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Tag: Climate change

  • U.S. honey bee population reaches record high

    U.S. honey bee population reaches record high

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    U.S. honey bee population reaches record high – CBS News


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    In 2006, bees across the U.S. started dying rapidly. Now, the U.S. honey bee population is at an all-time high, according to the Census of Agriculture. Clay Bolt, manager of pollinator conservation for the World Wildlife Fund U.S., joins CBS News to explain what happened.

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  • Skyrocketing home insurance rates, loss of coverage roil Colorado’s strained housing market

    Skyrocketing home insurance rates, loss of coverage roil Colorado’s strained housing market

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    Coloradans looking to buy homes or simply hold onto their property face a barrage of challenges: a white-hot real estate market, high interest rates and soaring property taxes. You can add surging home insurance rates to the pile of problems eroding the landscape of affordable housing options.

    Colorado homeowners are reporting premium increases ranging from roughly 30% to more than 130% in just the past few years. People are getting the bad news that their policies won’t be renewed. Some insurance companies are deciding not to write new policies to cut their risks.

    And condo owners are getting hit with special assessments and higher dues because premiums are skyrocketing for homeowners associations. The groups must often resort to non-standard carriers, which typically charge sky-high rates for lesser coverage.

    “We truly have the hardest market that we’ve seen in a generation for property insurance,” said Carole Walker, executive director of the trade organization Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association.

    Colorado’s not alone. Inflation, higher home costs and the rising number and severity of natural disasters and wildfires are pushing up insurance costs. The average premium rate increase nationwide in 2023 was 11.3%, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

    But Colorado’s recent increases stand out. The state was one of three with the biggest cumulative change in rates 2018-2023. Colorado logged a 57.9% jump, just behind Texas at 59.9%. Arizona saw a 52.9% increase.

    A convergence of factors is driving the run-up in costs, Walker said. Higher inflation is one of those. “You have everything that insurance pays for going up in cost.”

    Building materials are more expensive. Labor costs are up and labor shortages create delays and add to the expense. Walker said insurance-related lawsuits also help push up premiums.

    An even larger force is the fallout from increasingly costly wildfires, hail storms and other disasters. Insurance companies doing business in Colorado reported the fourth-highest losses in the country for five years, according to data compiled for a 2023 report by the Colorado Division of Insurance. 

    “I hate to say it, but we all likely need to adjust to higher premiums over the long term,” Walker said.

    The effects of the mounting risks are being felt by a lesser known, but crucial link in the chain that connects to homeowners: the reinsurance market. Reinsurers are typically large, global companies that provide insurance to insurance companies to help spread the risk.

    “The international impact of climate change, of increasing climate disasters, the severity of those disasters is causing reinsurers to consider their risk, reduce their exposure or increase their premiums,” said Vince Plymell, spokesman for the insurance division.

    As a result, the effects of hurricanes and earthquakes in other parts of the country or world can eventually show up in a Colorado homeowner’s insurance bill, said Jason Lapham, the state’s deputy commissioner for property and casualty insurance.

    Closer to home are the growing risks of wildfire and hail storms. Colorado is second in the nation for hail-damage claims and second only to California for the number of homes at risk from wildfires. Colorado hasn’t seen the kind of wide scale refusal of companies to write new policies that California has, but Lapham said there is a trend of some companies not re-upping policies in areas prone to wildfires or other disasters or taking “a pause” on new clients.

    “It doesn’t mean they’re leaving the state entirely, but for those people who are affected, the effect is the same,” Lapham said.

    State officials don’t have a lot of insight into the modeling used by companies to decide which areas are too risky to insure, Lapham said. “We’re focused on getting a better understanding and creating transparency, not just for us but also for policy holders.”

    Levi Ware, project manager from Red Hawk Roofing company from Denver, takes pictures of a roof damaged by large hail and a tornado along Chesapeake Street in Highlands Ranch on June 23, 2023. A rare tornado hit the Highlands Ranch area Thursday afternoon causing damage to roofs and uprooting large trees. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

    What’s worse than rising premiums?

    There were plenty of insurance options for Bryan Watts and his wife when they bought a house in Guffey in Park County, west of Cripple Creek. The premium was about $2,000 in 2019 and rose gradually to $2,522 for the 2023-2024 policy year.

    “Things changed dramatically in August 2023 when we received a notice of non-renewal at the policy maturity of June 2024,” Watts said. “I called them and was told it was simply due to wildfire risk.”

    Watts tried to reason with the company, saying he had done a lot of work to reduce threats from wildfire. He offered to send pictures of his home or show an inspector around his property. But the insurer told him that it wasn’t going to cover homes in his zip code.

    “I thought, ‘Well, no big deal. I’ll just move to another carrier,’” Watts said. “I had no idea how bad it had gotten just in the last year or two.”

    A broker Watts worked with found only nonstandard insurers willing to cover his home. The insurers might take on customers that more traditional companies consider too risky, but the coverage comes at a high price. In Watts’ case, the quote was for nearly $35,000.

    After making calls on his own, Watts found one of the big-name companies willing to write a policy for $4,800. A hang-up for companies that turned him down was that the nearest fire station is about 16 miles from his home. “They’re looking for substations that are 10 miles or closer,” Watts said.

    Like a lot of people, Watts has a mortgage on his house, which means he needs to carry insurance. “There are going to be very few people who are able to live out here without a mortgage,” he said.

    Escalating home insurance premiums and companies scaling back coverage are creating angst in the real estate industry. Brian Tanner, vice president of public policy for the Colorado Association of Realtors, said agents are seeing properties lose coverage or unable to find insurance.

    “All of this together is incredibly problematic for a market that we already know is strained. We need more available units,” Tanner said. “If we have existing residences that cannot secure insurance, that is absolutely a market disruptor.”

    Real estate agents are scrambling to help clients to find coverage, Tanner said. He is concerned about rising rates on people on fixed incomes.

    The state is creating an insurer of last resort, officially called the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements, which will be paid for by assessments on the insurance industry. But it won’t be up and running until 2025 and applicants must have been turned down by at least three carriers.

    Walker said the goal is to relieve pressure on the standard carriers by shifting some of the high risks, which the industry hopes will stabilize the market.

    “Everybody I talk to is talking about the property insurance issue,” said Sarah Thorsteinson, CEO of the Altitude Realtors association, which includes Summit and Routt counties.

    Real estate agents working in mountain communities started looking at the effect of wildfire risks on home insurance rates around 2012. That’s when the association started education and fire-mitigation programs for members and the public to head off possible mandates it worried could increase costs for buyers and sellers.

    Thorsteinson represents property owners as a non-voting member of the Colorado Fire Commission. She said the association’s biggest concern with rising insurance premiums is housing affordability.

    The ongoing struggle by homeowners associations, HOAs, to secure insurance has grown tougher, Thorsteinson said. She has heard of HOA dues doubling and tripling for condo owners in her area after insurance premiums shot up.

    “We’ve seen increases of 100% or more for HOA policies,” said Lapham with the state insurance division.

    Even before the recent rate increases, it was common for HOAs to have to seek providers in the non-standard market, also called the surplus lines market. “My guess is that it’s more common now than it has been simply because of the tightening of the market generally,” Lapham said.

    Many of the more well-known insurers have gotten out of the condo business, Walker said, leaving the nonstandard carriers, whose policies are more expensive and have higher deductibles.

    The more traditional insurers exited in part because of fears around construction-related lawsuits by HOAs. A 2017 law that requires a majority of homeowners to approve pursuing a lawsuit rather than just the HOA board has done little to coax insurers to write policies for condo buildings.

    In some cases, HOA boards, trying to avoid raising dues, have put off infrastructure improvements and maintenance, making insurers nervous about the liabilities, Walker said.

    The insurance division offers a toolkit for questions about home and HOA insurance.

    The Hiland Hills Townhomes HOA was able to line up a new insurer in 2023, but had to budget for a 30% increase in premiums. Dues went up from $336 a month to $460 per unit.

    “The coverage decreased overall. This year we’re budgeting for another 15% increase,” said Dmitry Gall, the HOA board president at the Denver complex.

    The HOA was able to shuffle some items in the policy to hold down the increase. Gall said the association is cutting back in other areas to help pay the premium.

    The HOA where Jon Christianson has a rental unit saw its insurance premium leap from the $167,000 budgeted last year to nearly $607,000. His fees doubled, “with a special assessment coming,” he said.

    A letter from the HOA board that Christianson shared with The Denver Post said the previous insurance carrier got out of the Colorado market. Several companies declined to offer bids on a new policy because of the height and age of the three buildings in the complex and the fire suppression system.

    Then the insurance for Christianson’s primary residence rose by 40%.

    “I’ve never filed a claim. I’ve been with same insurance company for five years,” Christianson said. “This is becoming unsustainable.”

    Carole Walker, the Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Association, stands for a photo outside the residential building where she lives in Denver on May 7, 2024. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
    Carole Walker, the Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Association, stands for a photo outside the residential building where she lives in Denver on May 7, 2024. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

    A marathon, not a sprint

    The Marshall fire, which killed two people and destroyed 1,084 homes and businesses, receives a lot of the blame for Colorado’s escalating home insurance rates. The Dec. 30, 2021, wildfire raged through Louisville, Superior and parts of unincorporated Boulder County, leaving more than $2 billion in property damage in its wake.

    Walker said although the Marshall fire was a devastating event, the reasons for rising rates are more complex. For instance, more people are moving into areas along the Front Range that frequently get battered by hail. Walker said Colorado’s most expensive hail storm hit in May 2017, wreaking $2.7 billion in damage in today’s dollars.

    But for Alan McDaniel, who has an insurance agency in Castle Rock, the threat of wildfire is the primary obstacle when looking for ways to get a handle on rising insurance costs.

    “I’m lucky enough that the carrier I mostly use, Farmers Insurance, isn’t not renewing policies, but others are,” McDaniel said.

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    Judith Kohler

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  • Use solar power, kill a tortoise? Climate change solution carries environmental costs

    Use solar power, kill a tortoise? Climate change solution carries environmental costs

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    Dustin Mulvaney, SJSU environmental studies professor, stands at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Thurssday, May 2, 2024. Mulvaney believes California has far more than enough alternative space, including parking lots, contaminated land and other areas, that there’s no need for massive solar arrays in pristine areas such as the Mojave Desert. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group) 

    Turn on your toaster, bulldoze a Joshua tree. Flip a light switch, feed an endangered tortoise to a badger.

    Solar power, widely seen as humanity’s best hope for avoiding catastrophic climate change, can carry a heavy environmental cost, depending on where panels and transmission lines are built.

    Some of that infrastructure — providing electricity to millions of Californians — is going into places it should not, says San Jose State University environmental studies professor and sustainable energy expert, Dustin Mulvaney. Killing plants and animals, of course, is not a goal for solar developers, but the collateral damage has sparked bitter debate over where panels and lines belong.

    California has done a good job of protecting its public lands while facilitating solar development, Mulvaney says. But many residents are powering their homes with electricity from Nevada, where pristine natural areas are taking an increasingly hard hit, and from private, California projects in important animal and plant habitats, he says.

    Several “aggregators” — community-based alternatives to utility giants that are often marketed as “clean” — have contracts for power from a Southern California project that would see 4,000 Joshua trees leveled, he says. Other projects feeding aggregators bring significant loss of wildlife habitat.

    Mulvaney believes sacrificing nature for solar is unnecessary. California could meet its electricity needs by putting solar panels on just a tenth of its contaminated sites, old mines, unusable former farmlands, parking lots and other disturbed areas, he says. “We need to be building out our electricity transmission infrastructure toward those sites,” Mulvaney says. The more solar close to major urban areas, the better, he adds. Every home and Amazon warehouse presents another rooftop-solar opportunity, he says.

    This news organization sat down with Mulvaney recently to discuss solar power. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

    Q: Describe the controversy over where to put solar generation facilities?
    A: Most big solar farms are not controversial. They get controversial when they go onto landscapes that are of significance, either ecological significance or cultural significance — sometimes there are important cultural resources for tribes.

    Q: Do we have need for both rooftop solar and utility-scale solar?
    A: We should have more rooftop, but we’re going to need more utility scale based on the way our grid is built.

    Q: Why do we have solar developments and proposals for pristine areas, when already-altered land is available?
    A: Transmission lines are why we see projects where they are. Back in the ’60s we built transmission lines to connect to coal-fired power plants in the western United States. As those coal-fired power plants are turning off, those transmission lines suddenly have power availability. The (planned new) Greenlink transmission line which is going to connect Las Vegas and Reno goes through a Native American site and through a bunch of sensitive ecosystems. And we’re already seeing applications for solar farms along that transmission corridor. That’s going to be power that goes to California, probably. Nevada has fewer protections for its public lands.

    Q: What roles do the big utilities like PG&E and Southern California Edison play in where solar farms go up?
    A: The community choice aggregators are playing a bigger role than the utilities in determining these development patterns now. The community choice aggregators are doing much of the (power) purchasing. For the Yellow Pine solar farm on the Nevada border (to produce electricity for Silicon Valley Clean Energy and Central Coast Community Energy), lots of desert tortoises had to be removed from that site. Forty-something of those tortoises were eaten by badgers right away.

    Q: Could we meet our electricity needs without big solar farms?
    A: There’s nothing theoretically prohibiting rooftop solar and batteries from powering a community. Do you have enough sun? We get those back to back to back to back cyclones in the winter. Sometimes the cloud cover’s all the way across the Central Valley. Do you have enough batteries? The battery storage probably makes that prohibitively expensive at this stage. It would require rethinking how we move power around.

    Q: What do we stand to lose by putting big solar farms in the wilderness?
    A: All sorts of species, old-growth barrel cactus, desert tortoise, kit fox. The desert tortoise just last week was up-listed by the California Department of Fish and Game to be endangered. That species has lost 90% of its population since 1980. Bighorn sheep and pronghorn antelope are impacted by solar farms because their habitat gets fragmented by them. Their populations get more isolated, they have inbreeding.

    Q: Could we meet all our needs without putting solar on undisturbed wilderness?
    A: There’s a great study. You can avoid important lands to conservation and it would only increase the cost of power by 3%, based on their estimates.

    Q: Where are some places where you could put reasonable amounts of solar generation to help avoid bringing power in from the desert or Nevada?
    A: On the western side of the Central Valley a lot of those soils are contaminated with selenium. That would be an area where you could have less impact. That’s where you could put pretty big utility scale projects that would be really close to the Bay Area, and above the bottleneck — California has a (power line capacity) bottleneck for the power, around Los Banos. We have to build more renewables above the bottleneck in northern California to help the Bay Area.

    Q: What about Southern California?
    A: You have a lot of renewables in Southern California already. Southern California just needs more rooftop solar on their warehouses and things like that.

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    Ethan Baron

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  • Salad chain says a cleaner farming method will offset adding steak to its menu. What is it?

    Salad chain says a cleaner farming method will offset adding steak to its menu. What is it?

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    Salad chain Sweetgreen is adding steak to its menu, an announcement that led to strong reactions online, with customers questioning how that would impact the company’s carbon neutral plans.

    Founded in 2007 and known as a fast-casual spot serving salads and bowls, Sweetgreen says it will be carbon neutral by 2027 — meaning it plans to offset its own emissions by putting in place strategies that also remove carbon from the atmosphere.

    But beef production is incredibly resource-intensive and a contributor to climate change. It’s the largest agricultural source of greenhouse gases globally, emitting massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere, and requires extensive land use.

    Sweetgreen’s rationale for the controversial caramelized, garlic-flavored steak menu addition this week includes using regenerative farming. The chain also says carbon offsets are part of its pledge to combat climate change and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

    A Sweetgreen spokesperson referred request for comment to its menu expansion details.

    Regenerative agriculture means farming and ranching in a way that not only produces food from a landscape, but also sees that landscape improve ecologically, said Jason Rowntree, co-director of the Michigan State University Center for Regenerative Agriculture.

    This means “minimizing disturbance, keeping ground covered,” Rowntree said, “improving biodiversity below and above ground through adding animals to your cropping systems or enhancing biology below ground.”

    Many grocery chains and restaurants are starting to look to regenerative agriculture for animal proteins, grains and fruits and vegetables while meeting climate goals. Starbucks cited regenerative agriculture as one way it aims to slash its carbon, water use and waste in half by 2030. Chipotle and Burger King have also dabbled in it.

    “It’s all in what you do and how you implement it,” said Allen Williams, a farmer and founder of agriculture consultancy Understanding Ag. “It allows for the repair, rebuilding and restoration of our ecosystems — and that’s critically important if we want to mitigate climate change.”

    Some experts question whether regenerative agriculture can offset all emissions from beef production in particular.

    Companies, including those in dining, also buy carbon offsets. They purchase “credits,” as part of a voluntary and unregulated market for projects that claim to absorb carbon dioxide that otherwise would’ve happened.

    These offsets are an effort to cancel out one’s own carbon dioxide pollution. But it isn’t an exact science.

    Though companies including Sweetgreen should be applauded for their efforts, “We all know that the offsets schemes over the last few years have been really problematic, to say the least,” said Jonathan Foley, executive director of climate nonprofit Project Drawdown.

    Even if a chain employs productive regenerative agriculture and offsets, experts say its use of plastic, paper or non-renewable energy could negate those practices.

    So the priority should be focusing on a restaurant chain’s whole carbon footprint, fostering and improving landscapes that are more resilient for food security and improving water cycling, experts say.

    “At the end of the day,” Rowntree said, “I think these challenges we’re going to see with aridity, with heightened intensity of rain events followed by longer periods of drought are probably agriculture’s biggest challenge moving forward.”

    ___

    Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate solutions reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

    ___

    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Where will the next Miami-Dade incinerator go? Consultant report rates sites

    Where will the next Miami-Dade incinerator go? Consultant report rates sites

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    In 2022, before the Doral incinerator burned don, residents gathered at the site to protest against a new one being built there. Now, three sites across the county are play for a new facility.

    In 2022, before the Doral incinerator burned don, residents gathered at the site to protest against a new one being built there. Now, three sites across the county are play for a new facility.


    Al Diaz

    adiaz@miamiherald.com

    Since Miami-Dade’s main waste incinerator burned down in Doral last year, tons of excess garbage have been shipped off via train to other counties, landfills are filling up and the difficult decision of where to build a new one still looms.

    A new consultant’s report that analyzed three potential sites — at the original Doral location, at the defunct Opa-locka West Airport and in an industrial tract in Medley — will only add fuel to the fire of the ongoing debate. None of the residents in nearby communities want the $1.2 billion waste-to-energy incinerator, despite the fact that the new technology is reputedly greener, cleaner and far less smelly. Each site, the report found, had its pros and cons.

    The consultants found some sites would be easier to build on than others. For example, the report said Medley could be a “complicated and challenging” site to get air permits from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for because it’s already near a landfill and a cement operation. It would also be the most expensive option. But the town mayor, unlike in other places, also supports locating it there, according to CBS-4, the Herald’s news partner.

    Map from county memo on where the different sites are located.
    Map from county memo on where the different sites are located.

    Because the Opa-locka site, called Airport West in the report, is in a less developed area, the report suggested it might be easier to get a permit from the EPA. But the city of Miramar is campaigning against that location, even putting a petition on the city website.

    Keeping the incinerator in its original Doral site would be the cheapest and quickest option, the report found. There’s already some existing infrastructure and it has been approved as an energy facility since the 1980s.

    But there also has been major political push-back. The city of Doral has made clear it doesn’t want another waste-to-energy trash-burning facility being built within their boundaries. Doral is so serious about getting the incinerator out of its city that it is in talks with the county to help fund the relocation of the new incinerator, which would process 4,000 tons of trash a day.

    “We’ve had the waste-to-energy facility in our backyard for over 40 years,” Doral Councilwoman Maureen Porras said. “I think this is a burden that the city of Doral has had to deal with for a very long time.”

    “It doesn’t belong in the city of Doral where it’s next to so many homes and residences,” Porras added.

    Porras said she’d prefer the county to put the incinerator at the most remote option, Airport West, which Mayor Danielle Levine Cava originally proposed as her first choice after the fire burned the Doral site. The Airport West site sits outside the Urban Development Boundary that Levine Cava has fought to uphold throughout her time in office.

    All three sites also are within 15 miles of Everglades marshes, which might mean a longer and more complicated permitting process from federal agencies. The Doral site is actually the closest to Everglades National Park.

    The report found that no matter where the incinerator was built, it would have little to no impact on human health or the surrounding environment. The safest for human health is the Airport West site.

    “The worst-case health effects level at three sites is below the risk posed by simply walking down the street and inhaling,” the memo read.

    The report said the new incinerator would have similar air pollution controls and emissions as the Covanta facility in West Palm Beach that’s been up and running since 2015 — a marked improvement from the aging Doral facility.

    Some activists in the area, including Earth Justice and Florida Rising, want to get rid of the incinerator altogether. They’d like the county to move towards a zero waste system by composting, recycling and reusing garbage — not setting it on fire.

    However, Miami-Dade’s climate action plan mentions a trash incinerator as a major step in the county’s goal of ending the use of fossil fuels. The county would one day like to use energy produced by the plant to fuel its garbage trucks, the plan says.

    The county is making sure to approach this process “as methodically as possible, thorough evaluation of all possible sites, information-sharing and input from key stakeholders across the community,” said chief operations officer Jimmy Morales in a statement to the Herald.

    The next step is to conduct community outreach – including the impacted cities, communities, and organizations up until recommending a site at the Sep. 4 commission meeting. The memo is on the agenda, and could be discussed, at tomorrow’s commission meeting.

    Ashley Miznazi is a climate change reporter for the Miami Herald funded by the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners.

    Ashley Miznazi is a climate change reporter for the Miami Herald funded by the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners.

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  • ‘Our voices need to be included’: Trinidadian youth make case for strong role in climate negotiations

    ‘Our voices need to be included’: Trinidadian youth make case for strong role in climate negotiations

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    Small island developing States are particularly vulnerable to climate change consequences, such as rising sea levels and heavy rains that cause flooding, increasing ocean temperatures that affect coral reefs and fishing and frequent hurricanes destroying homes and livelihoods. These countries often suffer from fragile economic conditions and don’t have the means to help their citizens to cope with these problems.

    In the face of such uncertain conditions, many young people are deciding that they want and need urgent changes to ensure that they have a world worth living in. Around the world, they are leading strikes, protests and demonstrations and gaining the skills needed to find solutions.

    At a coffee shop in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, UN News met some of the country’s leading young voices on the environment to find out what Trinidadians think about the climate emergency and how to address it.

    Priyanka Lalla, a teenage climate activist and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) youth advocate for the eastern Caribbean, represented Trinidad and Tobago at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow; Joshua Prentice, a climate and ocean scientist, has worked with the United Nations on projects related to chemicals and waste; and Zaafia Alexander is the 18-year-old founder of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) devoted to raising awareness of the climate crisis and elevating the voices of Caribbean youth on the international scene.

    UN News/Brianna Rowe

    Priyanka Lalla is a Trinidadian teenage climate activist and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) youth advocate for the eastern Caribbean.

    UN News: What inspired you to advocate for change?

    Priyanka Lalla: I grew up in a beautiful region with lush biodiversity, and I have seen the destruction and damage caused by storms, particularly after Hurricane Maria struck the Leeward Islands in 2017.

    I think there’s often a narrative that individual action does not create great impact. But it does, which is why I advocate for individual action and to empower young people and show them that we do have power.

    Joshua Prentice: Discussions are happening now that will shape our future, and our voices need to be included in all negotiations. This is why I decided to attend climate conferences and ensure that youth are represented, particularly from my region.

    Zaafia Alexander: For me it was an excruciatingly passionate geography teacher. They helped me understand why climate change should be a key topic of conversation in Trinidad and Tobago.

    Also, I was angry. It seemed to me that no one was taking any action, that no one my age was talking about the problem and that youth weren’t included in crucial decisions that affect us.

    Joshua Prentice is a Trinidadian climate and ocean scientist.

    UN News/Brianna Rowe

    Joshua Prentice is a Trinidadian climate and ocean scientist.

    UN News: You have all told me that not enough young people are getting involved in advocating for climate action. Why do you think that is?

    Joshua Prentice: I think that this is a by-product of it not being pushed more in the school system growing up. It trickles down from parents as well. They need to teach their children good recycling practices and why we should we take care of the environment. However, thanks to the internet and social media, young people are starting to be more engaged.

    Zaafia Alexander: This is why education and advocacy are so important. So many Trinidadians are not aware of the severity of the crisis or how it directly affects Trinidad and Tobago and other small island developing States. It’s not a part of the syllabus.

    Joshua Prentice: And many young farmers don’t understand how climate change is affecting their crops and their land because of things like drought and flooding.

    Zaafia Alexander: It’s ironic that we are heavily affected, but so many of us don’t understand why we’re seeing fluctuating weather patterns, sea level rises and increased temperatures or that mankind is primarily to blame.

    Priyanka Lalla: Yes, it’s the same marginalised coastal communities that are hit by flash flooding every year. Their homes are washed out, they lose their belongings, young children are forced out of education because their schools are destroyed and they don’t have the resources to build back. Sometimes they are forced to give up on education and are forced into child marriage or child labour.

    Zaafia Alexander is Trinidadian teenage climate activist, and founder of an environmental NGO.

    UN News/Brianna Rowe

    Zaafia Alexander is Trinidadian teenage climate activist, and founder of an environmental NGO.

    UN News: Some activists advocate for changes in legislation to address the climate crisis. Is this something you’re interested in pursuing?

    Joshua Prentice: As someone who practices environmental law, I can say that it’s very hard to update legislation. There needs to be immense public outcry for a law to change. However, in recent years we have made some progress because of public pressure.

    But, reaching out directly to the ministries directly overseeing this area can help. Youth activists should contact them and ask for their concerns to be taken up in cabinet. There are also NGOs in Trinidad that talk directly to ministers. By getting involved with them, you have a better chance of being heard.

    Priyanka Lalla: We need the support of our ministries, our policymakers, our governments. We also need the support of our young people, educators, homemakers. It needs to be a collective effort.

    I think that accountability comes from the voice of the young people. We continue to keep our governments, our policymakers, NGOs and various organisations accountable. But, I think we also need to acknowledge the good that has been done already and acknowledge it to make people feel empowered and inspired to continue.

    UN News: Trinidad has benefited from oil reserves over many years. Should the country stop exploiting this fossil fuel resource?

    Joshua Prentice: As an advocate for sustainable development and clean energy, I think that we should stop it. However, I exist in the real world as well. There are a lot of things that need to be done in the country, and we cannot afford to just leave oil and gas, which is by far its biggest revenue generator, overnight.

    There have been steps taken to diversify the country and move away from our dependency on oil and gas, and I do believe that we want to go further in this direction.

    Priyanka Lalla: Within the next few decades, we need to make that transition, even though it is taking longer than we’d like, for the sake of our people and the sake of our biodiversity.

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    Global Issues

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  • Asia Heatwave: Why a Thai Village Paraded a Cartoon Cat

    Asia Heatwave: Why a Thai Village Paraded a Cartoon Cat

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    Desperate times call for desperate measures, and across Asia, communities are responding to an extreme and deadly heat wave, which has battered the region since last month and has left few options for residents and governments to cope, in creative and even superstitious ways.

    One city in the Philippines has rolled out free mobile showers, while in Vietnam, municipal authorities reportedly looked into the possibility of enlisting the help of a man who claimed he could pray for precipitation. In Thailand, a village in the central province of Nakhon Sawan resorted earlier this week to a rain-calling ritual that involved parading a Japanese manga cat.

    According to Thai media, some 200 residents of the province’s Phayuha Khiri district conducted a traditional hae nang maew, or “female cat parade.” The ceremony has agricultural roots dating back hundreds of years ago in which farmers would hold a procession with a nang maew (female cat), carried in either a basket or cage, across the village as planting season approaches. Because of cats’ aversion to water, traditionally the captive cat is splashed with water with the belief that its cries will augur rainfall.

    While in the past, real cats have been used, amid increasing concerns about animal abuse, Hello Kitty dolls and other lifeless alternatives have been subbed in instead in recent years.

    The Thai villagers this week used plushies of Doraemon—a cartoon blue, male, robotic cat of Japanese origin popularized by its eponymous manga and anime. It’s not the first time Doraemon has played the central part in the rain-calling ritual. Doraemon, which first appeared in 1969, has become a beloved icon in the Southeast Asian country and has often been spotted over the years in Buddhist shrines and temples.

    But Doraemon’s powers in this regard are likely limited, as Thailand’s dry weather conditions aren’t expected to let up until at least mid-May, as the rainy season’s start is delayed. Meanwhile, as climate change continues to push global temperatures upward, meteorological experts warn that the country’s sweltering summer heat that once would ease around June may now and in the future last through October.

    Read More: How to Monitor and Stay Safe in Extreme Heat, Using the CDC’s New HeatRisk Tool

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    Chad de Guzman

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  • We Should Aim to be at Peace with Nature, Says David Cooper of UN Convention on Biological Diversity

    We Should Aim to be at Peace with Nature, Says David Cooper of UN Convention on Biological Diversity

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    Bee-harvesting in an urban setting. Preparations are underway for the 16th Biodiversity Convention of the Parties (COP16) in Cali, Valle del Cauca. Credit: USDA
    • by Stella Paul (hyderabad & montreal)
    • Inter Press Service

    HYDERABAD & MONTREAL, May 02 (IPS) – In a world faced with habitat loss and species extinction, climate change, and pollution, it’s crucial that countries develop their national action plans and create a society that lives in harmony with nature, says David Cooper, Acting Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), in an exclusive interview with IPS.

    And in a year where more than 4 billion people across the globe are expected to participate in elections, Cooper believes that politicians should put biodiversity on their manifestos.

    Since taking the reins from the previous Executive Director, Elizabeth Mrema, Cooper has been at the forefront of steering the CBD towards the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework.

    Later this year, world leaders will gather in Cali, Colombia for the 16th Biodiversity Convention of the Parties (COP16) slated for October 21 to November 1, 2024 for which preparations are currently underway.

    Cooper gives insight into the core issues that will be on the top of the COP16 agenda, the current status of biodiversity finance, including the newly operationalized biodiversity fund, the upcoming meetings of the scientific and technical bodies of the CBD, the current status of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP) and what is likely to unfold in the coming months in Digital Sequence Information (DSI).

    David Cooper, Acting Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
    David Cooper, Acting Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

    Biodiversity Finance: On Track but at Slow Pace

    The UN Biodiversity Convention aims to mobilize at least USD 20 billion per year by 2025 and at least USD 30 billion per year by 2030 for biodiversity-related funding from all sources, including the public and private sectors.

    However, the current situation with biodiversity funding shows that while progress is happening, it’s not fast enough. Some countries and groups are trying hard to give more money to projects that help nature, but overall, it’s still below expectations, and there are unfilled promises, Cooper acknowledges.

    “We need to see a serious road map,” Cooper says, “All countries, in particular the donor country community, have to see how we are going to achieve at least that USD 20 billion by 2025 because that’s imminent.”

    He called on big donors to honor their commitments.

    “It’s really important that the big donors who promise money actually follow through and give the money they said they would. We need everyone to work together to make sure there’s enough money to protect our plants, animals, and the places they live,” Cooper says. “Certainly, we need to see all countries put efforts behind all of the goals and targets of the framework and that, of course, includes those on financial resources.”

    Cooper welcomed the decision by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to establish a new fund, the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund. He said the CBD secretariat was working closely with Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, the GEF CEO, and his team.

    “We then saw a number of contributions to that fund coming. The contribution from Canada is a significant one of 200 million Canadian dollars. Other significant donations came from Germany, Spain, Japan, and most recently, Luxembourg. Actually, the contribution from Luxembourg, if we look at its pro rata, given the size of the Luxembourg economy, is also quite generous, even though it’s only USD 7 million in total.”

    National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs)

    It’s not only about funding, Cooper says, but countries showing their commitment to their agreements, including developing NBSAPs. He acknowledged that very few countries had submitted so far.

    “It’s only a few countries so far, and Spain, Japan, China, France, Hungary, and Ireland have submitted their NBSAPS, as well as the European Union,” says Cooper.

    While he is optimistic that all the countries will develop their targets, he recognizes that it’s a complex process.

    “I think most countries are in the process of developing their national targets, which is the first thing they’re supposed to do. But this is a process that is also supposed to engage all the different sectors of the economy and all the different parts of society, with the engagement of local communities, indigenous peoples, businesses, and so on.”

    The CBD supports the countries through the complexities.

    “The developing countries in particular have been supported through the Global Environment Facility. We’ve also been organizing a number of regional dialogues so that countries can share their experience as they move forward,” Cooper says.

    At COP15, it was decided that all countries should submit their NBSAPs, if possible, before COP16.

    “If they’re not able to submit their full NBSAPS by then, then at least they should provide their updated national targets. So, we do expect many, many countries to have progressed on their NBSAPs by COP16. Immediately prior to COP16, there will be another meeting of the subsidiary body on implementation to also take stock of where we are on that.”

    COP16: What’s In, What’s Out

    The core focus of CBD COP16 is likely to revolve around the adoption and implementation of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. This framework sets out the global targets and goals for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use for the next decade and beyond. Key aspects of the framework may include targets related to halting biodiversity loss, promoting sustainable resource management, enhancing ecosystem resilience, and ensuring equitable sharing of the benefits derived from biodiversity.

    “I think I can highlight four key areas for COP 16,” says Cooper. “The first is that we have to see, and we have to have demonstrated progress in terms of implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework. That means national targets are set. That means NBSAPs developed in at least a majority of countries. That means funds are flowing, which means, as I said before, a credible path towards this USD 20 billion by 2025 target. It also means the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund should be receiving more funds and supporting more projects.”

    The second core issue will be the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of Digital Sequence Information (DSI) on genetic resources. There was an agreement made at COP15 to establish this mechanism, but no details were fleshed out at that time, so those details are now being negotiated in an intergovernmental working group.

    “Of course, the establishment of such a mechanism with a fund would give another major boost to the Convention because it would bring in another source of funding.”

    The third area would be finance, he says.

    “The fourth area that I would highlight is the need to further strengthen the role of indigenous peoples and local communities as key actors.”

    He also points out that there’s a number of other issues, such as the issue of biodiversity and health and synthetic biology, that need to be managed, including looking at a risk assessment and risk management for, for instance, gene-edited mosquitoes.

    “They’ve determined that the theme of the COP will be peace with nature, which is a broad theme that will include many, many issues,” he reveals.

     Plastic Pollution Treaty and CBD’s Role

    The fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4) on plastic pollution in April 2024 at the Shaw Center in Ottawa, Canada, aims to develop an internationally legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, to end plastic pollution by 2040.

    Ending plastic pollution is also one of the biodiversity targets, Cooper says, adding that the CBD is actively involved in the logistical organization of INC-4.

    “Also, the reduction of waste from plastics and pollution from plastics is one of the elements of target 7 of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. So, we are seeing the success of INC-4 negotiations as hugely important for the implementation of the Framework,” he says.

    What to Watch out for Between Now and COP16

    Although all eyes will be on the COP16 negotiations, there are a number of global events taking place in the next few months that will contribute to the agenda and determine the level of the world’s preparedness for the conference.

    “The most important ones are obviously the SBSTTA (Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical, and Technological Advice) and the SBI (Subsidiary Body on Implementation), then this working group on Digital Sequence Information that will take place in August,” Cooper says.

    Like the SBI, SBSTTA is a subsidiary body established under the CBD. While the SBI specifically assists in reviewing progress in the implementation of the Convention and identifies obstacles to its implementation, among other functions, SBSTTA plays a crucial role in ensuring that decisions made under the CBD are informed by the best available scientific evidence and technical expertise.

    “Then we have the G7 and G20 processes coming up, which are important processes to show leadership. The CBD COP itself will be followed by the COPs of climate change and desertification, making the linkage between these. Also, we expect Colombia and the indigenous peoples will host just before COP, a pre-cop focusing on indigenous peoples and local communities and their roles,” Cooper says.

    Finally, as a record 64 countries across the world hold their elections this year to elect a new national government, does this provide a unique opportunity to speak about biodiversity and should biodiversity, like climate change, be made an election issue?

    “Definitely,” says Cooper.

    “If we look at many of the extreme events that people suffered from, particularly last year, whether these be fires, wildfires, droughts, storms, or floods, you know, these are largely attributed by the media to climate change. Climate change is increasing the probability and severity of these events, but these events are also happening because of ecosystem degradation because we haven’t been managing biodiversity and ecosystems well. So, I think we all have an opportunity to make this message and these links clearer. Politicians have a particular responsibility to do so, and I hope more of them will do so as these various elections in various parts of the world pan out.”

    IPS UN Bureau Report


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    © Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • Study says El Nino, not climate change, was key driver of low rainfall that snarled Panama Canal

    Study says El Nino, not climate change, was key driver of low rainfall that snarled Panama Canal

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    WASHINGTON — The climate phenomenon known as El Nino — and not climate change — was a key driver in low rainfall that disrupted shipping at the Panama Canal last year, scientists said Wednesday.

    A team of international scientists found that El Nino — a natural warming of the central Pacific that changes weather worldwide — doubled the likelihood of the low precipitation Panama received during last year’s rainy season. That dryness reduced water levels at the reservoir that feeds freshwater to the Panama Canal and provides drinking water for more than half of the Central American country.

    Human-caused climate change was not a primary driver of the Central American country’s unusually dry monsoon season, the World Weather Attribution group concluded, after comparing the rainfall levels to climate models for a simulated world without current warming.

    The study has not been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal yet but follows scientifically accepted techniques, and past such studies have frequently been published months later.

    “Natural variability plays a critical role in driving many extremes,” said Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Brown University, who was not involved in the study. “This is an important reminder that climate change isn’t always the answer.”

    Panama experienced one of its driest years on record last year, receiving below-average rainfall for seven of the eight months of its May to December rainy season.

    As a result, since last June, the Panama Canal Authority has restricted the number and size of ships passing through the Panama Canal due to low water levels in Lake Gatun, the canal’s main hydrological reserve. Global shipping is still being disrupted.

    To test whether climate change had a role, the team of scientists analyzed weather data against computer simulations precise enough to capture precipitation in the region. Such models simulate a world without the current 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since preindustrial times, and see how likely the lack of rainfall would be in a world without fossil fuel-charged warming.

    The climate models did not show a trend similar to the drying that Panama experienced last year. In fact, many models show a wetter trend in the region due to climate change from carbon dioxide and methane emissions produced by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.

    Meanwhile, the analysis showed that El Nino reduced the 2023 rainfall by about 8%, and that it’s unlikely Panama would have experienced such a dry rainy season without the influence of the weather phenomenon. The researchers said increased demand for water in the region worsened the shortfall.

    The group used more than 140 years of rainfall records collected from 65 weather stations — a “statistician’s dream,” said Clair Barnes, a researcher at Imperial College of London and one of the study’s authors.

    “So we’re very confident that El Nino is driving the low precipitation,” said climate scientist Friederike Otto, also of Imperial College, who coordinates the attribution study team.

    The World Weather Attribution group launched in 2015 largely due to frustration that it took so long to determine whether climate change was behind an extreme weather event. Studies like theirs, within attribution science, use real-world weather observations and computer modeling to determine the likelihood of a particular happening before and after climate change, and whether global warming affected its intensity.

    ___

    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • New Jersey seeks fourth round of offshore wind farm proposals as foes push back

    New Jersey seeks fourth round of offshore wind farm proposals as foes push back

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    LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP, N.J. — New Jersey is seeking a new round of proposals to build wind energy farms off its coastline, forging ahead with its clean energy goals even as local opposition and challenging economics create blowback to the effort.

    The state Board of Public Utilities on Tuesday opened a fourth round of solicitations for offshore wind farms, giving interested companies until July 10 to submit proposals.

    “Advancing this solicitation really demonstrates that we are committed to seeing the economic development that offshore wind is bringing to New Jersey and will continue to bring, as well as the clean energy that is so important for the residents of the state,” said the board’s president, Christine Guhl-Sadovy.

    There are currently three preliminarily approved offshore wind projects in New Jersey.

    One from Chicago-based Invenergy and New York-based energyRE. Called Leading Light Wind, would be built 40 miles (64 kilometers) off Long Beach Island and would consist of up to 100 turbines, enough to power 1 million homes.

    Another, called Attentive Energy Two, would be built 42 miles (67 kilometers) off Seaside Heights and would not be visible from the shoreline. It is a joint venture between Paris-based TotalEnergies and London-based Corio Generation, and it would power over 650,000 homes.

    The third is Atlantic Shores, a joint partnership between Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF-RE Offshore Development LLC. It would generate enough energy to power 700,000 homes and would be 8.4 miles (13.5 kilometers) off the coast of Long Beach Island.

    New Jersey has set a goal of getting 100% of its energy from clean sources by 2035, and it wants to become the East Coast leader in offshore wind.

    “The strong wind resources off New Jersey’s shoreline are well-suited to the development of a robust offshore wind program,” said Kira Lawrence, a senior policy advisor with the board. “New Jersey remains committed to ensuring that natural resources including fish, marine mammals, birds and other wildlife are protected throughout the development, construction, operation and decommissioning of offshore wind projects.”

    Most of the state’s environmental groups support offshore wind as a way to phase out the burning of fossil fuels that contribute to climate change and the severe weather that New Jersey and other places have experienced.

    “To achieve the necessary carbon emission reductions to protect our communities from the climate crisis, we need a major transition in our energy sector now,” Anjuli Ramos-Busot, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, wrote in comments submitted to the board before its vote. “Offshore wind is the future, and one of our greatest clean energy solutions that will benefit the local communities here in our state without the further burning of fossil fuels.”

    Other comments sent to the board oppose offshore wind projects as economically unsound and environmentally risky.

    “If the NJPBU and other agencies along with the offshore wind developers are so sure that there will be no negative impact on fishing, tourism or real estate, then these claims should be guaranteed in the solicitation, along with appropriate penalties if harm to the tourism, fishing and real estate values occurs,” the group Defend Brigantine Beach and Downbeach wrote to the board.

    Many offshore wind opponents blame site-preparation work for a spate of whale deaths along the U.S. East Coast over the past year and a half. But numerous federal and state agencies say there is no evidence of a link between the projects and the animal deaths. some of which were attributed to ship strikes or entanglement with fishing gear.

    Last October, the Danish wind giant Orsted scrapped plans for two wind farms off New Jersey, saying they were no longer feasible economically.

    ___

    Follow Wayne Parry on X, formerly Twitter, at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC

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  • The UK’s Ex-Climate Chief on the Country’s Lost Ambitions

    The UK’s Ex-Climate Chief on the Country’s Lost Ambitions

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    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine feels like a really pivotal moment in this narrative. In the autumn of 2022, energy prices in the UK were skyrocketing, and yet the response of Liz Truss, prime minister at the time, was to double down on oil and gas exploration and refuse to ask people to cut down their energy usage. It was the absolute opposite approach to many European nations facing the same problem.

    At the time [the invasion] happened, it was obviously a genuine crisis and I thought climate was going to come down the priority list. But in my technocratic mind, I was also thinking this was going to create the incentive to get off high-carbon fuels—if you want to know what the world looks like with a high carbon price, we’re about to find out.

    What I didn’t expect is that the green arguments were too late out of the blocks because the fossil arguments stepped in immediately to say, “This is why we need a domestic fossil fuel supply.” That really important argument, to act on this because fossil fuels are so price-volatile and so expensive, was slightly missed in the political ether at the time, and we jumped to a different narrative of what the country needed to do.

    The irony of that whole period is we’re running out of oil and gas. So it’s not going to be a credible strategy in the long run to try and pump prime oil and gas licenses in the North Sea.

    A year later, Truss’ successor, Rishi Sunak, made a big speech rolling back key climate policies, most notably pushing back the 2030 deadline banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.

    If you look at it purely as a policy speech, there was more pro-climate policy than there was delayed climate policy. It was the one where he talks about accelerating green investment, for example. And the electric vehicle thing [pushing back the 2030 deadline] wasn’t that much of a shift, since we were already allowing hybrids until 2035.

    But what did the country hear? They heard, “Don’t worry, now’s not the time to switch to electric vehicles.” It’s hard to tie anything back to a single speech, but if you look at the share of electric vehicles being sold in the UK, it has flatlined since September. I’m sure there are other factors here, but there will be people who thought, “Oh well, maybe I don’t need to get that electric car right now.”

    It seems that this government has decided to make appealing to motorists a key campaigning strategy. In July 2023, the Labour Party narrowly lost the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election, and a lot of commentators thought that the Conservative candidate won that election because of his opposition to the Ultra Low Emission Zone.

    What happened there was interesting. The Labour Party also accepted the narrative that ULEZ was why they didn’t win that constituency. Inevitably, in any election there are a host of issues at play, but if all parties think it’s about environmental policies, it’s no surprise that that becomes one of the dominant themes in politics after that.

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    Matt Reynolds

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  • Rewind. Fast forward. African farmers are looking everywhere to navigate climate change

    Rewind. Fast forward. African farmers are looking everywhere to navigate climate change

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    HARARE, Zimbabwe — From ancient fertilizer methods in Zimbabwe to new greenhouse technology in Somalia, farmers across the heavily agriculture-reliant African continent are looking to the past and future to respond to climate change.

    Africa, with the world’s youngest population, faces the worst effects of a warming planet while contributing the least to the problem. Farmers are scrambling to make sure the booming population is fed.

    With over 60% of the world’s uncultivated land, Africa should be able to feed itself, some experts say. And yet three in four people across the continent cannot afford a healthy diet, according to a report last year by the African Union and United Nations agencies. Reasons include conflict and lack of investment.

    In Zimbabwe, where the El Nino phenomenon has worsened a drought, small-scale farmer James Tshuma has lost hope of harvesting anything from his fields. It’s a familiar story in much of the country, where the government has declared a $2 billion state of emergency and millions of people face hunger.

    But a patch of green vegetables is thriving in a small garden the 65-year-old Tshuma is keeping alive with homemade organic manure and fertilizer. Previously discarded items have again become priceless.

    “This is how our fathers and forefathers used to feed the earth and themselves before the introduction of chemicals and inorganic fertilizers,” Tshuma said.

    He applies livestock droppings, grass, plant residue, remains of small animals, tree leaves and bark, food scraps and other biodegradable items like paper. Even the bones of animals that are dying in increasing numbers due to the drought are burned before being crushed into ash for their calcium.

    Climate change is compounding much of sub-Saharan Africa’s longstanding problem of poor soil fertility, said Wonder Ngezimana, an associate professor of crop science at Zimbabwe’s Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology.

    “The combination is forcing people to re-look at how things were done in the past like nutrient recycling, but also blending these with modern methods,” said Ngezimana, whose institution is researching the combination of traditional practices with new technologies.

    Apart from being rich in nitrogen, organic fertilizers help increase the soil’s carbon and ability to retain moisture, Ngezimana said. “Even if a farmer puts synthetic fertilizer into the soil, they are likely to suffer the consequences of poor moisture as long as there is a drought,” he said.

    Other moves to traditional practices are under way. Drought-resistant millets, sorghum and legumes, staples until the early 20th century when they were overtaken by exotic white corn, have been taking up more land space in recent years.

    Leaves of drought-resistant plants that were once a regular dish before being cast off as weeds are returning to dinner tables. They even appear on elite supermarket shelves and are served at classy restaurants, as are millet and sorghum.

    This could create markets for the crops even beyond drought years, Ngezimana said.

    In conflict-prone Somalia in East Africa, greenhouses are changing the way some people live, with shoppers filling up carts with locally produced vegetables and traditionally nomadic pastoralists under pressure to settle down and grow crops.

    “They are organic, fresh and healthy,” shopper Sucdi Hassan said in the capital, Mogadishu. “Knowing that they come from our local farms makes us feel secure.”

    Her new shopping experience is a sign of relative calm after three decades of conflict and the climate shocks of drought and flooding.

    Urban customers are now assured of year-round supplies, with more than 250 greenhouses dotted across Mogadishu and its outskirts producing fruit and vegetables. It is a huge leap.

    “In the past, even basic vegetables like cucumbers and tomatoes were imported, causing logistical problems and added expenses,” said Somalia’s minister of youth and sports, Mohamed Barre.

    The greenhouses also create employment in a country where about 75% of the population is people under 30 years old, many of them jobless.

    About 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the capital, Mohamed Mahdi, an agriculture graduate, inspected produce in a greenhouse where he works.

    “Given the high unemployment rate, we are grateful for the chance to work in our chosen field of expertise,” the 25-year-old said.

    Meanwhile, some pastoralist herders are being forced to change their traditional ways after watching livestock die by the thousands.

    “Transitioning to greenhouse farming provides pastoralists with a more resilient and sustainable livelihood option,” said Mohamed Okash, director of the Institute of Climate and Environment at SIMAD University in Mogadishu.

    He called for larger investments in smart farming to combat food insecurity.

    In Kenya, a new climate-smart bean variety is bringing hope to farmers in a region that had recorded reduced rainfall in six consecutive rainy seasons.

    The variety, called “Nyota” or “star” in Swahili, is the result of a collaboration between scientists from the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, the Alliance of Bioversity International and research organization International Center for Tropical Agriculture.

    The new bean variety is tailored for Kenya’s diverse climatic conditions. One focus is to make sure drought doesn’t kill them off before they have time to flourish.

    The bean variety flowers and matures so quickly that it is ready for harvesting by the time rains disappear, said David Karanja, a bean breeder and national coordinator for grains and legumes at KALRO.

    Hopes are that these varieties could bolster national bean production. The annual production of 600,000 metric tons falls short of meeting annual demand of 755,000 metric tons, Karanja said.

    Farmer Benson Gitonga said his yield and profits are increasing because of the new bean variety. He harvests between nine and 12 bags from an acre of land, up from the previous five to seven bags.

    One side benefit of the variety is a breath of fresh air.

    “Customers particularly appreciate its qualities, as it boasts low flatulence levels, making it an appealing choice,” Gitonga said.

    ___

    Tiro reported from Nairobi, Kenya and Faruk reported from Mogadishu, Somalia.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

    ___

    AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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  • 1 in 3 Americans Live in Areas With Dangerous Air Pollution

    1 in 3 Americans Live in Areas With Dangerous Air Pollution

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    For Gaddy, who is African American, the report’s findings confirm what she and her neighbors in Newark’s predominantly Black South Ward have experienced for years. Gaddy and her three children were all diagnosed with asthma; her eldest child died of a heart attack in 2021 at the age of 32.

    “It’s just the cumulative impacts of pollution is what is harming us,” Gaddy said. “And so, unfortunately, that’s what happens in our city.”

    The New York/Newark metropolitan area has 1.8 million adults with asthma and 370,000 children with the disease, according to the report.

    Researchers are hopeful that a series of new auto emissions standards that were announced last month by the Biden administration might significantly reduce some forms of particle pollution.

    Under the newly proposed standard, by 2032, 56 percent of all new vehicles that are sold should be electric; the proposal also calls for increases in plug-in hybrid vehicles or other partially electric cars and more efficient gasoline-powered cars.

    “We’ve seen the Environmental Protection Agency finalize a number of new standards to clean up the air pollution and address climate change, with more on the way,” said Bender.

    “We’ve seen the tighter particulate matter standard. We’ve seen strong measures to reduce emissions from future cars and future trucks. We’ve seen measures to reduce methane and volatile organic compounds from the oil and gas industry,” she said. “And we’re calling on the administration to get across the finish line to more items on their to-do list.”

    Bender said that the association hopes that the EPA will update the national ozone standard, which has not been revised since 2015.

    “Sometimes people don’t realize that poor air can affect them pretty drastically,” said Amit “Bobby” Mahajan, a national spokesperson for the Lung Association. “We know that there are asthma attacks, heart attacks and strokes, but we also see increases in preterm birth, cognitive impairment, and development of lung cancers in individuals who have high exposure to ozone and particle pollution.

    “So not only is it important just to provide clean air, but providing clean air minimizes the number of exposures we have to these serious diseases and honestly reduces our risk of having deadly underlying conditions,” said Mahajan, who also serves as the director of interventional pulmonology at Inova Health System in Northern Virginia.

    Gaddy said that she’s confident that federal officials will soon act on the recommendations of researchers and other experts to help alleviate the asthma crisis in her city.

    “We know that eventually, our communities will be healed and restored to the level that they should be,” added Gaddy. “And that just because of our zip code or the color of our skin, our communities won’t continue to be these sacrifice zones.”

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  • Can Biden’s new jobs program to fight climate change attract women and people of color?  – The Hechinger Report

    Can Biden’s new jobs program to fight climate change attract women and people of color?  – The Hechinger Report

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    This story was originally published by The 19th and reprinted with permission.

    At a national park in Virginia on Monday, President Joe Biden announced that people can start applying to the American Climate Corps, a program that is expected to connect workers with more than 20,000 green jobs. 

    “You’ll get paid to fight climate change, learning how to install those solar panels, fight wildfires, rebuild wetlands, weatherize homes, and so much more that’s going to protect the environment and build a clean energy economy,” Biden said at the Earth Day event. 

    The American Climate Corps (ACC) is modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 to employ men in environmental projects on the country’s public lands — projects like trail building, planting trees and soil erosion control. Nearly 3 million people were put to work in an effort to address both Depression-era unemployment and to shore up national infrastructure.

    But it wasn’t very diverse. Although Black and Native American men were allowed to enroll, the work was segregated. And women could not apply. For a brief time, a sister program created by Eleanor Roosevelt — mockingly called the “She-She-She camps” by its detractors — trained 8,500 women in skills like typing and filing.  

    The Biden administration is adamant that this iteration of the program will attract a more diverse conservation and climate workforce, promising that the program will “look like America” and expand pathways into the workforce for people from marginalized backgrounds.

    On Monday, Biden announced the launch of a long-awaited job board where applicants can look for opportunities. Some positions were created through the American Climate Corps partner agencies like the Forest Service, which announced the Forest Corps — 80 jobs in reforestation and wildfire mitigation — or the USDA’s Working Lands Climate Corps, with 100 positions. At the same time, the Department of Interior and the Department of Energy announced a new project that will place corps members in priority energy communities — places that have historically been the site of coal mining and power plants — for work in community-led projects like environmental remediation. All of these positions have a term limit, although they vary; some listed on the website are seven-months for example, others are over a year long. 

    Other jobs listed on the site are compiled from existing conservation corps programs; either state-run programs like the California Conservation Corps or those run by nonprofits like Conservation Legacy. These provide opportunities for young people in local communities to do everything from prescribed burning on public lands to solar panel installations on schools. 

    So far, there are 273 listings on the website, ranging from working on trail crews to invasive plant management to wildland firefighting positions. There is also an “ag literacy” position to teach kids about where their food comes from, and a posting for a climate impact coordinator who will help a Minnesota nonprofit develop climate resilience projects. That’s a far cry from the administration’s goal of 20,000 jobs.

    But supporters of the program say opportunities to expand ACC are endless — from home weatherization positions to planting tree canopies in urban areas. The question is whether these mostly taxpayer-funded jobs will attract and retain a diverse workforce and benefits women and LGBTQ+ workers, as well as people of color. 

    “We know that it is going to take everybody to solve the climate process and we need to field the whole team. That’s exactly the way we’ve thought about building this program,” said Maggie Thomas, special assistant for climate to Biden.

    Because the program is working with The Corps Network, a national association of about 140 conservation groups, there is already some data on how modern-day organizations operate, said Mary Ellen Sprenkel, president and CEO of the network. “They collectively engage almost 25,000 young people a year and are very diverse — young people from urban areas to rural areas. There is a diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status and education level.”

    According to the organization’s data from 2023, the most recent year available, 44 percent of their members were women and 3 percent were gender non-conforming or gender expansive.

    Fifty-nine percent identified as White, while 14 percent were Black, 23 percent were Latino, 4 percent were American Indian, 3 percent were Asian and 2 percent were Pacific Islander. 

    Sprenkel sees those numbers as progress. “What has evolved out of the original CCC has naturally become much more diverse in terms of member opportunities. And so building on that for the ACC, I think it will naturally happen,” said Sprenkel. 

    In addition, any of the jobs created through federal agencies in collaboration with the ACC must adhere to the administration’s Justice 40 initiative, which means 40 percent of the benefits must go to marginalized communities, in this case either through job creation, or through the projects being funded through monies like the Inflation Reduction Act. 

    One aspect of parity will be how well these jobs pay. Many of the positions listed on the ACC site are funded through AmeriCorps, which pays modest living stipends that have been criticized as “poverty wages.” AmeriCorps “was designed for middle class White people who could get support from their parents to have this opportunity,” Sprenkel said. But the Biden administration wants to ensure that all young people can serve, she continued, not just those who can afford to take lower-paying positions.

    Sprenkel said the administration is aiming for positions to pay a living wage — with some wiggle room that allows for lower wages as long as housing and other benefits are provided. “[They’ve] said we would like for programs to strive to pay their members $15 an hour, but if that is the result of a package where you’re providing housing and transportation, that’s OK.”

    One way the administration has aimed to increase pay transparency is to list an hourly wage equivalent for the jobs posted on the ACC website, said Thomas. This number could factor in stipends for transportation, living expenses and educational awards. Many jobs currently listed go above the $15 minimum — though some require more than entry-level experience. 

    There are also efforts in the works to increase the low stipends of current AmeriCorps members. “The president has called on Congress to raise the minimum living allowance for all of our crew members to at least $15 an hour as a starting point,” said Yasmeen Shaheen-McConnell, senior advisor for AmeriCorps. In the interim, she said, many corps positions have been able to offer packages equivalent to $15 an hour through public and private partnerships with states and outside organizations.

    Madeleine Sirois, a research analyst with the left-leaning think tank Urban Institute, has been researching workforce development pathways in the clean energy transition. She said offering paid opportunities to enter a new career is a good starting point. “So many people want to upskill, they want to get new credentials, and maybe change career paths. But then they can’t leave their current job that maybe only pays 10 bucks an hour,” she said. 

    But other benefits are important, too, if the program is going to be equitable in its rollout, said Sirois. “It’s been mentioned on the portal that there are health care, child care, transportation and housing available, but it does say only some opportunities will offer that,” she said. “So it leaves me with the question of: Who has access to that and who doesn’t?” 

    Among the initial 273 listings posted on the ACC site, The 19th found only four that listed child care as a benefit, though Shaheen-McConnell said that eventually more of the positions will offer it. 

    Sirois said another important aspect of the ACC will be whether it will lead to actual jobs in clean energy and climate work after corps service ends. She was heartened by Monday’s announcement that the ACC had partnered with the North America’s Building Trades Alliance TradeFutures program, which will provide every ACC member access to a free pre-apprenticeship trades readiness program. Trades jobs make up the foundation of the clean energy transition, but have historically gone to men. Just 4 percent of women are trades workers in the United States. 

    “These are all really important, especially for getting women and people of color into these jobs, and apprenticeships that will lead into quality careers that are unionized in many cases. So I think that’s fantastic,” said Sirois. However, while the administration has also touted that ACC positions will offer workforce certifications and skill-based training, Sirois said those are only offered for some corps members. Getting clarity on how many of these jobs will lead to improved employment opportunities will be key. 

    It’s going to take time to see how the program plays out, she said, and learn if it will be successful in placing women and people of color in trades jobs, despite historic discrimination.

    “When we talk about moving people into jobs, it’s making sure we’re very specific about what kinds of jobs in terms of the quality,” she said. “It’s about opportunities for advancement, having meaningful work, a workplace free from discrimination and harassment, and feeling that you have a voice on the job.” Sirois hopes the administration will collect data on corps members that tracks completion rates and job placements after service, and that the data can be disaggregated by gender and race.

    Thomas said American Climate Corps jobs should be considered the earliest stage of the workforce development pipeline — leading to better paying jobs down the line. “This is an opportunity for young people to take action right now in communities across the country, on climate projects that we know have a tangible impact today.”

    This story was originally published by The 19th and reprinted with permission.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

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    Jessica Kutz

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  • Bay Area scientists use game-changing technology to help birds amid climate change

    Bay Area scientists use game-changing technology to help birds amid climate change

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    SAN FRANCISCO BAY — Bay Area scientists are using cutting-edge technology to better understand the decline in bird populations while finding ways to help species that are challenged.

    In the past 50 years, nearly 30% of the birds in North America, some 3 billion birds, have vanished due primarily to habitat loss, pollution, and now climate change. 

    At the southern edge of the bay surrounded by urban sprawl, native and migratory birds have found a haven on a tiny strip of forest.

    Wildlife tracking program
    Wildlife tracking program

    KPIX


    “This is a little island of natural habitat for everything that lives here, specifically we watch the birds,” explained Katie LaBarbera, science director with the Land Bird Program at the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory. “With climate change, these ecosystems are being impacted, these species are being impacted often in a negative way.”

    She manages the Coyote Creek Field Station in Milpitas. Over the past 40 years, volunteers with the non-profit have studied birds at this year-round bird banding station. They’ve seen a worrisome decline in some species.

    To shed light on the issue, LaBarbera and her team collect data, using a traditional research method known as “bird banding.” Birds are caught gently using special soft nets, they are weighed and their feathers are inspected for diseases or opportunistic infections or pests. Researchers examine them for fat deposits and any signs of molting. A lightweight band engraved with a unique ID number is then fitted around its leg like a loose bracelet before the bird is released.

    If the banded bird is caught again, the identification on the bracelet allows scientists to keep track of its movement. But there is a big downside: the recapture rates are very, very low.

    “You recapture a very low percentage of all the birds you band,” noted LaBarbera. “So you must band a lot of birds to have any of them turn up at another station.”

    Now, a game-changing technology is blowing researchers away. It’s called the Motus Wildlife Tracking System. The tracking system is an international collaborative research network.

    Motus uses radio transmitters to simultaneously track wildlife across vast distances in real-time across the globe, revealing incredible new details. The system has been used on the East Coast for some time. Now, stations are being set up along the Pacific Coast.

     “We’ve never been able to see data like this on the West Coast before,” exclaimed LaBarbera.

    Wildlife tracking program
    Wildlife tracking program

    KPIX


    “It’s been very exciting,” proclaimed Levi Souza. Souza is a Senior Environmental Scientist with the California Department of Fish & Wildlife. He heads up the Department’s Motus Program. “We have these big gaps in our knowledge about the basic life history of a lot of wildlife and to be able to fill in those gaps it’s very gratifying.”

    To date, California has more than 50 Motus stations with antennas strategically placed from the Oregon border to the Salton Sea at the southern end of the state.

    Souza brought CBS News Bay Area to Grizzly Island, where his group manages the Motus tower there. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife put up its first station around the start of 2021.

    “Usually, one station per property is all that’s really required to cover anything that might be moving by or using that property,” explained Souza.

    With Motus, researchers attach tiny tracking tags to small birds, bats – even butterflies and bees.

    When the wildlife flies by a tower, the tag emits a unique, encoded radio signal, that gets picked up by the antenna. The range can be up to 12 miles. The signal then goes to the cloud and ends up in a central database.

    “Then it’s available for the public to take a look at and also researchers,” noted the scientist.

    Some of the nanotags are solar-powered, others have batteries. They are much cheaper than GPS tags that are better for bigger animals such as whales and sharks.

    There are now 1,200 Motus stations across 31 countries monitoring at least 250 species of birds, bats, and insects. Souza told CBS News Bay Area that some of the data he’s seen on the Motus website is stunning and eye-opening.

    “We’ve had detections of Western meadowlarks in the Central Valley, in the northern part of the Valley that were tagged in Montana,” declared Souza.

    What is key and remarkable with Motus is that researchers around the world are pooling their resources and sharing the data. The hope is that by collaborating, the scientists will more quickly understand where the birds are spending time, and identify which areas are the most important to protect, as the planet continues to warm. Climate change is a huge concern for these scientists.

     “Yes. I’m very concerned,” said LaBarbera.

    At the Coyote Creek Field Station, researchers erected a Motus tower and station. So far, they have attached nanotags to four birds: two hermit thrushes and two song sparrows. The San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory hopes to tag 10 more wild birds in the next few weeks.

    LaBarbera hopes that the warming planet, the data – and humans – will help give these birds a fighting chance.

    “The more we slow climate change, the better,” said the scientist, hoping for more than just a wing and a prayer.

    Len Ramirez


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    San Jose native Len Ramirez has been a news reporter for KPIX 5 News covering the Santa Clara County/South Bay Region since 1989. Prior to his arrival at KPIX 5, Len was a reporter for KOMO Channel 4 in Seattle, Washington and at KMST Channel 46 in Monterey. Ramirez was also a general assignment reporter for the San Jose newsroom at KSBW Channel 8 in Salinas.

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    Len Ramirez

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  • MTA says it needs $6 billion to fight climate change over next decade | amNewYork

    MTA says it needs $6 billion to fight climate change over next decade | amNewYork

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    Torrential rains on Sept. 29, 2023 wrought havoc around the city’s subway system, causing a number of stations to be flooded.

    File photo/Gabriele Holtermann