is 100% powered by clean energy".  He joins Alesandra Occasio Cortez in her push for 100% renewable energy. 

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/senator-heinrich-100-clean-energy-grid-is-completely-doable#gs.9MnLkPQ