An environmental activist was arrested Saturday after she stuck a protest sign to a Monet painting at the famed Orsay Museum in Paris.
The activist with the group Food Riposte targeted Claude Monet’s “Poppy Field” painting, affixing a sticker that covered about half of the artwork with an apocalyptic, futuristic vision of the same scene, according to The Associated Press.
The group said it’s supposed to show what the field would look like in 2100, after it’s been “ravaged by flames and drought” if more action isn’t taken against climate change.
The museum, known in French as the Musée d’Orsay, is a top tourist destination and home to some of the world’s most-loved Impressionist work.
It was not immediately clear whether the incident damaged the 151-year-old painting. The museum did not respond to the Associated Press’ request for comment.
The woman was detained pending investigation, according to Paris police.
Food Riposte is one of several environmental activist groups that target famous artworks and stage protests across Europe in calls for action to the earth from further damage to the climate.
Weeks later, six climate activists with the German-based group Last Generation, were arrested after they broke into the Munich airport and glued themselves to access routes leading to runways, officials said. It caused the airport to be temporarily closed and led to around 60 flight cancellations during a busy holiday weekend.
Last year, climate activists turned the water of Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain black in protest of the fossil fuel industry. Activist group Ultima Generazione said that eight people poured “vegetable charcoal” in the water as demonstrators pushed for an “immediate stop” to fossil fuel subsidies.
Lucia Suarez Sang is an associate managing editor at CBSNews.com. Previously, Lucia was the director of digital content at FOX61 News in Connecticut and has previously written for outlets including FoxNews.com, Fox News Latino and the Rutland Herald.
Opinion by Carolina Galvani, Monique Mikhail (washington dc)
Inter Press Service
WASHINGTON DC, May 29 (IPS) – Last week, the World Bank Group released a new report that highlights the urgent need to drastically reduce GHG emissions to address the climate crisis and calls on countries to act. However, while the World Bank’s acknowledgment of the damaging climate impacts of industrial agriculture is a crucial step forward, it’s simply not enough.
To address the climate emergency, the World Bank must walk the talk and take action on its own portfolio – which currently has billions invested in livestock production – by halting all financing for the global expansion of factory farming.
First, the climate consequences of industrial livestock are staggering. As the World Bank’s report points out, the global agrifood system accounts for approximately one-third of all global greenhouse gas emissions, and industrial livestock production accounts for the lion’s share of these.
Research has shown that livestock production alone will consume nearly half of the world’s 1.5°C emissions budget by 2030 and a staggering 80% by 2050. The World Bank’s report aptly states that “the system that feeds us is also feeding the planet’s climate crisis.”
The World Bank cannot effectively tackle the climate crisis without a significant shift in lending away from high-polluting industrial livestock and toward a more sustainable food system.
Second, the World Bank’s continued financing for industrial livestock starkly contradicts its own commitments, spanning from the Paris Agreement targets to the Sustainable Development Goals to the Bank’s biodiversity policies, and even its own mission statement.
The World Bank itself says that “the world cannot achieve the Paris Agreement targets without achieving net zero emissions in the agrifood system.” Yet, the Bank continues to finance the expansion of industrial livestock – putting the Bank’s financing at odds with its commitment to align its strategies, activities, and investments with the climate goals of the Paris Agreement.
The Bank’s financial support for industrial livestock goes against other obligations as well, including the Bank’s commitment to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
A 2019 report from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Development highlights the adverse human health and environmental impacts of industrial agriculture, including livestock and feed production, and the ways in which it undermines several SDGs, including poverty eradication (1), zero hunger (2), good health (3), clean water (6), decent work (8), responsible consumption and production (12), and climate action (13).
Adding to this, despite the World Bank’s claim that it is “putting nature at the core of development efforts”, the Bank is continuing to undermine biodiversity by supporting the expansion of industrial livestock production when this sector, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), is the primary threat to over 85% of the 28,000 species at risk of extinction.
Beyond global commitments, financing industrial livestock is also at odds with the World Bank’s own mission statement. World Bank President Ajay Banga took the reins at the World Bank a year ago with a mandate to help countries mitigate the climate crisis.
As part of that mandate, the World Bank updated its mission statement, stating it will work “to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet.” To achieve this mission, the World Bank must reassess its investments and immediately cease financing the expansion of industrial livestock.
Finally, like all development institutions, the World Bank has limited resources and must carefully choose the best projects to achieve its overall mission. In practice, this means that every dollar spent on industrial livestock is a dollar not invested in what the World Bank itself has acknowledged is the necessary just transition to a sustainable agrifood system. The Bank must redirect its support toward transitioning to a just and sustainable global food system.
As the Bank rightly points out in its recent report, “he world has avoided confronting agrifood system emissions for as long as it could because of the scope and complexity of the task…now is the time to put agriculture and food at the top of the mitigation agenda. If not, the world will be unable to ensure a livable planet for future generations.”
It’s past time for the Bank to heed its own warning.
The World Bank must immediately cease its support for industrial livestock — a primary driver of climate change, biodiversity loss, public health crises, and food insecurity — and direct the Bank’s resources and considerable influence toward reforming and reshaping agriculture and food systems.
Our future on a livable planet depends on it.
Carolina Galvani is the executive director of Sinergia Animal, an international animal protection organization working in the Global South to end the worst practices of industrial animal agriculture. Monique Mikhail is the Agriculture and Climate Finance Campaigns Director at Friends of the Earth U.S. Sinergia Animal and Friends of the Earth are members of the Stop Financing Factory Farming coalition.
John Dickerson reports on the fallout from Israeli airstrikes on Rafah, closing arguments in former President Trump’s “hush money” trial, and what could be behind increased reports of airline turbulence.
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Buyers curious about making the switch to electric vehicles have made it clear in survey after survey after survey: Charging kind of freaks them out.
In many ways, drivers report, owning an EV is the same if not better than owning a gas-powered car. But fueling an electric vehicle is different, and can be inconvenient depending on where you live, and is therefore sometimes scary to even those interested in buying electric.
The good news is that automakers, governments, and other policy players realize the US has a charging problem. They want more people in electric cars. Automakers are scaling up EV production and want people to buy them, and legislators realize that nixing gas-powered cars in favor of zero-emissions electrics will be an important part of staving off the worst effects of climate change.
As a result of the early efforts to make the switch to EVs, the US currently has 188,600 public and private charging ports, and 67,900 charging stations, according to data collected by the US Department of Energy—figures that have more than doubled since 2020. Another 240 stations are currently planned. Compare that to today’s gas infrastructure: The country has about 145,000 gas fueling stations, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
At WIRED, the whole situation got us interested in a thought experiment: If we could magically snap our fingers and turn every auto electric, how many charging stations would the US need to add?
Number-crunchers at Coltura, an alternative fuel research and advocacy group, crunched the numbers:
The upshot? The nation needs to build lots and lots more chargers before it gets to full electrification, a point experts suggest should come in the 2040s. But the task may not be as insurmountable as it looks.
The number of public chargers will have to grow by a factor of six, as estimated by Matthew Metz, Coltura’s executive director, and Ron Barzilay, its data and policy associate. “We’re not necessarily off-track,” says Metz.
America’s first large-scale offshore wind farms began sending power to the Northeast in early 2024, but a wave of wind farm project cancellations and rising costs have left many people with doubts about the industry’s future in the US.
Several big hitters, including Ørsted, Equinor, BP, and Avangrid, have canceled contracts or sought to renegotiate them in recent months. Pulling out meant the companies faced cancellation penalties ranging from $16 million to several hundred million dollars per project. It also resulted in Siemens Energy, the world’s largest maker of offshore wind turbines, anticipating financial losses in 2024 of around $2.2 billion.
Altogether, projects that had been canceled by the end of 2023 were expected to total more than 12 gigawatts of power, representing more than half of the capacity in the project pipeline.
So, what happened, and can the US offshore wind industry recover?
I lead the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Center for Wind-Energy Science, Technology, and Research (WindSTAR) and Center for Energy Innovation, and follow the industry closely. The offshore wind industry’s troubles are complicated, but it’s far from dead in the US, and some policy changes may help it find firmer footing.
A Cascade of Approval Challenges
Getting offshore wind projects permitted and approved in the US takes years and is fraught with uncertainty for developers, more so than in Europe or Asia.
Before a company bids on a US project, the developer must plan the procurement of the entire wind farm, including making reservations to purchase components such as turbines and cables, construction equipment, and ships. The bid must also be cost-competitive, so companies have a tendency to bid low and not anticipate unexpected costs, which adds to financial uncertainty and risk.
Before starting to build, the developer must conduct site assessments to determine what kind of foundations are possible and identify the scale of the project. The developer must consummate an agreement to sell the power it produces, identify a point of interconnection to the power grid, and then prepare a construction and operation plan, which is subject to further environmental review. All of that takes about five years, and it’s only the beginning.
For a project to move forward, developers may need to secure dozens of permits from local, tribal, state, regional, and federal agencies. The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which has jurisdiction over leasing and management of the seabed, must consult with agencies that have regulatory responsibilities over different aspects in the ocean, such as the armed forces, Environmental Protection Agency, and National Marine Fisheries Service, as well as groups including commercial and recreational fishing, Indigenous groups, shipping, harbor managers, and property owners.
“That’s why my husband hardly ever goes out anymore. You have to go far out to sea,” says Florencia Hernandez, 81, grandmother of Otsoa and Ramón, known locally as Pola. In a wheelchair surrounded by memories—black and white portraits, lead hooks, the fishing line she holds in her hands—she is the longest-lived witness of the transformation that her land has undergone. She learned the fishing trade in her youth.
“My father taught me. Like my grandfather, he was a fisherman. He had a little wooden boat, and he took me when I was a child,” says Hernandez while showing a photo album. “Later, I fished with my brother Salvador. I was the one who grabbed the motor. We would go out at night. When I got married, I accompanied my husband. I would get up very early in the morning, leave the clothes washed and laid out for when we returned from the day’s work. In a short time, we would fill baskets with fish that we would sell in the afternoon,” she says.
An abandoned boat in the fishing community of Las Barrancas, Mexico.Photograph: Seila Montes
Hernandez and her husband raised their children with what they earned from the sea. “The sea that has given me everything and now takes everything away,” she says with a broken voice. In Las Barrancas they live every day with the fear of the arrival of a hurricane like Roxanne, which landed in 1995. “I was only 8 years old but I remember it very well. That one hit very hard. It took a lot of houses,” says Ramón.
Climate Change and Poorly Planned Projects
Between the storm surges, the sea level continues to gradually rise. In the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, that increase is about three times faster than the global average, according to a 2023 study published in Nature. “This could be due to the loss of important habitats, such as seagrasses and reefs, natural barriers that protect the coast,” says Patricia Moreno-Casasola, a biologist at the Institute of Ecology.
“Here it’s already taken 100 meters of beach,” says Otsoa. “The impact has not only been environmental and on fishing, on which we live, but it has also had a great social impact. The beach was our means of communication with the other neighboring communities,” explains the fisherwoman. The tourism that her town used to attract has also fallen off.
“My mother had a little food stand by the beach that was crowded at Easter, a business that sold snacks. We lived on that income almost all year round,” Ramón says. Even horse races were organized there on the beach.”
Miyares has challenged several rules, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations for tractor trailer and passenger vehicle tailpipes, power plants and meat and poultry processors.
This article was reprinted with permission from Virginia Mercury.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares speaks during an interview at the Office of the Attorney General in Richmond, Va., Tuesday, May 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly)(AP/Ryan M. Kelly)
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares speaks during an interview at the Office of the Attorney General in Richmond, Va., Tuesday, May 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly)(AP/Ryan M. Kelly)
Joining 23 conservative-led states’ efforts, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares has signed on to legal challenges to new federal rules designed to advance emission reductions and address what scientists say is causing extreme weather events.
The crux of Miyares’ arguments in all of the legal challenges to the new emissions rules has been to combat what his office characterized as federal government overreach, which spokesperson Chloe Smith said is “a core function of state attorney general offices.”
Though Virginia follows the tailpipe emissions for passenger vehicles set by California, the different federal rules would have a “nationwide effect, including in Virginia,” on American power grids, the supply chain and consumer demand, Smith said.
President Joe Biden’s administration has rolled out the various rules as part of his agenda that has included record amounts of funding for renewable energy deployment through the Inflation Reduction Act and environmental improvement projects through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The new emissions standards — and Miyares’ actions concerning them — have met with mixed reactions in Virginia from environmental groups, the trucking industry and electric utilities.
Heavy truck rule
The latest suit over the heavy truck rule is one that could apply to Virginia, since the state defaults to following the federal government for those tailpipe emissions standards while following California’s passenger car emissions rules.
Because of smog issues California faced, that state was granted an exception to the Clean Air Act to enforce stricter tailpipe emission regulations. No other state uses that exception, which prevents car manufacturers from having to make more than two different types of vehicles to meet additional standards.
Though not as stringent as California, the federal passenger car emissions rules are said to lead to greater public adoption of electric vehicles, which the federal heavy truck mirrors.
Evening traffic on Interstate 95 through Richmond. (Wyatt Gordon)
The Southern Environmental Law Center and other groups have been lauding the work from Biden — though they’d like to see previously drafted and more stringent rules around tractor trailers, or heavy trucks, get adopted — while expressing disappointment in Miyares’ actions.
“It’s very disappointing that the attorney general has joined [challenges to the rules], which will have an outsized impact on climate pollution that are not only harming the earth but also our health,” said Trip Pollard, a senior attorney with the SELC. “I can’t say I’m too surprised.”
Pollard, a leading backer of reducing car emissions, stands by the heavy truck rule because those pollutants from the transportation sector are the state and country’s largest source of greenhouse emissions that are warming the planet, leading to more frequent and severe flooding and fire events.
“There absolutely are legitimate concerns and we just need to be sure to address those concerns,” Pollard said, referencing failed attempts this past session to build out EV charging infrastructure in rural areas.
Conversely, the Virginia Trucking Association has said the new federal heavy truck rules are “unrealistic,” because of the cost to implement the changes and charging demands they say are put on truckers, and support Miyares’ pushback against them.
“We certainly appreciate their effort to stop this rule,” said Dale Bennett, president & CEO of the Virginia Trucking Association. “Let’s take a look at trying to get something that’s realistic and technology neutral.”
Bennett and the trucking industry’s opposition stems from the increased cost the rules will put on the industry that will trickle down to consumers, Bennett said, and could even lead to trucking companies buying vehicles now before needing to buy 2027 to 2032 model year trucks that will need to comply with the federal rules.
“Operationally how do you operate them if there’s no charging infrastructure?” Bennett said.
Virginia is home to a Volvo plant in Dublin that has committed to fossil fuel-free vehicles. There’s also Mack Trucks, which recently expanded in Roanoke County.
“The Volvo Group is completely aligned with EPA’s objective of speeding the transition to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs),” said Jonathan Miller, senior vice president of public affairs for Volvo Group North America, in a statement. “Customers won’t buy ZEVs unless they’re confident they have access to charging, which neither [manufacturers] nor EPA can guarantee.”
Miller said the EPA’s new rules are “more realistic than what was originally proposed and support the agency’s pledge to consider further adjustments if necessary.”
As less than half of American respondents said in a recent Gallup poll they would purchase an electric vehicle, passenger vehicle manufacturer Ford said it is scaling back its commitments to transition fleets to electric vehicles amid sale concerns. The car maker, which recently began an ad campaign promoting options to buy gas, electric and hybrid vehicles, still filed a brief in support of the new passenger car tailpipe emissions because of the “regulatory stability” it provides.
“Even more important than the power our customers choose, is what they choose to do with that power,” said Lisa Materazzo, Ford global chief marketing officer, in a statement on its ad campaign promoting choice.
Power plant rule
The EPA’s power plant rule has a similar intent of weaning the country’s electric grid off of fossil fuel-emitting generation sources, but the VCEA directly governing the state’s grid has already set up Virginia to get there.
The new federal rule, according to the Associated Press, would create standards that require existing coal plants operating beyond 2032 to capture 90% of their emissions, or close before then. Future coal or natural gas plants would need to meet that carbon capture rate, too.
“By developing these standards in a clear, transparent, inclusive manner, EPA is cutting pollution while ensuring that power companies can make smart investments and continue to deliver reliable electricity for all Americans,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan in a statement.
The rules for the coal plants could come into play for the Clover Power Station that is co-owned by Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, the electricity supplier for the state’s more rural electric cooperatives, and Dominion Energy, Virginia’s largest utility. Under the VCEA, the Clover plant is mandated to close by 2045, unless there’s a reliability concern.
Dominion’s Chesterfield Power Station, once the largest fossil-fuel powered plant in Virginia. (NBC 12)
If it were to stay open up until then, it would need to adopt the carbon capture technology the federal rules are requiring that industry associations are challenging because of sequestration measures being in its nascent stage. Otherwise, the 880 megawatts of electricity Clover produces, as well as several other coal plants that are already cited to come offline, would need to close, creating a reliability concern amid unprecedented energy demand.
Despite generating less and less of its potential electricity, the full output of the plant may be needed as part of a “capacity obligation” with the regional grid operator, PJM Interconnection, to supply electricity at the highest peak the grid could face at anypoint.
But whereas the tailpipe emission rules may have a more stark division between support and opposition, the power plant rules don’t have a clear for and against delineation.
“We support EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, as well as the agency’s efforts to provide paths to additional carbon reductions and cleaner resources,” said the Edison Electric Institute, the trade association for investor-owned public utilities like Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power Company, in a statement. “At the same time, we are seeking judicial review of the agency’s determination that carbon capture and storage (CCS) should be the basis for compliance with other portions of the [federal] rules.”
Old Dominion Electric Cooperative’s Kirk Johnson said in a statement: “EPA’s regulation relies on the use of carbon capture technology that is not currently commercially available, despite the Clean Air Act’s requirement that regulatory standards be achievable and based on available technologies,” Without carbon capture technology, Johnson said, “the rule will require power plants to close prematurely during a time when we expect to see unprecedented growth in the need for electricity.”
Because of the recent unveiling of the rules and ongoing litigation, Dominion spokesperson Aaron Ruby said the utility “will need time to evaluate how they might impact our existing fleet or new power stations,” which includes a natural gas plant being proposed in Chesterfield.
Teresa Hall, a spokeswoman for Appalachian Power Company, Virginia’s second largest utility that also serves West Virginia, also said carbon capture and storage is “not a viable or proven technology that can be deployed on a large scale within the timeframes required by the rule.”
Appalachian Power falls under the parent company American Electric Power, which also includes Wheeling and Kingsport power companies and had 63% and 19% of its electricity generation come from coal and natural gas, respectively, in 2023.
But Virginia has already charted itself toward an electric grid less dependent on fossil fuel through VCEA, and through the state’s previous participation in the Regional Greenhouse Initiative that required electricity producers, including utilities, to purchase allowances to emit carbon, said Walton Shepherd, Virginia Policy Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council,
“We’re already on a path to compliance,” said Shepherd, adding that technologies like battery storage are increasingly emerging as viable ways to provide electricity amid any concerns over the deployment of renewable sources, especially compared to several years ago. “The solutions are there. We have the tools.”
The lawsuit from Miyares, without an alternative solution to address the “health and welfare,” issues from emissions causing climate change for Virginia, Shepherd added, is “an insult to Virginia.”
But referencing another SCOTUS case from 2022 that arose out of West Virginia, Miyares said the EPA’s power plant rule was “overstepping its bounds,” ignoring Supreme Court guidance and “infringing upon the sovereign rights of states to manage their energy resources.”
“We are urging the Court to recognize the EPA’s illegal power-grab and ensure that any changes to our nation’s energy policies are made through the proper legislative process, not through unilateral regulatory mandates,” Miyares added.
Other action
Virginia’s attorney general has also challenged federal rules over meat and poultry waste and air quality standards, as well as some protections for solar customers. Miyares claimed wins for the withdrawal of a rule that would have allowed the public trading of corporations holding park, federal or private land with an intent to conserve it, and a settlement with Monsanto.
The additional challenges oppose regulations that would expand requirements for liquid waste produced by meat processing plants from being enacted at 171 facilities to 3,879 in the country. Details on the number of Virginia facilities the rules would apply to were not immediately available.
The EPA said the proposed rule “would reduce pollutants discharged through wastewater from [meat and poultry processing] facilities by approximately 100 million pounds per year.”
Poultry barns on the Eastern Shore. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)
But currently, meat and poultry processing plants that aren’t discharging directly into a stream have to pre-treat their waste under a Virginia Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit before sending it to a municipal waste facility, in order to prevent the system becoming overwhelmed. That works “well the way it is,” said Hobey Bauhan, Virginia Poultry Federation president.
“We’re favorable to those who are trying to say, ‘yeah let’s take a second look,’” at the federal proposals, Bauhan said.
The rules for Toronto’s ravines are based on the idea that a species will develop traits specific to a location as they grow over many generations. As a result, trees grown from seeds gathered in Toronto may be more likely to blossom when native pollinators are active than seeds from the same species grown at a lower latitude.
Foresters say there’s another valid argument for trying to keep as many native trees as possible. For some First Nations and Indigenous people with deep ties to particular varieties, phasing them out could add to the long history of cultural and physical dispossession.
In the Pacific Northwest, for example, the Western redcedar (written as one word because it’s not a true cedar) is central to Native American cultural practices for many local tribes. Some groups refer to themselves as the “people of the cedar tree,” using the logs for canoes, basketry, and medicine.
But drying soils mean the tree is no longer thriving in many parts of Portland, Oregon, said Jenn Cairo, the city’s urban forestry manager. The city has faced deadly heat domes and drier conditions in recent years. As a result, Portland recommends planting the species only in optimal conditions in its list of approved street trees. “We’re not eliminating them,” she said, “but we’re being careful about where we’re planting them.”
A similar tactic is being used in Sydney, where the Port Jackson fig tree is struggling, but a close relative, the Moreton Bay fig, is thriving. Head of urban forestry Karen Sweeney said the city is looking at irrigated parklands as potential homes for native species that are dying elsewhere in the city. “We often say we’re happy to do it where we can find a location,” she said.
When introducing new tree species to supplement the urban canopy, they must be sure any newcomers won’t spread invasively—dominating their new habitats and causing damage to native species.
There are plenty of examples of what to avoid. The Norway maple, native to Europe and western Asia, has escaped the bounds of North American cities, creating excessive shade and crowding out understory plants—they’re one of the invasive species pushing out natives in the ravines of Toronto. Tree of heaven, native to China, deposits chemicals into the soil that damage nearby plants, letting it establish dense thickets and drive out native species; it is illegal to plant in parts of the US, including Indiana, where residents are urged to pull it up wherever they see it. The highly flammable eucalyptus, native to Australia, has put down roots all over the world, bringing increased wildfire danger along with it.
Urban tree experts don’t expect introduced species to cause major disruptions to native wildlife. Done right, adding some variety to cities dominated by one kind of tree could reduce the problems caused by waves of pests or disease. A patchwork of species could create a buffer against tree-to-tree infection among the same species. While it’s possible that new plant species displace plants used by animals that depend on one kind of plant to survive, those cases are the exception, said Esperon-Rodriguez, the ecologist at Western Sydney University.
Health officials are warning people not to “fry,” but to protect their skin and eyes while enjoying the outdoors this Memorial Day weekend.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention announced that Friday marks the 16th annual “Don’t Fry Day,” a day meant to encourage people to protect themselves from the sun as the weather starts warming up over the long weekend. Officials warned that too much exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation can increase the risk of developing skin cancer and cataracts.
“Remember to protect your skin and eyes from UV rays before you go outdoors,” EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation Joseph Goffman said in a press release announcing Fry Day. “Don’t Fry Day is a great annual reminder of the importance of sun safety.”
The EPA encouraged the public to use the agency’s UV Index app to see the UV forecast and read tips on how to be safe in the sun.
The EPA offered several catchy tips for people to protect themselves from the sun:
SLIP! on a long-sleeved shirt or other clothing that covers the skin
SLOP! on sunscreen with SPF 15 or higher, reapplying every two hours (sooner if swimming)
SLAP! on a broad-brimmed hat that covers the back of the neck and the tips of the ears
WRAP! on a pair of sunglasses. There are some that wrap around the sides of the face, which provides more protection from the sun
Tanning beds and sunbathing can be damaging to the skin, so health officials urged the public to avoid them.
Nearly 20% of Americans will develop skin cancer, according to the EPA. In 2024, more than 100,600 new cases of invasive melanoma, which is the most dangerous form of skin cancer, will likely be diagnosed in the U.S., the American Cancer Society predicts. That’s about 3,000 more cases than were estimated in 2023.
Some people may have a greater risk of developing skin cancer depending on several factors, including the color of their skin, if they had a history of blistering sunburns in their childhood, if they have many moles, or if they have a family history of skin cancer. The EPA also reminded the public that it’s important for people to protect themselves from the sun throughout the year, not just in the summer.
Wake me when it’s over—summer, that is. I know, I know, you just love it: the long days, the warm evenings, the trips to the beach, the afternoons at the ballpark when your favorite team is playing and the pennant race is tightening—and the temperature is skyrocketing, and your skin is blistering, and the beer is $6, and the drive home will be in 88° heat, which is fine if you don’t mind running the air conditioner, except that you’re burning through $4–a-gallon gas, because it’s summer-driving season and the giant oil companies didn’t get to be the giant oil companies without knowing the right time of year to hike their prices.
And that’s hardly all of it. Summertime is the season of horribles, from higher crime rates, to increased warfare, to spikes in asthma, to raging wildfires, to swarms of bugs, to a rise in traffic accidents—and even to a bump in divorces, because how could a 100° heat wave, a busted A.C., and the kids out of school not spell domestic bliss?
What’s more, it’s only getting worse. Last summer was the hottest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the 10 warmest years were all from 2010 to 2022. So with a lousy part of the year becoming lousier still, here, in no particular order, are nine reasons summer is the suckiest season of them all.
Road wrecks
There’s nothing like long days, no school, and lots of teen drivers to make the highways a safe place to be. Not. It’s no coincidence that the Automobile Association of America (AAA) labels the stretch between Memorial Day and Labor Day “the 100 deadliest days.” There are over 11.7 million U.S. drivers between the ages of 15 and 20, and if you know what’s good for you you’ll stay out of their way—especially when they’re out as a group, driving recreationally. “We know that when teens are joyriding as opposed to driving with a specific destination and time in mind, there is a heightened risk,” said Diana Gugliotta, senior manager of public affairs for AAA Northeast, in a statement last year.
AAA’s numbers back that up. When a teen driver has only other teens in a vehicle, the risk of fatality for the driver and all passengers increases 51%. When at least one passenger is over 35, the overall fatality risk declines 8%. From 2011 to 2020, there were 7,316 deaths in summertime teen-related traffic accidents—nearly half the total of all teen-related traffic accidents for the year.
This means war
Napoleon Bonaparte could tell you a thing or two about what it’s like to pick a fight with Russia in the dead of winter. In 1812, the French army suffered half a million casualties in battles that climaxed in December—a rout that led to Napoleon’s abdication and exile in 1914. Any general worth his steed would prefer to fight in the summer when there’s plenty of light, the roads are clear, and soldiers aren’t bundled up against the cold. As far back as 55 BCE, the Roman army’s “campaigning season” would end when summer wound down and the soldiers would retreat to their winter quarters. It’s probably not a coincidence that World War I began in August 1914, World War II on Sept. 1, 1939, and Nazi Germany’s invasion of Russia in June 1941. More recently, in August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and in August 1991, the old Soviet Union nearly fell into civil war when communist hardliners tried to oust President Mikhail Gorbachev. America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan typically saw its fiercest fighting in the summer months, and the same is true of the war in Ukraine.
Hot-weather warfare is likely only to get worse. A 2009 paper in PNAS found that rising temperatures exacerbated by climate change could lead to a 54% increase in the risk of civil war in Africa by 2030. A 2011 study in Nature found that warmer weather during El Niño years doubled the risk of civil war in 90 tropical countries and could have accounted for 20% of conflicts around the world over the past half century. Meantime, what’s the season of peace on Earth and goodwill toward men? Wintertime, baby. Wintertime.
Going buggy
Summer advertises itself as the season of birdsong and butterflies. Don’t believe it. It’s the season of pests—particularly ticks, mosquitoes, flies, fleas, bees, and wasps. Ticks, mosquitoes, and fleas in particular can spread diseases that include malaria, yellow fever, Zika, dengue, Lyme, and chikungunya. Bees, wasps, and yellowjackets—with their infernal stings—are similarly creatures of the summer. And you think you know flies? You don’t know flies. There are 110,000 species of them—most more active in hot weather—making up a global population of 17 million flies for every living human. Pssst! They’ve got us surrounded.
Ah, summer, it takes your breath away. Literally. More than 25 million Americans have asthma, and 4.7 million of them are children—according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). If that means suffering during the temperate months, it’s much worse when the oven that is summer turns the dial up to broil. Heat and humidity constrict and narrow airways, trap ozone, and cause the air to entrain more particulate matter from cars, trucks, and smokestacks. What’s more, stagnant summer air—especially in homes with poor air conditioning or none at all—can exacerbate the presence of mold, dust, and pollen. And then—and stop me if I’ve mentioned this before—climate change is making things more punishing still for people with asthma. A 2023 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report found that rising temperatures could increase the incidence of childhood asthma by anywhere from 4% to 11%, due partly to worsening pollution and allergies, and the growing problem of wildfire smoke.
Speaking of wildfires…
When it comes to dust, haze, and a mustard-colored sky, Mars has got nothing on Earth—at least during the summer fire season. Last year’s Canadian wildfires, sparked by lightning and fueled by high temperatures and drought, torched more than 71,000 square miles of land in Canada—an area the size of North Dakota—and yellowed out skies in the U.S. from the Midwest to the Northeast to the mid-Atlantic states. But the U.S. is playing with matches too. California’s wildfire season runs from April through October—peaking in the summer—with megadroughts and heat waves driving the flames. Of the state’s 20 largest fires, half occurred from 2017 to 2022. Climate change, of course, plays a regrettable role in all of this.
Crime and punishment
Nothing puts bad guys in a bad mood like hot weather—or so it seems. A 2019 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that on days with a maximum temperature above 85°F, all crime increases by 2.2% and violent crime by 5.7%. A 2023 study in PLOS One attributed this to what is known as the Theory of Routine Activities, which postulates that for crime to occur, three factors must be present: a motivated offender, a suitable target, and an absence of guards or surveillance. Of these, it is the second one—the suitable target—that is especially common in summer, according to the 2023 study, with greater numbers of people out on the streets.
As for the first variable, a motivated offender, well, even criminals don’t want to be outside commiting a crime in a 20°-below polar vortex. During a particularly deep freeze in 2015, Boston saw a 32% drop in burglaries, a 35% drop in larceny, and 46% drop in vehicle theft. Over the same period, New York City set a modern-day record, going 12 days without a homicide.
Summer’s contribution to violent crime in particular may be due at least in part to the common experience of hot weather leading to hot tempers, with even the most even-keeled people more inclined to blow a seam if they can’t cool off. One 2020 study found that people playing competitive video games in a hot room were more aggressive toward their gaming partner than they were when the room was cooler.
Finally, the atmospherics are all wrong. Nighttime is nighttime, people; the sun is the party guest that won’t go home if it’s still out at 9 p.m. I say send it packing no later than 8 p.m. and then race back to a nice wintertime sundown at cocktail hour. Cheers.
Trouble on the homefront
If you want to stay married, it might be wise to sleep through summer. That’s the finding of a 2016 study out of the University of Washington showing that August, along with March, are the two peak months for divorce in the U.S. The reason in both cases is more or less the same: couples tend to see winter and summer vacations as untouchable family time and, even in highly stressed marriages, will make it a point to hold the ship together for those treasured stretches. Once the good times are over, however, the marriages might be too.
“People tend to face the holidays with rising expectations, despite what disappointments they might have had in years past,” said sociology professor and the study’s co-author Julie Brines, in a statement at the time the research was released. “They’re very symbolically charged moments in time.”
When those expectations are dashed, a bust-up is likelier to follow. And while both early spring and late summer were implicated equally in that study, other research by Stowe Family Law in the U.K. found that September—the tail end of summer—is the peak divorce month on the other side of the pond, with total-immersion family time throwing financial, interpersonal, and other issues into relief.
It kills your skin
No matter how good it might feel to bake in the sun, your skin really, truly does not want a tan. In a rapidly warming world, it should come as no surprise that the sun is murder on your skin—drying it, aging it, cracking it, and much more importantly, leading to cancer. A 2022 paper in the journal Cureus found the highest rates of skin cancer diagnoses occurring from July to October.
Simple steps like wearing sunscreen, avoiding the sun from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and wearing protective clothing can all help reduce the risk. Sunshine in the winter, of course, can cause similar damage, but in the summer you’re out a whole lot more and wearing a whole lot less. That—like summer as a whole—spells trouble.
Lauren Goode: Yeah. You recommended a podcast episode with her too.
Michael Calore: I did, yeah.
Lauren Goode: Was it the Fresh Air one?
Michael Calore: Yeah. To you. Yeah. Yeah, because you were like, “Who is Kathleen Hannah?” I’m like, “Oh, you got to check her out.” So yeah, I think she was on another podcast last week. Anyway, the book is brand-new. You can get it as an ebook or an audiobook. She reads it, and if you’re a Spotify Premium subscriber, I think you can listen to it as part of your subscription, so I would recommend doing that. That’s how I’m enjoying it, in her voice.
Matt Simon: I think I saw that at Green Apple actually.
Michael Calore: Yeah.
Matt Simon: San Francisco local people might be able to find it there.
Michael Calore: Yes.
Matt Simon: You should be there. Anyway. It’s a great bookstore.
Lauren Goode: Oh yeah. We just walked by it the other day.
Michael Calore: Yeah, it’s the best. One of the best in the world.
Lauren Goode: You had a great story about the book that you let go.
Michael Calore: Oh, yeah.
Lauren Goode: And it came back to you.
Michael Calore: Yeah. Between the Clock and the Bed?
Lauren Goode: That’s right.
Michael Calore: Edvard Munch. Yeah. That’s a boring story though.
Lauren Goode: I enjoyed it.
Michael Calore: Glad you did.
Lauren Goode: Yeah.
Michael Calore: What is your recommendation?
Lauren Goode: My recommendation, I just came up with this, because I came into the studio today without one prepared. Staycations.
Michael Calore: Say more.
Matt Simon: You mean as a concept or as a piece of media?
Lauren Goode: Oh, as a concept. Is there a piece of media called Staycations?
Matt Simon: I don’t know.
Lauren Goode: Is that like a magazine? We should start one.
Matt Simon: Yeah.
Lauren Goode: I like that idea. It’s a great time in media to be starting magazines. Staycation, so I have a good friend who has been loaning me access to her home office, and it’s great because it is not far from where I live, but sometimes on weekends I go there and it’s a different perspective. It’s a different place. I’m not thinking about laundry or cleaning or to-do’s or whatever I have to order from Amazon.com or whatever it is. I’m away, but I’m not far, and I really appreciate that. It’s been really head clearing. I’m also working on a book, so it’s helpful for that. I mean, that’s the primary thing.
But then also in the past couple months, I’ve had the opportunity to stay just north of here, like 30 minutes, and so I’m away, but I’m not away away, and it’s great. It’s just, get away for a staycation if you can. If you have the means, if you have friends who are saying, “Hey, I need someone to pet sit,” or “Do you want to take over my house for a weekend?” Or something like that. Just do it. Stay local, but just get a totally different perspective on where you live, your neighborhood, the people around you, try new restaurants, new venues, just yeah, do a staycation if you can.
Opinion by Achim Steiner, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez (united nations)
Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, May 22 (IPS) – Small island developing states (SIDS) are scattered across the globe, dotting the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean, the west and east coasts of Africa and the Indian Ocean.
These low-lying highly indebted countries are on the frontlines of climate change and natural resource scarcity, already facing the extremes of sea level rise, unpredictable weather events, and environmental degradation that millions more will face tomorrow.
Yet they also are pioneers, innovating and demonstrating what is possible in a shift to a nature-positive future. Emerging technologies and solutions are re-setting economic and societal priorities to value and optimize natural resources and setting forth a path of thriving resilience.
In three decades of working together supporting small islands states, these are the three critical success factors we see emerging from these trailblazing island states as the world looks to transition to a nature-positive future.
One: Nature sits at the heart of this effort.
Nature is the most effective solution to our interconnected planetary crisis and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. It can unlock new and quickly felt benefits of sustainable development.
Ecosystem services underpin key economic sectors in all vulnerable small island states, from fisheries to agriculture to tourism, but these same sectors have historically imposed serious environmental costs. Transitioning these sectors from ‘highly damaging’ to ‘sustainable’, in ways that are investable and profitable while benefiting communities, sits at the heart of our work together.
The new Blue and Green Islands Programme, for example, mainstreams the central role of nature and scales nature-based solutions to address environmental degradation across three target sectors—urban, food, and tourism—for nature-positive shifts in fifteen island states.
Small islands are especially well positioned to benefit from nature-positive economies, counting among them some of the most diverse and unique ecosystems in the world. For them, a nature-positive economy is important not just to stabilize the security of their natural resources and ensure resilient and thriving futures; it assures their role as irreplaceable hosts to many of the world’s migratory and endemic species that make up our global planetary safety net.
Two: Successful solutions touch all aspects of life and livelihoods.
Tackling sea level rise isn’t separate from restoring protective coastal ecosystems, which isn’t separate from rapidly expanding new opportunities in sustainable tourism and sustainable fishing. These expanding opportunities drive sustainable development, bringing jobs, economic prosperity, and resilience.
‘Whole of island’ approaches are now tackling the conservation of land, water, and ocean resources as interconnected issues. These approaches are championing decarbonization and sustainable livelihoods, increasing access to sustainable energy, increasing the ability of communities to adapt to unpredictable or extreme weather, creating jobs, improving opportunities and wellbeing, and achieving sustainable development goals.
The logic of integrated approaches is clear: our lives are deeply interconnected with our environment and our opportunities the world over. The challenge is adapting and shifting systemic norms that are out of step and out of date for the collective future we want. Whole of island issues demands ‘whole-of-society’ inclusion and coordination, across ministries and sectors, building on locally owned and existing structures and initiatives, and seeking private sector engagement and community empowerment at every level.
Today, all our projects undertaken with island states promote integration and inclusion and are designed to ensure that multiple challenges can be addressed at scale and pace simultaneously.
Successful projects demonstrate the disproportionate importance of innovation to turn our most urgent challenges into opportunities for sustainable development. Representing nearly 20% of the world’s exclusive economic zones, many of these islands are incubating new and investable nature-based solutions that can be scaled up to support successful transitions to nature-positive economic sectors and centres of excellence, both in the islands themselves and to the benefit of countries beyond.
For example, with UNDP and GEF support, Seychelles issued the world’s first ‘blue bond’; Cuba mainstreamed nature into policies and practices to reverse degradation of the Sabana-Camagüey ecosystem driven by agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and tourism; and the GEF’s Small Grants Programme supported local communities to ban single-use plastics in the Maldives.
New initiatives with innovative partners such as the Global Fund for Coral Reefs also seek to attract and de-risk private sector investment into local businesses to protect and restore important coral reef ecosystems. These initiatives offer opportunities for integration that are now inspiring similar examples across other islands.
Nothing without partnerships.
A broad and inclusive coalition of government, private sector, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and other partners is critical to further accelerate nature-positive transformation and increase impact.
New partnerships with the private sector to identify and deploy new business models and instruments to support nature-positive outcomes are also a major part of this effort.
Small Island Developing States have in front of them an opportunity to scale and replicate their successes and make outsized contributions to the implementation of environmental conventions including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (The Biodiversity Plan), the Paris Agreement and the UNCCD Strategic Framework, as well as progress towards their sustainable development goals.
In responding to the most pressing development needs of small island states, the nature-positive economic transitions that are emerging, sector by sector, taking an integrated, innovative and community-informed approach, offer answers to development challenges with applications far beyond their precarious and precious coastlines.
Achim Steiner is Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Carlos Manuel Rodriguez is CEO and Chairperson, Global Environment Facility (GEF)
Two North Shore road stream crossings, including one in West Newbury, have been selected by the state Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Ecological Restoration for future ecological restoration studies.
The culvert replacement sites – one on River Road in West Newbury and the other on Concord Street in Gloucester – were selected due to their vulnerability to coastal erosion, flooding and future sea-level rise, agency said.
Although the culverts are crossing freshwater streams, the division says they are expected to become tidal as sea levels rise, a transition presenting significant challenges for road infrastructure, DER officials said.
The Division of Ecological Restoration announced it is funding and managing future studies at the sites to help the communities, nearby landowners and partners overcome technical challenges and plan for ecological restoration and climate adaptation.
“Ecological restoration provides innumerable benefits,” Fish and Game Commissioner Tom O’Shea said in a prepared statement. “Projects like this will improve public safety, build resilience to sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and mitigate flooding, and restore water quality and wildlife habitat.
“By supporting municipalities and partners, we can scale our efforts to steward a biodiverse and climate ready future.”
“DER looks forward to helping these two communities evaluate and plan for sea-level rise while building resilient, fish-friendly road stream crossings,” Division of Ecological Restoration Director Beth Lambert said in a prepared statement. “Culvert upgrades and other nature-based solutions can be technically challenging and costly for our municipalities to pursue alone. State-municipal partnerships like this are key to successful implementation of ecological restoration and climate adaptation projects.”
In West Newbury, the River Road culvert is on an unnamed stream of the Merrimack River. The crossing faces challenges due to flooding and erosion, and has the potential to be heavily influenced by increased storms and sea level rise.
Conducting models of the way water moves at the culvert site and investigating potential ecological improvements through restoration would enable a systematic approach to improving infrastructure and natural resource resiliency, the state said.
In Gloucester, the Concord Street culvert is along a tributary of Walker Creek.
The DER indicated the culvert is affected by coastal storms and is at an increased risk for erosion and flooding. The replacement of the culvert with a structure of resilient design would address flood water retention and bank stabilization and sedimentation; improve fish passage and wildlife habitat; and increase climate resilience by preparing for sea level rise, storm surge, and coastal marsh mitigation.
A 2019 technical report called “Great Marsh Barrier Mitigation: A comprehensive program to mitigate aquatic barriers in the Great Marsh Area of Critical Environmental Concern region” by the Ipswich River Watershed Association looked at the single culvert on Concord Street, among many other “priority barriers” in the region.
“The site has been identified as a site that has experienced flooding and ranked as having poor aquatic organism passage in the (North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaboration) Tidal Crossing Assessment,” the report said. It singled out the culvert as having “no passage due to rock piles/undersized structures.”
Once again, vast expanses of Canadian wilderness are on fire, threatening towns and forcing thousands to flee. It appears to be a breakout of “zombie fires”: wildfires from last year that never actually went out completely but carried on smoldering underground, reigniting ground vegetation again this year. They’ve been pouring smoke—once again—into northern cities in the United States. That haze is loaded with a more obscure form of carbon, compared to its famous cousin CO2: black carbon. By May 16, the fires’ monthly carbon emissions surpassed 15 megatons, soaring above previous years.
Black carbon consists of tiny particles generated from the incomplete combustion of fuels—whether that’s Canadian trees and soils, cooking fuels like wood and charcoal, or coal. “The problem is they don’t burn efficiently,” says Yusuf Jameel, who researches black carbon at the climate solutions nonprofit Project Drawdown. “They don’t combust properly. So they emit a lot of particles and poisonous gases.”
In a home in an economically developing nation which might use a wood stove for cooking, that can lead to catastrophic indoor air quality and all kinds of health consequences, including heart problems, breathing difficulty, and cancer. If black carbon wafts from such wildfires in the Arctic, it darkens ice and snow, dramatically accelerating melt. “It’s a huge health issue. It’s a big climate issue,” says Jameel. “And yet, it barely receives any mention when we talk about a powerful climate solution.”
CO2 and methane (CH4) get all the attention as planet-warming gases. And rightfully so: Humanity has to massively cut its emissions as fast as possible to slow climate change. At the same time, we’re neglecting easy ways to reduce emissions of black carbon.
While not a greenhouse gas like CO2 and methane, black carbon has its own significant impacts on the climate. Clouds of dark wildfire smoke, for instance, absorb the sun’s energy, warming the atmosphere. While CO2 stays up there for centuries, and methane for a decade or so, black carbon falls back to Earth after no more than a few weeks.
That short lifespan is fortunate, atmospherically speaking, but unfortunate for the Arctic and other frigid places where black carbon lands. Usually snow and ice can persist because they’re so reflective, bouncing the sun’s energy back into space. But if they’re dusted with black carbon, the dark coloration absorbs heat. “You can see these little particles drilling holes down into the ice. It’s just very dramatic how the black carbon can absorb sunlight and heat things up,” says Brenda Ekwurzel, director of scientific excellence at the Union of Concerned Scientists. And if you fully melt the highly reflective snow or ice, she says, you uncover darker ground or ocean underneath, which absorbs sunlight much more readily, helping to heat up the region.
This then forms a feedback loop. As the world warms, wildfires in northern latitudes get ever more frequent and intense, as hotter temperatures suck out what moisture remains in the vegetation. Warming also provides more sources of ignition for these fires by encouraging thunderstorms: Modeling shows that lightning strikes across the Arctic could double by the end of the century. Wildfires have gotten so intense that they’re even spawning their own thunderclouds made of smoke, which roam across the landscape sparking new fires.
LOUISVILLE, Colo. — In the Marshall Fire burn zone, there are dozens of families now returning to their newly built homes every week. The wildfire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Louisville and Superior back in December 2021. It remains the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history.
Among those newly built structures is one that stands out among the rest in Louisville, a passive home. The building standard not only emphasizes high energy efficiency, but it’s also fire-resistant and enhances indoor comfort and sound insulation.
“This is our first certified passive home,” said Frank Wetenkamp with Living Craft Design and Build. “Using lumber that is either wildland urban appliance class, a fire component or something like that, that’s thick enough that you don’t want it to break down easily. So, like this decking is actually a pressure-treated fire-resistant wooden material.”
The family that built the home couldn’t be more thrilled with their choice.
“Along the road it was hard,” said Casey Lombardo. “Like, money was hard, everything was hard, and we kept asking, are we doing the right thing? Should we be doing this? Does it make sense? We always came back to — if we’re going to do it, let’s do it amazing. And I think it’s pretty amazing.”
Denver7
For Casey Lombardo, her husband, Kevin Lombardo, and their two boys, their journey to recovery begins on that fateful day back on December 30, 2021.
“It looked like … there’s another wildfire somewhere,” Casey Lombardo said. “You know, I just totally dismissed it.”
That’s when Kevin Lombardo decided to drive up to the ridge to take a look.
“And I just kind of started shaking,” Kevin Lombardo said of what he saw. “I thought if it’s going to miss us, it’s going to be by this much.”
“And he came back down to the house, and he was like, ‘Everybody get into the car now!’” Casey Lombardo said. “And I was like, ‘Oh!’ We left about 15 minutes before the cops came down our neighborhood with a bullhorn saying, ‘Get out now!’”
Marshall Fire
6:15 AM, Jan 04, 2022
It would be the last time they saw their house still standing.
“I don’t think it actually settled in for me until we came back to the lot,” Casey Lombardo said. “And I saw it and that was like a week later.”
The Lombardos describe the months and weeks that followed as a fog, but then a light came on in the form of a webinar late one night that introduced them to passive building principals.
“They talked a lot about the benefits of high-performance houses,” Kevin Lombardo said. “The benefits of building a passive house.”
“We were sold,” Casey Lombardo said.
“I didn’t really care before that what we rebuilt,” Kevin Lombardo said. “After this webinar, I cared a lot.”
Fast-forward to this spring and the Lombardos are now moving in.
“They’re a double-stud wall with a bunch of insulation,” Casey Lombardo said as we toured the house with them. “The house is really air-sealed.”
The Lombardo’s dream has become a reality.
Denver7
“Separating the garage from the thermal envelope of the rest of the house is really important because you can’t achieve airtightness with a garage,” said a representative with Shape Architecture, which worked with Living Craft on the home.
“Intumescent vents allow air to move up behind the siding,” Wetenkamp said. “These homes are designed to use the minimum amount of energy possible. I think for us as builders, it’s really exciting to be a part of something that’s more cutting edge and innovative.”
The home certainly sticks out from the crowd of new homes here in Louisville, with its metal siding and metal sunshades above every window.”
“There was this other neighboring builder in this neighborhood who stopped by and was like, ‘What are you guys doing? Everything you’re doing is so weird and why are you doing it?’ And I kind of tried to explain and he was just like, ‘Well, I’ve never seen this. I’ve been doing this for 40 years and I’ve never seen it,’” explained Wetenkamp’s business partner, Cheryl Corsiglia.
The Lombardo’s home uses one-third of the energy and electricity of the average home.
“Everything about the house was designed to minimize the impact of future fires and be fire resistant,” Kevin Lombardo said. “It’s a better home for people and the planet.”
“I think for us as builders, it’s really exciting to be a part of something that’s more cutting edge and innovative, you know, through our history of the company. We’ve always been interested in what’s the next step and how can we do things better,” Wetenkamp said.
‘Cutting edge’: Inside a fire-resistant home built in the Marshall Fire burn area
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Climate change will be a lesser priority in Florida and largely disappear from state statutes under legislation signed Wednesday by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that also bans power-generating wind turbines offshore or near the state’s lengthy coastline.
Critics said the measure made law by the former Republican presidential hopeful ignores the reality of climate change threats in Florida, including projections of rising seas, extreme heat and flooding and increasingly severe storms.
It takes effect July 1 and would also boost expansion of natural gas, reduce regulation on gas pipelines in the state and increase protections against bans on gas appliances such as stoves, according to a news release from the governor’s office.
DeSantis, who suspended his presidential campaign in January and later endorsed his bitter rival Donald Trump, called the bill a common-sense approach to energy policy.
“We’re restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots,” DeSantis said in a post on the X social media platform.
Florida is already about 74% reliant on natural gas to power electric generation, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Opponents of the bill DeSantis signed say it removes the word “climate’ in nine different places, moves the state’s energy goals away from efficiency and the reduction of greenhouse gases blamed for a warming planet.
“This purposeful act of cognitive dissonance is proof that the governor and state Legislature are not acting in the best interests of Floridians, but rather to protect profits for the fossil fuel industry,” said Yoca Arditi-Rocha, executive director of the nonprofit Cleo Institute, which advocates for climate change education and engagement.
The legislation also eliminates requirements that government agencies hold conferences and meetings in hotels certified by the state’s environmental agency as “green lodging” and that government agencies make fuel efficiency the top priority in buying new vehicles. It also ends a requirement that Florida state agencies look at a list of “climate-friendly” products before making purchases.
In 2008, a bill to address climate change and promote renewable energy passed unanimously in both legislative chambers and was signed into law by then-Gov. Charlie Crist, at the time a Republican. Former Gov. Rick Scott, now a Republican U.S. senator, took steps after taking the governor’s office in 2011 to undo some of that measure and this latest bill takes it even further.
The measure signed by DeSantis would also launch a study of small nuclear reactor technology, expand the use of vehicles powered by hydrogen and enhance electric grid security, according to the governor’s office.
___
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Yoca Arditi-Rocha’s first name.
The school bus is in many ways ideal for V2G. “There’s no uncertainty in terms of the use of the bus,” says Patricia Hidalgo-Gonzalez, director of the Renewable Energy and Advanced Mathematics Lab at UC San Diego, who studies the grid but wasn’t involved in the project. “Having that clarity on what the transportation needs are—that makes it much easier for the grid to know when they can make use of that asset.”
Zum’s buses start operating at 6 or 6:30 am, drive kids to school, and finish up by 9 or 9:30 am. While the kids are in class—when there’s the most solar energy flowing into the grid—Zum’s buses plug into fast-chargers. The buses then unplug and drive the kids home in the afternoon. “They have large batteries, typically four to six times a Tesla battery, and they drive very few miles,” says Vivek Garg, cofounder and COO of Zum. “So there’s a lot of battery left by end of the day.”
After the kids are dropped off, the buses plug in again, just as demand is spiking on the grid. But instead of further increasing that demand by charging, the buses send their surplus power back to the grid. Once demand has waned, around 10 pm, the buses start charging, topping themselves up with electricity from nonsolar sources, so they’re ready to pick up kids in the morning. Zum’s system decides when to charge or discharge depending on the time of day, so the driver just has to plug in their bus and walk away.
On weekends, holidays, or over the summer, the buses will spend even more time sitting unused—a whole fleet of batteries that might otherwise be idle. Given the resources needed to make batteries and the need for more grid storage, it makes sense to use what batteries are available as much as possible. “It’s not like you’re placing a battery somewhere and then you’re only using them for energy,” says Garg. “You’re using that battery for transportation, and in the evening you’re using the same battery during the peak hour for stabilizing the grid.”
Get ready to see more of these electric buses—if your kid isn’t already riding in one. Between 2022 and 2026, the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program is providing $5 billion to swap out gas-powered school buses for zero-emission and low-emission ones. States like California are providing additional funding to make the switch.
One hurdle is the significant upfront cost for a school district, as an electric bus costs several times more than an old-school gas-guzzler. But if the bus can do V2G, the excess battery power at the end of the day can be traded as energy back to the grid during peak hours to offset the cost difference. “We have used the V2G revenue to bring this transportation cost at par with the diesel buses,” says Garg.
For the Oakland schools project, Zum has been working with the local utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, to pilot how this works in practice. PG&E is testing out an adaptable system: Depending on the time of day and the supply and demand on the grid, a V2G participant pays a dynamic rate for energy use and gets paid based on the same dynamic rate for the energy they send back to the system. “Having a fleet of 74 buses—to be followed by other fleets, with more buses with Zum—is perfect for this, because we really want something that’s going to scale and make an impact,” says Rudi Halbright, product manager of vehicle-grid-integration pilots and analysis at PG&E.
Delegates say the survival of humanity is interlinked with the sustainable use of ocean and marine biodiversity resources. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
by Joyce Chimbi (nairobi)
Inter Press Service
NAIROBI, May 15 (IPS) – The oceans are as fascinating as they are mysterious. Home to the largest animals to ever live on Earth and billions of the tiniest, the top 100 meters of the open oceans host the majority of sea life, such as fish, turtles, and marine mammals. But there is another world far below the surface. In the belly of the ocean, there are seamounts—underwater mountains that rise 1,000 meters or more from the seafloor.
It is within this context that negotiations on critical science, technical skills, and technology deepened on the second day of the 26th session of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical, and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Putting ocean action on the global agenda is a top priority to ensure conservation and sustainable use of marine and coastal biodiversity. Emphasizing an urgent need for further work on ecologically or biologically significant marine areas.
“The survival of humanity is interlinked with the sustainable use of ocean and marine biodiversity resources. We rely on the ocean for food, relaxation, and inspiration. But now the ocean is under threat, and that threat is being passed on to our lives on land. We have to invest time, money, and every resource possible to save our oceans and, by doing so, save ourselves. Our biggest revenue comes from fisheries, and now we have to worry about rising sea level as we are a low-lying island,” Eleala Avanitele from the Forest Peoples Program in Tuvalu told IPS.
Scientists warn that Tuvalu, the fourth-smallest country in the world, is sinking due to its vulnerability to rising sea levels, as the nation comprises nine low-lying coral atolls and islands. Across the globe, the world is in a crisis as oceans provide 50 percent of all oxygen on Earth and 50 to 80 percent of all life on Earth. This life is now at stake.
Thus far, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, also known as the Biodiversity Plan, has been front and centre during ongoing negotiations, as it is a strategic plan for the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a global agreement that covers all aspects of biological diversity and is considered a framework for governments and the whole of society.
Harrison Ajebe Nnoko Ngaaje from Ajemalebu Self Help (Ajesh) in Cameroon told IPS that his organization is a CSO registered in Cameroon, Ghana, Tanzania, and the USA to create synergies and collaboration within and beyond the continent for the restoration, protection, and sustainable management of key biodiversity areas.
“Conservation and sustainable use of marine and coastal biodiversity is very critical to Cameroon due to its vast and unique ecosystem and biodiversity. Limbe Beach, for instance, has shiny black sandy beaches made of lava sand from the Mt. Cameroon eruptions, an active volcano in the south-west region of Cameroon. We have mangroves under serious threat of degradation. Ajesh is strongly focused on marine protected area management and the conservation of marine aquatic ecosystems.”
More than half of all marine species could be in danger of extinction by 2100. Nearly 60 percent of the world’s marine ecosystems have been altered or handled unsustainably. Marine, coastal, and island biodiversity were discussed within the context of the Biodiversity Plan. Target 3 of the Plan aims to ensure and enable that by 2030 at least 30 percent of terrestrial and inland water areas, and of marine and coastal areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, are effectively conserved and managed.
The main goal of the SBSTTA discussions was to find and fix areas that need more attention under the Convention in order to help carry out the Biodiversity Plan for marine, coastal, and island biodiversity.
Despite the Conference of the Parties adopting the program of work on marine and coastal biological diversity at its fourth meeting in 1998 and the program of work on island biodiversity in 2006, the world is significantly behind schedule when it comes to the conservation and sustainable use of marine and coastal biodiversity. Nevertheless, CBD continues to prioritize and facilitate cooperation and collaboration with relevant global and regional organizations and initiatives with regard to marine and coastal biodiversity.
“It is very important that civil society, youths, and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) are part of the SBSTTA process, observing and being allowed the opportunity to make remarks. Parties make decisions but these actors also implement and are at the forefront of facing the consequences of biodiversity loss,” Ngaaje says.
Onyango Adhiambo, a youth delegate from academia and research under the International University Network on Cultural and Biological Diversity, supported Ngaaje’s remarks.
“Young people will need to understand the science, technical skills, and technology at play in saving our planet, for soon we will need to step in and step up. The future, which is now at stake, belongs to us, and when called upon to intervene on what the parties agree to, we must do so efficiently, effectively, and sustainably to save natural resources for future generations,” Adhiambo said.
Highlights from the session included a recognition of the importance of science for decision-making and that there are many areas of the programmes of work on marine and coastal biodiversity and on island biodiversity that have not been fully implemented and for which enhanced capacity-building and development, in particular for least developed countries and small island developing states, are needed.
The 2022 Biodiversity Plan says that we can get back on track by creating “ecologically representative, well-connected, and fairly governed systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, recognizing indigenous and traditional territories, where applicable, and integrating them into larger landscapes, seascapes, and the ocean, while ensuring that any sustainable use, where appropriate in such areas, is fully consistent with conservation outcomes, recognizing and respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, including over their traditional territories.”
Equally important is the agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, which was adopted on June 19, 2023.
Collaboration in ocean conservation beyond national boundaries was strongly encouraged on issues such as marine genetic resources, including the fair and equitable sharing of benefits; measures such as area-based management tools, including marine protected areas; environmental impact assessments; and capacity-building and the transfer of marine technology.
Wildfires burning in Canada started sending smoke across the border on Sunday and into the week, prompting U.S. officials to issue air quality warnings in several northern states—and experts say people should be prepared to experience more air quality alerts this summer.
“We still think that last year was pretty extreme, kind of an anomaly, but we do expect an above average year (this year) in terms of air quality alerts,” says David Brown, an air quality meteorologist at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Brown urged people to be aware and cautious because of the danger that inhaling wildfire smoke poses.
“Wildfire smoke can really affect everyone,” Brown tells TIME. “Prior to these really bad two summers, air quality has kind of been … an issue that probably only affects a small percentage of the population. But these impactful wildfire smoke events really can have impacts on everyone, so everyone kind of has to pay closer attention to the weather and air quality.”
Fine particles in wildfire smoke—known as PM2.5 because they have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers—are so small that they can enter your lungs and even your bloodstream, according to Craig Czarnecki, the outreach coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Air Management Program.
The average person could experience relatively mild symptoms after breathing in these particles, like a scratchy throat and itchy eyes, Brown explains. But for children, older people, and people with pre-existing heart or respiratory conditions, breathing in these particles can cause more significant symptoms—for instance, it could exacerbate a person’s asthma. In extreme cases, some people with pre-existing heart conditions have experienced heart attacks or heart palpitations.
A 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found an association between smoke from Canadian wildfires and an increase in the number of people being treated for asthma-related symptoms in emergency departments in New York City.
The study shows that “wildfire smoke is a public health threat,” according to Kai Chen, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Public Health and lead author of the study. But the effect of wildfire smoke on asthma is “just one piece” of the impact wildfire smoke can have on people’s health, Chen says.
Research also shows that exposure to wildfire smoke could have long-term impacts. A working paper in the National Bureau of Economic Research found that, as climate change increases the prevalence and intensity of wildfires, wildfire smoke exposure could lead to nearly 28,000 deaths a year by 2050 —a 76% increase from estimated average deaths between 2011 and 2020.
When officials issue air quality alerts, people should limit their exposure to the wildfire smoke, reduce exertion, and keep an eye out for potential symptoms, like coughing or shortness of breath, Brown and Czarnecki advise. Wearing an N95 mask might be helpful if people are going to be outside for extended periods of time, Czarnecki adds.
“When we have advisories like this, the best way to prevent breathing particles during smoke events is to stay indoors,” Czarnecki says.
An extreme summer marked by deadly heat waves, explosive wildfires and record-warm ocean temperatures will go down as among the hottest in the last 2,000 years, new research has found.
The summer of 2023 saw the temperature in the Northern Hemisphere soar 3.72 degrees above the average from 1850 to 1900, when modern instrumental recordkeeping began, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature. The study focused on surface air temperatures across the extra-tropical region, which sits at 30-90 degrees north latitude and includes most of Europe and North America.
June, July and August last year were also 3.96 degrees warmer than the average from the years 1 through 1890, which the researchers calculated by combining observed records with tree ring records from nine global regions.
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Jan Esper, the study’s lead author and a professor of climate geography at Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany, said that he was not expecting summer last year to be quite so anomalous, but that he was ultimately not surprised by the findings. The high temperatures built on an overall warming trend driven by greenhouse gas emissions and were further amplified by the onset of El Niño in the tropical Pacific.
“It’s no surprise — this really, really outstanding 2023 — but it was also, step-wise, a continuation of a trend that will continue,” Esper told reporters Monday. “Personally I’m not surprised, but I am worried.”
He said it was important to place 2023’s temperature extreme in a long-term context. The difference between the region’s previous warmest summer, in the year 246, and the summer of 2023 is 2.14 degrees, the study found.
The heat is even more extreme when compared with the region’s coldest summers — the majority of which were influenced by volcanic eruptions that spewed heat-blocking sulfur into the stratosphere. According to the study, 2023’s summer was 7.07 degrees warmer than the coldest reconstructed summer from this period, in the year 536.
“Although 2023 is consistent with a greenhouse gases-induced warming trend that is amplified by an unfolding El Niño event, this extreme emphasizes the urgency to implement international agreements for carbon emission reduction,” the study says.
The sweltering summer temperatures contributed to scores of heat illnesses and deaths, including at least 645 heat-associated deaths in Maricopa County, Ariz., where Phoenix saw temperatures of 110 degrees or hotter for a record 31 consecutive days.
Wildfires exacerbated by high temperatures raged across Canada and sent hazardous smoke down the East Coast of the United States and across the Atlantic. Meanwhile, ocean temperatures off the coast of Florida soared above 101 degrees, the temperature of a hot tub.
Multiple climate agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, declared 2023 the hottest year on record globally.
Notably, Copernicus found that the summer months of June, July and August last year measured 1.18 degrees warmer than average — still hot, but not nearly as warm as the study’s findings for the Northern Hemisphere’s extra-tropical region.
That region was especially hot in part because it is home to so much land, which warms faster than oceans, said Karen McKinnon, an assistant professor of statistics and the environment at UCLA who did not work on the study. (June, July and August are also winter months in the Southern Hemisphere.)
McKinnon said the study’s findings are not unexpected, as there was already good evidence that the summer of 2023 was record-breaking when compared with measurable data going back to the mid-1800s. But by going back 2,000 years, the researchers also helped illuminate “the full range of natural variability that could have occurred in the past,” she said.
She noted that tree rings can serve as a helpful proxy for climate conditions in the past, as trees tend to grow more in a given year if they receive the right amount of warmth, water and sunshine.
But although last year’s heat was undeniable, the study also underscores that the summer temperature in this region was notably higher than the global target of 2.7 degrees — or 1.5 degrees Celsius — of warming over the preindustrial period, which was established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2015.
It also notes that some recent research has found the data used to calculate that baseline may be off by several tenths of a degree, meaning it could need to be recalibrated, with the target landing closer to an even more challenging 1.6 or 1.7 degrees.
“I don’t think we should use the proxy instead of the instrumental data, but there’s a good indication that there’s a warm bias,” Esper said. “Further research is needed.”
McKinnon said there is always going to be some degree of uncertainty when comparing present-day temperatures to past temperatures, but that the 1.5-degree limit is as symbolic as it is literal. Many effects of climate change, including worsening heat waves, have already begun.
“There are definitely tipping points in the climate system, but we don’t understand the climate system well enough to say 1.5 C is the temperature for certain tipping points,” she said. “This is just a policy goal that gives you a temperature change that maybe would be consistent with averting some damages.”
In fact, the study’s publication comes days after a survey of 380 leading scientists from the IPCC revealed deep concerns about the world’s ability to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. That report, published last week in the Guardian, found that only 6% of surveyed scientists think the 1.5-degree limit will be met. Nearly 80% said they foresee at least 2.5 degrees Celsius of warming.
The report caused a stir among the scientific community, with some saying it focused too heavily on pessimism and despair. But Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UCLA who participated in the survey, said its findings are worthy of consideration.
“There are many kinds of scientists, myself included, who are very worried and concerned and increasingly alarmed by what is going on and what the data is showing,” Swain said during a briefing Friday. “But if anything, I think that really results in a stronger sense of resolve and urgency to do even more, and to do better.”
Indeed, while scientists continue to weigh in on whether — or how quickly — humanity can alter the planet’s worsening warming trajectory, Esper said he hopes the latest study will serve as motivation for changing outdated modes of energy consumption that contribute to planet-warming greenhouse gases.
“I am concerned about global warming — I think it’s one of the biggest threats out there,” he said.
He added that he is particularly worried for his children and for younger generations who will bear the brunt of worsening heat and other adverse climate outcomes. There is a strong likelihood that the summer of 2024 will be even hotter, the study says.
“The longer we wait, the more extensive it will be, and the more difficult it will be to mitigate or even stop that process and reverse it,” Esper said. “It’s just so obvious: We should do as much as possible, as soon as possible.”
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