Valley of the Gods in the heart of Bears Ears National Monument. Mint Images / Getty Images
By Sharon Buccino
This week, Secretary Haaland chose a visit to Bears Ears National Monument as her first trip as Interior Secretary. She is spending three days in Bluff, Utah, a small town just outside the monument, listening to representatives of the five tribes who first proposed its designation to President Obama in 2015. This is the same town where former Secretary Sally Jewell spent several hours at a public hearing in July 2016 before recommending the monument's designation to President Obama.
<p>For the first time, a Native American is in charge of shaping federal policy on public lands and waters. Secretary Haaland knows with every fiber of her body the value of the 1.35 million acres of lands originally designated as Bears Ears National Monument—not simply for their beauty and tranquility, but for their cultural significance and sacred power.</p><p>Haaland felt the pain of President Trump's destruction of the monument that Obama had created—the 85 percent loss of lands previously protected and the dismissal of the inter-tribal Bears Ears Commission created to help manage the monument. Alongside the Navajo Nation and other tribes, NRDC and other environmental groups challenged Trump's revocation in court. The cases are now on hold pending the Biden administration's action.</p><p>In Trump's repeated attacks on our monuments, he also illegally rolled back protections for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument. The Antiquities Act has preserved some of America's greatest treasures. Pursuant to the Act's authority, President Biden should act now to deliver the protection the three monuments Trump acted to destroy both onshore and off.</p><p>Some Utah politicians are calling for Congressional action on Bears Ears. The problem is that they have been talking about this for years and have done nothing to protect these lands. President Obama only <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/sharon-buccino/protection-wanted-and-bears-ears-monument-delivers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">acted</a> after Congress failed to. In the meantime, looters, mining companies and fossil fuel promoters are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/04/08/bears-ears-haaland/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">taking advantage</a> of the land instead.</p><p>Every day, the land Trump carved out of Bears Ears National Monument is getting used. We need action now to restore what has been lost. Relying on the evidence the tribes presented to Obama, President Biden should issue a proclamation restoring Bears Ears to its former glory. In the meantime, Secretary Haaland should look to the five tribes—<a href="https://bearsearscoalition.org/about-the-coalition/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the Hopi Tribe, the Navajo Nation, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, the Pueblo of Zuni, and the Ute Indian Tribe</a>—who originally proposed designation of Bears Ears as a national monument to help manage these lands in a way that honors their sacred power, as well as their cultural and ecological significance.</p><p><em>Sharon Buccino's current work focuses on energy policy and government transparency. She actively litigates in federal court and advocates before federal agencies and Congress. She has worked to implement effective environmental review and public participation for proposed pipelines, as well as oil and gas drilling. She also led NRDC's successful litigation under the Freedom of Information Act to force disclosure of the Cheney Energy Task Force papers. Prior to joining NRDC, Buccino practiced environmental and administrative law with a private firm in Washington, D.C. and worked for the Alaska Supreme Court. She holds a bachelor's degree from Yale University and a JD from Stanford Law School. Originally from central Florida, Buccino has spent over 25 years in NRDC's Washington, D.C., office.</em></p>
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Marine Life Is Fleeing the Equator to Cooler Waters – This Could Trigger a Mass Extinction Event
19h
Oceans
Pexels
By Anthony Richardson, Chhaya Chaudhary, David Schoeman, and Mark John Costello
The tropical water at the equator is renowned for having the richest diversity of marine life on Earth, with vibrant coral reefs and large aggregations of tunas, sea turtles, manta rays and whale sharks. The number of marine species naturally tapers off as you head towards the poles.
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Ecologists have assumed this global pattern has remained stable over recent centuries — until now. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/15/e2015094118" target="_blank">Our recent study</a> found the ocean around the equator has already become too hot for many species to survive, and that global warming is responsible.
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In other words, the global pattern is rapidly changing. And as species flee to cooler water towards the poles, it's likely to have profound implications for marine ecosystems and human livelihoods. When the same thing happened 252 million years ago, 90% of all marine species died.
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The Bell Curve is Warping Dangerously
<img class="rm-lazyloadable-image rm-shortcode" lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNjAzODUwNi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3NzE1OTU4N30.qQL3P1IvA7Cwj_UbsrAL6MVZvafXGZc7hlAFieLPvso/img.png?width=980" id="9bbfd" width="1580" height="872" data-rm-shortcode-id="16ca57badee20ad55037706875f813f4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />If you look at each line in this chart, you can see a slight dip in total species richness between 1955 and 1974. This deepens substantially in the following decades. Anthony Richardson, Author provided
<p>This global pattern — where the number of species starts lower at the poles and peaks at the equator — results in a bell-shaped gradient of species richness. We looked at distribution records for nearly 50,000 marine species collected since 1955 and found a growing dip over time in this bell shape.</p><p>​<span>So, as our oceans warm, species have tracked their preferred temperatures by moving towards the poles. Although the warming at the equator of 0.6℃ over the past 50 years is relatively modest compared with warming at higher latitudes, </span><a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/334/6056/652" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tropical species have to move further</a><span> to remain in their thermal niche compared with species elsewhere.</span></p><p>As ocean warming has accelerated over recent decades due to climate change, the dip around at the equator has deepened.</p><p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2769" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">We predicted</a> such a change five years ago using a modeling approach, and now we have observational evidence.</p><p><span>For each of the 10 major groups of species we studied (including pelagic fish, reef fish and molluscs) that live in the water or on the seafloor, their richness either plateaued or declined slightly at latitudes with mean annual sea-surface temperatures above 20℃.</span></p><p>Today, species richness is greatest in the northern hemisphere in latitudes around 30°N (off southern China and Mexico) and in the south around 20°S (off northern Australia and southern Brazil).</p>
This Has Happened Before
<p>We shouldn't be surprised global biodiversity has responded so rapidly to global warming. This has happened before, and with dramatic consequences.</p><p><strong>252 million years ago…</strong></p><p>At the end of the Permian geological period about 252 million years ago, global temperatures warmed by 10℃ over 30,000-60,000 years as a result of greenhouse gas emissions from volcano eruptions in Siberia.</p><p><a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/117/30/17578" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A 2020 study</a> of the fossils from that time shows the pronounced peak in biodiversity at the equator flattened and spread. During this mammoth rearranging of global biodiversity, 90% of all marine species were killed.</p><p><strong>125,000 years ago…</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/109/52/21378" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A 2012 study showed</a> that more recently, during the rapid warming around 125,000 years ago, there was a similar swift movement of reef corals away from the tropics, as documented in the fossil record. The result was a pattern similar to the one we describe, although there was no associated mass extinction.</p><p>Authors of the study suggested their results might foreshadow the effects of our current global warming, ominously warning there could be mass extinctions in the near future as species move into the subtropics, where they might struggle to compete and adapt.</p><p><strong>Today…</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/117/23/12891" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">During the last ice age</a>, which ended around 15,000 years ago, the richness of forams (a type of hard-shelled, single-celled plankton) peaked at the equator and has been dropping there ever since. This is significant as plankton is a keystone species in the foodweb.</p><p>Our study shows that decline has accelerated in recent decades due to human-driven climate change.</p>The Profound Implications
<p>Losing species in tropical ecosystems means ecological resilience to environmental changes is reduced, potentially compromising ecosystem persistence.</p><p>In subtropical ecosystems, species richness is increasing. This means there'll be species invaders, novel predator-prey interactions, and new competitive relationships. For example, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-13/sydney-growing-own-coral-reef-with-help-from-tropical-fish/11466192" target="_blank">tropical fish</a> moving into Sydney Harbour compete with temperate species for food and habitat.</p><p>This could result in ecosystem collapse — as was seen at the boundary between the Permian and Triassic periods — in which species go extinct and ecosystem services (such as food supplies) are permanently altered.</p><p>The changes we describe will also have profound implications for human livelihoods. For example, many tropical island nations depend on the revenue from tuna fishing fleets through the selling of licenses in their territorial waters. Highly mobile tuna species are likely to move rapidly toward the subtropics, potentially beyond sovereign waters of island nations.</p><p><span></span>Similarly, many reef species important for artisanal fishers — and highly mobile megafauna such as whale sharks, manta rays and sea turtles that support tourism — are also likely to move toward the subtropics.</p><p>The movement of commercial and artisanal fish and marine megafauna could compromise the ability of tropical nations to meet the <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals" target="_blank">Sustainable Development Goals</a> concerning zero hunger and marine life.</p>Is There Anything We Can Do?
<p>One pathway is laid out in the Paris Climate Accords and involves aggressively reducing our emissions. Other opportunities are also emerging that could help safeguard biodiversity and hopefully minimise the worst impacts of it shifting away from the equator.</p><p>Currently 2.7% of the ocean is conserved in <a href="https://mpatlas.org/" target="_blank">fully or highly protected reserves</a>. This is well short of the 10% target by 2020 under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.</p><p>But <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/global-ocean-alliance-30by30-initiative/about#global-ocean-alliance-members" target="_blank">a group of 41 nations</a> is pushing to set a new target of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030.</p><p>This "30 by 30" target could ban seafloor mining and remove fishing in reserves that can destroy habitats and release as much carbon dioxide as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03371-z" target="_blank">global aviation</a>. These measures would remove pressures on biodiversity and promote ecological resilience.</p><p>Designing climate-smart reserves could further protect biodiversity from future changes. For example, reserves for marine life could be placed in refugia where the climate will be stable over the foreseeable future.</p><p>We now have evidence that climate change is impacting the best-known and strongest global pattern in ecology. We should not delay actions to try to mitigate this.</p><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/anthony-richardson-100303" target="_blank">Anthony Richardson</a>: Professor, The University of Queensland. <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/chhaya-chaudhary-1223419" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chhaya Chaudhary</a>: University of Auckland, <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/david-schoeman-111544" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">David Schoeman</a>: Professor of Global-Change Ecology, University of the Sunshine Coast, <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mark-john-costello-1223418" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mark John Costello</a>: Professor, University of Auckland</em></p><p><em>Disclosure statement: Anthony Richardson receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</em></p><p><em>Chhaya Chaudhary works for Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. During her PhD studies (2014- 2019), she received part- funding from the European Marine Observation Data Network (EMODnet) Biology project funded by the European Commission's Directorate—General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE), and received U21 Doctoral Mobility Scholarship from the University of Auckland in 2016.</em></p><p><em>David Schoeman receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</em></p><p><em>Mark John Costello does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/marine-life-is-fleeing-the-equator-to-cooler-waters-history-tells-us-this-could-trigger-a-mass-extinction-event-158424" target="_blank" style="">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Delta-8 THC is a cannabis product that has become a bestseller over the past few months, as many consumers find they can legally purchase it from CBD retailers. Its proponents say that Delta-8 THC will give you a nice little buzz, minus some of the more intense feelings (including paranoia) that are sometimes associated with marijuana.
Delta-8 THC is being marketed as a legal option for consumers who either don't live in a state with legal cannabis, or are a little apprehensive about how traditional psychoactive THC products will affect them. But is it all it's cracked up to be? Let's take a closer look, exploring what Delta-8 THC is, how it differs from other THC products, and whether it's actually legal for use.
<h2>What is Delta-8 THC?</h2><p>To better understand <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/health/marijuana-hemp-delta-8-thc.html" target="_blank">Delta-8 THC</a>, it helps to cover some basics about THC and cannabis.</p><p>Cannabis plants come chock full of different <a href="https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/cannabis-marijuana-and-cannabinoids-what-you-need-to-know" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>cannabinoids</em></a>. These are naturally-occuring chemical compounds that bind with receptors throughout your body. They can offer a wide range of mental, emotional, and physical effects; indeed, the healing and therapeutic properties marijuana or <a data-linked-post="2648563694" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/strongest-cbd-oil-2648563694.html" target="_blank">CBD products</a> offer can be attributed to cannabinoids.</p><p>One of the most common cannabinoids is what's known as Delta-9 THC. Simply put, this is the part of marijuana that gets you "high." It's worth noting that Delta-9 THC remains illegal in many states, except for in the most minute doses, and is still illegal at the federal level. CBD products are made with trace amounts of THC, ensuring that consumers can enjoy positive health effects in a perfectly legal way, without the risk of getting high.</p><p>On a chemical level, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/health/marijuana-hemp-delta-8-thc.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Delta-8 THC</a> is not too different from Delta-9 THC; the distinction comes down to just a few molecules. But those molecules make a big practical impact: Delta-8 THC will give you a buzz, but the psychoactive effects are considerably milder than with Delta-9 THC.</p><p>More specifically, many cannabis enthusiasts report that Delta-8 THC helps them feel good but also leaves them relatively clear-headed; and, it doesn't produce the anxiety or jitteriness that often characterize a Delta-9 THC high.</p><p>Additionally, because of the way the law is written regarding Delta-9 THC, some CBD companies now sell Delta-8 THC products in places where traditional cannabis is still illegal.</p><h2>What's the Difference Between Delta-9 THC and Delta-8 THC?</h2><p>Here are the primary differences to note between Delta-9 and Delta-8 THC:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Delta-9 THC is the primary psychoactive ingredient found in marijuana. In other words, it's the part that gets you high.</li><li>Though some states have found workarounds, Delta-9 THC is still illegal under federal law.</li><li>Delta-8 THC is also found in the cannabis plant, though it's not quite as powerful or as well-known. </li><li>Delta-8 THC is milder in its psychoactive effects. And, it's not <em>technically </em>illegal under current law.</li></ul><p>These are just a few of the key distinctions to keep in mind. Delta-8 THC is popular among consumers who want a smoother high, and don't want to violate federal law.</p><h2>Is Delta-8 THC Legal?</h2><p>We noted that Delta-8 THC is not <em>technically </em>illegal. Here, we need to get into some of the nuanced legal considerations that surround this substance.</p><p>First of all, there are plenty of cannabis companies that actively promote Delta-8 THC as a legal way to get high. Again, that's technically true, but is still a point of debate for some.</p><p>For one thing, it's not explicitly listed as an illegal substance. While federal laws, and some state laws, specifically ban Delta-9 THC, Delta-8 THC is never mentioned. More to the point, though, many proponents will cite the<a href="https://www.usda.gov/farmbill" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> 2018 Farm Bill</a>. This law legalized several industrial hemp products on a national level, including CBD.</p><p>The Farm Bill also includes some fairly nuanced positions regarding THC. In summary, the law says that hemp and cannabis-derived products are legal so long as they contain less than 0.3 percent Delta-9 THC.</p><p>With that said, some lawyers contend that Delta-8's heyday may soon come to an end. That's because the Farm Bill clears it only so long as it's derived directly from hemp; most of the Delta-8 THC products sold today aren't made from hemp, but rather from synthetically-altered CBD.</p><p>Some of these issues are a little fuzzy, and <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/delta-8-thc-legal-weed-explained-1113859/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the legal future of Delta-8 THC</a> remains a little uncertain. For now, though, many experts would argue that it is legal to purchase.</p><h2>What Kinds of Delta-8 THC Products Are Available?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><p>If you're looking to try Delta-8 THC products, you'll certainly find plenty of different products. Dispensaries and legal cannabis stores currently have a trove of products that use this cannabinoid. Some examples include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Vape cartridges, tinctures, and capsules.</li><li>Beverages made with Delta-8 THC, including some seltzers.</li><li>Edibles, including Delta-8 THC gummy bears, chocolate bars, and more.</li></ul><p>The cannabis industry has really been running with Delta-8 THC, finding creative ways to bring it to market. And chances are, even more products will be springing up in the weeks and months to come. </p><p>It's very important to note that you should only purchase Delta-8 THC products from reputable brands and established cannabis retailers. We do not recommend purchasing any products that contain Delta-8 THC from gas stations or vape shops. If you are looking for a reputable place to explore these products, here are a few brands that we trust and recommend:</p>
<h2>What are the Pros and Cons of Delta-8 THC?</h2><p>As you consider whether Delta-8 THC is worth your time, it may be helpful to weigh the pros against the cons.</p><p><strong>Pros</strong></p><p>Let's start with some of the positives:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Delta-8 THC does have psychoactive effects, but it's a milder effect than with traditional Delta-9 THC.</li><li>Delta-8 THC is currently legal and widely accessible in multiple states.</li><li>There are a wide number of products that use Delta-8 THC.</li></ul><p><strong>Cons</strong></p><p>Now, a few of the downsides.</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Delta-8 THC isn't quite as commonplace as other cannabis products, including CBD, and some of the options on the market are expensive.</li><li>While this substance is technically legal, there are plenty of uncertainties over its legal future. It's something you want to keep in mind.</li><li>As a relatively new product, Delta-8 THC products are not regulated by the FDA and there is not independent testing in place to verify that it is safe or pure.</li></ul><p>As with any cannabis product, Delta-8 THC has its pros and cons. As you seek the cannabis product that's best for you, it's largely a matter of personal preference.</p><p>Also note that smoking, vaping, or otherwise imbibing any kind of cannabis-related product can carry some medical risks and negative health consequences. If you have any specific concerns, we recommend consulting with your doctor before you try any Delta-8 THC product.</p><p><em><strong>Josh Hurst </strong></em><em>is a journalist, critic, and essayist. He lives in Knoxville, TN, with his wife and three sons. He covers natural health, nutrition, supplements, and clean energy. His writing has appeared in Health, Shape, and Remedy Review.</em></p>
NuLeaf Naturals Full Spectrum Delta 8 THC Oil
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<p><a href="https://nuleafnaturals.com/product/full-spectrum-delta-8-thc-oil-30mg-ml/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NuLeaf Naturals Full Spectrum Delta 8 THC Oil</a> is made from organic hemp and organic virgin hemp seed extract. It's available in a 150 mg bottle and a 450 mg bottle, which both provide 15 mg of Delta 8 THC per serving. This formula is also available in a soft gel.</p>
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Botany Farms Delta-10 THC Vape Cartridge
<img class="rm-lazyloadable-image rm-shortcode" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNjAzNjE2Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2OTcwNTgzM30.opm4l5-rSqV1HfvrbVE16EEVZvqxI42xgqnsQfL9p2M/img.jpg?width=980" id="2c749" width="400" height="400" data-rm-shortcode-id="a678e76d8cd5e13bae95d9c3ae664b85" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />botanyfarms.com
<p>The <a href="https://www.botanyfarms.com/product/delta-10-thc-vape-cartridge/?aff=14" target="_blank">Botany Farms Delta-10 THC Vape Cartridge</a> actually contains both Delta-10 and Delta-8 THC.This is designed to provide the desired effects of Delta-8 THC but without the drowsiness. They also offer a vape cartridge with a 1:1 concentration of <a href="https://www.botanyfarms.com/product/delta-10-delta-8-thc-vape-cartridge/?aff=14" target="_blank">Delta-8 THC</a> and Delta-10 THC. Note that while vape products can be used to aid in smoking cessation, we do not recommend vaping or smoking because of the negative health effects they can cause.</p>
$60
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"Secrets of the Whales" is a new series that will start streaming on Disney+ on Earth Day. Disney+
In celebration of Earth Day, a star-studded cast is giving fans a rare glimpse into the secret lives of some of the planet's most majestic animals: whales. In "Secrets of the Whales," a four-part documentary series by renowned National Geographic Photographer and Explorer Brian Skerry and Executive Producer James Cameron, viewers plunge deep into the lives and worlds of five different whale species.
Â
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b102b19b2719f50272ab718c44703dd0"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xOySOlB78dM?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>"The title refers to the latest and greatest science, which reveals that whales are a lot more like us than we first thought," Skerry told EcoWatch. "Science is clinical and studied. Traditionally, [we were] afraid to anthropomorphize whales. But now, science shows us they're very complex — with societies, families, emotions and cultures."</p><p>Following <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/orcas" target="_self">orcas</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/humpback-whales" target="_self">humpbacks</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/beluga" target="_self">belugas</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/narwhals" target="_self">narwhals</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sperm-whales" target="_self">sperm whales</a>, Skerry takes viewers on a journey into the underwater world to experience whales like never before — watching them make lifelong friendships, teach their young specific traditions and grieve the loss of family. This is whale culture, Skerry explained, and these social bonds are the secret to their success.</p><p>Skerry explained how Shane Gero, his friend and sperm whale researcher, helped him frame whale culture in human terms. "There's a difference between behavior and culture," Skerry quoted Gero. "Behavior is what we do; culture is how we do it. For example, we eat food. That is behavior. But whether we eat it with a fork or chopsticks, that is culture."</p><p>Using this lens, Skerry shows how orcas around the world have developed distinct cultures around food. While New Zealand's orcas hunt hidden stingrays in the shallows, Patagonia's whales catch sea lions off the beach, and Norway's whales slap herring schools with their tails to stun them. These unique customs are also passed down to each generation. In the first episode, viewers follow five orca matriarchs as they teach their young the family's unique hunting legacy. The skills are not innate traits, but learned techniques adapted for survival in the local environment. Skerry explained how, without this ancient passage of knowledge, specific ways of life would die out.</p>
<img
class="rm-lazyloadable-image rm-shortcode" lazy-loadable="true"
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Herring are a primary food source for Norway's orcas. Luis Lamar / National Geographic for Disney+
<p>"This is the whales teaching their young," Skerry said. "This is generational, teaching the young how to survive, but also cultural — teaching them what matters to their family."</p><p>The episode also shows how <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/navy-training--southern-resident-killer-whales-2648892867.html" target="_self">external forces</a>, such as humans fishing for herring in Norway, have changed whale culture in the area. When Skerry first visited the Arctic years ago, local orcas would corral fish to hunt. Now, with the advent of commercial fishing boats, they've learned to approach the ships and eat the fish that escape.</p><p>"I think of this as takeout," Skerry joked to EcoWatch. "If this behavior lasts a long time, maybe it will become culture. Maybe it already is."</p><p>For many, the series may be the first time seeing how different populations of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/endangered-blue-whale-discovered-2649726863.html" target="_self">whales have developed different customs based on where they are from</a>, just like humans. Skerry explained, "Whales have dialects and they isolate. Sperm whales won't intermix with genetically identical animals that don't speak the same dialect. I think of this like the neighborhoods of New York, separated in enclaves by language. That's what the whales are doing."</p>
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Belugas are extremely social creatures with a varied vocal range. Peter Kragh / National Geographic for Disney+
<p><br>Filmed during three years in 24 locations and narrated by Conservationist and Actress Sigourney Weaver, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/national-geographic" target="_self">National Geographic</a> series showcases many never-before-recorded moments, such as belugas giving themselves names and humpbacks communicating through breaching. Throughout, the underlying messages are the same: whales have cultures that differ based on where they are from; they live in complex societies framed by tradition, survival and emotions; and, they're just like us. </p><p>"Whales have preferences for food, parenting technique, singing competitions. In this way, they mirror humans," Skerry emphasized.</p><p>In conjunction, Skerry has released a photography book with the same name that shares more secrets from the world's largest mammals. Plus, National Geographic's May magazine, dubbed "The Ocean Issue," aligns with the four-part series and Skerry's book, and will feature four related stories. The issue will publish April 15 and be available at <a href="http://natgeo.com/planetpossible" target="_blank">natgeo.com/planetpossible</a>.<br></p><p>Skerry believes the grand presentation of this new whale world will move people. He hopes viewers and readers will come to understand the complexity and connectivity between humans and the other "societies of beings" that we share the planet with. "We are visual creatures. We respond emotionally, viscerally to powerful imagery — it touches a part of our soul. Great science and storytelling that incorporates art checks all the boxes to move that needle," Skerry said.</p><p>He added, "On Earth Day, this is a good way to celebrate... this is a new view of the world. This changes our perception: no longer are we apart from nature or above it — we are intimately connected to it."</p><p>All four episodes of "Secrets of the Whales" will start streaming on Disney+ on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22nd.</p>
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A Southern Right whales is pictured in the accompanying book, "Secrets of the Whales." Brian Skerry / National Geographic
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Spring is an excellent time to begin bird watching in earnest. Eugenio Marongiu / Cultura / Getty Images
The coronavirus has isolated many of us in our homes this year. We've been forced to slow down a little, maybe looking out our windows, becoming more in tune with the rhythms of our yards. Perhaps we've begun to notice more, like the birds hopping around in the bushes out back, wondering (maybe for the first time) what they are.
<p>When COVID-19 hit, I too found myself spending much more time in my apartment. Living in New York City during a pandemic presented fewer opportunities to safely get out into nature – an unfortunate struggle for myself and many other outdoorsy urbanites.</p><p>Yet, when I began birding, I found myself paying more attention to the nature that was, in fact, all<em> </em>around me. I noticed the European starlings perching in the holes of London planetrees, red-tailed hawks circling above the park, and a persistent red-bellied woodpecker with a penchant for the wooden post in my backyard. Looking for birds was a way to appreciate and acknowledge nature wherever I was; I could be excited about spotting birds anywhere – even outside my Brooklyn apartment, when I was forced to slow down and look around.</p><p>Spring is an excellent time to begin bird watching in earnest. While many <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/get-know-these-20-common-birds" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">common birds</a> we come to recognize are "<a href="https://morebirds.com/blogs/news/migration-is-for-the-birds-but-not-all-of-them" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">permanent residents</a>" – such as starlings, mockingbirds, juncos, house sparrows, and black-capped chickadees – springtime might bring some new feathered friends into view as populations <a href="https://birdcast.info/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">travel back north for the season</a>. There are <a href="https://pallensmith.com/2016/02/15/four-types-of-bird-migration-types/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">different types of migration</a>, but birds generally travel north-south in North America (northbound in the spring, southbound in the fall), primarily in search of nesting locations or food.</p>
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A Coeligena helianthea hummingbird is photographed during a birdwatching trail at the Monserrate hill in Bogota on November 11, 2020. Colombia is the country with the largest bird diversity in the world, home to about 1,934 different bird species, a fifth of the total known. JUAN BARRETO / AFP / Getty Images
<p>About 40% of birds are migratory, so <a href="https://www.perkypet.com/articles/north-american-bird-migration-4-flyways" target="_blank">whatever flyway you live within</a>, there will be plenty of new species to look out for. The <a href="https://www.perkypet.com/articles/atlantic-flyway-migration" target="_blank">Atlantic Flyway</a> alone (covering much of the east coast) sees 500 migratory species every year. Unless you live very far North, <a href="https://donnallong.com/spring-bird-migration/" target="_blank">from February through mid-April</a>, you should see <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/the-basics-how-why-and-where-of-bird-migration/#:~:text=Birds%20migrate%20to%20move%20from,are%20food%20and%20nesting%20locations.&text=As%20winter%20approaches%20and%20the,the%20birds%20move%20south%20again" target="_blank">migrating birds</a> passing through as they head for their breeding areas.<br></p><p>Birding is unique in its accessibility and universality; no matter where you live – whether a bustling city, a rural town, or the South Pole – there will always be birds to learn about and look for. If you've never birded before, here are some things to keep in mind as you get started.</p>
1. Choosing the Right Binoculars
<p>Binoculars are a relatively indispensable tool for most birders – but, for those just starting out, it might not yet be worth the several-hundred-dollar investment. If you aren't able to scour the attics of friends or borrow a pair from a fellow bird watcher, some local birding and naturalist groups have <a href="https://vashonaudubon.org/all-about-vashon-birds/binoculars-check-out/" target="_blank">binocular loaning programs</a> for members, allowing you to plan ahead for a day (or week) of birding.</p><p>When you're ready to take the plunge, choosing a pair or binoculars should take some careful deliberation based on your needs and preferences; some <a href="https://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/bwdsite/explore/optics/top-10-tips-buying-binoculars-bird-watching.php" target="_blank">major considerations</a> might include size, ease of use, <a href="https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/binoculars.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">magnification</a>, and price. While professional binoculars can easily run north of $1,000, there are plenty of perfectly suitable entry-level binoculars under $200. You might not get the perfect precision and clarity of more elite models, but a less expensive pair will allow you to strengthen your birding skills while deciding if you're interested in investing in a premium pair.</p><p>For a budget-friendly option, check out resale options on eBay, Facebook marketplace, or neighborhood yard sales: you might find a nicer pair whose retail price isn't within your budget.</p>2. Know What Birds Are in Your Area
<p>When I began to pay more attention to the birds just outside my apartment building, I started to learn what species have always been around me: European starlings, house sparrows, blue jays, black capped chickadees, and the occasional red-bellied woodpecker. They had always been there, but I hadn't ever taken the time to identify them. Once you learn to <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/get-know-these-20-common-birds_" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">recognize common birds</a> in your area, you'll be able to identify the typical species right outside your window and in your community. Of course, permanent residential birds in your neighborhood will <a href="https://nestwatch.org/learn/focal-species/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">vary by region</a>, as will those migrating through it.</p>3. Get Out and Explore
<p>Venturing elsewhere might allow you to spot some different species beyond those frequenting your backyard. Anywhere with water or greenery offers a place for birding; as an urbanite myself, I've found that even small- and mid-sized parks in New York City allow me to find more elusive birds (although Central Park takes the crown for an afternoon of urban birding).</p><p>If you are able to travel a bit further from home, <a href="https://www.fws.gov/refuges/" target="_blank">national wildlife refuges</a> and <a href="https://www.americasstateparks.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">state/national parks</a> are excellent places to explore bird habitats and perhaps log some less-common sightings. The American Birding Association also lists <a href="https://www.aba.org/aba-area-birding-trails/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">birding trails by state</a>, and Audubon and BirdLife International identify <a href="https://www.audubon.org/important-bird-areas" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Important Bird Areas (IBAs)</a> across the country – important bird habitats and iconic places that activists are fighting to protect – where birders can spot birds of significance.</p>4. Finding a Bird: Stop, Look, Listen, Repeat
<p>The National Audubon Society recommends the "<a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/how-find-bird" target="_blank">stop, look, listen, repeat</a>" mantra when seeking and identifying birds.</p><p>First and foremost, spotting birds requires attention. Stopping – getting out of the car, pausing on the sidewalk, trail, or in the backyard to look up – is the most important step.</p><p>When looking for birds, try to avoid gazing wildly around; rather, scan your surroundings, focusing on any odd shapes or shadows, trying to think about where a bird might perch (power lines, fence posts, branches), or keep an eye on the sky for flying eagles and hawks. In open areas like fields and beaches, you might have a more panoramic view, and can take in different sections of the landscape at a time. Look around with the naked eye before reaching for the binoculars to hone in.</p><p>While it can be hard to sift through the noise, listening for birds is perhaps an even more important element of bird watching than looking. Once you spend more time in the field, you'll be able to parse apart the racket and identify specific species, especially aided by Audubon's Bird Guide app or by learning from their <a href="https://www.audubon.org/section/birding-ear" target="_blank">Birding by Ear series</a>.</p><p>Repeat this pattern as you continue on your way, stopping to look and listen for birds as you go, rather than waiting for them to come to you. </p>5. Identification
<p>When you head out for a day of bird watching – especially when you're hoping to spot some new species – you'll want to be armed with the tools to identify what you see. <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/how-identify-birds" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Major considerations when identifying birds</a> are their group (such as owls, hawks, or sparrow-like birds), size and shape, behavior, voice, field marks, season, and habitat.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.sibleyguides.com/about/the-sibley-guide-to-birds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sibley Guide to Birds</a> and the <a href="https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/peterson-field-guide-to-birds-of-north-america-second-edition/9781328771445" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Peterson Field Guide</a> are widely considered the best books for identifying birds in North America, although many <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/what-bird-guide-best-you" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">specialized guides</a> focus on specific species or regions as well.</p><p>Plenty of <a href="https://blog.nature.org/science/2013/05/27/boucher-bird-blog-apps-smart-birder/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">bird identification apps</a> have popped up in recent years – including National Geographic Birds, Sibley eGuide to Birds, iNaturalist, Merlin Bird ID, and Birdsnap – which are basically a <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/the-best-birding-apps-and-field-guides" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">field guide in your pocket</a>. I'm partial to the Audubon Bird Guide, which allows users to filter by common identifiers, including a bird's habitat, color, activity, tail shape, and general type, adding them all to a personal map to view your sightings.</p>6. Recording Your Sightings
<p>​<span>As you deepen your commitment to birding, you might join the community of birders that track and quantify their sightings, building their </span><a href="https://www.thespruce.com/what-birds-count-on-a-life-list-386704#:~:text=A%20life%20list%20is%20a,which%20birds%20you%20have%20seen." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">life list</a><span>.</span></p><p>While a standard notebook noting the date, species name, habitat, vocalizations, or any other data you wish to include will suffice, some birders opt for a more <a href="https://www.riteintherain.com/no-195-birders-journal" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">structured birder's journal</a> with pre-determined fields to record your encounters, take notes, draw sketches, etc.</p><p>Many birders also choose to record their sightings online and in shared databases (which include many of the field guide apps), often pinpointing them on a map for others to view. Launched by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon, <a href="https://ebird.org/home" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">eBird is one of the largest databases and citizen science projects around birding</a>, where hundreds of thousands of birders enter their sightings, and users can explore birds in regions and hotspots around the world. Users can also record their sightings on the <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ebird/id988799279" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">eBird app</a>.</p>7. Attracting Birds to Your Own Yard
<p>Feeding birds is a common phenomenon: more than 40% of Americans maintain a birdfeeder to attract birds and watch them feast.</p><p>Not all birdfeed is created equal, however. Many commercial varieties are mostly made with "fillers" (oats, red millet, etc.) that birds will largely leave untouched. After researching what birds to expect in your area – and which ones you want to attract – you can create your own birdfeed with <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/types-of-bird-seed-a-quick-guide/?pid=1142" target="_blank">seeds that will appeal to them</a>.</p><p>Beyond filling a birdfeeder, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/eco-friendly-lawn-2651194858.html" target="_self">transforming your yard into an eco-friendly oasis</a> is by far the best way to attract birds. Choosing to forgo mowing your lawn, planting native flowers and grasses, and ditching the pesticides will bring back the bugs that birds feed on, and provide a safe haven in which birds can happily live and eat.</p><p>While it's widely considered acceptable – and even beneficial – to feed birds with appropriate seeds, communal birdfeeders often <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/to-feed-or-not-feed" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">foster unlikely interactions between different species</a>, who can then transmit harmful diseases and parasites to one another. Maintaining several bird feeders with different types of seeds might keep different species from coming into contact, and feeders can be <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/how-to-clean-your-bird-feeder/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cleaned to prevent the spread of infection</a>.</p>8. Inclusivity and Anti-Racism in the Birding Community
<p>Like all outdoor activities and areas of scientific study, birding communities are subject to racist and discriminatory ideologies. Black birders have long experienced discrimination and underrepresentation in outdoor spaces. The work of organizations like the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/birdersfund/" target="_blank">Black & Latinx Birders Fund</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/birdability/" target="_blank">Birdability</a>, and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/feministbirdclub/" target="_blank">Feminist Bird Club</a> highlight the contributions and importance of birders of color, birders with disabilities, and women and LGBTQ+ birders to the birding community, as do activists and naturalists like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hood__naturalist/" target="_blank">Corina Newsome</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tykeejames/" target="_blank">Tykee James</a>. The work of <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/its-bird-new-comic-written-central-park-birder-christian-cooper" target="_blank">Christian Cooper</a>, <a href="https://camilledungy.com/publications/" target="_blank">Camille Dungy</a> (read her poem <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/58363/frequently-asked-questions-10" target="_blank">Frequently Asked Questions: 10</a>), and <a href="https://orionmagazine.org/article/9-rules-for-the-black-birdwatcher/" target="_blank">J. Drew Lanham</a> – including his essay "<a href="https://lithub.com/birding-while-black/" target="_blank">Birding While Black</a>" – are a great place to start.</p><p>Getting involved in birding means educating ourselves on these issues and taking meaningful action; the work of <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/its-bird-new-comic-written-central-park-birder-christian-cooper" target="_blank">Christian Cooper</a> and <a href="https://orionmagazine.org/article/9-rules-for-the-black-birdwatcher/" target="_blank">J. Drew Lanham</a> – including his essay "<a href="https://lithub.com/birding-while-black/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Birding While Black</a>" – are a great place to start. Just as birders are activists for protecting habitats and natural areas, we must also be active and aware of inclusivity in these spaces.</p>9. Get Involved
<p>To learn from and enjoy the company of other birders, check out local birding groups in your area to join. Many Audubon chapters host trips, meetings, and bird walks for members. The American Birding Association even maintains a <a href="https://www.aba.org/festivals-events/" target="_blank">directory of birding festivals</a> across the country.</p><p>Volunteering for birds is also a great way to meet other birders and take action for birds in your community; local organizations might have opportunities for assisting with habitat restoration or helping at birding centers.</p><p>Like all wildlife, climate change and habitat destruction threaten the livelihood of birds, eliminating their breeding grounds and food sources. A <a href="https://www.audubon.org/climate/survivalbydegrees" target="_blank">2019 report released by the National Audubon Society</a> found that two-thirds of North American birds may face extinction if global temperatures rise 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100. Staying informed about and taking action for legislation designed to protect birds and our climate – such as the recent <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5552/text" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Migratory Bird Protection Act</a> – is important for ensuring a livable future for wildlife and humans alike.</p><p><em>Linnea graduated from Skidmore College in 2019 with a Bachelor's degree in English and Environmental Studies, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. Most recently, Linnea worked at Hunger Free America, and has interned with WHYY in Philadelphia, Saratoga Living Magazine, and the Sierra Club in Washington, DC. </em><em>Linnea enjoys hiking and spending time outdoors, reading, practicing her German, and volunteering on farms and gardens and for environmental justice efforts in her community. Along with journalism, she is also an essayist and writer of creative nonfiction.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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The brown pelican is seen on Queen Bess Island in Louisiana in March 2021. Casey Wright / LDWF biologist
Who says you can't go home again?
<p>A brown pelican rescued from the BP Deepwater Horizon <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-spill" target="_self">oil spill</a> in 2010 and relocated to Georgia has made the 700-mile trek back to Louisiana 11 years later.</p><p>"It's truly impressive that it made its way back from Georgia,'' Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) Biologist Casey Wright said in a <a href="https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/news/oilcovered-brown-pelican-transported-to-georgia-after-2010-deepwater-horizon-disaster-finds-its-way-back-to-louisiana" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p>
Â
<p>The pelican was found covered in oil on June 14, 2010, on a rock jetty off of Bataria Bay, located on Louisiana's Queen Bess Island, <a href="https://www.wbrz.com/news/rescued-brown-pelican-found-during-2010-deepwater-horizon-disaster-flies-hundreds-of-miles-to-return-home/" target="_blank">WBRZ reported</a>. The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/birds" target="_self">bird</a>, tagged "Red 33Z" by its rescuers, was first taken to a triage facility, then a rehabilitation facility in Louisiana. However, it couldn't be released near its home due to oil contamination. Instead, the pelican was flown to the U.S. Coast Guard station in Brunswick, Georgia, and released there on July 1, 2010.</p><p>It isn't known exactly when Red 33Z made it back home, but Wright spotted and photographed the bird on a Bataria Bay rock jetty in March. This isn't unheard of behavior for pelicans.</p><p>"Brown pelicans, like most seabirds, are thought to be hard-wired, genetically, to return to their birth colony to breed, despite moving long distances during the non-breeding season," LDWF Non-Game Ornithologist Robert Dobbs said in the press release. "That may be an overly simplistic generalization, but re-sighting data of banded pelicans often support that pattern.''</p><p>Other birds released in Georgia, Texas and Florida after the spill have also been spotted back in Louisiana.</p>
<p><br> It is thanks to careful restoration work that Red 33Z could return home. Queen Bess Island is an important nesting colony for sea birds and 15 to 20 percent of the state's brown pelicans are hatched there. But heavy damage from the spill left only five habitable acres. However, a restoration project raised that number to 36 acres by February 2020.</p><p>"Queen Bess is one of Louisiana's best redemptive wildlife stories," LDWF Secretary Jack Montoucet said in a <a href="https://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/2020/02/queen-bess-island-restored-time-nesting-season" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">statement</a> announcing the completed restoration. "It was on this very island in 1968 that we began the process of bringing back the Brown Pelican after <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/ddt-brief-history-and-status" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">pesticides</a> nearly wiped the species from the Louisiana landscape. Now we celebrate the birth of a healthy home for Brown Pelicans and many other bird species because of the marriage of science, wise planning, and the determination of state and federal governments to do the right thing."</p>However, not all birds had such a happy ending after the 2010 oil spill. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that 65,000 to <a href="https://www.fws.gov/southeast/news/2016/06/deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-killed-as-many-as-102000-birds-across-93-species/#:~:text=Deepwater%20Horizon%20oil%20spill%20killed,species%20%7C%20U.S.%20Fish%20%26%20Wildlife%20Service" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">102,000 birds</a> died in the disaster, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/wildlife-georgia-oil-spills-birds-louisiana-d3f21c8982e9295cd9ec2ee21d1042d1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a>. Still, bird populations in the area have recovered their pre-spill numbers.
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A helicopter drops water on burning vegetation as the Bond Fire burns in Silverado, California on Dec. 3, 2020. Mark Rightmire / MediaNews Group / Orange County Register via Getty Images
2020 was the largest wildfire season in California's modern history, according to state agency Cal Fire. And, as the climate crisis continues to increase fire risk, there are concerns that 2021 could be just as devastating.
<p>To adapt to this new normal, California leaders Thursday announced a more-than half a billion dollar plan to prevent and prepare for wildfires.</p><p>"The hots are getting hotter. The dries are getting drier. There's a new reality," California Gov. Gavin Newsom said as he announced the plan, as <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/04/08/newsom-unveils-536-million-plan-for-california-wildfires/" target="_blank">The Mercury News reported.</a> "If you don't believe in climate change, if you don't believe in science, you believe your own damn eyes. Something is happening as it relates to the issue of climate that's exacerbating conditions and making the challenge of wildfire suppression and prevention that much more ominous."</p>
<div id="a209e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="70b2cc5fa1f538b8cd89ec845ca6a108"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1380282300110303234" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">CA isn't waiting until peak wildfire season to protect our communities.
We proposed more than $1B for wildfire res… https://t.co/OBCLeb4DKN</div> — Office of the Governor of California (@Office of the Governor of California)<a href="https://twitter.com/CAgovernor/statuses/1380282300110303234">1617919919.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The $536 million Wildfire Prevention and Resiliency package earmarks $350 million for forest management, including vegetation thinning, as well as $25 million to help homeowners pay for prevention measures on their properties, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/08/california-wildfire-plan-gavin-newsom" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Guardian reported</a>. Newsom also touted the importance of adapting controlled burning techniques that were practiced for centuries by the state's first inhabitants. These smaller, necessary fires were suppressed by European settlers, contributing to the buildup of dried vegetation that has fueled historic blazes in recent years.<br></p><p>The new measure is an arrangement with California state lawmakers and has been introduced in both the House and Senate, according to The Mercury News. It is expected to pass Monday and be signed by Newsom next Tuesday. It builds on Newsom's pledge last week to hire around 1,400 new firefighters.</p>
<p>"For every dollar we spend on wildfire prevention, our state saves $6 to $7 in damage. But it's not just about saving money – this is about saving Californians' lives, their homes, and their livelihoods," Senate President Pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego) said in a <a href="https://sd39.senate.ca.gov/news/20210408-senate-applauds-agreement-wildfire-prevention-and-resiliency" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">statement</a>. "We've already had a wildfire break out in the San Gabriel mountains this month, and we're heading into a summer of hot, dry weather with another <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought" target="_self">drought</a> upon us."</p>
<div id="bae17" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e114632d229f8fd90ddcdd1aee36aaf4"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1380227283995271173" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The $536M Wildfire Prevention and Resiliency package is an investment that is needed now more than ever.
Every $… https://t.co/Nk6VXAJprC</div> — Senator Toni Atkins (@Senator Toni Atkins)<a href="https://twitter.com/SenToniAtkins/statuses/1380227283995271173">1617906802.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Indeed, San Francisco is in the midst of its second driest two-year stretch in recorded history, according to The Mercury News. The state's rainy season this winter was the third driest on record and the snowpack of the Sierra Nevada mountains was just 59 percent of its historic average as of April 1.</p><p>This leads experts to predict another devastating fire season. California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot warned reporters thursday that summer of 2021 promised "more of the same," as <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-pour-536-million-fire-prevention-amid-drought-concerns-n1263536" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NBC News reported</a>.</p><p>"The science is clear: Warming winter temperatures and warming summer temperatures are creating more dangerous and challenging wildfire conditions," he said. "Clearly much more needs to be done on a proactive, upfront basis to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire."</p>
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Pump jacks draw crude oil from the Inglewood Oil Field near Los Angeles, California, on March 9, 2020. DAVID MCNEW / AFP via Getty Images
More than 1,600 gallons of oil have spilled in the Inglewood Oil Field — the largest urban oil field in the country, where more than a million people live within five miles of its boundaries, the Sierra Club wrote in a statement on Wednesday.
<p>The spill was caused by a human error when a valve was left open, the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-04-07/inglewood-oil-field-spill" target="_blank">Los Angeles Times reported</a>. It was also not the field's first spill. Past spills at the Inglewood Oil Field, located in Culver City and Los Angeles County, have occurred in 2019, 2018, 2010, 2006 and 2005, exposing residents in the area to toxins and carcinogens, the Sierra Club added.</p><p>After a history of community organizing, Tuesday's spill arms activists with further momentum to fight against this major public health and environmental crisis in California's largest county.</p>
<p>"Yesterday's oil spill is a deadly reminder that the environmental racism that's shaped and harmed Black, Indigenous, and people of color continues to put our health at risk," Martha Dina Argüello, of the STAND-LA Coalition, an environmental justice coalition, and Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, said in a Sierra Club <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2021/04/oil-spill-inglewood-oil-field-sends-over-1600-gallons-flowing-near#:~:text=Oil%20Spill%20at%20Inglewood%20Oil%20Field%20Sends%20Over%201%2C600%20Gallons%20Flowing%20Near%20Communities,-Yesterday's%20spill%20is&text=In%202018%2C%20a%20containment%20tank,the%20oil%20field%20fence%20line." target="_blank">statement</a>.</p><p>Of the people living in the area, 52 percent are Black, which is a much higher percentage than the countywide eight percent, the Sierra Club reported. The oil field is also located alongside homes and schools, putting families at risk for health outcomes from <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution">air pollution</a> like lung disease, leukemia, lymphoma, lung cancer and asthma. In Baldwin Hills, asthma related ER visits are <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/13QB6uYXKKyeZccdU8jB9WUGI_SdL-Z2R/view" target="_blank">4.4 times higher</a> than the Los Angeles County average.</p>
<p>"A pattern of oil spills and the daily and 'authorized' toxic emissions both demonstrate that oil extraction is [an] inherently dangerous practice that has no place in our region. We look forward to working with Los Angeles County to take immediate steps to phase out oil and gas production," Argüello added, according to the Sierra Club.</p><p>Last fall, Culver City approved a resolution to take initial steps to phase out oil in the area, the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/media/2020/200814" target="_blank">NRDC wrote in a statement</a>. Similar actions are also occurring citywide in Los Angeles.</p><p>In December, the Los Angeles City Council's Energy, Climate Change, and Environmental Justice Committee voted unanimously to pass a motion to begin a citywide phase-out of oil drilling, the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/damon-nagami/angeles-edges-closer-phasing-out-urban-oil-drilling" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NRDC wrote in a statement</a>. "We're not over the finish line, but we're closer than ever," Argüello added, according to the <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/los-angeles-moves-closer-to-forcing-oil-gas-drillers-out-of-city/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Courthouse News Service</a>.</p>
<p>Currently, there are 1,071 active oil wells in the city — 759 of which are located less than 1,500 feet from homes, schools, churches and hospitals, STAND-LA, which has been leading the fight against oil in the city of Los Angeles, <a href="https://www.stand.la/drill-sites-in-la.html" target="_blank">wrote</a>.</p><p>Although no injuries were reported at the Inglewood oil spill on Tuesday, environmental groups have expressed concerns about toxins released in the air from the spill that could harm nearby communities, the Los Angeles Times reported, adding to the often unknown and unreported health impacts of oil spills.</p><p>"What's terrifying about health dangers like this is that the average person living nearby rarely has any way of knowing it even happened," Ethan Senser, Southern California Organizer with Food & Water Watch told the Sierra Club. "This is an ongoing crisis we can't keep sweeping under the rug - it's time that the County commits to partnering with frontline communities and supporting the real solutions they are putting forward." </p>
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An elephant in Zimbabwe. Letizia Barbi / CC BY-SA 2.0
By Charan Saunders
Last year the world reacted in shock when Namibia announced plans to auction off 170 live elephants to the highest bidder.
<p>Despite criticism, the plans have continued to move forward — and that may just be the start. Tucked away in a Feb. 1 <a href="https://www.met.gov.na/files/files/Elephant%20Auction%20Ministerial%20Response.pdf" target="_blank">press release</a> justifying the auction was a rehash of the country's oft-repeated desire to also sell ivory. The Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism's stated:</p><p>"<em>Namibia has major stockpiles of valuable wildlife products including ivory which it can produce sustainably and regulate properly, and which if traded internationally could support our elephant conservation and management for decades to come."</em></p><p>Namibia is not alone in this desire to capitalize on its wildlife. In Zimbabwe's national assembly last year, the minister of environment valued the country's stockpile of 130 metric tonnes (143 tons) of ivory and 5 tonnes (5.5 tons) of rhino horn at <a href="https://www.parlzim.gov.zw/national-assembly-hansard/national-assembly-hansard-18-june-2020-vol-46-no-47" target="_blank">$600 million</a> in U.S. dollars. This figure, which would value ivory at more than $4,200 per kilogram, has since been seized upon by commentators seeking to justify the reintroduction of the ivory trade.</p>
<p>I'm an environmental accountant dedicated to ethical conservation, so I wanted to understand these numbers and how they motivate countries. In truth, I found not even full black-market value comes close to arriving at this figure.</p><p>Black-market values are, of course, often invisible to the general public, but the most recent data from criminal justice experts finds that unworked (or raw) elephant ivory sells for about <a href="https://wildlifejustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/WildlifeJusticeCommission_Rapid-Assessment-Of-The-Illegal-Ivory-Trade-in-2020_August2020_Spreads.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$92/kg</a> on the black market in Africa, while rhino horn is currently selling for <a href="https://wildlifejustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/FINAL-raw-rhino-horn-digital-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$8,683/kg</a>.</p><p>Therefore, a more realistic valuation of Zimbabwe's ivory stockpiles, using an optimistic wholesale price of $150/kg, would give a potential income of only $19.5 million in U.S. dollars.</p><p>This is a 30th of Zimbabwe's estimate.</p><p>And even then, those numbers fail to account for the disaster that would happen if ivory sales return — as we saw in the all-too-recent past.</p>
<h3>The One-Off Sales</h3><p>International trade in ivory has been banned since 1989, following a 10-year period in which African elephant numbers declined by 50%, from 1.3 million to 600,000. However, in 1999 and 2008 <a href="https://cites.org/eng" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CITES</a> allowed "one-off sales" of stockpiled ivory, to disastrous effect. The selling prices achieved then were only <a href="https://cites.org/eng/news/pr/2008/081107_ivory.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$100/kg</a> and <a href="https://cites.org/eng/news/pr/2008/081107_ivory.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$157/kg</a>, in U.S. dollars respectively, due to collusion by official Chinese and Japanese buyers.</p>
<img
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data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNjAzNTM1My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3NTQzMjgwM30.Go5CVqcIJHxKgg7CMT7eWIuvAMo1MxAPeZ9tnUOjBf0/img.jpg?width=980"
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Illegal ivory. Gavin Shire / USFWS
<p>The intention of CITES in approving the <a href="https://cites.org/eng/news/pr/2008/080716_ivory.shtml" target="_blank">one-off ivory sales</a> was to introduce a controlled and steady supply of stockpiled ivory into the market. The legal supply, coupled with effective systems of control, aimed to satisfy demand and reduce prices. This in turn should have reduced the profitability of (and the demand for) illegal ivory. Poaching should have followed suit and decreased.</p><p>Instead, the sales led to an increase in <a href="https://conservationaction.co.za/recent-news/ivory-sales-zimbabwe-namibia-create-demand-spike/" target="_blank">demand</a> and, consequently, an increase in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/13/legal-ivory-sale-drove-dramatic-increase-in-elephant-poaching-study-shows" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">elephant poaching</a>. The 2008 ivory sale was accompanied by a <a href="https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research/working-paper-series/does-legalization-reduce-black-market-activity-evidence-from-a-global-ivory-experiment-and-elephant-5ed6996401fa99.02945078" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">66% increase in illegally traded ivory and a 71% increase in ivory smuggling</a>. An <a href="https://eia-international.org/report/blood-ivory-exposing-the-myth-of-a-regulated-market/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">investigation</a> in 2010 by the Environmental Investigation Agency documented that 90% of the ivory being sold in China came from illegal sources.</p><p>The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) comparison of elephant poaching figures for the five years preceding and five years following the sale showed an "abrupt, significant, permanent, robust and geographically widespread increase" in poaching.</p><p>The problem has not faded away. Most recently the two African elephant species (savanna and forest) were declared endangered and critically endangered due to their continued poaching threat.</p>
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data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNjAzNTM1OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1OTEyMDg5OH0.PBTFFs40KA5vIc4mLw-1ppg0sKE8CeiGs7qdQdOLpe0/img.jpg?width=980"
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Regina Hart / CC BY 2.0
<p>Still, some African nations look fondly at the 2008 sale and have long hoped to repeat it. The Zimbabwe Ministry's 2020 statement follows yet another <a href="https://cites.org/eng/cop/18/prop/index.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">proposal</a> to the 18th CITES Conference of the Parties (COP18) by Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana to trade in live elephants and their body parts, including ivory. The proposal was not accepted by the parties.</p>
<h3>Why Didn't Ivory Sales Work?</h3><p>The one-off sales of ivory removed the stigma associated with its purchase, stimulated the market demand, and increased prices.</p><p>The ivory that China purchased in 2008 for $157/kg was drip-fed by the authorities to traders at prices ranging between $800 and <a href="https://conservationaction.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/EIA-Blood-Ivory.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$1,500 per kilogram</a>. This meant that the bulk of the profits went to filling Chinese government coffers — not to African nations — and in doing so, created a large illegal market which drove prices even higher.</p><p>Raw ivory prices in China increased from <a href="https://conservationaction.co.za/recent-news/price-of-ivory-in-china-triples-in-four-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$750/kg</a> in 2010 to <a href="https://conservationaction.co.za/recent-news/price-of-ivory-in-china-triples-in-four-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$2,100/kg</a> in 2014. The market had been stimulated, prices increased and the volume of legal ivory available was insufficient to meet demand as the Chinese government gradually fed its stockpile into the market.</p><p>Japan, the other participant in the one-off sales, has systematically failed to comply with CITES regulations, meaning that there were (and still are) <a href="https://content.eia-global.org/assets/2016/09/dirty_secrets_of_japans_illegal_ivory_trade/Japans_Dirty_Secret_English.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">no controls over ivory</a> being sold, allowing the illegal markets to function in parallel to the legal one.</p><p>In a very short space of time, criminals ramped up poaching and elephant numbers plummeted.</p>
<h3>What Has Happened to the Price of Ivory Since Then?</h3><p>With no recent legal international sales, combined with the significant U.S., Chinese and United Kingdom domestic ivory sales bans, the price for raw ivory paid by craftsmen in China fell from <a href="https://conservationaction.co.za/recent-news/price-of-ivory-in-china-triples-in-four-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$2,100/kg</a> in 2014 to <a href="https://www.savetheelephants.org/about-ste-2/press-media/?detail=dramatic-changes-in-china-s-ivory-trade" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$730/kg</a> in 2017. That's when <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/two-years-after-china-bans-elephant-ivory-trade-demand-for-elephant-ivory-is-down" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">China</a> closed all of its official ivory carving outlets and theoretically stopped all official ivory trade.</p><p>The price currently paid for raw ivory in Asia, according to an <a href="https://wildlifejustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/WildlifeJusticeCommission_Rapid-Assessment-Of-The-Illegal-Ivory-Trade-in-2020_August2020_Spreads.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">investigation</a> by the Wildlife Justice Commission, is currently between $597/kg and $689/kg, in U.S. dollars. Ivory sourced in Africa and sold in Asia has additional costs such as transportation, taxes and broker commissions. The prices paid for raw ivory in Africa have decreased correspondingly from $208/kg to $92/kg in 2020.</p><p>Those numbers pale in comparison to a living elephant. A 2014 study found that live elephants are each worth an estimated <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/elephants-are-worth-76-times-more-alive-than-dead-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$1.6 million in ecotourism opportunities</a>.</p>
<h3>Funding Conservation</h3><p>One half-truth is that the money earned from the legal sale will be used to effectively fund conservation.</p><p>One of the CITES conditions of the 2008 sale was that funds were to go to the conservation of elephants. South Africa placed a substantial portion of the income from its share of the pie in the Mpumalanga <a href="https://conservationaction.co.za/recent-news/misappropriation-ivory-funds-threatens-rhino-horn-sale/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Problem Animal Fund</a> — which, it turns out, was well-named. An internal investigation found the fund had "no proper controls" and that "tens of millions" of rand (the official currency of South Africa) had bypassed the normal procurement processes.</p><p>Ironically, proceeds were also partly used for the refurbishment of the Skukuza abattoir, where most of the 14,629 elephant carcasses from culling operations between 1967 and 1997 were processed.</p><p>All the while, Africa's elephant populations continued to decline.</p>
<h3>How to Stop Poaching</h3><p>In light of these deficiencies — and in light of elephants' recently declared endangered status — the very reverse of actual conservation can be expected if any nation is again allowed to sell its ivory stockpiles. The cost of increased anti-poaching efforts required from the consequent increase in poaching will outweigh the benefit of any income from the sale of ivory stockpiles.</p><p>To stop poaching, all international and local trade must be stopped.</p>
<img
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data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNjAzNTM3NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNzI5NjgwN30.eGqyP2TcqWpotkgzA9wM8zpnoOtZCWZh9nwUcWlfmT8/img.jpg?width=980"
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John Culley / CC BY 2.0
<p>Repeating this failed experiment will send a message that it is acceptable to trade in ivory. Ivory carving outlets in China will re-open and demand for ivory will be stimulated. The demand for ivory in an increasingly wealthy and better-connected Asia will quickly <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(16)31005-3.pdf" target="_blank">outstrip legal supply</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589346.2016.1201378?journalCode=cpsa20" target="_blank">poaching will increase</a>.</p><p>Meanwhile, the <a href="https://www.google.co.za/search?dcr=0&sxsrf=ALeKk01cp-pJf_a-_SklCaLkrbzNNvgh6w%3A1613620282794&source=hp&ei=OuQtYPefLuKdjLsPlsOSqAo&iflsig=AINFCbYAAAAAYC3ySkhIMQq_p5FfrBs_4FPVcInojlhF&q=legal+ivory+trade+in+a+corrupt+world+and+its+impact+on+african+elephant+populations&oq=legal+ivory+trade+in+a+corrupt+world&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAEYADICCAA6BAgjECc6BQgAEJECOggIABCxAxCDAToICC4QsQMQgwE6BAguEEM6BAgAEEM6CwguELEDEMcBEKMCOgsILhDHARCvARCRAjoKCAAQsQMQgwEQQzoHCAAQsQMQQzoOCC4QsQMQgwEQxwEQrwE6BQguELEDOgsIABCxAxCDARCRAjoLCAAQsQMQgwEQyQM6BQgAEJIDOggILhDHARCvAToECAAQCjoFCAAQyQM6BggAEBYQHjoFCAAQhgM6CQgAEMkDEBYQHjoHCCEQChCgAVDTBFiDO2DCTmgBcAB4AIABmAOIAf5RkgEIMi0yNy45LjGYAQCgAQGqAQdnd3Mtd2l6&sclient=gws-wiz" target="_blank">management of a legal ivory trade</a> requires strong systems of control at every point in the commodity chain to ensure that illegal ivory is not laundered into the legal market. With recalcitrant Japan continuing to ignore CITES, "untransparent" Namibia "<a href="https://www.met.gov.na/files/files/Elephant%20Auction%20Ministerial%20Response.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">losing tolerance</a>" with CITES, and <a href="https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2020/index/zwe" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Zimbabwe ranking 157</a> out of 179 on the corruption perceptions index, not even the basics for controlled trade are in place.</p><p>Therefore, aside from the strong theoretical economic arguments against renewed one-off sales, the practical arguments are perhaps even stronger: If international ivory and rhino horn sales ever again become legal, the cost to protect elephants will skyrocket and these culturally valuable animals will plunge into decline — and possibly extinction.</p>
<p><em>Charan Saunders grew up in Cape Town and studied genetics and microbiology and then went on to qualify as a chartered accountant. She has worked in London in the forensic science field and was the chief financial officer of a major vaccine manufacturer for six years. She now serves as a financial director in the field of conservation.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/southern-africas-ivory-delusion" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A Honduran couple are forced to leave their flooded home near San Pedro Sula in Honduras on November 20, 2020 in the aftermath of Hurricane Iota. Orlando Sierra / AFP / Getty Images
Climate change, the coronavirus pandemic, and growing inequality will exacerbate global volatility over the coming decades, a report by top U.S. intelligence officials released Thursday warns.
<p>The <a href="https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/e2t/tc/VWTsjT87qd5dW7wXCHj828sH-W3hB9jJ4q9zk2N7KkK2k3p_9LV1-WJV7CgYK0W87Nzcs6XC2VfW5FVYNG6PfWM5W6cKjSQ2WJ95HW7G--P08TSx52W20cH199cL0mpW5ccZvv590XM8W8lJq8v4cz-BCW91b2_04KsKYJW99J4pD7wg4l9W24T3Gl1vMFRQW16Mlq41kCSQ7VbC4Bj7KSr4NV8Rmt83--Ns7W48-qZF1QzhPSV6Rgqw2ZG-9qW7NQNcN8pWZfvW2vmLkL2qsR41W4zlyP81S9p9SW7Sm_hx2tLJHWW6XpLh-4yHKbPW4PR-2X7ClSBNW29FFzr64fftSW4zYCxZ5gmZNtW92fwgL5GsmnqW5MMX0F6qBDpdW3_74GK8GDsgmW3r0H7Y8HdG-1W5cvysl5N0pqq3mwz1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Global Trends</a> report, released every four years by the National Intelligence Council, predicted the impacts of climate change – rising temperatures, intensifying extreme weather and droughts that increase food insecurity, health risks, and conflict – would accelerate the trend of massive migration, and with it, global instability. </p><p>COVID, the report said, exposed the fragility of the world order, worsening "more and cascading global challenges, ranging from disease to climate change to the disruptions from new technologies and financial crises," the authors wrote. </p><p>"The international system – including the organizations, alliances, rules, and norms – is poorly set up to address the compounding global challenges facing populations." </p><p>Under the best-case scenario, democracies would take advantage of the opportunity to use pandemic recovery efforts to reorient national and international priorities toward solutions that would plan and adapt for climate change and other crises. </p><p>Unfortunately, said Maria Langan-Reikhof, the director of the council's strategic futures group, "greater divisions, increasing fracturing… [are] likely to continue and probably worsen."</p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/08/us/politics/intelligence-global-trends-report-pandemic.html?searchResultPosition=4&utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=120475473&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--ivQM431G6PxE1EuXu4GA4X42K0jGzJsFshTZAsj6dgh9J_Suowx26oZD22bRWS--lpJNVNSybHRl7IrLbL_kM2u2IxumE9W4UZHLvDZLqP21qN58&utm_content=120475473&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">New York Times</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/intelligence-globe-future-crises-/2021/04/08/303c350e-97df-11eb-962b-78c1d8228819_story.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=120475473&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_2SOTCTMkwYAOdYe9y4oiViSayTXWMNwh45DkYMJMx6_xV6pzBtU6q1kV1N-OyggxLf1ugSsEa2hSmr91HCqG7CoQ0YBcoQv8T6UzSdUX6psu5r-k&utm_content=120475473&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-fuels-inequality-political-divide-authoritarianism-world-wide-u-s-intelligence-analysts-say-11617890436?mod=searchresults_pos2&page=1&utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=120475473&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_XGtVDsjNIGA_B3P2mfo8PJMOoYtN-IzajTWcTQ_4-oYKcvSsi-4GEKBqM4PZy6-TvnfoMTYBkZPtVKb5GAFqD-NPcX7QIclL8H1xDMYUJXjGIM1o&utm_content=120475473&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Wall Street Journal</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-intelligence-report/climate-change-rich-poor-gap-conflict-likely-to-grow-us-intelligence-report-idUSKBN2BV274?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=120475473&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--IQFyGeNmBrKHQJk50rDBd7TNJIkc8HiR7nHP1xyqlbGtbeGb-2m0ibD0NKjhm4uvrYm87Nv2OeMGBmiDfsh769kcYzxph3L0tHY67shwsac-t4G8&utm_content=120475473&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Reuters</a>, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/547146-intel-community-warns-of-fragile-future-shaped-by-covid-climate?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=120475473&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9p_G4Ob6FKAt0qSoixbTq3Y3wLcgxQVt6r4VmuAzJDjqH8XarcnTmGksMG6YCGOrxRjIJHdN4VW3TfCnLdiFAvfoVu-NmUMRfVK3hKHGje9E39OoM&utm_content=120475473&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The Hill</a><br/></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, sign up for daily </em><a href="https://www.linktrack.live/hot-news-sign-up" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>, and visit their news site, </em><a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Nexus Media News</em></a><em>. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
- Think Today's Refugee Crisis is Bad? Climate Change Will Make it a ... ›
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Water Pumped Into Tampa Bay Could Cause a Massive Algae Bloom, Affecting Manatees and Fish
09 April
Animals
A wild manatee swims through algae floating in the water near Tampa, Florida. milehightraveler / Getty Images
By Larry Brand
Millions of gallons of water laced with fertilizer ingredients are being pumped into Florida's Tampa Bay from a leaking reservoir at an abandoned phosphate plant at Piney Point. As the water spreads into the bay, it carries phosphorus and nitrogen – nutrients that under the right conditions can fuel dangerous algae blooms that can suffocate sea grass beds and kill fish, dolphins and manatees.
<p>It's the kind of risk no one wants to see, but officials believed the other options were worse.</p><p>About 300 homes sit downstream from the 480-million-gallon reservoir, which began leaking in late March 2021. State officials determined that <a href="https://protectingfloridatogether.gov/PineyPointUpdate" target="_blank">pumping out the water</a> was the only way to prevent the reservoir's walls from collapsing. They decided the safest location for all that water would be out <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2021/04/05/piney-point-florida-reservoir-breach-flood-tampa-bay-palmetto-evacuation/7088307002/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">through Port Manatee</a> and into the bay.</p><p>Florida's coast is dotted with <a href="https://www.fws.gov/southeast/gulf-restoration/next-steps/focal-area/tampa-bay/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">fragile marine sanctuaries</a> and <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2019/10/healthy-seagrass-forms-underwater-meadows-that-harbor-diverse-marine-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sea grass beds</a> that help nurture the state's thriving <a href="https://coast.noaa.gov/enowexplorer/#/employment/total/2017/12081" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">marine and tourism economy</a>. Those near Port Manatee now face a risk of algal blooms over the next few weeks. Once algae blooms get started, little can be done to clean them up.</p><p>The phosphate mining industry around Tampa is just one source of nutrients that can fuel dangerous algae blooms, which I study <a href="https://people.miami.edu/profile/[email protected]#panelResearch" target="_blank">as a marine biologist</a>. The sugarcane industry, cattle ranches, dairy farms and citrus groves <a href="https://iwaponline.com/wp/article/20/5/919/41575" target="_blank">all release</a> <a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.hal.2006.08.005" target="_blank">nutrients</a> that often flow into rivers and eventually into bays and the ocean. Sewage is another problem – Miami and Fort Lauderdale, for example, have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/10/florida-sewage-spill-waterways-infrastructure" target="_blank">old sewage treatment systems with frequent pipe breaks</a> that leak sewage into canals and coastal waters.</p><p>All can <a href="https://iwaponline.com/wp/article/20/5/919/41575" target="_blank">fuel harmful algal blooms</a> that harm marine life and people. Overall, blooms are <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24897842" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">getting worse locally</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1648-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">globally</a>.</p>
<img
class="rm-lazyloadable-image rm-shortcode" lazy-loadable="true"
data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNjAzNDc4NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODU4MTIxN30.QHi2EAJydzLt57OtTnZp5GysqDQyHg__qaE90pd_llo/img.jpg?width=980"
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Red tide in recent years has killed large numbers of Florida's manatees, a threatened species. David Hinkel/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
<h2>The Problem With Algae Blooms</h2><p>Just down the coast from Port Manatee, the next three counties to the south have had algae blooms in recent weeks, including red tide, which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hal.2009.08.005" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">produces a neurotoxin</a> that feels like pepper spray if you breathe it in. <em>Karenia brevis</em>, a dinoflagellate, is the organism in red tide and produces the toxin.</p><p>This part of Florida's Gulf Coast is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hal.2006.08.005" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hot spot for red tide</a>, often fueled by agricultural runoff. A persistent red tide in 2017 and 2018 <a href="https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/2020-01-02/2019-was-not-a-good-year-for-manatees-boat-strikes-and-red-tide-took-a-toll" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">killed at least 177 manatees</a> and left a trail of dead fish along the coast and into Tampa Bay. If the coastal currents carry today's red tide father north and into Tampa Bay, the toxic algae could thrive on the nutrients from Piney Point.</p>
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data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNjAzNDc5MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODA5NTY0M30.1yXhfwOQzl3ZUelA6ei-orbmK8Snw-6a3n-IR7vKyrM/img.jpg?width=980"
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A map shows red tide reports just south of Tampa Bay. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
<p>Even blooms that are not toxic are <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/what-is-harmful-algal-bloom" target="_blank">still dangerous to ecosystems</a>. They cloud the water, cutting off light and killing the plants below. A large enough bloom can also reduce oxygen in the water. A lack of oxygen can kill off everything in the water, including the fish.</p><p>This part of Florida has extensive sea grass meadows, <a href="https://floridadep.gov/rcp/seagrass" target="_blank">about 2.2 million acres (8.9 billion square meters) in all</a>, which are important habitat for lots of species and serve as nurseries for shrimp, crabs and fish. Scientists have argued that sea grass is also a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1477" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">major carbon sink</a> – the grass sucks up carbon and pumps it down into the sediments.</p><p>Once the nutrients are in a large body of water, there isn't much that can be done to stop algae growth. Killing the algae would only release the nutrients again, putting the bay back where it started. Algae blooms can remain a problem for years, finally declining when a predator population develops to eats them, a viral disease spreads through the bloom or strong currents and mixing disperse the bloom.</p><h2>Agriculture Runoff Poses Risks to Marine Life</h2><p>The phosphate mining industry around Tampa is a large source of nutrient-rich waste. On average, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/radiation/tenorm-fertilizer-and-fertilizer-production-wastes#fertilizer" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more than 5 tons</a> of phosphogypsum waste are produced for every ton of phosphoric acid created for fertilizer. In Florida, that adds up to <a href="https://fipr.floridapoly.edu/about-us/phosphate-primer/phosphogypsum-stacks.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">over 1 billion tons</a> of radioactive waste material that can't be used, so it's stacked up and turned into reservoirs like the one now leaking at Piney Point.</p><p>The reservoirs are obvious in satellite photos of the region, and they can be highly acidic. To get the phosphate out of the minerals, the industry uses sulfuric acid, and it leaves behind a highly acid wastewater. There have been at least <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/17/florida-sinkhole-wastewater-leak-drinking-water" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">two cases where it ate through the limestone below a reservoir</a>, creating huge sinkholes hundreds of feet deep and draining wastewater into the aquifer.</p><p>Since <a href="https://protectingfloridatogether.gov/PineyPointUpdate" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">saltwater had previously been pumped into</a> the Piney Point reservoir, acidity is less of an issue. That's because the seawater would buffer the pH. There is some radioactivity, but <a href="https://protectingfloridatogether.gov/PineyPointUpdate" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">only slightly above regulatory standards</a>, according to state Department of Environmental Protection, and probably not much of a health hazard.</p><p>But the nutrients are a risk. In 2004, water releases from the Piney Point reservoir <a href="https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/piney-point-dumping-causes-algae-bloom-in-bishop-harbor/67-396514258" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">contributed to an algae bloom</a> in Bishop Harbor, just south of the current release site. In 2011, it released over <a href="https://thebradentontimes.com/piney-point-a-retrospective-p6328-158.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">170 million gallons</a> into Bishop Harbor again after a liner broke.</p>
Piney Point: Florida's Leaking Reservoir
<img class="rm-lazyloadable-image rm-shortcode" lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNjAzNDc5NS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNjM5MDc3MH0._qtv67bay76oqnix5O-YCLQX1m7fvx1-F51gL5V3IPU/img.png?width=980" id="0bc20" width="1200" height="900" data-rm-shortcode-id="358712a8098e782e6225230ab2566bdc" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Map: The Conversation/CC-BY-ND
<p>Another significant source of algae-feeding nutrients is agriculture, particularly cattle ranching and the sugarcane industry. Nutrient runoff from cattle ranches and dairy farms north of Lake Okeechobee end up in the lake. South of the lake, much of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.4000/miranda.2881" target="_blank">northern third of the Everglades</a> was converted to sugarcane farms, and those fields back-pumped runoff into the lake for decades until the state started cracking down in the 1980s. Their legacy nutrients are still in the lake.</p><p>The nutrient-rich water in the lake then pours down the Caloosahatchee River and into the Gulf of Mexico near Fort Myers, south of Tampa. That's likely feeding the current red tide off the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River.</p><p>When water from the Everglades region's agriculture is pumped south instead, huge blooms tend to appear in Florida Bay at the southern tip of the state. Some scientists believe it <a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-019-3538-9" target="_blank">may be damaging coral reefs</a> there, though there's debate about it. During times that flow of water from the farms increased, reefs throughout the Florida Keys have been harmed. Those reefs have become overgrown with algae.</p><p>With the current red tide, the coastal currents have carried it north as far as Sarasota already. If they carry it farther north, it will run into the Piney Point area.</p>
<p>
<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/larry-brand-1223487" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Larry Brand</a> is a </em><em>Professor of Marine Biology and Ecology, University of Miami.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Disclosure statement: </em><em><em>Larry Brand has received funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, National Park Service, Department of Energy, Office of Naval Research, Army Corps of Engineers, Florida Department of Health, Dade County Department of Environmental Resources Management, Cove Point Foundation, and Hoover Foundation.</em></em>
</p><p>
<em><em></em>R</em><em>eposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/water-being-pumped-into-tampa-bay-could-cause-a-massive-algae-bloom-putting-fragile-manatee-and-fish-habitats-at-risk-158568" target="_blank">The Conversation.</a></em>
</p><iframe height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158568/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1"></iframe>From Your Site Articles
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2.3 Million Americans Exposed to High Levels of Strontium in Drinking Water
09 April
Health + Wellness
By Quinn McVeigh
About 2.3 million Americans are exposed to high natural strontium levels in their drinking water, a metal that can harm bone health in children, according to a United States Geological Survey study.
<p>The study, published in <em>Applied Geochemistry,</em> found that almost every groundwater sample across 32 U.S. aquifers had detectable strontium levels, while 2.3 percent exceeded 4 milligrams per liter (mg/L), the maximum amount that people should consume routinely, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa">EPA</a>). The public and private wells extending from these aquifers provide drinking water for 2.3 million people.</p><p>While low amounts of natural strontium are safe and even beneficial for the human body, these high concentrations can stunt bone growth in children who lack adequate calcium intake. Strontium can replace calcium in bones, weakening them and limiting development, according to Sarah Yang, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services' groundwater toxicologist.</p>
<p>"We're more worried about infants and children because their bones are actively growing," Yang told EHN. "Generally infants and children can absorb more strontium in their intestines, and adults can't."</p><p>High strontium in drinking water is <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11356-021-12378-y" target="_blank">linked</a> to rickets in children, an extremely rare skeletal condition causing soft, sometimes deformed, bones.</p><p>Strontium, a soft metal that originates from minerals like celestine, makes its way into drinking water naturally. Aquifers with high strontium concentrations are often surrounded by carbonate rock containing limestone and dolomite.</p>
<p>In the USGS study, author MaryLynn Musgrove, a research physical scientist, found that 86 percent of people exposed to high strontium levels drink water supplied by carbonate rock aquifers. More than half of them are using Florida's underground reservoirs, where some freshwater has been blending with limestone and dolomite for 26,000 years.</p><p>Texas' carbonate aquifers also stood out.The Edwards-Trinity aquifer system, a sandstone and carbonate formation spanning from Oklahoma to western Texas, had the most frequent occurrence of high strontium concentrations in its corresponding wells.</p><p>Dolomite is abundant in the bedrock of eastern Wisconsin, where strontium levels are among the <a href="https://wisconsinwatch.org/2016/03/wisconsin-strontium-levels-among-highest-in-u-s-drinking-water-supplies/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">highest</a> of U.S. drinking water supplies.</p><p>While the USGS study mainly looked at areas exceeding 4 mg/L of strontium in samples, some communities living atop these dolomite layers drink water with more than 25 mg/L, the one-day health advisory limit for children.</p><p>"We have a lot of communities that have values above 20, 30, 50 mg/L," John Luczaj, a professor of geosciences at University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, told EHN.</p>
<h3>Removal of Strontium From Drinking Water</h3><p>While its radioactive sibling, strontium-90, is regulated, natural strontium contamination is unregulated by the EPA.<br></p><p>The major dilemma, according to Victor Rivera-Diaz, a writer and researcher for Save the Water, is that it is still a "public health mystery." While some research has conclusively linked strontium to bone degradation, a lack of data has kept the EPA from regulating it under the Safe Drinking Water Act.</p><p>"It is a problem," Rivera-Diaz told EHN. "It definitely requires more attention, even more so in the areas that are prone to high contamination."</p><p>But this is easier said than done, Rivera-Diaz explained.</p><p>Strontium cannot be removed with conventional water treatment technology. Thus, communities would have to look to other systems, such as point-of-entry reverse osmosis.</p><p>"Some of these technologies can be quite costly, so that might be a barrier for lower-income communities," Rivera-Diaz said.</p><p>Reverse osmosis systems and water softeners are incredibly effective in removing strontium concentrations.</p><p>"If it was up to me, I would, in the short term, figure out a way to subsidize technologies that are proven to filter out strontium, especially in those communities where those levels are well above 4 mg/L," Rivera-Diaz said.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.ehn.org/strontium-in-drinking-water-2651752809/banner-photo" target="_blank">Environmental Health News</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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An algal bloom on a pond in Heather Farm Park, Walnut Creek, California on Oct. 8, 2016. Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images
Harmful algal blooms may be even more harmful than we thought.
<p>They have already been shown to kill the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/toxic-algae-blooms-florida-1915716568.html" target="_self">fish that swim</a> in the water they infest or the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/toxic-algae-dogs-nyc-2640040842.html" target="_self">animals that drink</a> from it. Now, new research indicates they could even poison the air. In a<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10402381.2021.1881191" target="_blank"> study published in Lake and Reservoir Management this month</a>, scientists for the first time detected an airborne instance of the algal toxin anatoxin-a (ATX), also known as "very fast death factor."</p><p>"ATX is one of the more dangerous cyanotoxins produced by harmful algal blooms, which are becoming more predominant in lakes and ponds worldwide due to global warming and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate change</a>," study lead author Dr. James Sutherland of the Nantucket Land Council said in a <a href="https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/algal-blooms-can-release-very-fast-death-factor-toxin-into-the-air" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p>
<p>ATX is a toxin made by cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. Despite their name, these single-celled organisms are not plants but rather bacteria that can photosynthesize. The toxin can cause loss of coordination, muscular twitching and respiratory paralysis. It has been known to kill livestock, pets and other animals that drink contaminated water.</p><p>"Although no previous studies have documented the capture of airborne ATX molecules or cyanobacteria cells containing ATX, we hypothesized that ATX could become airborne under certain environmental conditions," the study authors wrote.</p><p>To test this idea, the scientists devised a way to sample the air above a pond in Nantucket, Massachusetts dealing with a harmful algal bloom (HAB). They brought an air sampling device to the shore on windy days and collected airborne particles on filters. They also tested the water for the presence of the toxin.</p>
<p>The scientists collected their samples between July and October of 2019. They detected ATX in the water at concentrations as high as 21 nanograms per milliliter, <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-found-that-a-dangerous-algal-bloom-toxin-can-be-found-in-the-air" target="_blank">Science Alert reported</a>. And, on one foggy and windy day in September, they detected it in the air also. They recorded an average of 0.87 nanograms per filter on their air sampling device, which would equal an airborne exposure of 0.16 nanograms per meter squared.</p><p>The researchers are not sure how the toxin ended up in the air, but think the wind might have blown it in small droplets from the pond, and then the fog allowed it to persist for longer than usual. In any case, it is a problem worth investigating further.</p><p>"These findings indicate that emission of ATX molecules, or cyanobacteria containing ATX, during HABs presents a potential human health exposure not previously examined," the researchers wrote.</p>
<p>Harmful algal blooms are a problem for many other reasons, of course. They can deprive water of oxygen as they decompose, killing fish and degrading water quality, the press release explained. They are also made worse by human activity, according to Science Alert. They are fed partly by excess nutrient pollution from agricultural runoff. As Sutherland noted, they are also <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/harmful-algal-blooms-2646107064.html" target="_self">exacerbated</a> by the climate crisis. The cyanobacteria prefer warmer water temperatures, and heavy rain from extreme weather events can wash more fertilizer and other nutrients into bodies of water.</p><p>The research just signals another reason to be wary of pond scum.</p><p>"People often recreate around these lakes and ponds with algal blooms without any awareness of the potential problems," Sutherland said in the press release. "Direct contact or inhalation of these cyanotoxins can present health risks for individuals, and we have reported a potential human health exposure not previously examined."</p>
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