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Tag: Climate change

  • First Person: ‘Humanity must get out of the cradle’

    First Person: ‘Humanity must get out of the cradle’

    “There is no doubting the importance of the current foundations for the sustainability, from environmental protection to the fight against climate change, and green lifestyles. In the foreseeable future, upholding all these principles will be fundamental if humanity is to thrive.

    To continue to grow, one must get out of the cradle, and it’s the same with the humanity. To achieve a genuinely sustainable future, we must go beyond the Earth, our cradle. Otherwise, what Arthur C. Clarke wrote in 2001: A Space Odyssey may come true: ‘In the midst of plenty, they were slowly starving to death’.

    UN News

    Chinese Sci-fi author Liu Cixin talks to UN headquarters remotely to initiate the celebrations for Chinese Language Day.

    The modernization of all societies will need far more resources than our planet can provide, and this makes development a threat. But we could find whatever we need to survive and develop on the eight planets and asteroid belt of our Solar System, including water, metal, organics, and fuels for nuclear fusion; If the Earth is able to feed 100 billion people in total, then the resources in the Solar System could support the population of 100,000 Earths.

    However, whether we hold on to Earth or dive into the universe, sustainable development needs the non-stop progress of science and technology, but the signs are not that promising.

    Science fiction authors thought that 2023 would see magnificent space cities are moving on the geosynchronous orbits, with the Moon a suburb of Earth; cities on Mars, with millions of people living there; massive mining operations in the asteroid belt and even over the ice-covered seas of Jupiter and beyond the orbit of Neptune; and human beings exploring new worlds.

    Information technology has 'leapt forward' over the past 30 years.

    Unsplash/Markus Spiske

    Information technology has ‘leapt forward’ over the past 30 years.

    The only area where the reality of 2023 matches the imagination of science fiction is in the development of information technology. In the past 30 years, information technology has leapt forward far faster than other technologies and has penetrated all aspects of human society to revolutionize people’s life.

    Nevertheless, this conceals the slow progress of other scientific and technological fields, creating an illusion of rapid technological progress in an all-round way. If the technological progress brought by scientific development is regarded as a big tree, then the most accessible fruits on the tree have been picked up today.

    To get to a truly sustainable future, we need a greater spirit of pioneering and entrepreneurship. The international community needs a longer-term development plan, as well as full attention to, and investment in, basic research and technological innovation. Many undertakings in this area may only be accomplished with large-scale international cooperations, and the United Nations can undoubtedly play an important role in it.

    Yet, the international community still suffers from division and confrontations, even when all mankind is facing common challenges. A conventional disaster occurs locally, and other parts of the world can offer help; but a doomsday crisis puts the entire world on the brink of destruction, and no one will come to rescue us.

    But once the entire global society faces the doomsday crisis in science fiction, I think human beings will still come together to respond to the crisis). Collectively, we have the ability to self-regulate, in the way that we interact with nature.”

    Liu Cixin was speaking at the UN as part of the Chinese Language Day celebrations on 20 April. You can watch the full event here

    Global Issues

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  • California bans the sale of new diesel trucks by 2036

    California bans the sale of new diesel trucks by 2036

    Cars, trucks, SUVs, and other vehicles drive in traffic on the 405 freeway through the Sepulveda Pass in Los Angeles, California, on August 25, 2022.

    Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

    California regulators on Friday voted to ban the sale of new diesel big rigs by 2036 and require all trucks to be zero-emissions by 2042, a decision that puts the state at the forefront of mitigating national tailpipe pollution.

    The California Air Resources Board unanimously approved the Advanced Clean Fleets rule, the state’s second zero-emissions trucks rule and first in the world to require new commercial trucks, including garbage trucks, delivery trucks and other medium and heavy-duty vehicles, to be electric.

    Supporters of the rule say it will improve public health in marginalized communities that have endured polluted air while mitigating the effects of climate change. The mandate is estimated to deliver $26.5 billion in public health benefits in California in avoided health impacts and deaths due to diesel pollution. 

    Heavy-duty trucks represent nearly one third of the state’s nitrogen oxide and more than one quarter of its fine particle pollution from diesel fuel, according to the California Air Resources Board While medium and heavy-duty trucks are just 10% of the vehicles on the country’s roads, they emit 25% of the greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit. 

    “Frontline communities across California who breathe in deadly diesel pollution every day can finally get some relief with the Advanced Clean Fleets rule,” said Andrea Vidaurre, senior policy analyst for the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice. “There is no acceptable level of exposure to deadly diesel pollution — so it has got to go, for the sake of our health and our lungs.”

    Some of the country’s major truck manufacturers and their lobbying groups have strongly opposed the regulations, arguing that requirements are costly as electric models are more expensive than diesel trucks. Large trucks are more expensive to convert to electric models than smaller vehicles due to their size and weight.

    The trucking industry has also said that the deadlines are unrealistic given the lack of EV charging infrastructure and available space at ports.

    The mandate would require companies that operate 50 or more trucks to convert their fleets into electric or hydrogen models and achieve zero-emissions by 2042.

    The earliest deadline is for drayage trucks, which carry cargo to and from major ports, which must be converted to electric models by 2035, while new sales starting in 2024 must be zero-emissions. Vehicles like garbage trucks and school buses must be zero-emissions by 2027.

    California had sought waivers from the Clean Air Act to set stricter standards than the federal government for heavy-duty vehicles. The state’s stricter tailpipe emissions rules will have broader effects beyond California — which has significant authority over the U.S. auto industry — and could pave the way for other states to follow suit.

    For instance, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Colorado have already adopted the California’s Advanced Clean Trucks rule.

    The state has committed to achieving 100% renewable energy by 2045. Last year, it banned the sale of new gasoline-powered cars starting in 2035. Today’s mandate also comes a day after the state adopted a historic rule to limit emissions from diesel-powered trains.

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  • Marjorie Taylor Greene Makes Baffling Point About Taxes During The Ice Age, Insults AOC

    Marjorie Taylor Greene Makes Baffling Point About Taxes During The Ice Age, Insults AOC

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) railed against climate change mitigation programs in Congress Wednesday, not merely because she doesn’t believe in man-made climate change — but because people during the ice age didn’t have to pay taxes to combat it.

    “People are not affecting climate change,” said Greene. “You’re not going to tell me that back in the ice age, how much taxes did people pay, and how many changes did governments make to melt the ice? The climate is going to continue to change.”

    She continued, “And there is no reason to just open up our borders and allow everyone in and continue to funnel over $50 billion or however many billions of dollars or trillions of dollars to foreign countries all over the world simply because they don’t like the climate change.”

    Greene’s remarks came within hours of Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) proclaiming that “a warming globe is actually beneficial” during a Senate Budget Committee hearing on climate change-related health care costs and Republican attempts to cut spending.

    Greene reportedly expounded on her beliefs at a town hall in Murray County, Georgia.

    “How much taxes and how much money did the people back in the ice age spend to warm up the Earth?” Greene asked. “Maybe, perhaps, we live on a ball that rotates around the sun, that flies through the universe, and maybe our climate just changes.”

    Greene directly denied man-made climate change and said “maybe our climate just changes.”

    J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

    Unlike Greene, millions of scientists studying the climate have long agreed that people directly impact global carbon emissions and related temperature increases worldwide. NASA reported that 97% of “actively publishing climate scientists” agree.

    While Greene is correct that people during the last ice age didn’t pay taxes to stop Earth from cooling, this is because formal governmental bodies that might have encouraged as much didn’t exist 100,000 years ago.

    The congresswoman nonetheless continued to rant against climate change-related spending like the Green New Deal, however, and even insulted fellow Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) for introducing that framework to Congress and the public sphere.

    “I’ll tell you what the New Deal and our new infrastructure plan will do,” said Greene. “It’s going to bring us down to net zero carbon emissions, right? So we’ve got to stop using oil and coal, right? Because that makes a lot of sense to a little girl named AOC from New York.”

    She added: “You can’t even make this up.”

    This is the first wild claim Greene has made publicly. She previously furthered an anti-semitic conspiracy theory about “Jewish space lasers” — and was pretty convinced that former President Donald Trump was fighting the “Deep State.”

    In February, the House stripped Greene of her committee assignments.

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  • Biodiversity Rich-Palau Launches Ambitious Marine Spatial Planning Initiative

    Biodiversity Rich-Palau Launches Ambitious Marine Spatial Planning Initiative

    Palau’s Marine Spatial Plan will provide a framework for managing ocean and coastal resources. Credit: SPC
    • by Busani Bafana (bulawayo)
    • Inter Press Service

    BULAWAYO, Apr 28 (IPS) – Growing up in Palau in the western Pacific Ocean, Surangel Whipps Jr. played on the reefs and spearfished on an island teeming with birds, giant clams, fish, and turtles.

    Today that has all changed as a result of growing sea level rise. Half of the turtle eggs nesting on beaches are not surviving because they are laid in the tidal zone and swallowed by the sea.

    During the United Nations Ocean Conference in Portugal in June 2022, Whipps Jr., the President of Palau, emphasized the interconnectedness of the fate of the turtles, their homes, culture, and people, drawing global attention to the dire impact of climate change on this island nation that relies heavily on the ocean for its livelihood.

    Protecting Palau’s Marine Treasures

    The Pacific Ocean is the lifeblood of Palau, supporting its social, cultural, and economic development. Palau is an archipelago of over 576 islands in the western tropical Pacific Ocean. Its rich marine biota includes approximately 400 species of hard corals, 300 species of soft corals, 1400 species of reef fishes, and the world’s most isolated colony of dugongs and Micronesia’s only saltwater crocodiles.

    Worried that the island would have no future under the sea, Palau has launched an ambitious Marine Spatial Plan (MSP) initiative for its marine ecosystems that are vulnerable to climate change and impacted by human activities such as tourism, fishing, aquaculture, and shipping. It will provide a framework for managing ocean and coastal resources in a way that balances economic, social, and environmental objectives. It also aims to minimize conflicts between different users of the ocean and coastal areas and promotes their sustainable use.

    Marino-O-Te-Au Wichman, a fisheries scientist with the Pacific Community (SPC) and a member of the Palau MSP Steering Committee, explains that the initiative is particularly important for Palau due to the country’s dependence on the marine ecosystem for food security, livelihoods, and cultural identity.

    “We recognize the critical role that MSP plays in the development of maritime sectors with high potential for sustaining jobs and economic growth,” Wichman said, emphasizing that SPC was committed to supporting country-driven MSP processes with the best scientific advice and capacity development support.

    “The MSP can help balance ecological and economic considerations in the management of marine resources, ensuring that these resources are used in a sustainable way.  Some of the key ecological considerations that MSP can help address include the conservation of biodiversity, restoration of habitats, and the management of invasive species. While on the economic front, MSP can help promote the sustainable use of marine resources: and promote low-impact economic activities such as ecotourism,” Wichman observed.

    Climate Informed Decision Making

    As climate change continues to impact ocean conditions, the redistribution of marine ecosystem services and benefits will affect maritime activities and societal value chains. Mainstreaming climate change into MSP can improve preparedness and response while also reducing the vulnerability of marine ecosystems.

    Palau’s rich marine biota includes approximately 400 species of hard corals, 300 species of soft corals, 1400 species of reef fishes, and the world’s most isolated colony of dugongs and Micronesia’s only saltwater crocodiles. Credit: SPC
    Palau’s rich marine biota includes approximately 400 species of hard corals, 300 species of soft corals, 1400 species of reef fishes, and the world’s most isolated colony of dugongs and Micronesia’s only saltwater crocodiles. Credit: SPC

    “MSP can inform policy making in Pacific Island countries in several ways to support sustainable development, particularly in the face of climate change impacts. The MSP initiative launched by Palau encompasses a Climate Resilient Marine Spatial Planning project that is grounded in the most reliable scientific data, including climate change scenarios and climate risk models,” said Wichman, noting that the plan can help identify areas that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as sea level rise, ocean acidification, movement of key tuna stocks and increased storm intensity.

    Increasing the knowledge base on the impacts of a changing climate is necessary for policymakers to ensure the protection of ecologically important areas and the implementation of sustainable development strategies. This includes building strong evidence that takes into account the potential spatial relocation of uses in MSP, the knowledge of conservation priority species and keystone ecosystem components, and their inclusion in sectoral analyses to promote sustainability and resilience.

    Although progress has been made in understanding the impacts of climate change and its effects on marine ecosystems, there is still a need for thorough scientific research to guide management decisions.

    “At SPC, we are dedicated to supporting countries in advancing their knowledge of ocean science. Our joint efforts have paid off, as Palau has made significant strides in improving their understanding of the ocean and safeguarding its well-being. Through the Pacific Community Centre for Ocean Science (PCCOS), Palau and other Pacific countries are given support to continue promoting predictive and sustainable ocean practices in the region,” explained Pierre-Yves Charpentier, Project Management Advisor for the Pacific Community Centre for Ocean Science.

    A Long-Term Commitment To Protect the Ocean  

    In 2015, Palau voted to establish the Palau National Marine Sanctuary, one of the world’s largest marine protected areas, with a planned five-year phase-in. On January 1, 2020, Palau fully protected 80% of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), prohibiting all forms of extractive activities, including mining and all types of fishing.

    A Palauan legend is told of a fisherman from the village of Ngerchemai. One day the fisherman went out fishing in his canoe and came upon a large turtle and hastily jumped into the water after it. Surfacing for a breath, the fisherman realized his canoe wasn’t anchored and was drifting away. He then looked at the turtle, and it was swimming away. He could not decide which one he should pursue. In doing so, he lost both the canoe and the turtle.

    Unlike the fisherman, Palau cannot afford to be indecisive about protecting its marine treasures, Whipps Jr. said: “Ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development is our collective responsibility.”

    IPS UN Bureau Report


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    © Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • UNDP Good Growth Partnership: Smallholders Key to Reducing Indonesian Deforestation (Part 2)

    UNDP Good Growth Partnership: Smallholders Key to Reducing Indonesian Deforestation (Part 2)

    The replanting of palm oil plants aimed at producing better trees through good agricultural practices. The UNDP’s Good Growth Partnership (GGP) in Indonesia included several projects under one umbrella. Credit: ILO/Fauzan Azhima
    • by Cecilia Russell (johannesburg)
    • Inter Press Service

    JOHANNESBURG, Apr 27 (IPS) – Smallholder farmers are critical to the success of Indonesia’s efforts to address deforestation and climate change. Creating an understanding and supporting this group, internally and abroad, is a crucial objective for those working towards reducing deforestation and promoting good farming practices, especially as smallholders often work hand-to-mouth and are vulnerable to perpetuating unsustainable farming practices.

    Musim Mas, a large palm oil corporation involved in sustainable production, says smallholders “hold approximately 40 percent of Indonesia’s oil palm plantations and are a significant group in the palm oil supply chain. This represents 4.2 million hectares in Indonesia, roughly the size of Denmark. According to the Palm Oil Agribusiness Strategic Policy Initiative (PASPI), smallholders are set to manage 60 percent of Indonesia’s oil palm plantations by 2030.” 

    Since last year a new World Bank-led programme, the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR), incorporates the United Nations Development Programme Good Growth Partnership (GGP). It will continue to be involved in the success of palm oil production and smallholders’ support—crucial, especially as a study showed that the “sector lifted around 2.6 million rural Indonesians from poverty this century,” with knock-on development successes including improved rural infrastructure.

    Over the past five years, GGP conducted focused training with about 3,000 smallholder farmers, says UNDP’s GGP Global Project Manager, Pascale Bonzom:

    “The idea was to pilot some public-private partnerships for training, new ways of getting the producers to adopt these agricultural practices so that we could learn from these pilots and scale them up through farmer support system strategies,” Bonzom says.

    Farmer organizations speaking to IPS explained how they, too, support smallholder farmers.

    Amanah, an independent smallholder association of about 500 independent smallholders in Ukui, Riau province, was the first group to receive Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certification as part of a joint programme, right before the start of GGP, between the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, UNDP, and Asian Agri. This followed training in good agricultural practices, land mapping, high carbon stock (HCS), and high conservation value (HCV) methodologies to identify forest areas for protection.

    “The majority of independent smallholders in Indonesia do not have the capacity to implement best practices in the palm oil field. Consequently, it is important to provide assistance and training on good agricultural practices in the field on a regular and ongoing basis,” Amanah commented, adding that the training included preparing land for planting sustainably and using certified seeds, fertilizer, and good harvesting practices.

    A producer organization, SPKS, said it was working with farmers to implement sustainable practices. It established a smallholders’ database and assisted them with ISPO and Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certifications.

    Jointly with High Conservation Value Resource Network (HCVRN), it created a toolkit for independent smallholders on zero deforestation. This has already been implemented in four villages in two districts.

    “At this stage, SPKS and HCVRN are designing benefits and incentives for independent smallholders who already protect their forest area (along) with the indigenous people,” SPKS said, adding that it expected that these initiatives could be used and adopted by those facing EU regulations.

    SPKS sees the new EU deforestation legislation as a concern and an opportunity, especially as the union has shown a commitment to supporting independent small farmers—including financial support to prepare for readiness to comply with the regulations, including geolocation, capacity building, and fair price mechanisms.

    Amanah also pointed to the EU regulations, which incentivize independent smallholders to adhere to the certification process.

    “As required by EU law, the EU is also tasked with implementing programs and assistance at the upstream level as well as serving as an incentive for independent smallholders who already adhere to the certification process. The independent smallholder will be encouraged by this incentive to use sustainable best practices. Financing may be used as an incentive. The independent smallholders will be encouraged by this incentive to use sustainable best practices,” the organization told IPS.

    SPKS would like to see final EU regulations include a requirement for companies importing palm oil into the EU to guarantee a direct supply chain from at least 30 percent of independent smallholders based on a fair partnership.

    “In the draft EU regulations, it is not yet clear whether the due diligence is based on deforestation-related risk-based analysis. Indonesia is often considered a country with a high deforestation rate, and palm oil is perceived to be a factor in deforestation. Considering this, we hope the EU will consider smallholder farmers by ensuring that EU regulations do not further burden them by issuing Technical Guidelines specifically designed for smallholder farmers.”

    In April 2023, the European Parliament passed the law introducing rigorous, wide-ranging requirements on commodities such as palm oil. The UNDP is now researching how it should step up its assistance to producers to meet the criteria.

    Setara Jambi, an organization dedicated to education and capacity building for oil palm smallholders for sustainable agricultural management, says that while they are concerned about the EU regulations, small farmers have “many limitations, which are different from companies that already have adequate institutions.

    “This concern will not arise if there is a strong commitment from both government and companies (buyers of smallholder fresh fruit bunches) to assist smallholders in preparing and implementing sustainable palm oil management.”

    The next five years with FOLUR will face significant challenges. There is a need to ensure that the National Action Plan moves to the next level because it is going to expire at the end of 2024. It will require updating and expanding.

    Traceability and Deforestation

    In Indonesia, there are 26 provinces and 225 districts that produce palm oil. And at the time of writing, eight provinces and nine districts have developed their own versions of the pilot Sustainable Palm Oil Action Plan and developed their own provincial or district-level Sustainable Palm Oil Action Plans.

    There is a lot to do, including supporting the Indonesian government’s multi-stakeholder process, capacity building for the private sector, supporting an enabling environment for all, and working with financial institutions to make investment decisions aligned with deforestation commitments.

    The biggest issue is to get the smallholder farmers on board. Because they live a life of survival, often they are vulnerable to “short-termism.”

    On the positive side, the FOLUR initiative has the government’s backing. At the launch in Jakarta last year, Musdhalifah Machmud, Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, said that the implementation of the FOLUR Project was expected to be able to create a value chain sustainability model for rice, oil palm, coffee, and cocoa through sustainable land use and “comprehensively by paying attention to biodiversity conservation, climate change, restoration, and land degradation.”

    At that launch workshop in Jakarta, the World Bank’s Christopher Brett, FOLUR co-leader, noted: “Healthy and sustainable value chains offer social benefits and generate profits without putting undue stress on the environment.”

    Bonzom agrees: “At the end of the day, they (smallholders) will need to see the benefits—better market terms, better prices, better, more secure contracts—that’s what is attractive for them.”

    IPS UN Bureau Report


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    © Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • Now Europeans Learn What Climate Extremes Are All About

    Now Europeans Learn What Climate Extremes Are All About

    Rhine River, Cologne,,Germany,10.08.2022. Credit: Shutterstock.
    • by Baher Kamal (madrid)
    • Inter Press Service

    MADRID, Apr 25 (IPS) – Apologies to those Western politicians and media who continue to say that Ukraine’s brutal proxy war stands behind whatever catastrophes, disasters or crises occur in the Planet.

    Is this accurate?

    Scientific evidence confirms that, much earlier than that war, Europe, like many other regions, was already walking closer to the edge of extreme weather consequences.

    Europe’s worst drought in 500 years?

    “The drought episode that affected Europe in 2022 could well be the worst in 500 years,” reports Copernicus, the Earth observation component of the European Union’s Space programme which “looks at our planet and its environment to benefit all European citizens and offers information services.”

    This European service further explains that the 2022 drought episode “is attributable to a severe and persistent lack of precipitation, combined with a sequence of repeated heat waves that have affected Europe from May to October.”

    Put simply, the reported climate extremes in Europe are not the consequence of the Ukraine war, and they were already there many years earlier to when it started in February 2022.

    Anyway, European citizens now hear the devastating impacts of climate extremes in their own rich continent, which is one of the major global contributors to the ongoing climate emergency.

    Are climate emergencies just an impoverished regions’ problem?

    So far, the severe impacts of climate extremes in Africa and other impoverished regions, would jump to the news every now and then, by showing short videos of errant human beings and deserts… before analysing in-depth the latest soccer games or reporting on the new friend of a reality-show star. And highway accidents or a fight between young gangs.

    Western citizens are also used to hearing that the horrifying numbers of hungry people (more than one billion human beings), in particular in East Africa due to long years of record droughts, is either caused by the war in Ukraine or that their situation was exacerbated by it.

    Now European citizens wake up to the upsetting fact that they also fall under the heavy impact of the steadily rising human, economic, and environmental toll of climate change.

    How come those impacts are now becoming news?

    A swift answer is that such climate extremes, heat waves, severe droughts, water and food production shortages have been causing increasing damage to private businesses, as well as to medium-to-small-size agriculture activities. In short, damaging their pockets.

    See what the very same European Union officially says at the macro level:

    – Weather- and climate-related hazards, such as temperature extremes, heavy precipitation and droughts, pose risks to human health and the environment and can lead to substantial economic losses.

    — Between 1980 and 2021, weather- and climate-related extremes amounted to an estimated EUR 560 billion (2021 values).

    – Hydrological events (floods) account for over 45% and meteorological events (storms including lightning and hail, together with mass movements) for almost one-third of the total.

    – When it comes to climatological events, heat waves are responsible for over 13% of the total losses while the remaining +/-8% are caused by droughts, forest fires and cold waves.

    – The most expensive hazards during the period 1980-2021 include the 2021 flooding in Germany and Belgium (almost EUR 50 billion), the 2002 flood in central Europe (over EUR 22 billion), the 2003 drought and heatwave across the EU (around EUR 16 billion), the 1999 storm Lothar in Western Europe and the 2000 flood in France and Italy (both over EUR 13 billion), all at 2021 values.

    – A relatively small number of events is responsible for a large proportion of the economic losses: 5% of the weather- and climate-related events with the biggest losses is responsible for 57% of losses and 1% of the events cause 26% of losses (EEA’s own calculations based on the original dataset).

    – This results in high variability from year to year and makes it difficult to identify trends. Nevertheless, the average annual (constant prices, 2021 euros) losses were around EUR 9.7 billion in 1981-1990, 11.2 billion in 1991-2000, 13.5 billion in 2001-2010 and 15.3 billion in 2011-2020.

    – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that climate-related extreme events will become more frequent and severe worldwide. This could affect multiple sectors and cause systemic failures across Europe, leading to greater economic losses.

    – Only 30% of the total losses were insured, although this varied considerably among countries, from less than 2% in Hungary, Lithuania and Romania to over 75% in Slovenia and the Netherlands.

    Also at the medium-to-micro level

    Most medium-to-small agricultural cooperatives, unions and associations in those European countries more stricken by droughts, have been rising their public protests, demanding their governments to compensate them for the big losses of their harvests.

    In the specific case of Spain, farmers’ unions and agri-food cooperatives report crop losses of up to two-thirds of the expected harvest.

    Back to Copernicus

    The “historical drought” affected Europe as evidenced by the Combined Drought Indicator of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service European Drought Observatory for the first ten-day period of September 2022.

    On this, Copernicus reports the following findings:

    – Heatwaves: 2022 was also characterised by intense, and in some areas prolonged, heatwaves which affected Europe and the rest of the world, breaking several surface air temperature records.

    – As reported in the July 2022 Climate Bulletin published by the Copernicus Climate Change Service July 2022 was the sixth warmest July in Europe.

    – Temperature anomalies reached peaks of +4ºC in Italy, France, and Spain.

    According to the European Union’s Copernicus:

    – The prolonged drought that has affected various parts of the globe together with the record temperatures were contributing forces that have certainly caused an increased wildfire risk, which peaked during the summer season both in Europe, in the Mediterranean region, and in the north-west of the United States.

    – The Combined Drought Indicator (which is published by the European Drought Observatory as part of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service) reported that more than one-fourth of the EU territory was in “Alert” conditions in early September.

    – Another extreme phenomenon of 2022 was the marine heatwave that affected the Mediterranean Sea in the summer of 2022.

    European countries are highly dependent on the Mediterranean Sea for shipping goods, including oil tankers; tourism (one country – Spain receives more than 80 million tourists a year, double its total population); industrial fishing; refineries; harbours, and a long etcetera.

    © Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • Stony Brook University to anchor NYC climate center on Governor’s Island | Long Island Business News

    Stony Brook University to anchor NYC climate center on Governor’s Island | Long Island Business News

    Stony Brook University will anchor the New York Climate Exchange on Governor’s Island in New York City. The announcement was made Monday by New York City Mayor Eric Adams and The Trust for Governors Island.

    Simons Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies pledged $150 million in combined support for the Stony Brook University-led center. Billed as a “first of its kind,” the center will develop and deploy “dynamic solutions to our global climate crisis, while also acting as a hub for New Yorkers to benefit from the rapidly evolving green economy,” according to a news release from Stony Brook University.

    “Today, here in the heart of New York Harbor, we are taking a giant leap toward a cleaner, greener, more prosperous future for every New Yorker with the ‘New York Climate Exchange,’” Adams said in a statement.

    “This first-of-its-kind project will make New York City a global leader in developing solutions for climate change while creating thousands of good-paying green jobs for New Yorkers and infusing $1 billion into our city’s economy,” Adams said. “Where some people see challenges, New Yorkers see opportunities, and this team and this project are leading the charge.”

    The center will bring together world leaders and climate experts, as well as serve as a green job-training center for New Yorkers who want to build careers in this field.

    The center will also partner with other institutions, including the Pratt Institute, Pace University, New York University, the City University of New York, SUNY Maritime College, Brookhaven National Labs and IBM. Together they will aim to address the challenges surrounding climate change, “including research that becomes commercially viable and ideas that lead to immediate action on the local and global levels,” according to Stony Brook University.

    “We are honored, excited, and proud to partner with the City of New York to build this historic center that will cement New York City as the world leader on climate change, the most pressing issue of our time,” Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis said in a statement.

    “Up until now, the development of climate solutions has been siloed, with world leaders separate from expert scientists separate from the on-the-ground green workforce,” she added. “As an international leader on climate and as the leading public research institution in New York, Stony Brook University will bring stakeholders together from the academic, government and business communities to make the Climate Exchange the center of research, innovation, education and collaboration to address this global crisis.”

    The Simons Foundation, together with Simons Foundation International, pledged a total of $100 million as matching gift support for The Exchange – the largest gift to date under Simons Foundation President David Spergel’s leadership and the second-largest in Stony Brook’s history.

    “We are honored to partner with Stony Brook and The Exchange,” Simons Foundation President David Spergel said in a statement.

    “Our partnership with Stony Brook goes back many years and together we’ve made great progress in both basic and health sciences,” he added. “This enduring relationship is a source of great pride for all of us at the Simons Foundation. Stony Brook has catapulted to the forefront of higher education through its remarkable strength as a research institution and its unequaled focus on equity and access. I cannot think of a more qualified institution to lead this historic fight against climate change — a fight that must be met with innovation, intellect and tenacity.”

    Bloomberg Philanthropies donated $50 million to the project, as part of the philanthropy’s commitment to New York City, the fight against climate change, and improving higher education in New York and beyond.

    “This great news is 22-years in the making,” Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City and founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg LP.

    “As a candidate for mayor in 2001, I proposed transforming Governors Island into a park and university campus, and the next year Gov. Pataki and I worked with President Bush to return the island to city and state for $1,” he added.

    That’s when, Bloomberg said, his administration “opened a public school on the island and began building an extraordinary public park, but over time it became clear that the city needed greater control of its development. In 2010, we worked with Governor Paterson to cede the island to the city, which allowed us to lay the foundation for fulfilling our original vision of a year-round destination with a university presence that would bring new life and jobs. Now, thanks to Mayor Adams’ leadership, that vision is being fulfilled through a groundbreaking partnership with Stony Brook University that holds so much potential, The New York Climate Exchange. Bloomberg Philanthropies is glad to join Jim and Marilyn Simons and others in supporting it, as part of our global efforts to help cities lead the way in tackling climate change. This is a great day for the island, for New York City’s future, and for the fight against climate change.”

    “It is becoming clear year-after-year in New York, and around the world, that the impacts of climate change are real and are here,” Kevin Reed, associate dean for research and associate professor at Stony Brook’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, said in a statement.

    “By partnering with communities, industries, governments, and universities, The Exchange will help to accelerate the implementation of urban solutions to these climate impacts through an interactive research ecosystem where community engagement is paramount,” Reed said. “As a climate scientist, I recognize that New Yorkers need solutions to the climate crisis now, and The Exchange will help to make that a reality.”

    Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in collaboration with MNLA, Buro Happold, and Langan Engineering conceived the design and operations of The Exchange. The center is intended to serve as a model for sustainability with a net zero center that complements the natural landscape of Governors Island and the urban landscape of New York City.

    “It is a tremendous honor to design a new kind of campus: one that not only sets the stage for our post-carbon world, but also centers a compelling new public realm for all New Yorkers,” Colin Koop, SOM design partner, said in a statement.

    “Our design embodies this stewardship by weaving sinuous mass timber pavilions through the rolling landscape of the park and reusing the historic building fabric of Governors Island,” Koop added. “Together, these spaces will cultivate advances in climate research and pilot new technologies that can be deployed across the city, and eventually the world. We look forward to working with the Governors Island Trust, Stony Brook University, and our team of design and engineering collaborators to bring this important project to life.”

    The Exchange will include a 400,000-square-foot interactive “living laboratory” with green-designed building space, including research labs, classroom space, exhibits, greenhouses, mitigation technologies, and housing facilities.

    Officials say it will include all-electric buildings for the entire campus with on-site solar electrical generation and battery storage meeting 100% of energy demand with net-positive capability to serve the local grid. And 100% of non-potable water demand will be met with rainwater or treated wastewater. In addition, 95% of waste will be diverted from landfills, making this one of the first sites in the U.S. to achieve true-zero waste certification. Also featured is a climate-resilient design including new buildings raised to 18 feet, with no basements and living shorelines. All new and renovated buildings will meet “Living Building Challenge” standards, and will be the first buildings in the city to achieve this certification.

    A research and technology accelerator will serve to source and nurture ideas, projects, and new ventures that aim to the climate crisis.

    The center will also include a citizens advisory council, composed of key local stakeholders to ensure that partners’ and neighbors’ voices are heard and amplified as it looks to jointly develop and implement new climate solutions, including those that affect low-income communities of color.

    Stony Brook University formed international partnerships with academic partners outside of New York City, research foundations and social justice organizations to create The Exchange.

    For these kinds of partnerships – locally and nationally – the potential for collaboration brings promise.

    “Brookhaven Lab researchers have played key roles in designing and conducting landmark climate studies from the Arctic to the Amazon for the U.S. Department of Energy,” Brookhaven National Laboratory Interim Director Jack Anderson said in a statement. “We’re excited at the prospect of collaborating with other researchers through the New York Climate Exchange as part of this new, important initiative focused on developing the next generation of climate experts and creating equitable climate solutions.”

     

     

    t

    Adina Genn

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  • Climate crisis takes center stage on Earth Day

    Climate crisis takes center stage on Earth Day

    Climate crisis takes center stage on Earth Day – CBS News


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    Saturday is Earth Day, which was first created in 1970 to increase awareness about environmental issues. Environmental activists are blaming the unusual weather patterns that are being seen globally on climate change. Elise Preston has more.

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  • To mitigate impacts of climate change, some turn to controverial

    To mitigate impacts of climate change, some turn to controverial

    To mitigate impacts of climate change, some turn to controverial “geoengineering” – CBS News


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    As scientists work to blunt the impacts of climate change, a controversial method called geoengineering is being considered as a way to help cool the planet. Ben Tracy has more.

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  • That Littering Scene in Mad Men Cuts to the Core of How Corporations Would End Up Pulling A Fast One on Their Consumers

    That Littering Scene in Mad Men Cuts to the Core of How Corporations Would End Up Pulling A Fast One on Their Consumers

    Amid the many scenes from Mad Men that still linger in one’s mind, one of the oddest (at least to modern eyes) is the moment where the Drapers, on a rare family outing together, happily discard all their trash after a picnic. Taking place in season two, episode seven—entitled “The Gold Violin”—the year of this particular nonchalant act on the part of the Drapers is meant to be in 1962. A different world from the “Don’t Be A Litterbug” one that we know today. Considering that popular discourse loves to place all responsibility for the current climate crisis on baby boomers, this scene is especially topical. And yet, being that the chemicals and technologies we’ve come to know as categorically detrimental (e.g., pesticides, nuclear power, Teflon, etc.) were still new and deemed beacons of “progress” rather than implements of destruction that only corporations would benefit from in the long-run, maybe it’s unfair to blame boomer consumers who didn’t know any better at the outset.

    In fact, so “uncouth” were they with regard to environmental etiquette that they needed a campaign to tell them not to litter. Thus, people such as Don (Jon Hamm), Betty (January Jones), Sally (Kiernan Shipka) and Bobby (played by Aaron Hart in the second season) tossing their trash onto the ground like it was nothing would not be out of the ordinary for the (lack of) social mores of the day. Complete with Don chucking his beer can into the distance like a football and Betty shaking out their trash-filled picnic blanket onto the grass without a second thought. It’s not as though there was a nearby garbage can handily available, after all. For these were in the days before there was much initiative on the part of the government to regulate its population “correctly” disposing of waste, with fines for littering coming later. While, on the one hand, it can be taken as a sign of “barbaric” Silent Generation and boomer comportment, on the other, it’s apparent they couldn’t see the full weight of the mounting effects of “modern convenience,” including the Santa Barbara oil spill (which would ultimately bring about the first Earth Day in 1970), until the end of the 1960s. According to environmental historian Adam Rome, “I think [the oil spill] was one of the ultimately most important in a series of accidents or problems that made people realize that a lot of the modern technologies that seemed miraculous…posed unprecedented risks to the health of the environment and ultimately to ourselves.”

    These were risks that the corporation never wanted the average American consumer to take note of. Indeed, the real reason the Keep America Beautiful campaign was even started served as part of a deflection from the real issue: corporations needing the consumer to keep buying shit over and over again by building it not to last. Ergo, more waste from manufacturing and packaging. So of course there was bound to be more potential for littering.

    Per Mother Jones’ Bradford Plumer, “Keep America Beautiful managed to shift the entire debate about America’s garbage problem. No longer was the focus on regulating production—for instance, requiring can and bottle makers to use refillable containers, which are vastly less profitable. Instead, the ‘litterbug’ became the real villain, and KAB supported fines and jail time for people who carelessly tossed out their trash, despite the fact that, clearly, ‘littering’ is a relatively tiny part of the garbage problem in this country (not to mention the resource damage and pollution that comes with manufacturing ever more junk in the first place). Environmental groups that worked with KAB early on didn’t realize what was happening until years later.” When the indoctrination had already taken hold anyway. Americans held themselves accountable for being pieces of shit while corporations and their head honchos kept laughing all the way to the bank as a result of the misdirection.

    As for Mad Men’s creator, Matthew Weiner, born in 1965, he likely would have still been witnessing casual, cavalier littering in his own childhood. For it wasn’t until 1971 that the first vehemently guilt-tripping Keep America Beautiful ad came out—the one with the famous “crying Indian.” Preying on the germinal phenomenon of white guilt, the ad has been described as one of the greatest ever made. We’re talking Don Draper-level shit. Focused on a Native American (played by an Italian, obviously) canoeing through trash in what turns out to be oil rig-filled waters, a narrator says, “Some people have a deep, abiding respect for the natural beauty that was once this country.” At this instant, the Native American finds himself at the side of a highway as someone throws a bag of trash out their window that explodes open as it lands at his feet. Here the narrator concludes, “And some people don’t.” Read: and some oblivious white yuppie cunts like the Drapers don’t. To that point, it’s appropriate that Sally, in this particular picnic scene, asks her parents if they’re rich. Betty, ever the avoider of real topics, replies, “It’s not polite to talk about money.” Nor is it polite to throw trash wherever one pleases, but Betty and Don hadn’t yet gotten the literal (litter-al?) message. Along with the rest of their generation and the one that they had just begat.

    At the end of the “crying Indian” PSA, it’s declared, “People start pollution. People can stop it.” Ironically, the “people” who actually could stop it—corporations (legally deemed people, in case you forgot)—are not held accountable in any way in such ads that place all responsibility on the individual a.k.a. consumer to “do their part.” And yet, trying to put all the onus on the consumer to “self-regulate” feels like a small drop in an oil spill-filled ocean of what could actually be done if corporations weren’t a bottomless pit of profit-seeking.

    While this moment of littering in “The Gold Violin” is an accurate re-creation of what would have gone down in 1962 after a picnic, it’s also a larger statement from Weiner (who co-wrote the episode) about the false veneer of perfection that existed in those days in general and in the lives of Mad Men’s characters in particular. Because, beneath the surface, it was all a steaming garbage heap waiting to spew forth. For example, although Don has just bought a shiny new convertible to match his shiny new success at the agency, the bubbling up of consequences resulting from his latest affair with Bobbie Barrett (Melinda McGraw) is about to explode his marriage as he once knew it. Elsewhere, Sal (Bryan Batt) invites Ken (Aaron Staton) over to his apartment for dinner, where his wife, Kitty (Sarah Drew), is made to feel like the third wheel—giving her that evermore uneasy sense about Sal that doesn’t crystallize until episode two of season three, when he does his Ann-Margaret in Bye Bye Birdie impression for her. Then there’s Bert Cooper’s (Robert Morse) acquisition of one of Rothko’s signature “red square” paintings. Prompting Ken, Jane (Peyton List), Harry (Rich Sommer) and Sal to enter his office without permission while he’s away so that they can view it. Although Sal, as “an artist,” claims that it “has to” mean something, Ken counters, “I don’t think it’s supposed to be explained… Maybe you’re just supposed to experience it.”

    This idea that existence is dominated by total chaos as opposed to some “deeper meaning” would come to define the 1960s and beyond. Even as corporations did their best to insist that all chaos—especially of the environmentally-related variety—was simply the result of poor individual “manners” and “self-control.”

    Genna Rivieccio

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  • First Person: Saving the Earth from space

    First Person: Saving the Earth from space

    Dr. Calvin advises NASA leadership on its science programmes and related strategic planning and investments. Also serving as its senior climate advisor, she provides insights and recommendations for related science, technology, and infrastructure projects for climate action, from developing a new instrument to track pollution hourly to launching a water-tracking satellite.

    “Space exploration is inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers that can help tackle challenges on Earth or in space.

    With respect to climate, we’ve learned a lot about what happens on Earth by studying what happens on other planets. We learn about the ozone effect and greenhouse gas effect by studying Venus, and we can apply that to our understanding here on Earth.

    Galactic science for use on Earth

    There’s a ton we can learn both about other planetary bodies which can treach us a lot about what is going on here on Earth.

    Space also provides the opportunity for technology and innovation. As we are living and working in space, we develop technologies that can help us here on Earth with sustainability issues.

    Cosmic crops

    There’s a lot of research on the International Space Station (ISS) that has applications here on Earth. There’s water processing – we reprocess the water we use on the ISS – and that technology has been used on Earth in places where we don’t have access to clean water.

    We grow crops on the ISS, and the research we’ve done into LED lighting and fertilizer also has applications on Earth. We’ve worked on a fertilizer that directs nutrients at plant roots at the rate that they need it, which in space means less input; on Earth, less runoff into rivers and lakes.

    © NASA/Isaac Watson

    Nutritious microgreens are grown at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

    Unique celestial perspective

    There are so many great examples of how space has been important or could be in the future. Space offers us the opportunity to see the entire Earth, and so we can provide information that helps people understand how the climate is changing and [generate] ideas and inclusion and diversity of ideas to approach the different aspects of challenges.

    We can observe trees, people, and land cover from space. People have used that information to understand how much carbon there is and where carbon is stored on land and how that changes over time.

    I try to relate to what is going on where people are and talk about what science we know and what is on the horizon to help those decisions; like how the Earth is changing, how climate is changing, and this helps people adapt to changes where they live.

    Space-based capabilities

    We have space-based capabilities that can track wildfires as well as measure rising sea levels. Where fires are burning, we can look at emissions associated with fire, and that’s really important to people who live in affected communities.

    Also, we’ve combined models, both produced by NASA and other organizations, to think about how sea levels might rise in the future.

    The NASA SERVIR initiative works with local organizations on how they can use satellite information to face the challenges in their communities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

    A NASA visualization shows water features on New York’s Long Island.

    © NASA/JPL-Caltech

    A NASA visualization shows water features on New York’s Long Island.

    Interstellar inspiration

    We also use space to inspire people. We have taken pictures of Earth from Apollo or from the recent Artemis mission, and you can see the little blue ball from far away.

    On this Earth Day, let us cherish our planet and raise awareness about the role of space exploration and utilization in preserving its beauty.”

    Learn more about the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) here.

    Improving seeds with cosmic radiation

    Global Issues

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  • In Florida, Harris announces $562M for climate resilience

    In Florida, Harris announces $562M for climate resilience

    Returning to Florida to discuss climate change, Vice President Kamala Harris announced Friday that $562 million will be spent on 149 projects around the country aimed at improving resilience to threats such as rising seas and the kinds of coastal flooding that recently slammed the southeast part of the state.

    Harris outlined the funding plan during an appearance at the University of Miami, where she also toured a lab immersed in coral restoration work and a hurricane simulator capable of generating Category 5-strength winds of more than 157 mph (253 kph).

    Harris, who appeared in March at a Miami Beach climate summit, said the projects, which are spread across 30 states, are an example of how climate investments boost job creation and manufacturing while tackling a major environmental issue.

    “When we invest in climate, we not only protect our environment, we also strengthen our economy,” Harris said in a tweet during her Miami visit.

    The funding is part of what the Biden administration calls its Climate-Ready Coasts initiative. Of the $562 million total, about $477 million is to help towns and cities respond better to extreme weather events, restore wildlife coastal habitats and focus more attention on assistance for underserved communities in tackling climate and storm threats, according to a White House news release.

    Florida would get about $78 million for projects ranging from oyster habitat restoration in Pensacola Bay to flood protection in Jacksonville to removal of 200,000 tires from Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico that were submerged decades ago as artificial reefs.

    Harris toured the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Sciences — location of the hurricane simulator — where researchers have been studying the slowing down of ocean currents, building aquaculture to replenish and protect fisheries and examining how to repopulate dying coral reefs.

    The vice president’s visit comes as Fort Lauderdale and its suburbs have been recovering from an April 12 deluge that dumped up to 2 feet (0.6 meters) of rain, flooding homes and businesses while forcing the closure of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and disrupting gas distribution operations at Port Everglades that led to vehicle fuel shortages for days afterwards across the southern part of Florida.

    Climate scientists say these once-rare extreme rain events will occur more frequently as temperatures warm, made worse in coastal regions such as Florida due to sea level rise.

    “These heavy rainfall events coupled with sea level rise on the Florida coast need to serve as significant ‘wake up calls’ for the residents of South Florida about the severe risks that climate change poses to them,” said University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Jason Furtado.

    Harris’ quick trip to Miami came the same day as President Joe Biden signed an executive order that would create the White House Office of Environmental Justice. The goal is to ensure that poverty, race and ethnic status do not lead to worse exposure to pollution and environmental harm.

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  • Tribes seek invitation to Rio Grande water commission

    Tribes seek invitation to Rio Grande water commission

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A commission that oversees how the Rio Grande is managed and shared among three Western states has adopted a recommendation that could set the stage for more involvement by Native American tribes that depend on the river.

    The Rio Grande Compact Commission voted unanimously Friday during its annual meeting in Santa Fe to direct its legal and engineering advisers to look into developing protocols for formal discussions with six pueblos that border the river in central New Mexico.

    Pueblo leaders have been seeking a seat at the table for years, saying their water rights have never been quantified despite an agreement made nearly a century ago between the U.S. Interior Department and an irrigation district to provide for irrigation and flood control for pueblo lands.

    Isleta Pueblo Gov. Max Zuni told the commission that progress has been made over the last year after the Interior Department established a federal team to assess the feasibility of settling the pueblos’ claims to the river. He requested that commissioners extend an invitation to the pueblos to address the commission at its next annual meeting.

    Zuni said any discussion of a water rights settlement with Isleta, Cochiti, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Santa Ana and Sandia pueblos would be of interest to the commission, which is made up of officials from Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. Each state is responsible for delivering a certain amount of water to downstream users each year.

    While record snowpack in the mountains of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico is resulting in spring runoff not seen in years, commissioners acknowledged that future supplies remain uncertain as the region remains locked in a long-term drought.

    For Isleta Pueblo, Zuni said the river is more than just a source of water for crops.

    “We use it for traditional purposes,” he said. “I don’t know how we could quantify that amount of water but carrying on our traditions and our customs, our water is very essential to us. It is important to us, our livelihood. That river is very sacred.”

    One of the longest rivers in North America, the Rio Grande supplies water for more than 6 million people and 2 million acres of land in the U.S. and Mexico.

    There has been much disagreement over management over the decades, including one fight between New Mexico and Texas that is still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. The states have reached a proposed settlement, and commissioners at Friday’s meeting said they were hopeful a federal judge serving as special master will recommend approval of the agreement.

    The commission’s engineers also presented accounting sheets for water deliveries based on a new accounting method that was approved last fall. That allowed the engineers to reconcile deliveries dating back to 2011 based on more timely streamflow and reservoir storage records and other data.

    They say New Mexico still owes Texas about 93,000 acre feet of water. An acre foot is roughly enough to serve two to three U.S. households annually.

    “We need that water,” said Bobby Skov, who represents Texas on the commission.

    He also pointed to concerns his state has about evaporative losses in reservoirs along the Rio Grande, a proposed copper mine in New Mexico that he said could effect flows to the river and the build-up of sediment that is compromising reservoir storage capacities.

    Mike Hamman, New Mexico’s state engineer and a member of the commission, noted that New Mexico marked its worst wildfire season on record in 2022 and that watersheds that feed the Rio Grande were damaged. That means there will be higher flows of ash and debris coming off the mountains and that runoff patterns will be altered for years to come.

    Hamman said the Rio Grande system was designed over the last century to deal with flood control and the delivery of water downstream, but the pressures of climate change and the needs of endangered species have shifted the mission and complicated management.

    He said it’s time to reevaluate how managers can balance demands on the Rio Grande.

    “We can no longer afford to be micro-focused on our own interests,” he said. “This is one complete system. We need to manage it that way in order for us to survive as our water systems evolve here in the 21st century and that means some creativity and some work in Congress and work within our legislatures to make sure we can pull it off together.”

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  • Tribes seek invitation to Rio Grande water commission

    Tribes seek invitation to Rio Grande water commission

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A commission that oversees how the Rio Grande is managed and shared among three Western states has adopted a recommendation that could set the stage for more involvement by Native American tribes that depend on the river.

    The Rio Grande Compact Commission voted unanimously Friday during its annual meeting in Santa Fe to direct its legal and engineering advisers to look into developing protocols for formal discussions with six pueblos that border the river in central New Mexico.

    Pueblo leaders have been seeking a seat at the table for years, saying their water rights have never been quantified despite an agreement made nearly a century ago between the U.S. Interior Department and an irrigation district to provide for irrigation and flood control for pueblo lands.

    Isleta Pueblo Gov. Max Zuni told the commission that progress has been made over the last year after the Interior Department established a federal team to assess the feasibility of settling the pueblos’ claims to the river. He requested that commissioners extend an invitation to the pueblos to address the commission at its next annual meeting.

    Zuni said any discussion of a water rights settlement with Isleta, Cochiti, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Santa Ana and Sandia pueblos would be of interest to the commission, which is made up of officials from Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. Each state is responsible for delivering a certain amount of water to downstream users each year.

    While record snowpack in the mountains of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico is resulting in spring runoff not seen in years, commissioners acknowledged that future supplies remain uncertain as the region remains locked in a long-term drought.

    For Isleta Pueblo, Zuni said the river is more than just a source of water for crops.

    “We use it for traditional purposes,” he said. “I don’t know how we could quantify that amount of water but carrying on our traditions and our customs, our water is very essential to us. It is important to us, our livelihood. That river is very sacred.”

    One of the longest rivers in North America, the Rio Grande supplies water for more than 6 million people and 2 million acres of land in the U.S. and Mexico.

    There has been much disagreement over management over the decades, including one fight between New Mexico and Texas that is still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. The states have reached a proposed settlement, and commissioners at Friday’s meeting said they were hopeful a federal judge serving as special master will recommend approval of the agreement.

    The commission’s engineers also presented accounting sheets for water deliveries based on a new accounting method that was approved last fall. That allowed the engineers to reconcile deliveries dating back to 2011 based on more timely streamflow and reservoir storage records and other data.

    They say New Mexico still owes Texas about 93,000 acre feet of water. An acre foot is roughly enough to serve two to three U.S. households annually.

    “We need that water,” said Bobby Skov, who represents Texas on the commission.

    He also pointed to concerns his state has about evaporative losses in reservoirs along the Rio Grande, a proposed copper mine in New Mexico that he said could effect flows to the river and the build-up of sediment that is compromising reservoir storage capacities.

    Mike Hamman, New Mexico’s state engineer and a member of the commission, noted that New Mexico marked its worst wildfire season on record in 2022 and that watersheds that feed the Rio Grande were damaged. That means there will be higher flows of ash and debris coming off the mountains and that runoff patterns will be altered for years to come.

    Hamman said the Rio Grande system was designed over the last century to deal with flood control and the delivery of water downstream, but the pressures of climate change and the needs of endangered species have shifted the mission and complicated management.

    He said it’s time to reevaluate how managers can balance demands on the Rio Grande.

    “We can no longer afford to be micro-focused on our own interests,” he said. “This is one complete system. We need to manage it that way in order for us to survive as our water systems evolve here in the 21st century and that means some creativity and some work in Congress and work within our legislatures to make sure we can pull it off together.”

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  • Human, economic, environmental toll of climate change on the rise: WMO

    Human, economic, environmental toll of climate change on the rise: WMO

    WMO latest State of the Global Climate report shows that the last eight years were the eight warmest on record, and that sea level rise and ocean warming hit new highs. Record levels of greenhouse gases caused “planetary scale changes on land, in the ocean and in the atmosphere”.

    The organization says its report, released ahead of this year’s Mother Earth Day, echoes UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ call for “deeper, faster emissions cuts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius”, as well as “massively scaled-up investments in adaptation and resilience, particularly for the most vulnerable countries and communities who have done the least to cause the crisis”.

    WMO Secretary-General, Prof. Petteri Taalas, said that amid rising greenhouse gas emissions and a changing climate, “populations worldwide continue to be gravely impacted by extreme weather and climate events”. He stressed that last year, “continuous drought in East Africa, record breaking rainfall in Pakistan and record-breaking heatwaves in China and Europe affected tens of millions, drove food insecurity, boosted mass migration, and cost billions of dollars in loss and damage.”

    WMO highlights the importance of investing in climate monitoring and early warning systems to help mitigate the humanitarian impacts of extreme weather. The report also points out that today, improved technology makes the transition to renewable energy “cheaper and more accessible than ever”.

    Warmest years on record

    The State of the Global Climate report complements the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment report released a month ago, which includes data up to 2020.

    WMO’s new figures show that global temperatures have continued to rise, making the years 2015 to 2022 the eight warmest ever since regular tracking started in 1850. WMO notes that this was despite three consecutive years of a cooling La Niña climate pattern.

    WMO says concentrations of the three main greenhouse gases, which trap heat in the atmosphere – carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record highs in 2021, which is the latest year for which consolidated data is available, and that there are indications of a continued increase in 2022.

    Indicators ‘off the charts’

    According to the report, “melting of glaciers and sea level rise – which again reached record levels in 2022 – will continue to up to thousands of years”. WMO further highlights that “Antarctic sea ice fell to its lowest extent on record and the melting of some European glaciers was, literally, off the charts”.

    Sea level rise, which threatens the existence of coastal communities and sometimes entire countries, has been fuelled not only by melting glaciers and ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica, but also by the expansion of the volume of oceans due to heat. WMO notes that ocean warming has been “particularly high in the past two decades”.

    WMO/Muhammad Amdad Hossain

    Seasonal floods are a part of life in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

    Deadly consequences

    The report examines the many socio-economic impacts of extreme weather, which have wreaked havoc in the lives of the most vulnerable around the world. Five consecutive years of drought in East Africa, in conjunction with other factors such as armed conflict, have brought devastating food insecurity to 20 million people across the region.

    Extensive flooding in Pakistan caused by severe rainfall in July and August last year killed over 1,700 people, while some 33 million were affected. WMO highlights that total damage and economic losses were assessed at $30 billion, and that by October 2022, around 8 million people had been internally displaced by the floods.

    The report also notes that in addition to putting scores of people on the move, throughout the year, hazardous climate and weather-related events “worsened conditions” for many of the 95 million people already living in displacement.

    Threat to ecosystems

    Environmental impacts of climate change are another focus of the report, which highlights a shift in recurring events in nature, “such as when trees blossom, or birds migrate”. The flowering of cherry trees in Japan has been tracked since the ninth century, and in 2021 the date of the event was the earliest recorded in 1,200 years.

    As a result of such shifts, entire ecosystems can be upended. WMO notes that spring arrival times of over a hundred European migratory bird species over five decades “show increasing levels of mismatch to other spring events”, such as the moment when trees produce leaves and insects take flight, which are important for bird survival.

    The report says these mismatches “are likely to have contributed to population decline in some migrant species, particularly those wintering in sub-Saharan Africa”, and to the ongoing destruction of biodiversity.

    The WMO State of the Global Climate report 2022 – English

    Ending the ‘war on nature’

    In his message on Earth Day, UN chief Mr. Guterres warned that “biodiversity is collapsing as one million species teeter on the brink of extinction”, and called on the world to end its “relentless and senseless wars on nature”, insisting that “we have the tools, the knowledge, and the solutions” to address climate change.

    Last month, Mr. Guterres convened an Advisory Panel of top UN agency officials, private sector and civil society leaders, to help fast track a global initiative aiming to protect all countries through life-saving early warning systems by 2027. Stepped up coordinated action was announced, initially in 30 countries particularly vulnerable to extreme weather, including Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries.

    Early Warnings for All

    WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas said on Friday that some one hundred countries currently do not have adequate weather services in place, and that the UN Early Warnings for All Initiative “aims to fill the existing capacity gap to ensure that every person on earth is covered by early warning services”.

    Mr. Taalas explained that “achieving this ambitious task requires improvement of observation networks, investments in early warning, hydrological and climate service capacities.” He also stressed the effectiveness of collaboration among UN agencies in addressing humanitarian impacts of climate events, especially in reducing mortality and economic losses.

    Global Issues

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  • One Company Will Pay You to Enjoy Bad Weather on Vacation | Entrepreneur

    One Company Will Pay You to Enjoy Bad Weather on Vacation | Entrepreneur

    The disappointment is real when less-than-ideal weather conditions threaten to put a damper on that beach vacation or camping trip you’ve dreamed about for months. It’s enough to make you reconsider going at all, or, worse still, leave you with a serious case of buyer’s remorse.

    Nick Cavanaugh, founder and CEO of Sensible Weather, wanted to find a real solution to that all-too-common problem, and he was uniquely positioned to do so, having worked both as a climate scientist and consultant.

    So he did. Sensible Weather’s service is simple: It offers customers paying for a trip or activity outdoors a weather-guarantee protection based on the expected weather conditions in a particular location. Customers can rest assured they’ll have a good time — because they’ll be automatically reimbursed if it rains.

    Image credit: Sensible Weather

    It was a fantastic business opportunity. But for Cavanaugh, the venture went beyond that.

    “After spending 10 years at the intersection of climate, data and finance, I still felt that there was this gap,” Cavanaugh explains. “Most people didn’t really understand how climate and climate change affected them. And my goal was to build a product that could be as relevant for as many people as possible, to show them directly, ‘This is why it matters in your life.’”

    Because Sensible Weather launched during the pandemic, outdoor recreation and camping/glamping became its first two main verticals, driven by the reduced demand for travel involving flights or hotel stays, Canavaugh says. But today, Sensible Weather boasts more than a dozen partners, including the PGA of America and Rebel Hotel Company’s Manhattan property The Renwick — with plenty more on the horizon.

    Related: Meteorologist Sneaks Rap Lyrics In Weather Forecast, Goes Viral

    “We often wind up with a Weather Guarantee that costs 8-12% of the trip cost.”

    Sensible Weather “turns the whole insurance idea on its head,” Cavanaugh says, as it’s entirely data-driven and consumer-experience-oriented. There’s no underwriting based on human experience or reliance on filed claims for reimbursement, which streamlines Sensible Weather’s process from pricing to payout.

    “We underwrite based on weather and science around weather probabilities, and that’s what dictates how much a particular coverage costs,” Cavanaugh explains. “And then on the fulfillment end, if, say you’ve purchased a rain guarantee for your golf outing on that day, we’ve said, ‘Hey, if it rains for this long, if it rains for this much, we will pay you back.’ So we don’t require the golfer to tell us how much it rained. We know how much it rained, so we just put the money back in their hands.”

    The number of hours of rain needed to trigger a payout is subject to seasonality and locale, Cavanaugh says, noting that “for obvious reasons” consumers are generally less inclined to travel to places during times of the year when the weather is likely to be bad there. “Or at least if they are, they aren’t traveling to these places contingent upon weather-sensitive activities, and therefore aren’t our target customers for the Weather Guarantee anyway,” he adds.

    In other words, Sensible Weather’s pricing very much hinges on the reasonable weather expectations people have for their trip.

    “In wetter destinations, they may be more tolerant of a little rain, whereas in drier destinations, they may be intolerant of any rain at all,” Cavanaugh says. “By adjusting the threshold of rain needed for reimbursement in these two examples, we often wind up with a Weather Guarantee that costs 8-12% of the trip cost.”

    Sensible Weather’s guarantees are very rarely more expensive than that, Cavanaugh says, and in fact are often significantly less expensive in drier locations, like Arizona.

    Related: Catching Up On Climate Change? There’s Still Time to Do It Right.

    “We needed to build [the technology] ourselves because it needs to be very, very fast, and very scalable.”

    Sensible Weather’s consumer experience is seamless and straightforward because of the technological complexities unfolding behind the scenes. The company relies on data from a comprehensive modeling suite and observations based on information from satellites or radar, combining them to get a full picture of the weather risk.

    “The coverage of these data sets is global,” Cavanaugh says, “so the specific area would be indexed by its latitude, longitude coordinate, and then there’s a time component which could be going backward — things that have already happened — or forward, like in a weather forecast model or a climate projection.”

    On the weather-guaranteed day itself, that data combination is also in play, ideally predicting unfavorable conditions before the consumer even experiences them.

    “We can say ‘Hey, you’re going to be at this music festival for the next couple of hours, and we’re expecting it to be raining at this time. Here’s your money,’” Cavanaugh explains. “But we also have various real-time weather observations [on the back end] that can say, ‘This is what actually happened.’”

    We can say, ‘Hey, it’s not going to be a great day. We want to put some money in your pocket.’

    Sensible Weather designed a proprietary technology to make the end-to-end process possible. “The reason that we needed to build it ourselves is because it needs to be very, very fast, and very scalable,” Cavanaugh says.

    The key is not to disrupt the online purchase flow for Sensible Weather’s partners, Cavanaugh explains. And so far it’s paying off. The response has been positive, with customers appreciating the preemptive payments and partners enjoying reduced friction to purchase and fewer complaints when the weather takes a turn for the worse.

    Cavanaugh looks forward to expanding Sensible Weather’s offerings into different coverage areas, including snow, wind, temperature and air quality, and to getting the product into more people’s hands.

    “Opting in at point of sale is what most people think about when you think of a supplemental coverage product,” Cavanaugh says. “That said, we can bundle it; it can come in your room rate. We can have credit card benefits. There are a lot of ways that we can build this behind the scenes, where maybe customers know they have it, or maybe they don’t. But in the moment, we still have this surprise and delight factor — We can say, ‘Hey, it’s not going to be a great day. We want to put some money in your pocket.’”

    Related: 10 Billionaires Stepping Up to Fight Climate Change

    Amanda Breen

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  • US plans new forest protections, issues old-growth inventory

    US plans new forest protections, issues old-growth inventory

    BILLINGS, Mont. — Alert: US officials say old growth and mature forests on government lands cover an area larger than California, and the Biden administration plans a new rule to protect them.

    The Biden administration has identified more than 175,000 square miles (453,000 square kilometers) of old growth and mature forests on U.S. government land and plans to craft a new rule to better protect the nation’s woodlands from fires, insects and other side effects of climate change, federal officials planned to announce Thursday.

    Results from the government’s first-ever national inventory of mature and old-growth forests on federal land were obtained by The Associated Press in advance of a public release.

    U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands combined have more than 50,000 square miles (129,000 square kilometers) of old growth forests and about 125,000 square miles (324,000 square kilometers) of mature forests, according to the inventory.

    That’s more than half the forested land managed by the two agencies, and it covers an area larger than California. Yet officials say those stands of older trees are under increasing pressure as climate change worsens wildfires, drought, disease and insects — and leaves some forests devastated.

    Older forests “are struggling to keep up with the stresses of climate change,” said USDA Under Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment Homer Wilkes. “We must adapt quickly.”

    Representatives of the timber industry and some members of Congress have been skeptical about President Joe Biden’s ambitions to protect older forests, which the Democrat unveiled last year on Earth Day.

    They’ve urged the administration to instead concentrate on lessening wildfire dangers by thinning stands of trees where decades of fire suppression have allowed undergrowth to flourish, which can be a recipe for disaster when fires ignite.

    Forest Service Chief Randy Moore appeared this week before a U.S. Senate committee where he was pressured by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to speed up thinning work on federal forests.

    Moore faced pointed questioning from U.S. Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, a Republican who warned the administration’s conservation efforts could “lock Americans out of the public lands” by putting areas off-limits to timber harvests and other uses.

    Most old growth forests in the Lower 48 states were logged during the past two centuries. Previous protections for older trees have come indirectly, such as the “roadless rule” adopted under former President Bill Clinton in 2001 that blocked logging on about a quarter of federal forests.

    “There’s a significant amount of mature and old growth trees that are already under protected status,” said Nick Smith with the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group. “We’re not calling for active management on environmentally-sensitive landscapes, but at least in areas where we can do thinning and wildfire mitigation fuels reduction. Federal land managers should already be doing that.”

    Administration officials announced Thursday they will be soliciting comments for a proposed rule that would “adapt current policies to protect, conserve and manage national forests and grasslands for climate resilience.”

    A formal rulemaking notice was expected to be published in the federal register in coming days. Further details were not immediately released.

    Environmental groups had lobbied the administration to pursue new regulations for forests that would limit logging of older trees.

    Blaine Miller-McFeeley with Earthjustice said he expects some logging would continue under a new rule, but conservation and recreational uses also would be promoted.

    “We are still logging old growth and mature forests here at home,” Miller-McFeeley said. “The focus has been largely on the number of board feet (harvested). It has not been focused on which trees are most scientifically smart to bring down for climate, for community protection from wildfires.”

    The age used to determine what counted as old growth varied widely by tree species – from 80 years for gambel oaks, to 300 years for bristlecone pines.

    Most of the old growth and mature forests are in western states such as Idaho, California, Montana and Oregon. But they’re also in New England, around the Great Lakes and in southern states such as Arkansas, Kentucky and West Virginia, according to an online map posted by the Forest Service.

    The most extensive old growth forests are dominated by pinyon and juniper trees and cover a combined 14,000 square miles (36,000 square kilometers), according to the inventory.

    The inventory excluded federal lands in Alaska where an old growth analysis was ongoing.

    Experts say large trees can store significant volumes of carbon dioxide and keep the gas from warming the planet as it enters the atmosphere.

    Underlining the urgency of the issue are wildfires in California that killed thousands of giant sequoias in recent years. Lightning-sparked wildfires killed thousands of the trees in 2021, adding to a two-year death toll of up to nearly a fifth of Earth’s largest trees. They are concentrated in about 70 groves scattered along the western side of the Sierra Nevada range.

    Global wildfires in 2021 emitted the equivalent of about 7.1 billion tons (6.4 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide, according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. That’s equal to about 18% of global CO2 emissions from coal, oil and other energy sources recorded in 2021 by the International Energy Agency.

    ___

    On Twitter follow Matthew Brown @MatthewBrownAP

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  • Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian turns focus to climate change innovations with new foundation

    Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian turns focus to climate change innovations with new foundation

    Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian turns focus to climate change innovations with new foundation – CBS News


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    Five years after stepping away from daily duties at the internet company he co-founded, Alexis Ohanian is pouring money and attention into 776, a funding mechanism that gives $100,000 grants to young climate-focused innovators. He says if he began his career over again, it would start with climate solutions. Ben Tracy reports.

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  • Pacific Island Countries To Develop Advanced Warning System for Tuna Migration

    Pacific Island Countries To Develop Advanced Warning System for Tuna Migration

    Pacific Community-led regional initiative aims to assist countries in the region with mitigating the impacts of climate change-induced tuna migration. Credit: Pacific Community/SPC
    • by Neena Bhandari (sydney)
    • Inter Press Service

    SYDNEY, Apr 19 (IPS) – Climate change and warming ocean waters are causing tuna fisheries to migrate to international waters, away from a country’s jurisdiction, thereby putting the food and economic security of many Pacific Island countries and territories at risk.

    Now a Pacific Community (SPC) led regional initiative will help ensure that these countries are equipped to cope with climate change-induced tuna migration.

    “All the climate change projections indicate that there will be a redistribution of tuna from the western and central Pacific to the more eastern and towards the polar regions, that is not Antarctica or the Arctic, but to regions outside of the equatorial zones where they primarily occur at the moment,” says SPC’s Principal Fisheries Scientist, Dr Simon Nicol.

    “This has really important implications for the Pacific Island countries. Our projections suggest that about one-fifth or about USD 100 million of the income derived from the tuna industry directly is likely to be lost by 2050 by these countries,” Nicol tells IPS.

    The total annual catch of tuna in the western and central Pacific Ocean represents around 55 percent of global tuna production. Approximately half of this catch is from the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of Pacific Island countries.

    The recent USD15.5 million funding by New Zealand for SPC’s ‘Climate Science for Ensuring Pacific Tuna Access’ programme will enable Pacific Island countries to prepare and adapt the region’s tuna fisheries to meet the challenges posed by climate change.

    Nicol says that the investment that New Zealand has provided for the programme will allow for more rigorous and timely monitoring of the types of changes that are occurring, both due to the impacts of fishing and climate change, at a very fine resolution. Secondly, it will also provide the additional resources that are needed to increase the ocean monitoring capacity to remove the anomalies and biases to particular local conditions, which often occur in global climate models.

    “We have noted, for example, that the boundary of the warm pool in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Nauru can have an element of bias associated with it. It’s an important oceanographic feature in the western Pacific equatorial zone, which moves in association with the El Nino Southern Oscillation. Sometimes its eastern boundary is right next to Papua New Guinea, and at other times, it extends all the way past Nauru. It is a key driver of recruitment for skipjack tuna, so we need to be quite precise where that boundary is for any prediction of skipjack recruitment that occurs in any given year,” he tells IPS.

    Several Pacific Island countries and territories find their food and economic security at risk due to the climate-change-induced migration of tuna into international waters. Credit: Pacific Community/SPC
    Several Pacific Island countries and territories find their food and economic security at risk due to the climate-change-induced migration of tuna into international waters. Credit: Pacific Community (SPC)

    The analysis at the ocean basin scale does not provide EEZ scale information for particular countries, and it is often not precise in predicting when the impact of climate change is going to manifest itself.

    Under the programme, a Pacific-owned advanced warning system will be developed by SPC to help countries forecast, monitor and manage tuna migration, which is set to become more pronounced in the coming decades.

    “The advanced warning system will allow us to zoom in on what the likely changes are in each particular country’s EEZ and also zoom in more accurately and precisely on when those changes are likely to occur, which is particularly important from a Pacific Island country perspective,” Nicol tells IPS.

    Whilst Pacific Island countries manage the tuna resource collectively to ensure its biological sustainability, the income that they derive is very much a national-level enterprise. A recent study in Nature Sustainability estimates that the movement of tuna stocks could cause a fall of up to 17 percent in the annual government revenue of some of these countries.

    The study notes that more than 95 percent of all tuna caught from the jurisdictions of the 22 Pacific Island countries and territories comes from the combined EEZs of 10 Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) – Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tokelau and Tuvalu. On average, they derive 37 percent (ranging from 4 percent for Papua New Guinea to 84 percent for Tokelau) of all government revenue from tuna-fishing access fees paid by foreign industrial fishing fleets.

    “The advanced warning system would allow for more refined predictions of the changes in tuna stock, abundance, distribution and the fisheries around them. This is very important to what each country gets as access fees, which relates to how much tuna is typically caught in their EEZ,” says Dr Meryl Williams, Vice Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation.

    “Access fees usually form part of the general consolidated revenue that the government has to spend on hospitals, education and infrastructure, and hence it is a very important source of revenue for people’s economic development in many of the Pacific Island countries,” she adds.

    Currently, the program is focused only on the four dominant tuna species – Skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis), Yellowfin (Thunnus albacares), Bigeye (Thunnus obesus) and the South Pacific Albacore (Thunnus alalunga) – caught in the Pacific Island countries.

    SPC’s Director of Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability, Coral Pasisi says, “Without successful global action to mitigate climate change, the latest ecosystem modelling predicts a significant decrease in the availability of tropical tuna species (tuna biomass) in the Western Pacific due to a shifting of their biomass to the east and some declines in overall biomass. Negative impacts on coastal fish stocks important for local food security are also predicted”.

    Curbing greenhouse gas emissions in line with The Paris Agreement could help limit tuna migration away from the region. “We have to ensure sustainable fishing levels for the Pacific Islands. To reach this goal, developed countries should act quickly and increase their ambition to stay below 1.5 degrees centigrade, and Pacific countries should maintain sustainable management of their fisheries resources,” Pasisi tells IPS.

    She says the future of the Pacific region’s marine resources will be secured through nearshore fish aggregating devices, sustainable coastal fisheries management plans, and aquaculture.

    “We must also complete the work on delineating all Exclusive Economic Zone boundaries to ensure sovereignty over the resources. We need and seek international recognition for the permanency of these. We also must work with all fishing nations in the Pacific to ensure that sustainable management of tuna fisheries continues, even if there is a shift into international waters,” Pasisi adds.

    The programme will work with Pacific Island countries and territories to develop and implement new technologies and innovative approaches to enable the long-term sustainability of the region’s tuna fisheries.

    There is a need to also recognise the more direct fisheries benefits that people, including women, receive from their contributions to the tuna industry, says Williams, who is also the founder and immediate past Chair of the Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries section of the Asian Fisheries Society.

    “Looking at the whole of employment in small-scale and industrial fisheries tuna value chains, not just fishing but also processing, trading, work in offices and in fisheries management etc., we estimate that women probably make up at least half, if not more than half, of the labour force in the tuna industry. Hence, their role is very important in sustainably managing the tuna stock in Pacific Island countries,” she tells IPS.

    IPS UN Bureau Report


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    © Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • Federal court strikes down a California city’s natural gas ban

    Federal court strikes down a California city’s natural gas ban

    flames burn on a natural gas-burning stove.

    Scott Olson | Getty Images

    A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Berkeley, California, cannot enforce a ban on natural gas hookups in new buildings, saying a U.S. federal law preempts the city’s regulation.

    The ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco was a response to a case from 2019 by the California Restaurant Association against the city of Berkeley. In the appeal, the three-judge panel said the U.S. Energy Policy Conservation Act of 1975 preempts the city’s ban on the installation of natural gas piping within new construction.

    “By completely prohibiting the installation of natural gas piping within newly constructed buildings, the City of Berkeley has waded into a domain preempted by Congress,” Judge Patrick Bumatay, a Trump appointee, wrote for the panel.

    The decision could have ramifications for efforts by other cities and counties in California to ban natural gas appliances in new buildings to help reduce climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions. A few dozen cities across the country, including San Francisco, New York City, San Jose, Seattle, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, have also moved to ban natural gas hookups in some new buildings, citing environmental and health reasons.

    All three judges on the panel were Republican appointees. The ruling reversed a 2021 decision by a U.S. district judge who had blocked the challenge to the city’s ban.

    Commercial and residential buildings account for about 13% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from the use of gas appliances. And some researchers found that children in homes with gas stoves are at greater risk of asthma and other health issues.

    However, states such as Texas and Arizona have barred cities from imposing natural gas bans and argued that consumers should have the right to choose their energy sources.

    Jot Condie, president and chief executive of the California Restaurant Association, in a statement said the city’s ordinance is an overreaching measure beyond the scope of any city and that it would limit the variety of cuisine that restaurants can offer.

    “Natural gas appliances are crucial for restaurants to operate effectively and efficiently,” Condie said. “Cities and states cannot ignore federal law in an effort to constrain consumer choice, and it is encouraging that the Ninth Circuit upheld this standard.”

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