Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
The wildfires that roared through Eastern Washington in September had a devastating impact on an extremely endangered species of rabbit.
<p>The fast-moving Pearl Hill and Cold Springs fires scorched a habitat for Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits on Sept. 7, wiping out around half of the species' recovering population, <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/latest-endangered-pygmy-rabbit-population-halved-by-fast-moving-fire?fbclid=IwAR2pzH5M9FLQkGBEVPriSAyklH8Tej1B66EhCfPKYQbnAkSD9j3kEJT8chA" target="_blank">High Country News reported Monday</a>.</p><p>"The sun was blotted out, it was just red from the fire glare and the smoke and all you saw was rocks and sand and dust, there was just nothing," Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Biologist Jon Gallie told <a href="https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/paywalloff/fire-wipes-out-half-of-columbia-basin-pygmy-rabbit-population/article_8c20b63c-f475-11ea-b668-83235dc86d8a.html" target="_blank">The Wenatchee World</a> after the fire. "I have not seen a sagebrush fire that hot in my 13 years out here."</p>
<p>Gallie leads a recovery program for North America's smallest rabbits, which are about the size of a grapefruit, according to High Country News. Their population was devastated during the 20th century by development, agriculture and wildfires and, in 2001, the last 16 were gathered from the wild for a captive breeding program. Scientists bred the Washington rabbits with pygmy rabbits from the Great Basin of the intermountain West and began to reintroduce them to the wild in 2011, according to The Wenatchee World.</p><p>To defend against wildfires, the rabbits were released in three different locations: Jameson Lake, Beezley Hills and Sagebrush Flats. It was the Jameson Lake population that was lost to September's flames.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ0Nzg4NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMjQ5MjQ3Mn0.D6_1M4ciX784XMASOHmBKtmQxkxB7aE4WDkiR6Z2MvI/img.jpg?width=980" id="edb37" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1d81accb8933f5bf30a885568b7bcc2c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A pygmy rabbit rescued from a breeding site in Beezley Hills, Washington, eats owl clover in its new enclosure. Kourtney Stonehouse, WDFW
<p>"We have pygmy rabbits well distributed on the landscape in two other areas, so not all is lost," Gallie told High Country News. "We will just have to chart a now more challenging path to recovery."</p><p>However, WDFW manager of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> diversity Hannah Anderson told <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/endangered-wildlife-habitat-burned-in-wildfires/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Seattle Times</a> that the department had been focusing on the Jameson Lake population and had expected it to increase.</p><p>"It's devastating," Anderson said. "A catastrophic loss and a significant loss in recovery."</p>
<p>The rabbits aren't the only endangered species that were harmed by the fires. The Pearl Fire may also have reduced the state's sage grouse population by 30 to 70 percent, according to The Seattle Times.</p><p>The fires also damaged the sagebrush ecosystem these and other species depend upon. This unique, biodiverse shrub-steppe environment once covered 10.4 million acres of Washington state, but has declined by 80 percent since the mid-19th century. The fires wiped out thousands more acres within days.</p><p>While sagebrush ecosystems are used to fires, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/invasive-species" target="_self">invasive species</a> of weeds have taken root that dry out early and encourage hotter, larger fires. It takes sagebrush steppe 10 to 20 years to recover from such blazes.</p><p>"Truly, now preserving what we have left is going to be the challenge," WDFW habitat program director Margen Carlson told The Seattle Times.</p>The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> is also <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/wildfires-climate-fires-2647729127.html" target="_self">fueling</a> larger, more extreme fires in Washington and around the world.
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A protestor in NYC holds up a sign that reads, "November Is Coming" on June 14, 2020 in reference to voting in the 2020 presidential election. Ira L. Black / Corbis / Getty Images
By Mark Hertsgaard
What follows are not candidate endorsements. Rather, this nonpartisan guide aims to inform voters' choices, help journalists decide what races to follow, and explore what the 2020 elections could portend for climate action in the United States in 2021 and beyond.
Will the White House Turn Green?
<p>Whether the White House changes hands is the most important climate question of the 2020 elections. President Donald Trump rejects climate science, is withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement, and has accelerated fossil fuel development. His climate policy seems to be, as he tweeted in January when rejecting a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposal to protect New York City from storm surges, "Get your mops and buckets ready."</p><p>Joe Biden, who started the 2020 campaign with a climate position so weak that activists gave it an "F," called Trump a "climate arsonist" during California's recent wildfires. Biden backs a $2 trillion plan to create millions of jobs while slashing emissions—a Green New Deal in all but name. Equally striking, his running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris, has endorsed phasing out fossil fuel production—a politically explosive scientific imperative.</p><p>The race will be decided in a handful of battleground states, five of which already face grave climate dangers: Florida (hurricanes and sea-level rise), North Carolina (ditto), Texas (storms and drought), Michigan (floods), and Arizona (heat waves and drought). <a href="https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/" target="_blank">Public concern is rising</a> in these states, but will that concern translate into votes?</p>Will Democrats Flip the Senate, and by Enough to Pass a Green New Deal?
<p>With Democrats all but certain to maintain their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate will determine whether a potential Biden administration can actually deliver climate progress. Democrats need to pick up three seats to flip the Senate if Biden wins, four if he doesn't. But since aggressive climate policy is shunned by some Democrats, notably Joe Manchin of coal-dependent West Virginia, Democrats probably need to gain five or six Senate seats to pass a Green New Deal.</p><p>Environmentalists, including the League of Conservation Voters, are targeting six Republicans who polls suggest are vulnerable.</p><ul><li>Steve Daines of Montana, who denies climate science</li><li>Martha McSally of Arizona</li><li>Thom Tillis of North Carolina</li><li>Susan Collins of Maine</li><li>Joni Ernst of Iowa (bankrolled by Charles Koch)</li><li>John James of Michigan (also a Koch beneficiary)</li></ul><p>Republican Senators are even at risk in conservative Kansas and Alaska. In both states, the Democratic candidates are physicians—not a bad credential amid a pandemic—who support climate action. In Kansas, Barbara Bollier faces an incumbent funded by Charles Koch. In Alaska, Al Gross urges a transition away from oil, though his openness to limited drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve dims his appeal to green groups. He faces incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan, who receives an 8 percent lifetime voting record from the League of Conservation Voters.</p><p>In the House, environmentalists are working to elect these candidates, in one case over an establishment Democrat:</p><ul><li>Beth Doglio of Washington state</li><li>Georgette Gómez of California</li><li>Marie Newman of Illinois</li><li>Cameron Webb of Virginia</li><li>Mike Siegel and Wendy Davis of Texas</li></ul><p>We rightfully focus on federal climate policy, but climate action must also be made at the state and local level—and there are plenty of races and initiatives to pay attention to.</p>
Will Local and State Races Advance Climate Progress?
<h4>THE CLIMATE HAWKS</h4><p>Under Democratic and Republican leadership alike, Washington has long been a graveyard for strong climate action. But governors can boost or block renewable energy; the Vermont and New Hampshire races are worth watching. Attorneys general can sue fossil fuel companies for lying about climate change; climate hawks are running for the top law enforcement seats in Montana and North Carolina. State legislatures can accelerate or delay climate progress, as the new Democratic majorities in Virginia have shown. Here, races to watch include Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Colorado.</p><h4>THE CLIMATE POLICY MAKERS</h4><p>Perhaps the most powerful, and most overlooked, climate policy makers are public utility commissions. They control whether pipelines and other energy infrastructure gets built; they regulate whether electric utilities expand solar and energy efficiency or stick with the carbon-heavy status quo. Regulatory capture and outright corruption are not uncommon.</p><p>A prime example is Arizona, where a former two-term commissioner known as the godfather of solar in the state is seeking a comeback. Bill Mundell argues that since Arizona law permits utilities to contribute to commissioners' electoral campaigns, the companies can buy their own regulators. Which may explain why super-sunny Arizona has so little installed solar capacity.</p><p>In South Dakota, Remi Bald Eagle, a Native American U.S. Army veteran, seeks a seat on the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, which rules on the Standing Rock oil pipeline. And in what <em>HuffPost</em> called "the most important environmental race in the country," Democrat Chrysta Castaneda, who favors phasing out oil production, is running for the Texas Railroad Commission, which despite its name decides what oil, gas, and electric companies in America's leading petro-state can build.</p>Will the Influencers Usher in a Green New Era?
<h4>THE UNCOUNTED</h4><p>The story that goes largely under-reported in every U.S. election is how few Americans vote. In 2016, some 90 million, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/08/09/an-examination-of-the-2016-electorate-based-on-validated-voters/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">roughly four out of every 10 eligible voters</a>, did not cast a ballot. Attorney Nathaniel Stinnett claims that 10 million of these nonvoters nevertheless identify as environmentalists: They support green policies, even donate to activist groups; they just don't vote. Stinnett's <a href="https://www.environmentalvoter.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Environmental Voter Project</a> works to awaken this sleeping giant.</p><h4>THE SUNRISE MOVEMENT</h4><p>Meanwhile, the young climate activists of the <a href="http://www.sunrisemovement.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sunrise Movement</a> are already winning elections with an unabashedly Green New Deal message. More than any other group, Sunrise pushed the Green New Deal into the national political conversation, helping Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey draft the eponymous congressional resolution. In 2020, Sunrise has helped Green New Deal champions defeat centrists in Democratic primaries, with Markey dealing Representative Joe Kennedy Jr. the first defeat a Kennedy has ever suffered in a Massachusetts election. But can Sunrise also be successful against Republicans in the general elections this fall?</p><h4>THE STARPOWER</h4><p>And an intriguing wild card: celebrity firepower, grassroots activism, and big-bucks marketing have converged behind a campaign to get Latina mothers to vote climate in 2020. Latinos have long been the U.S. demographic most concerned about climate change. Now, <a href="https://votelikeamadre.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Vote Like A Madre</a> aims to get 5 million Latina mothers in Florida, Texas, and Arizona to the polls. Jennifer Lopez, Salma Hayak, and Lin-Manuel Miranda are urging mothers to make a "pinky promise" to vote for their kids' climate future in November. Turning out even a quarter of those 5 million voters, though no easy task, could swing the results in three states Trump must win to remain president, which brings us back to the first category, "Will the White House Turn Green?"</p>From Your Site Articles
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Activists fight a peat fire in Siberia in September. ALEXANDER NEMENOV / AFP via Getty Images
The wildfires that ignited in the Arctic this year started earlier and emitted more carbon dioxide than ever before.
<p>Now, a group of researchers is warning that the nature of Arctic fires may be changing, and it's important to understand how in order to better predict the future of the global <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate</a>.</p><p>"It's not just the amount of burned area that is alarming," University of Colorado Boulder fire and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/permafrost" target="_self">permafrost</a> ecologist Dr. Merritt Turetsky said in a press release <a href="https://phys.org/news/2020-09-arctic.html?fbclid=IwAR3y_vHkipR0x6-jCOdOYoVJYSHmqigeMnzhjBIQxV_-2GUnFbA4pfiMzzE" target="_blank">published by Phys.org</a>. "There are other trends we noticed in the satellite data that tell us how the Arctic fire regime is changing and what this spells for our climate future."</p><p>Turetsky co-wrote a commentary in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-020-00645-5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Nature Geoscience</em></a> Monday with two other fire experts. The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scientists" target="_self">scientists</a> pinpointed two important ways that Arctic wildfires are changing.</p>
<h3>1. Zombie Fires</h3><p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/zombie-fires-arctic-2646140786.html" target="_self">Zombie fires</a>, also known as holdover fires, occur when fires from the previous season continue to burn beneath the ground during the winter. These blazes can then reemerge when the snow melts and the weather warms.</p><p>Satellite monitoring data from the <a href="https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/copernicus-tracks-effects-arctic-circle-wildfires" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service</a> confirmed that zombie fires helped drive 2020's unprecedented wildfire season, which broke records both for the number of blazes and the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere, as <a href="https://www.livescience.com/zombie-wildfires-burn-arctic.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Live Science reported</a>. But the scientists writing in Nature Geoscience say they still need to learn more about these unusual fires and how they may contribute to climate feedback loops.</p><p>"We know little about the consequences of holdover fires in the Arctic," Turetsky said in the press release, "except that they represent momentum in the climate system and can mean that severe fires in one year set the stage for more burning the next summer."</p><p>Indeed, the 2020 wildfire season broke records that had been set just the year before, in <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/arctic-wildfires--2639340124.html" target="_self">2019's also unprecedented season</a>.</p>
<h3>2. Fires Where Fire Shouldn't Be</h3><p>The other troubling feature of the 2019 and 2020 Arctic wildfire seasons is that their blazes ignited in areas typically resistant to burning, the scientists pointed out. This included tundra vegetation such as dwarf shrubs, sedges, grasses and mosses and previously burn-free environments like bogs, fens and marshes.</p><p>Significantly, more than 50 percent of the 2020 fires burning above 65° North occurred on ice-rich permafrost, which contains the most carbon of any Arctic soil.</p><p>"Nearly all of this year's fires inside the Arctic Circle have occurred on continuous permafrost, with over half of these burning on ancient carbon-rich peat soils," commentary coauthor and London School of Economics and Political Science fire scientist Dr. Thomas Smith said in the press release. "The record high temperatures and associated fires have the potential to turn this important carbon sink into a carbon source, driving further global heating."</p><p>The scientists called for more research into the dynamics of Arctic fires to better understand how they will contribute to the climate crisis. Part of this requires collaborating with local and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous" target="_self">Indigenous</a> communities, who can provide on-the-ground observations to accompany satellite data.</p><p>"The burning Arctic is a global issue that requires a global solution," the scientists concluded. "While the expertise of the Indigenous communities of the North and Arctic nations will be central to any success, we cannot expect them to shoulder the responsibility alone."</p>
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A metapopulation project in South Africa has almost doubled the population of cheetahs in less than nine years. Ken Blum / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0
By Tony Carnie
South Africa is home to around 1,300 of the world's roughly 7,100 remaining cheetahs. It's also the only country in the world with significant cheetah population growth, thanks largely to a nongovernmental conservation project that depends on careful and intensive human management of small, fenced-in cheetah populations. Because most of the reserves are privately funded and properly fenced, the animals benefit from higher levels of security than in the increasingly thinly funded state reserves.
<p>Initiated by the Endangered Wildlife Trust nearly a decade ago, the Cheetah Metapopulation Project recognizes that small cheetah populations may be physically secure in several small reserves, but the likelihood of inbreeding remains high if they are kept separated behind fences. By swapping animals between participating reserves, the trust helps private and state wildlife custodians manage overpopulation and underpopulation on their land and also identify new areas of suitable cheetah habitat. Most importantly, swapping animals reduces the risk of inbreeding among closely related animals.</p><p>Vincent van der Merwe, coordinator of the trust's metapopulation initiative, says that when the project began in 2011, there were 217 cheetahs scattered between 41 reserves. Now there are 419 spread across 60 reserves — more than a third of South Africa's total cheetah population.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ0Njk3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwODQ5MTUxN30.-OSR8R8p9Ub3eyrwOEdltu7P4nnXAFwNlwekJVJz50I/img.jpg?width=980" id="4f7f7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="513e5803db97d5d6c8ea489d509274b3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Vincent van der Merwe at a cheetah translocation. Endangered Wildlife Trust
Under Pressure
<p>Cheetah populations elsewhere in Southern Africa have not prospered over the past 50 years. In Zimbabwe, cheetah numbers have crashed from 1,500 in 1975, to just 170 today. Botswana's cheetah population has held steady at around 1,500 over the same period, but illegal capture for captive breeding and conflicts with farmers and the growing human population are increasing. In Namibia, there were an estimated 3,000 cheetah in in 1975; roughly 1,400 remain today.</p><p>In contrast, South Africa's cheetah numbers have grown from about 500 in 1975 to nearly 1,300 today. Van der Merwe, who is also a Ph.D. student at the University of Cape Town's Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa (iCWild), says he's confident that South Africa will soon overtake Namibia and Botswana, largely because the majority of South African cheetahs are protected and managed behind fences, whereas most of the animals in the neighboring countries remain more vulnerable on mainly unfenced lands.</p><p>Wildlife researchers Florian Weise and colleagues have reported that private stock owners in Namibia still trap cheetahs mainly for translocation, but there are few public or private reserves large enough to contain them. Weise says that conservation efforts need to focus on improving tolerance toward cheetahs in commercial livestock and game farming areas to reduce indiscriminate trapping.</p><p>Van der Merwe says fences can be both a blessing and a curse. While these barriers prevent cheetahs and other wild animals from migrating naturally to breed and feed, they also protect cheetahs from the growing tide of threats from humanity and agriculture.</p><p>To simulate natural dispersion patterns that guard against inbreeding, the trust helps landowners swap their animals with other cheetah reserves elsewhere in the country. The South African metapopulation project has been so successful in boosting numbers that the trust is having to look beyond national boundaries to secure new translocation areas in Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique.</p><p>Cheetah translocations have been going on in South Africa since the mid-1960s, when the first unsuccessful attempts were made to move scores of these animals from Namibia. These relocations were mostly unsuccessful.</p><p>"Most of those early attempts were a flop because the cheetahs were not kept in bomas before release and some of the reserves were also poorly fenced — so the cats shot out almost as soon as they were released," van der Merwe said.</p><p>Translocated cheetahs are now generally confined to capture bomas, small fenced enclosures, for four to six weeks to allow them to acclimate to their new home environment prior to being set free.</p><p>"We have found that four weeks is normally long enough to break the homing instinct and if you keep them in a boma for longer than that, they tend to lose fitness and condition," van der Merwe said.</p><p>The Phinda private game reserve in Zululand, one of several private game reserves that began re-introducing cheetahs in the early 1990s, recently swapped some of its animals with the nearby Manyoni private game reserve.</p><p>"We have found that when we capture and translocate cheetahs to other reserves, the Phinda cats do very well elsewhere because they grew up in a challenging environment," van der Merwe said. "Because they have to share space with lion, hyena and leopard they have learned to look after themselves — so they are pretty tough animals."</p>
<p>Charli de Vos, a wildlife monitor at Phinda, says when new cheetahs are released into the reserve in small units, at least one animal is fitted with a VHF tracking collar.</p><p>For the first few weeks, she says, the animals' movements are tracked on a daily basis to ensure that they are not showing "homing" tendencies and that they are also getting used to the presence of tourist and staff vehicles.</p><p>"This will apply until the animals have relaxed within their new environment. Once the animals have established a home range within the reserve (approximately three months after release), the VHF collar will be removed. Thereafter the research and monitoring team will try and get a visual of each individual cheetah at least once every second week," de Vos said.</p><p>The reserve also has an online database to record sightings of the animals, with tourist guides, researchers, land managers and land owners able to add sightings.</p><p>Despite a cub mortality rate of between 50% and 80% on some reserves, van der Merwe says there are now about 90 cheetahs in the Zululand area. He says cub mortality rates vary according to the number of larger predators such as lions and hyenas.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ0Njk4NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzQyMDg3M30.hoAtcVR-rSvXT2T_eraII5U6ClU5pT8RbrLljU3o704/img.jpg?width=980" id="8bc3a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7715fbde7a3198ea9f0b52e504c72761" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Charli de Vos uses a VHF antenna to locate cheetahs in Phinda Game Reserve. Tony Carnie for Mongabay
Swinging for the Fences
<p>But other wildlife conservation leaders have a different perspective on cheetah conservation strategy.</p><p>Gus Mills, a senior carnivore researcher retired in 2006 from SANParks, the agency that manages South Africa's national parks, after a career of more than 30 years in Kalahari and Kruger national parks. He says the focus should be on quality of living spaces rather than the quantity of cheetahs.</p><p>Mills, who was the founder of the Endangered Wildlife Trust's Carnivore Conservation Group in 1995, and who also spent six years after retirement studying cheetahs in the Kalahari, says it's more important to properly protect and, where possible, expand the size of existing protected areas.</p><p>He also advocates a triage approach to cheetah conservation, in which scarce funds and resources are focused on protecting cheetahs in formally protected areas, rather than diluting scarce resources in an attempt to try and save every single remaining cheetah population.</p><p>"People have an obsession with numbers. But I believe that it is more important to protect large landscape and habitats properly," Mills said.</p><p>He suggests that cheetahs enclosed within small reserves live in artificial conditions: "It's almost like glorified farming."</p><p>"In the long run we have to focus on consolidating formally protected areas," he added. "Africa's human population will double by 2050, so cheetah populations in unfenced areas will become unsustainable if they are eating people's livestock."</p><p>Mills, who was closely involved in a similar metapopulation project for wild dogs, said he tried to encourage landowners to pull down the boundary fences, to create larger areas of habitat.</p><p>"But there are many landowners who don't want to do that. They want their own areas and their own management programs. But my philosophy is: Take care of the ecosystem so that the animals can take care of themselves, so that nature can run its course," Mills said.</p><p>"Unfortunately, there are so few areas left where nature can have its say these days."</p><p>Van der Merwe says the financial costs of metapopulation management are unavoidable and justified, noting that private reserves bear the overwhelming bulk of the translocation and monitoring costs.</p><p>"This is 2020. State funding for conservation has collapsed in most parts of Africa and the days of setting aside any new large, wild open spaces are long gone," he said. "We should be celebrating the fact that many more private ecotourism reserves have been established on former cattle ranches in South Africa, outcompeting agriculture as a land use and creating new habitat for cheetah. The best we can do is to try and consolidate smaller private and community-owned reserves with larger national parks."</p><p>Sarah M. Durant of the Zoological Society of London and the Wildlife Conservation Society, New York, says cheetahs remain susceptible to rapid decline and that, ultimately, conserving the remaining free-ranging populations in Botswana and Namibia will require "a paradigm shift in conservation toward a holistic approach that incentivizes protection and promotes sustainable human-wildlife coexistence across large multiple-use landscapes."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/spots-of-hope-some-good-news-for-south-africas-cheetahs/" target="_blank">Mongabay.</a></em></p>
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A new super enzyme feeds on the type of plastic that water and soda bottles are made of, polyethylene terephthalate (PET). zoff-photo / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Scientists are on the brink of scaling up an enzyme that devours plastic. In the latest breakthrough, the enzyme degraded plastic bottles six times faster than previous research achieved, as The Guardian reported.
<p>This new super-enzyme is able to break down plastic at room temperature, setting it apart from the enzyme that the French company Carbios discovered in April. As <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/mutant-enzyme-recycles-plastic-2645686207.html" target="_self">EcoWatch</a> reported at the time, the Carbios enzyme started to work when the plastic was heated to 65 to 72 degrees Celsius, or 149 to 161 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the range when plastic bottles start to soften and melt.</p><p>The researchers worked doggedly to reengineer the enzymes of an enzyme first discovered in Japan in 2016. The scientists published their results Monday in the <em><a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/09/23/2006753117" target="_blank">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a></em>. In the paper, they describe how the bacterium Idoenella sakaiensis produces two enzymes that thrive by consuming plastic bottles, according to <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/scientists-created-an-enzyme-cocktail-that-eats-plastic-1845206488" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gizmodo</a>.</p>
<p>The research holds tremendous promise for tackling the plastic waste crisis since the enzyme feeds on the type of plastic that water and soda bottles are made of, polyethylene terephthalate (PET). That type of plastic can take hundreds of years to degrade. The enzyme that the researchers enhanced can break the plastic down in just a few days, according to John McGeehan, the director of the Center for Enzyme Innovation at the University of Portsmouth in the UK, as <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/28/plastic-eating-super-enzyme-may-key-beating-pollution/" target="_blank">The Telegraph</a> reported.</p><p>"When we linked the enzymes, rather unexpectedly, we got a dramatic increase in activity," said McGeehan, as The Guardian reported. "This is a trajectory towards trying to make faster enzymes that are more industrially relevant. But it's also one of those stories about learning from nature, and then bringing it into the lab."</p>
<p>He was referring to the process that bacteria in nature use to devour polyesters, which occur in nature to protect plant leaves. "Bacteria have been evolving for millions of years to eat that," he said, as the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43783631" target="_blank">BBC</a> reported in April.</p><p>McGeehan added that the enzyme could help accelerate a sustainable model since it enables the plastics to be "made and reused endlessly, reducing our reliance on fossil resources," as <a href="https://www.independent.ie/world-news/super-enzyme-that-eats-plastic-significant-leap-forward-in-pollution-crisis-39570785.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a> in Ireland reported.</p><p>McGeehan believes that cooperation between researchers and corporations could help scale up the enzyme in the near future.</p><p>"If we can make better, faster enzymes by linking them together and provide them to companies like Carbios, and work in partnership, we could start doing this within the next year or two," he said, as The Guardian reported.</p>
<p>McGeehan and his team also believe their enhancements can be improved so the enzymes are able to consume plastic faster. By adjusting a bit of the residue on the enzyme's surface, it was able to work a bit faster, suggesting that further optimization is still down the road. A testing facility is under construction for McGeehan and his team in Portsmouth, while Carbios is building a plant in France to put the enzymes to use, according to The Guardian.</p><p>"The faster we can make the enzymes, the quicker we can break down the plastic, and the more commercially viable it will be," said McGeehan, as The Telegraph reported.</p>
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A new study in the journal Nature Climate Change shows that human-caused global heating is making the world's oceans more stable. Michelle Maria / Pixabay
By Jessica Corbett
In a rare calm moment during a historically active Atlantic hurricane season, an international team of climate scientists on Monday published a new study in the journal Nature Climate Change showing that human-caused global heating is making the world's oceans more "stable"—which, as co-author Michael Mann explained, is "very bad news."
<p>Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/climate-change-oceans-stabilizing-1534512" target="_blank">detailed</a> researchers' findings about ocean stratification in a piece for <em>Newsweek</em>. Using "more comprehensive data and a more sophisticated method for estimating stratification changes" than past studies, the scientists found that "oceans are not only becoming more stable, but are doing so faster than was previously thought."</p><p>The team—led by Guancheng Li of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in China—specifically found that stratification globally increased by a "substantial" 5.3% from 1960 to 2018, mostly in the upper 650 feet or so of the world oceans. "This seemingly technical finding has profound and troubling implications," Mann noted.</p><p>"The more stable the upper ocean, the less vertical mixing that takes place. This mixing is a primary means by which the ocean buries warming surface waters. So the surface warms up even faster. It's what we call a 'positive feedback'—a vicious cycle," he wrote. "That's bad for a number of reasons."</p>
<div id="e639b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d8d112e123588b9bf3c3eadcc89627e8"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1310602217825726465" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Thank you to @MichaelEMann for patiently and clearly explaining to non scientists why increased ocean stabilizati… https://t.co/yW2BmQhKGp</div> — Dr Naomi Wolf (@Dr Naomi Wolf)<a href="https://twitter.com/naomirwolf/statuses/1310602217825726465">1601306893.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Noting the ongoing storm season and previous warnings from scientists—<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/28/climatologist-michael-mann-2020-atlantic-hurricane-season-hate-say-we-told-you-so" target="_blank">including him</a>—that the increasingly devastating recent hurricanes "have fed off warmer surface waters," Mann explained that "a more stably stratified ocean potentially favors more intense, destructive hurricanes." Warmer waters also "absorb less atmospheric carbon dioxide" and "hold less dissolved oxygen."</p><p>In other words, the new study indicates that "humans have made the oceans more stable, and the result will be more extreme weather and the acceleration of climate change," as study co-author John Abraham <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/28/how-our-warmer-oceans-are-contributing-to-climate-breakdown" target="_blank">wrote</a> Monday for <em>The Guardian</em>. Like Mann, he detailed the research team's findings about the stratification of the oceans, and the implications. Then, he added:</p><blockquote>It is not all doom and gloom. The good news is we know why the climate is changing and we know how the oceans are responding. We can do something about this problem—we have the ability to slow down climate change. We just lack the will and leadership.<br><br>But if 2020 has shown us anything, it has revealed that humans can change and adapt quickly to situations. There is hope that we can navigate the challenges resulting from a more stable ocean—but we must start immediately.<br></blockquote><p>Both co-authors' pieces provoked calls for swift, bold, global efforts to address the climate crisis:</p>
<div id="85eca" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="43780424fc8b04e23a525e1bad1086eb"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1310608647651811336" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Canada has oceans on 3 sides-we can't ignore the climate news that The Oceans Appear to Be Stabilizing. Here's Why… https://t.co/SfWJWWRHr7</div> — Friends Of Halifax Common (@Friends Of Halifax Common)<a href="https://twitter.com/FriendsHalifax/statuses/1310608647651811336">1601308426.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div id="3e52e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f210e186b6e1481a64770e0c8722a438"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1310638669477236738" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">"Das bedeutet, dass das CO2-Budget, das zur Vermeidung kritischer Erhitzung (z.B. 1,5°C) übrig bleibt, möglicherwei… https://t.co/675YBTSybJ</div> — Parents For Future #SystemChangeNotClimateChange (@Parents For Future #SystemChangeNotClimateChange)<a href="https://twitter.com/parents4future/statuses/1310638669477236738">1601315583.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Ending his piece on a similar note, Mann wrote that "in short, it's unwise to be complacent given the accumulating scientific evidence that climate change and its impacts may well be in the upper end of the range that climate scientists currently project. There is ever-greater urgency when it comes to acting on climate. But there is agency as well. Our actions <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/dangerous-new-form-climate-denialism-making-rounds-opinion-1455736" target="_blank">make a difference</a>—something to keep in mind as we head into a presidential election <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/greta-thunberg-donald-trump-true-leadership-climate-change-free-world-1461147" target="_blank">whose climate implications</a> are monumental."</p><p>Mann is on the mounting list of climate experts and advocates <a href="https://www.axios.com/2020-presidential-election-joe-biden-endorsed-climate-scientists-24013990-0300-4c2c-ad95-57571b397196.html?fbclid=IwAR3vTCBmK5BwvoafwGefadTsnIMnKo9FS6ssc9PCdFLEeXr6p4KHlnrFWKU" target="_blank">supporting </a>Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in his effort to oust President Donald Trump—who has, at various points, ignored and exacerbated the climate emergency. Earlier this month, the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/15/matter-life-and-death-after-175-years-scientific-american-backs-biden-magazines" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">editors</a> of<em> Scientific American</em> as well as the political action arms of both 350 and Friends of the Earth also <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/24/clarion-call-all-progressive-environmentalists-defeat-trumps-planetary-destruction" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">endorsed</a> the former vice president.</p><p>"The stakes are clear and present," Tamara Toles O'Laughlin from 350 Action said of the general election, for which early voting is already underway in some states. "The planet cannot withstand four more years of Trump."</p>
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President Donald Trump holds up a pen after signing a Presidential Proclamation shrinking Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City, Utah, December 4, 2017. Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images
By Hannah Murphy
When he talks about the Trump administration, David Doniger likes to say: "Imagine where we'd be if they knew what they were doing." The climate lawyer and senior advisor to the NRDC Action Fund spends his days defending the environment from the U.S. government, and for the past three and a half years, that's meant a front-row seat to the Trump administration's relentless attacks on any regulation that's meant to slow the climate crisis.
<p>But it's also been a window into the hasty, sloppy, and legally dubious ways that they've gone about it. "One of the hallmarks of this administration is how incompetently they're doing this," says Doniger. "It shows up in how slowly they've been able to work, and how flimsy their legal rationales are." Almost all of Trump's attempts at deregulation — some 100 rules that he's tried to eliminate or weaken — are being challenged in court, and environmentalists are steadily winning. According to the <a href="https://policyintegrity.org/trump-court-roundup" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Institute for Policy Integrity</a> at New York University, the Trump administration has lost 69 of the 83 legal challenges it's faced in its deregulatory blitz.</p><p>"We were saved by their incompetence," says Andrew Wetzler, from the NRDC Action Fund, mainly by their failure to follow basic rule-making procedures. They rushed through the process, often shortening or entirely skipping over the required 60 days for public comment, which provided a clear opening for their rule changes to be challenged in court. The administration's ineptitude has given environmentalists hope that if Trump loses the election, the policy impact of his unrelenting pro-fossil fuel agenda could ultimately be short-lived. "If he's a one-term wonder," says Doniger, "the biggest consequence of the Trump administration may just turn out to be lost time."</p><p>But time, at this hour of the climate fight, might be our most precious resource. As we stumble ever closer to the <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/as-climate-changes-worsens-a-cascade-of-tipping-points-looms" target="_blank">collapse of ice sheets, oceans and forests</a>, the range of meaningful action we could take narrows. There is now believed to be more carbon dioxide in the air than any time in the last 3 million years. Our oceans are on track by the end of this century to become more acidic than they've been in some 15 million years — when they were enduring a major extinction event. Those oceans are also rising steadily enough to threaten the homes of 150 million people in the next three decades. "We lost years at a critical time," says Wetzler. "We're on the precipice of a number of climate and biological tipping points." And, he says, we won't fully understand the impact of that loss for years. </p>
<p>If Biden wins in November, environmentalists say, his administration would have a slim window of opportunity to get our agencies back on track to meet the enormity of the climate crisis. "It means being aggressive from day one," says Brett Hartl from the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund. "And not futzing around — knowing what you're going to do and implementing it immediately." </p><p>Making up for the lost time won't be easy. Despite his slap-dash approach, Trump still managed to scramble the trajectory of American climate policy, creating a tangle of legal fights that will have to be cleared up for U.S. climate policy to move forward. And he left almost no part of our environmental regulatory structure untouched — greenlighting fossil fuel infrastructure like the Dakota Access and Keystone XL Pipelines, setting us back on emission-reduction goals by reversing the Clean Power Plan and higher fuel-efficiency standards, and gutting the federal agencies that should be at the helm of our climate response.</p><p>So how difficult will it be to unscramble this mess? It would have to happen in three parts, environmentalists say, and all three would have to start on day one. First, Biden would have a powerful arsenal of executive tools available to him — if he chooses to use them. A<a href="http://climatepresident.org" target="_blank"> coalition of over 500 environmental</a> groups has already assembled a plan for how he could effectively jumpstart our fight against the climate crisis using executive powers, which would avoid both going through Congress and the lengthy federal rule-making process.<br><br>Using executive power, Biden could declare a national climate emergency. It wouldn't just send an important message to Americans — and the rest of the world — that we're taking the climate crisis seriously; it would give the administration the power to mobilize the government on a massive scale, like ordering the Secretary of Defense to redirect military spending toward the rapid development of clean energy.<span></span><br></p>
<p>Biden could also immediately order federal agencies to reverse the climate rollbacks Trump introduced through executive order — like allowing oil and gas companies to side-step state approval — and start issuing his own. Most urgently, Biden would have the power to keep more fossil fuels in the ground: He could direct the Secretary of the Interior to halt oil-and-gas leasing and fracking on federal lands, reinstitute the ban on exporting crude oil, and order all federal agencies to deny permits for new fossil fuel infrastructure, like pipelines, storage facilities, and refineries.</p><p>He'd also be able to change the ways that money moves through the energy sector. He could prohibit the U.S. government from financing fossil fuel programs overseas and end all Department of Energy loans for fossil fuels stateside, while also requiring the Federal Reserve to manage climate risks — forcing it to acknowledge the current and future impact of <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/climate-change/" target="_blank">climate change</a> on our economy. </p><p>Many of these tools were already available in the Obama era, but the administration chose not to use them. For example, "the Clean Air Act is actually quite clear that you have the authority to set national ambient air quality standards," says Hartl. "It would have been incredibly bold, and it actually wouldn't have had the problems that the Clean Power Plan had. They could have really moved the needle on greenhouse gases in a very, very powerful way." But, Hartl says, the Obama administration shied away from these kinds of actions for fear of political consequences. </p>
<p>Biden would face a very different national landscape. At the beginning of this year, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/21/how-americans-see-climate-change-and-the-environment-in-7-charts/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">two thirds of American adults said that protecting the environment should be a top priority of the federal government</a>, up from only 30 percent at the beginning of Obama's first term. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/19/914233038/poll-climate-becomes-top-priority-for-democrats-trump-struggles-on-race-covid-19" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">In a poll last week</a>, likely Democratic voters ranked climate change as the most important issue to them in this election, and Data for Progress, a progressive think tank, has found that talking about climate change could actually help persuade voters who are on the fence to vote for a Democrat. All of this is to say, a Biden administration could have an unprecedented political mandate to take action on the climate crisis. </p><p>In addition to issuing executive orders, beginning on day one Biden would also need to start the process of unwinding the deregulation efforts that Trump carried out through the federal rule-making process — like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/climate/endangered-species-act-changes.html" target="_blank">rollbacks on the Endangered Species Act</a> and fuel-emissions standards — and writing new ones to take their place. Environmentalists are confident that a new administration could systematically undo each rollback, but that process could take two years, according to Hartl.</p><p><span></span>And the Biden administration would need to learn from Trump's mistakes. Legal challenges from the industries that these regulations impact — the American Petroleum Institute, the National Mining Association — are inevitable, "so you have to go in and be prepared to defend it the first time," says Hartl. That means following the process to the letter: establishing rules with legal backing from legislation like the Clean Air and Clean Water acts; opening the rule up to public comment; and then presenting a final rule that can stand up in court. Unlike Trump's deregulation efforts, which were fighting against decades of environmental legislation, the law would be on Biden's side. "The reality is that when Congress passed these laws," says Hartl, "they were designed to make the environment better." </p>
<p>Finally, Biden would have to start hiring like mad. Over the past four years, Trump's EPA and Interior Department have hemorrhaged talent. The Bureau of Land Management moved the majority of its staff out of Washington, D.C., leading some 70 percent of that staff to resign, and the EPA is nearly as small as it was during the Nixon era, when the EPA was founded. "That pattern, in the most extreme way, is mirrored throughout the environmental agencies," says Wetzler. "There's been a real brain drain of people who can't stand in an agency and support the agenda under the Trump administration, and we'll have to put back the pieces of very demoralized, and in some cases broken agencies." </p><p>But from those ashes, Biden could build a coalition of climate advocates across his Cabinet. His transition team, and the 4,000 people they appoint, <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/158198/inside-fight-shape-bidens-climate-policy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">are arguably more influential than any campaign promises he could make</a>. "Personnel is policy," says Jamal Raad, co-founder and campaign director for Evergreen Action, founded by former staffers of Gov. Jay Inslee's presidential campaign. "We need to choose regulators that have a climate lens," and that lens doesn't end at the EPA — it can reach the Department of Agriculture, where we have to reimagine our food production to work with our changing climate, or the Treasury, where regulators could interpret the Dodd-Frank consumer protection act to include climate risks. And within the White House, Raad says, Biden could create a National Climate Council that's equivalent to the National Economic Council. "There needs to be a plan to reorient the federal government so that climate is a lens in all decision making." </p><p>Heading into the general election, pressure from the left wing of the party shaped Biden's $2 trillion climate plan, which is "a green new deal in all but name," <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/20/joe-biden-has-endorsed-the-green-new-deal-in-all-but-name" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">wrote activist and journalist Julian Brave NoiseCat</a>. "It's the most progressive, forward-leaning environmental plan that any candidate for president has ever released," says Wetzler of the NRDC Action Fund. "It would represent incredible progress." And while the Biden campaign hasn't laid out a timetable for the plan, "the Biden team has been signaling their prioritization of climate by making it central to their economic recovery plans," says Raad. "I think that folks should be cautiously optimistic — but vigilant — on the prospect of climate being a priority early in the first term."</p><p>Of course, this all hinges on what happens in November. And if Trump is re-elected, his administration would have the chance to establish a legacy of more than just incompetence and squandered time. Four more years of Donald Trump being in charge of the environment could permanently alter the American landscape.</p>
<p>In some cases, it would give the Trump administration time to fight back against the legal challenges they face, leaning on courts that they've stacked with anti-environmental judges. And damage could be done that will be near impossible to undo — rules can be changed, but mines can't be unmined. The Trump administration has pursued the largest rollback of federally protected land in U.S. history. Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, for example, which Trump shrunk by 85 percent in 2017, is in the crosshairs of uranium developers. Trump's move has been mired in lawsuits, but a second term could give them the time to untangle them, and hand the land over to the uranium lobbyists.<br></p><p>Likewise, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was just approved in August, leaving little time for leasing, let alone actual development, before Inauguration Day. But if Trump wins, those leases are likely to move forward, as will the roads, pipelines, and oil rigs that come with them, doing permanent damage to a vital and fragile ecosystem. "Over time you're looking at millions and millions of acres of fossil fuel leasing," says Hartl from the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund. "And eventually, once you get to the point where they're actually putting drills in the ground, it's very hard to undo that. You're locking in a tremendous amount of fossil fuel infrastructure."</p><p>Trump's influence on the Supreme Court looms heavily for the environment as well. With Trump already raring to appoint a new justice to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a second term is likely to offer him a fourth Supreme Court appointment, which would mean the highest court would house<em> seven</em> Republican-appointed justices. When you're suing over environmental issues, the court's make-up can be the difference between having your day in court, and not. "For example, there's a general judicial doctrine called 'standing,' or your ability to go to court to pursue your aggrieved interests," explains Hartl. "Conservative judges want to narrow who has standing as much as possible, because that limits access to the courts. When you're fighting for the environment, and your interest is protecting an endangered species or the atmosphere or the water, they've already made it hard for us to go to court, to have standing. And they can narrow it even further so that we don't even have recourse. Our ability to just <em>fight</em> for the environment is at stake."</p><p><span></span>The climate movement has never been more clear on what it is fighting for and what it needs to do, and finally has a presidential candidate who is signaling some willingness to do it. The prescription is fairly simple: Stop burning fossil fuels so we can begin drawing down the carbon in the atmosphere that's overheating our planet and disrupting the systems that have supported life on Earth as we know it. The president has a lot of power to take that action, and we have no time to lose. "It's true that we have 30 years [before an irreversible climate collapse], but <em>when</em> you act on that 30-year scale really affects how radically you have to act," says Wetzler. "If you think about where the United States was at the beginning of the Trump administration — and where the world was, in terms of taking climate change seriously — it's a huge, squandered opportunity." This November, we can choose to act, and set ourselves back on course. "If this is a one-time, Black Swan event, we're probably going to recover as a nation," says Doniger. "This is the project of the century." </p>
<p><em>This story originally appeared in</em> <em><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com" target="_blank">Rolling Stone </a></em><em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A photo illustration shows confirmed global cases and deaths from COVID-19 displayed on a smartphone and PC screen, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center on Sept. 29, 2020. Pavlo Gonchar / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
The Johns Hopkins University tracker for worldwide coronavirus cases showed that the world passed a grim milestone early Tuesday morning, as more than 1 million have died from the virus and the infection it causes, COVID-19.
<p>That's equivalent to almost the entire population of San Jose, California. It's a larger number than the population of Boston, Seattle, Portland and nearly twice the population of Atlanta. In comparison to diseases, COVID-19 in just nine months has killed more people than HIV and dysentery, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/world/covid-1-million-deaths.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The New York Times</a> reported. It has also killed more than cholera, flu, measles and malaria combined. It's reached every corner of the globe, affecting every country in the world.</p>
<p>"This is a very serious global event, and a lot of people were going to get sick and many of them were going to die, but it did not need to be nearly this bad," said Tom Inglesby, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, as The New York Times reported.</p><p>In addition to the 1 million global deaths, the virus has infected nearly 33.5 million people. Many of the survivors never fully recover and end up with lingering effects that affect their lungs, joints, muscles and mental acuity. Those continued symptoms hamper their ability to return to normal life, according to another report in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/us/coronavirus-long-term-effects.html" target="_blank">The New York Times.</a></p>
<p>The U.S. accounts for 20 percent of the global deaths, by far the largest number of deaths, with more than 205,000 COVID-19 fatalities. The Johns Hopkins data shows that just four countries — the U.S., Brazil, India and Mexico — make up more than half the total of worldwide deaths, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/28/health/us-coronavirus-monday/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p><p>India is quickly catching up to the U.S. as the virus's transmission is accelerating there. As for the U.S., the numbers are continuing to climb as only 19 states are holding steady. CNN reported that 21 states recorded a higher number of cases in the past week compared to the previous week.</p>
<p>"It's not only that the number of infections keeps on going up. It's also that the test positivity rates are trending in the wrong direction," said emergency medicine physician Dr. Leana Wen to CNN.</p><p>"We're seeing more than a dozen states with a test positivity ... over 10%. And there are two states — Idaho and South Dakota — where the test positivity is over 20 percent," she added. "That means that not only do we have increasing infections in these states, we also don't have nearly enough testing."</p><p>For context, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that an area that wants to reopen businesses should have the number of positive cases at 5 percent or lower for 14 consecutive days, according to <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/testing-positivity" target="_blank">Johns Hopkins</a>.</p>
<p>Officials from the WHO believe the actual number of cases and deaths is underreported.</p><p>"If anything, the numbers currently reported probably represent an underestimate of those individuals who have either contracted COVID-19 or died as a cause of it," said Mike Ryan, the WHO's top emergencies expert, told a briefing in Geneva, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/29/global-coronavirus-deaths-pass-1m-with-no-sign-rate-slowing" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>"When you count anything, you can't count it perfectly but I can assure you that the current numbers are likely an underestimate of the true toll of COVID."</p><p>Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres called the 1 million deaths threshold agonizing and suggested the world learn from its mistakes.</p><p>"Responsible leadership matters," he said, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/29/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported. "Science matters. Cooperation matters — and misinformation kills."</p>
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On Thursday, Maryland will become the first state in the nation to implement a ban on foam takeout containers. guruXOOX / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Maryland will become the first state in the nation Thursday to implement a ban on foam takeout containers.
<p>The law, which was passed in 2019, prohibits restaurants and other institutions that serve food, such as schools, from using polystyrene containers, <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/environment/bs-md-stryrofoam-ban-takes-effect-20200925-dc57ytrblbdqrmbvsk4lddyw5a-story.html" target="_blank">The Baltimore Sun reported</a>.</p><p>"Single-use <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastics" target="_self">plastics</a> are overrunning our <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ocean" target="_self">oceans</a> and bays and neighborhoods," chief bill sponsor Democratic Delegate Brooke Lierman <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/13/health/maryland-plastic-foam-ban-legislation-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">told CNN when it passed.</a> "We need to take dramatic steps to start stemming our use and reliance on them ... to leave future generations a planet full of wildlife and green space."</p><p>Lierman said she had tried twice before to pass the bill, but a shift in public opinion against plastic pollution finally pushed it over the finish line.</p>
<p>The law was originally scheduled to go into effect July 1, but officials delayed it by three months because of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/27/us/maryland-foam-container-ban-trnd/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN reported further</a>. Dining has shifted from table service to takeout, and the government wanted to give impacted businesses more time to use up their extra foam, The Baltimore Sun explained.</p><p>Some restaurant owners still oppose the ban, arguing that foam containers are cheaper and longer-lasting than alternatives.</p><p>"We don't like increased costs," Dan Schuman of Captain Dan's Crabhouse in Eldersburg told The Baltimore Sun. "No restaurant does. Because we have to pass that onto the customer."</p><p>He said he was raising prices to cover the cost of new plastic containers, as well as an upcoming minimum wage increase.</p>
<p>However, other restaurants have already made the change on their own and were pleased with the results. Victoria Gastro Pub bar manager Megan Purcell said the Victoria Restaurant Group switched to compostable takeaway containers two years ago.</p><p>"It's just the right thing to do and it was time," Purcell told <a href="https://www.wmar2news.com/news/state/md-foam-container-ban-goes-into-effect-thursday" target="_blank">WMAR</a>.</p><p>Environmentalists, meanwhile, say the ban will help fight the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, because foam containers are made from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a>, The Baltimore Sun reported. It will also keep the containers out of waterways.</p><p>This has already been the case for Maryland localities and cities that have banned foam containers ahead of the state, including Baltimore City, Anne Arundel, Montgomery and Prince George's counties.</p><p>In Baltimore, the trash wheels that prevent rubbish from entering the Inner Harbor reported a 40 percent reduction in polystyrene containers caught in their spokes.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/maine-bans-styrofoam-2636014775.html" target="_self">Maine</a>, New York and Vermont have passed similar bans, but they have not yet taken effect. Maryland regulators hope that their ban can be a model for these states and others considering phasing out the use of foam containers.</p><p>"We will learn how best to implement it," Maryland environment secretary Ben Grumbles told The Baltimore Sun, "and other states will watch us closely."</p>
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Countries Pledge to Reverse Destruction of Nature After Missing Biodiversity Targets
28 September
Politics
A sea turtle and tropical fish swim in Oahu, Hawaii. M.M. Sweet / Moment / Getty Images
By Ajit Niranjan
Leaders from across the world have promised to turn environmental degradation around and put nature on the path to recovery within a decade.
<p><br/></p>
<p>"We are in a state of planetary emergency," the 65 leaders, who include German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, wrote ahead of a UN <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity" target="_self">biodiversity</a> summit on Wednesday. "We commit ourselves not simply to words, but to meaningful action and mutual accountability."</p><p>The commitments, which come two days before a UN biodiversity summit in New York, include eliminating <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastics" target="_self">plastic</a> leakage to the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans" target="_self">oceans</a> by 2050 and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/the-time-has-come-for-humanity-to-go-through-its-next-evolution/a-53589043" target="_blank">incentivizing banks and businesses</a> to value the natural world. The leaders identify unsustainable production and consumption as a key driver of environmental crises that "require urgent and immediate global action."</p><p>But strongmen leading some of the world's biggest polluters — <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/climate-emissions-paris-agreement/a-55044341" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S., China, India, Russia and Brazil</a> — are not among the signatories.</p>
<h3>Missed Targets</h3><p>The pledge follows the September publication of a landmark assessment of biodiversity which showed humanity had failed to fully achieve any of the 20 global biodiversity targets set by the UN ten years ago. Just six of them had been "partly achieved," the report said. For one goal, on protecting <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/great-barrier-reef-suffers-third-mass-bleaching-in-5-years/a-52921894" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">coral reefs</a>, the world was found to be moving in the opposite direction.</p><p>Data from individual governments shows that a third of national biodiversity targets, which are set by the countries themselves, are on track to be met or exceeded. But these are less ambitious than the UN targets and less than a quarter match up well with the global goals to protect nature.</p><p>The vision for biodiversity set out in 2010 is only achievable if the world responds to "compelling evidence" that "transformative change" is required, said Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity, which prepared the Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO) report.</p>
<h3>Global Decline in Biodiversity</h3><p>The charge sheet is long. Pollution from <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/environment-conservation-plastic-oceans/a-54436603" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">plastics</a> and pesticides have not been brought down to safe levels. Governments still subsidize businesses that <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/insect-apocalypse-dying-ecosystem-species-loss-a-52160360/a-52160360" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">damage ecosystems</a>. Coral reefs, which are dying across the world, are struck by the triple-threat of human action: climate change, pollution and overfishing. Some of those drivers are getting worse.</p><p>And even where there is progress, it is rarely enough. <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/illegal-logging-mining-threaten-an-amazon-river-community/a-45631645" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Deforestation</a> should have been halted by now, but has only been cut by a third, with Asia and Europe gaining forests while Africa and South America lose them at a faster rate.</p><p>Conservation efforts have saved species like the Puerto Rican amazon parrot and the Mongolian Przewalski's horse. But they have failed to keep others like the Western Black Rhino or the Christmas Island pipistrelle from being wiped out forever.</p><p>While the big trends in biodiversity loss were already known, the UN report included "systematic analysis" on how well the world has achieved the 2010 targets, said Josef Settele, an ecologist at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Germany, who contributed research to the report but was not involved in writing it.</p>
<h3>Conservation Progress</h3><p>"There is also some brightness," Settele added. "The things we are doing are not completely in vain."</p><p>For instance, almost 100 countries have incorporated biodiversity values into national accounting systems. Over the last 20 years, the world has increased the share of <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/mauritius-oil-spill-compensation-pay/a-54725675" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">protected areas</a> from 10% to 15% on land and from 3% to 7% in water.</p><p>There are now more fish in waters managed by good fishing policies. Governments are increasingly eradicating invasive species from islands. And since 1993, conservation actions have prevented the extinction of between 28 and 48 bird and mammal species, according to a study published this month in the journal <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12762" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Conservation Letters</a> — though many remain highly threatened and may still become extinct.</p><p>"The progress toward conserving life on earth has been much greater than it would have been [without action]," said Thomas Brooks, chief scientist at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, who was a co-author of the Conservation Letters study but was not involved in the GBO. "The absolutely key question is how to scale up from where things currently are, in terms of responses, to meet targets comprehensively."</p>
<h3>Protecting Wildlife, Not Just Individual Species</h3><p>The way to get that scale, according to the GBO report, is by "mainstreaming" the opportunities and responsibilities from protecting nature. That means every level of society — from individuals and local communities to businesses and national governments — would need to factor biodiversity into their economic decisions.</p><p>Like climate change, ecological collapse is happening at breakneck speed. A 2019 report by IPBES, the UN panel of biodiversity experts, found that humans are altering the natural world at an "unprecedented pace" and threatening 1 million animal and plant species with extinction.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ0MzgxNC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzIwOTYzN30.FCDShn8HREGKfOXpVICLoFTFn5Ua_QZDoq-LTH1ZJpI/img.png?width=980" id="d848f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="560723442ef37fb766ae77a14a2830de" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>Scientists say both issues require systemic changes, but individual actions can help. Agriculture is one of the greatest drivers of biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions. A study published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2705-y" target="_blank"><em>Nature</em></a> this month found that more than two-thirds of future biodiversity losses could be avoided by conserving and restoring land, reducing food waste and switching to more plant-based diets.</p><p>They are among many actions laid out in the GBO report to reduce and eventually restore lost biodiversity.</p><p>If we do not act faster, said Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Program, "biodiversity will continue to buckle" under the weight of overexploitation, climate change, pollution, invasive alien species and changes to land and sea. "This will further damage human health, economies and societies — with particularly detrimental effects on <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/environment-nature-rights-indigenous-activism-legal-personhood/a-52186866" target="_blank">indigenous peoples</a> and local communities."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/global-biodiversity-outlook-targets-extinction-summit-new-york-pledge/a-54932895?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank">DW</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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Smoke from the Glass Fire rises from the hills on September 27, 2020 in Calistoga, California. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Just days after a new report detailed the "unequivocal and pervasive role" climate change plays in the increased frequency and intensity of wildfires, new fires burned 10,000 acres on Sunday as a "dome" of hot, dry air over Northern California created ideal fire conditions over the weekend.
<p>In Napa County, the <a href="https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/e2t/tc/MVsnnZz8yLxW6P5d-B4dc0qsW8LzBkh4gwXy7N9cd5Jc3p_b1V1-WJV7CgWgFVy0qkd5XbdwLW5rt4gV4w-xTxV-h4Sg7DzJBzW5VDwxQ3l7DhlVCBttb6m7nxWW8h_xDy6FQdyWN1MjKcdcmhpSW2PLWml7pwBvcW1F6-cJ2tvc7YVLFDBf6T5bxTW23C4-w3v4S8DN8Q-7gX1b8vjW7qpRrH4rKWlkW30JwJZ855nXJW19qdGb16-Nl-W3j2wJ85gX-N5W23Yjdj2WwgVkW1jYthC6rq58qW84KgzL4s_BFqN1gy5rt_sw_1W6SFvpr79sx-dW8BvcQr56DrDjW4QJnYK7VYJQqW3pXL934WSgQ_VkF-F63ZtxGzW3LYfZW47SGGpW8QTrvx7qv7wjW6fxRYj96cjcGW42NZpM87shmPW6_T2nL6KbSm_2jj1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Glass Fire</a> burned more than 2,500 acres, forcing at least 2,000 residents and a hospital to evacuate and threatening about 2,200 structures. </p><p>The fire tore through vineyards and jumped two rivers Sunday evening and was zero percent contained as of late Sunday night. </p><p>"It's a cremation," Craig Battuello, whose family has raised grapes in St. Helena for more than a century, told KPIX.</p>
<p>As of Monday morning, the Shady and Boysen Fires, burning near the Sonoma-Napa county line were believed to be spot fires from the Glass Fire. </p><p>Further north, the <a href="https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/e2t/tc/MVsnnZz8yLxW6P5d-B4dc0qsW8LzBkh4gwXy7N9cd5Jc3p_b1V1-WJV7CgCKFW50rbql5Kh3Q5N2KHP3P2ScQpW1P-1sG1C8V06W2CLx6N7GgT9BW8qGKpg2vggG-N8vd4vHfRgblW8zkwnS7lVrSGVcvmJ783gfdwW6jC5L78V29r2W2c49zy50gjRHW1ZlstL5wlHn9W6XZmDT55sqxNVCbwwc7xFcL0W6_mQlr1b_tzxN15BHn-N0nvsW6xCrys8JvpZRN2yl4Z979WpGW9jcx4F5zKNh_W4fwqXR5CcvncW4RDx9Z3wWt60N10kQLMKP46nW2JkYKK1j91VMW8928mj2dj6KdW7KgRGL7GLxJyW7yzmXm8dT1KxW8ZDR5K92wwwvW7W69vt7mSF4TW2BvFh62rGtxHW2Mr1r98ZFby7W98zv6k3y1t0n2jH1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Zogg Fire</a> had burned 7,000 acres as of Sunday evening. </p><p>Electricity will be shut off for 65,000 Northern California customers in 16 counties to prevent the spread of the fires.</p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p>Increased frequency and intensity: <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54278988?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8qp2mUDhBu291ydfwMMiNGyBDHagoosg_k0IqcpI7CtDhXLM4ZmHgVGa2PRKbaxWoLM6t_MPwLlThcOqkbF70YlOx1D3YHNqvErsDeqFeQuAoxwfg&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">BBC</a>, <a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2020/09/25/stories/1063714657?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9sDZNbxU236xY4m-Wo12Sv03RABQinScs_T_bXj4OydAg0HafEAxz-H2tjZKojcYTytgAwY8kgfctp1KmPD3T51QSw1yqzM2Lj9nwXcoZ5f1nJLS4&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">E&E</a>; Weekend conditions: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/27/california-wildfires-winds-heat/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--eGMrt1syferudaktlGVVKMEY0GtRdCEFE9kh0KVmGUeUqMyFxCIQ0uuU2lQiOoEr4QLg9SDVH3DRcvNTzOD1qgp5_WGz9BcjX4N6GuTxUYJeS0iY&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/25/california-heatwave-temperatures-wildfires?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-852YwT7VEURpg5t5xAoR9oxVViLPVsN2P0wwSp11Y3ArzCpfgKhMttNcRhmr_ZAomIiv3yOhYRU9x44rztsRiJh1QWy3JUwMnn5w_RhEaPG7mkePg&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Hot-temperatures-high-fire-danger-and-slightly-15599419.php?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_deidYKtyzBYgRzfz2uTLKmxXv7ayQ9lx4prpYBmk0kLTr7XmVEO45lydcOhKT74ojRRHrUShZFsnjD4TQoNdt38iAOjvFlvIkNgg1flRtlzrqUkw&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a>; Fires: <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/28/us/california-wildfires-zogg-fire-glass-fire-monday/index.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_6pqkRWXQh8abROXh8Hd8JX9gf5cB1_tgZjEct1oPBJU-OrfFF6Q8f60lOTKo-GU2tzseTSf9Kv0RNIhWzEacsX3m07IuEMen-BjYaTXskOaX9vMk&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN</a>, <a href="https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/09/28/wildfire-erupts-near-st-helena-evacuations-underway-in-neighborhoods-near-silverado-trail/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8mQ894hiDyvTPS1n2NPmnSWmEw4Lq7lWXD4R9cqHT4X8F9PuphlEQ31smYpTnEAm9eJ1U4o02_809pVEuttvmBz9a4J9bK1xqiiT0eCKP6tAb7aQk&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">KPIX</a>, <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/calistoga-st-helena-deer-park-wildfire-evacuations-15600692.php?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9F4-Wab7eZREhnULDmGIV0k9x_NThFQU5_MSquHuNaZDkQ7bRH6a4Yu-qDDXa55xAVioefHg3tLRHunHs43IHEeaKIrF1QvA6KBmbV5pgy7QjydDY&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">San Francisco Gate</a>, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-wildfires0st-helena-wine-country-napa-county-today-2020-09-28/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9P0BbBx9nYT3T_1W-lOffDYHQEjYmkZbDQQIibib1tKlKDaqb51l8wXnA6X5XEXFXkzvfGhFT2z79GUksHfelxxg4MVYL0bPHMOlCY5A65LlPsFHc&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CBS</a>, <a href="https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/early-morning-napa-county-fire-grows-to-800-acres/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9Exio8Ld8lxE0RHLM1p_BgKjdAw9k32hG2HsVJiYGLt3RNPgtSKhF03njhfHjzZlgD9DRwXqHzr10D8ESwuVg7A9wh0Rp9bPno6hjxvZ3wuXPRzPo&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Press Democrat</a>, <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/Wildfire-breaks-out-near-St-Helena-in-Napa-15600677.php?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-99w-thHE2aSzf_q6Xk1dgS6yrogihar09euhVC0DLPcYKVgtV0q10OqQhPZWSfU4T404sedEO8ONHYXClq4HmIwj3L2Qe3_8lbm7JIt2LVUjLJxCc&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a>, <a href="https://abc7news.com/wildfires-trigger-new-evacuation-orders-in-napa-county/6619307/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ABC-7 KGO News</a>, <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/09/27/fire-breaks-out-in-napa-as-forecasters-predict-hot-smoky-week/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-91dr7E9vqo3PKR-X9I3GwmK5scJrwMwNSrP6keEdMz9OtJtMplme2bHxd5_ifedEYGRxjWBUN_ENqITOVBN2pUdFobXvQHWm5LUisYU0sJcru9b4Q&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mercury News</a>, <a href="https://krcrtv.com/news/local/fire-breaks-out-in-igo?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_YUqKikCN8aIADKO_iTe_OqXWKrw5UUYBNuwNHJX914J9zo_nLfPjCd-7DlhquzwJJgLe53hGZYorAMbJ5AOb1Rdx0xVYXjwwjj12TjjjHrZSqmSs&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">KRCR</a>, <a href="https://sfist.com/2020/09/27/napa-county-glass-fire-grows-to-over-800-acres-more-evacuations-underway-structures-burned-as-blaze-continues-ballooning/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9ltVJVENifXl3oUfL35FYoQ3V3kLoZchjPypQecv1NlGERt1mMFbUPlwXdxHLOeAV8faIokxuwaY3ytvFDyz795UAyxF-uYAMOrgf-OfhGLD196vg&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">SFist</a>, <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/California-blazes-exploding-New-evacuations-from-15602171.php?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9dkNr9eCqgGEvxi7dOEa1aCUevyW70sAoQecnkS5HXDhUnLD7j22Q0CbtWWj-QIZOAHcVir2IcolKHa58GHN4jLhEp03DjMLML6hxI0-aY6EQnV3w&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a>, <a href="https://weather.com/news/news/2020-09-27-california-napa-county-glass-fire-impacts-evacuations?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9dHhWSMpBzxlxna9RotW7frfqtFg37auwCIa7aomquA5T0AocvkVfG4cXDC46SDmnLmRY5H4DZleZFT5J6o5pqaqGxhrrOfvJpMSabN5m_8ToB39A&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Weather Channel</a>; Climate signals background: <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-change-wildfires?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9zQsXAgonNscvqMBp2K5xbAheSFH5-kQT_5wAP3h2PJMHU4BrnyEMk0rDW8Y7i6GEy__b9ICr4Wq88tNUf6Y10Q4t9gWyCHDhIjx7tiiHjVdBBP8A&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wildfires</a>, <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/events/western-wildfire-season-2020?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_jlihPzlQ5DGWbcnHKcnMuMmAZLm2WudQwftKMhR4ey5l8X06_xMSJqNkdNBq4nj6SMP1pr2rIH_4BDtVYCZ5dB2V6pRZ_Ka6CMg6qOQFA0koy2Z8&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2020 Western wildfire season</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>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Sir David Attenborough speaks at the launch of the UK-hosted COP26 UN Climate Summit at the Science Museum on Feb. 4, 2020 in London, England. Jeremy Selwyn - WPA Pool / Getty Images
Sir David Attenborough wants to share a message about the climate crisis. And it looks like his fellow Earthlings are ready to listen.
<p>The beloved 94-year-old nature broadcaster joined Instagram Thursday, and quickly broke the world record for the shortest amount of time to reach one million followers, <a href="https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2020/9/sir-david-attenborough-breaks-instagram-record-for-fastest-time-to-reach-one-mill-632391" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Guinness World Records announced</a>. He reached the milestone in just two hours and 44 minutes.</p><p>"I've been appearing on radio and television for the past 60 years," Attenborough said in a video accompanying his first post, "but this is my first time on Instagram."</p>
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<p>In the video, Attenborough said he was trying the new (to him) form of communication in order to spread awareness about the threats facing life on Earth.</p><p>"As we all know, the world is in trouble," he said. "Continents are on fire. Glaciers are melting. Coral reefs are dying. Fish are disappearing from our oceans. The list goes on and on. But we know what to do about it."</p><p>Attenborough said he would be recording video messages over the next few weeks explaining both the problems facing our planet and possible solutions.</p>
<p>In breaking the record Thursday, Attenborough racked up one million followers more quickly than Friends star Jennifer Aniston, the previous record holder who amassed one million followers in five hours and 16 minutes last October. Previous record holders also included Pope Francis and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Guinness said.</p><p>As of Monday morning, the broadcaster had a follower count of 4.5 million. That's still well below the highest total Instagram follower count, which is held by soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo with 238 million, according to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54292947" target="_blank">BBC News</a>.</p><p>This isn't the first time that Attenborough has broken a record in his decades-long career, Guinness World Records pointed out. He also holds the record for the longest career as both a TV presenter and a TV naturalist.</p>
<p>While Attenborough is recording the messages for his Instagram account, the account is being managed by some of the team behind the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/environment-movies-2020-2647790203.html" target="_self">new documentary</a> <em>David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet</em>, which <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80216393" target="_blank">premieres on Netflix Oct. 4</a>.</p><p>"Social media isn't David's usual habitat," director Jonnie Hughes and executive producer Colin Butfield of the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/" target="_blank">World Wildlife Fund</a> explained in the text accompanying the post.</p><p>The pair said the Instagram feed would also feature exclusive clips and behind-the-scenes footage from the new film.</p><p>"Saving our planet is now a communications challenge," Hughes and Butfield wrote. "We know what to do, we just need the will."</p>
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Homes Are Flooding Outside FEMA’s 100-Year Flood Zones, Exposing Racial Inequality
28 September
Climate
People walk down a flooded street as they evacuate their homes after the area was inundated with flooding from Hurricane Harvey on August 27, 2017 in Houston, Texas. Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Kevin T. Smiley
When hurricanes and other extreme storms unleash downpours like Tropical Storm Beta has been doing in the South, the floodwater doesn't always stay within the government's flood risk zones.
New research suggests that nearly twice as many properties are at risk from a 100-year flood today than the Federal Emergency Management Agency's flood maps indicate.
<p>Unfortunately, many of the people living in those properties have no idea that their homes are at risk until the floodwaters rise.</p><p>I am a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SmYUxIEAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sociologist who works on disaster vulnerability</a>. In a new study, I looked at the makeup of communities in Houston that aren't in the 100-year flood zone, but that still flood. What I found tells a story of racial disparities in the city. Research in other cities has shown <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/25381/chapter/4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">similar flooding problems</a> in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.</p><p>Poor stormwater infrastructure, expanding urbanization and limited flood mitigation efforts are a few of the reasons why.</p>
Flooding Outside the Zones
<p>About <a href="https://furmancenter.org/files/Floodplain_PopulationBrief_12DEC2017.pdf" target="_blank">15 million</a> Americans live in FEMA's current 100-year flood zones. The designation warns them that their properties face a 1% risk of flooding in any given year. They must obtain flood insurance if they want a federally ensured loan – insurance that helps them recover from flooding.</p><p>In Greater Houston, however, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2012.01840.x" target="_blank">47% of claims</a> made to FEMA across three decades before Hurricane Harvey were outside of the 100-year flood zones. Harris County, recognizing that FEMA flood maps don't capture the full risk, now <a href="https://www.hcfcd.org/floodinsurance" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">recommends that every household</a> in Houston and the rest of the county have flood insurance.</p><p>New risk models point to a similar conclusion: Flood risk in these areas outstrips expectations in the current FEMA flood maps.</p><p>One of those models, from the <a href="https://firststreet.org/flood-lab/research/2020-national-flood-risk-assessment-highlights/" target="_blank">First Street Foundation</a>, estimates that the number of properties at risk in a 100-year storm is 1.7 times higher than the FEMA maps suggest. Other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aaac65" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">researchers</a> find an even higher margin, with 2.6 to 3.1 times more people exposed to serious flooding in a 100-year storm than FEMA estimates.</p>What FEMA’s Flood Maps Miss
<p>Understanding why areas outside the 100-year flood zones are flooding more often than the FEMA maps suggest involves larger social and environmental issues. Three reasons stand out.</p><p>First, some places rely on relatively old FEMA maps that don't account for recent urbanization.</p><p>Urbanization matters because impervious surfaces – think pavement and buildings – are not effective sponges like natural landscapes can be. Moreover, the process for updating floodplain maps is locally variable and can take years to complete. Famously, New York City was updating its maps when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012 but hadn't finished, meaning flood maps in effect <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nyc-flood/" target="_blank">were from 1983</a>. FEMA is required to assess whether updates are needed every five years, but the <a href="https://www.fema.gov/cis/nation.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">majority of maps</a> <a href="https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2017/OIG-17-110-Sep17.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">are older</a>.</p><p>Second, binary thinking can lead people to an underaccounting of risk, and that can mean communities fail to take steps that could protect a neighborhood from flooding. The logic goes: if I'm not in the 100-year floodplain, then I'm not at risk. Risk perception <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab195a" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">research</a> backs this up. FEMA-delineated flood zones are the major factor shaping flood mitigation behaviors.</p><p>Third, the era of climate change scuttles conventional assumptions.</p><p>As the planet warms, extreme storms are becoming <a href="https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/" target="_blank">more common and severe</a>. If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at a high rate, computer models suggest that the chances of a severe storm dropping 20 inches of rain on Texas in any given year will increase from about 1% at the end of the last century to 18% at the end of this one, a chance of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1716222114" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">once every 5.5 years</a>. So far, <a href="https://www.rstreet.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/195.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FEMA hasn't taken into account the impact climate change is having</a> on extreme weather and sea level rise.</p>Racial Disparities in Flooding Outside the Zones
<p>So, who is at risk?</p><p>Years of research and evidence from storms have highlighted social inequalities in areas with a high risk of flooding. But most local governments have less understanding of the social and demographic composition of communities that experience flood impacts outside of flood zones.</p><p>In analyzing the damage from Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area, I found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aba0fe" target="_blank">Black and Hispanic residents disproportionately experienced flooding</a> in areas beyond FEMA's 100-year flood zones.</p><p>With the majority of flooding from Hurricane Harvey occurring outside of 100-year flood zones, this meant that the overall impact of Harvey was racially unequal too.</p><p>Research into where flooding occurs in Baltimore, Chicago and Phoenix points to some of the potential causes. <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/25381/chapter/4#16" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">In Baltimore and Chicago</a>, for example, aging storm and sewer infrastructure, poor construction and insufficient efforts to mitigate flooding are part of the flooding problem in some predominantly Black neighborhoods.</p>What Can Be Done About It
<p>Better accounting for those three reasons could substantively improve risk assessments and help cities prioritize infrastructure improvements and flood mitigation projects in these at-risk neighborhoods.</p><p>For example, First Street Foundation's risk maps account for <a href="https://firststreet.org/flood-lab/research/flood-model-methodology_overview/" target="_blank">climate change</a> and present <a href="https://floodfactor.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ratings</a> on a scale from 1 to 10. FEMA, which works with communities to update flood maps, is <a href="https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1521054297905-ca85d066dddb84c975b165db653c9049/TMAC_2017_Annual_Report_Final508(v8)_03-12-2018.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">exploring rating systems</a>. And the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recently <a href="https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2019/03/new-report-calls-for-different-approaches-to-predict-and-understand-urban-flooding" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">called for a new generation of flood maps</a> that takes climate change into account.</p><p>Including recent urbanization in those assessments will matter too, especially in fast-growing cities like Houston, where <a href="https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1boBRyDvMFW6W" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">386 new square miles</a> of impervious surfaces were created in the last 20 years. That's greater than the land area of New York City. New construction in one area can also <a href="https://scalawagmagazine.org/2018/01/city-in-a-swamp-as-houston-booms-its-flood-problems-are-only-getting-worse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">impact older neighborhoods downhill</a> during a flood, as some Houston communities discovered in Hurricane Harvey.</p><p>Improving risk assessments is needed not just to better prepare communities for major flood events, but also to prevent racial inequalities – in housing and beyond – from <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/03/05/688786177/how-federal-disaster-money-favors-the-rich" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">growing</a> after the unequal impacts of disasters.</p>From Your Site Articles
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