Our industry has come a long way in shaping solar into a serious source for America's energy needs and we are in a major growth mode.
By 2020, solar will quadruple in size to nearly 100 gigawatts (GW) of total capacity from just more than 25 GW today. By then, more than $150 billion will have been pumped into our economy and enough solar will have been installed to power 20 million American homes.
Why will this happen? In large part it's because the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) fought a successful battle to extend the solar investment tax credit (ITC) last December. Instead of allowing the ITC to drop down to 10 percent for commercial users and zero for residential users, SEIA pushed Congress to vote for a long-term extension.
Watch this new report to learn just how the solar industry beat the odds.
The industry isn't stopping with the pivotal ITC policy. Solar will make our nation proud and prosperous as a world leader in a new energy paradigm. A unified industry will be key in shepherding this exciting new era through.
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A deadly tornado touched down near the city of Fultondale, Alabama on Jan. 25, 2021. Justin1569 / Wikipedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
A tornado tore through a city north of Birmingham, Alabama, Monday night, killing one person and injuring at least 30.
<p>The Birmingham National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed that a twister touched down in Jefferson County, Alabama, near the city of Fultondale, around 10:30 p.m. Monday night, <a href="https://www.wvtm13.com/article/tornado-damage-in-jefferson-county/35314441" target="_blank">WVTM 13 reported</a>. The storm caused significant damage, knocking down trees and power lines and destroying homes and businesses.</p><p>"It looks like a bomb went off," Sam Moerbe, an 18-year-old who accompanied his father to their former Fultondale neighborhood, <a href="https://www.al.com/news/2021/01/storm-damage-reported-in-fultondale-as-jefferson-county-tornado-watch-continues.html" target="_blank">told AL.com</a>.</p><p>His father, Dave, said all 45 homes in his former community had some damage.</p><p>The tornado left behind a quarter-mile swath of extensive damage, Fultondale Mayor Larry Holcomb told AL.com. It touched down near Interstate 65 and moved northeast toward Fultondale High School, causing significant damage to the school and destroying structures, including the Hampton Inn.</p>
<p>It also claimed at least one life. A teenage boy died when a tree fell on his home, causing it to collapse as he and his family were hiding in the basement, <a href="https://www.wvtm13.com/article/1-dead-over-a-dozen-injured-after-devastating-tornado-in-fultondale-monday-night/35318002" target="_blank">WVTM 13</a> reported.</p><p>Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Dr. Walter Gonsoulin confirmed that a 14-year-old Fultondale High School student had been killed, but his identity has not yet been released, according to WVTM 13.</p><p>Fultondale Police Chief D.P. Smith said the victim and the rest of his family had been trapped in the basement after the collapse. Other family members were critically injured, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/alabama-weather-birmingham-9111aa9ec1c629c58e5e86f8f7c36e1d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Associated Press</a> reported.</p><p>Fultondale Fire Chief Justin McKenzie said that 18 people have been taken to the hospital with injuries, while six more were rescued from their homes, <a href="https://www.al.com/news/2021/01/storm-damage-reported-in-fultondale-as-jefferson-county-tornado-watch-continues.html" target="_blank">AL.com</a> reported.</p>
<div id="8d576" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ac2d28db83efc91555432779a700a167"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1354046401043456005" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">NEW VIDEO—
(FULTONDALE, Ala.)
Sunlight shows depth of damage from possible tornado on New Castle Rd. Rescue crews… https://t.co/tCLxmvyj08</div> — Stoney Sharp (@Stoney Sharp)<a href="https://twitter.com/StoneySharp3340/statuses/1354046401043456005">1611664793.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Search and rescue efforts continue, James Coker, Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency director, told The Associated Press.</p><p>"Our current goal is always life safety," Coker said. "That is not only for the people who may have been injured but also the first responders who assist them."</p><p>Several people had near misses, including one woman who said she was in bed when the storm struck.</p><p>"The roof left, and the walls,'' Janice Hamilton told AL.com. "It was just in a matter of seconds. It's all gone."</p>
<p>Hamilton, who uses a wheelchair, was taken with her family to a shelter at the Gardendale Civic Center. She said she was grateful to be alive.</p><p>NWS is still working to determine the strength of the tornado, according to The Associated Press.</p><p>There is evidence that <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/lee-county-alabama-tornado-2630610008.html" target="_self">tornado alley</a> is shifting from the Great Plains toward the Midwest and Southeast. That could be a problem since tornadoes in the South tend to have a higher death toll due to more densely populated areas and more mobile homes. Tornadoes in the South are also more likely to strike at night, like Monday's twister. Scientists say it is possible that the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> is driving the shift.</p>
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- Tornadoes and Climate Change: What Does the Science Say ... ›
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An empty school bus by a field of chemical plants in "Cancer Alley," one of the most polluted areas of the U.S. that stretches from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, where oil refineries and petrochemical plants reside alongside suburban homes. Giles Clarke / Getty Images
By David Konisky
On his first day in office President Joe Biden started signing executive orders to reverse Trump administration policies. One sweeping directive calls for stronger action to protect public health and the environment and hold polluters accountable, including those who "disproportionately harm communities of color and low-income communities."
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<p><br>To lead this effort Biden has nominated <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/17/climate/michael-regan-epa.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Michael Regan</a> to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa">EPA</a>). Regan, who currently heads North Carolina's Department of Environmental Quality, would be the first Black man to serve as EPA administrator in the agency's 50-year history. His appointment has fueled expectations that the agency will <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063721111" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">make environmental justice a top priority</a>.</p><p>The EPA <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-09/documents/epa_office_of_environmental_justice_factsheet.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">first created an Office of Environmental Justice in 1992</a>, but I know from <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SnSvL-sAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">my research on decades of the agency's work</a> that it has never given the issue sustained attention. Despite <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/10/105002" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">activism</a> from a growing environmental justice movement, widespread evidence that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-082508-094348" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pollution over-burdens poor and minority communities</a>, and a Clinton-era <a href="https://www.archives.gov/files/federal-register/executive-orders/pdf/12898.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">executive order</a> that mandated federal action, <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/failed-promises" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the EPA has largely failed</a> to modify its programs, policies and decision-making processes in response.</p>
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<p>The agency's toolkit for taking on environmental injustice is limited. Current environmental laws do not require it to craft policies to address unequal pollution burdens, and in some cases they make it difficult to do so. Several <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/2236/text" target="_blank">House and Senate members have introduced</a> <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5986/text" target="_blank">bills to give the EPA such a mandate</a>, and they may try again in the new Congress. But the agency can get started before that happens.</p>
<h2>Boost Inclusion and Enforcement</h2><p>In my view, EPA officials can advance environmental justice immediately by striving for inclusive decision-making. This means not just listening to people of color and other communities suffering from pollution burdens, but empowering them to be involved in decisions that affect their lives.</p><p>Historically the EPA has too often taken an "announce-and-defend" approach to its decisions. By giving these communities more voice, I believe the agency will make better decisions and show that it is committed to changing its <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/inside-out" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">historical insensitivity</a> to environmental justice goals.</p><p>Second, EPA leaders should prioritize enforcement activities in overburdened communities. Numerous studies have shown that federal and state agencies conduct fewer inspections and impose lighter penalties when offending pollution sources are located in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Researchers have documented this pattern on issues including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381613000170" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">air pollution</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12397" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">drinking water</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12160" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hazardous waste management</a>.</p><p>EPA enforcement has <a href="https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/enforcement-annual-results-fiscal-year-2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">declined for many years</a>, so the agency needs to ramp up these efforts overall. But its leaders have full discretion to target enforcement toward companies located in communities that are heavily polluted. And they can use existing resources, such as the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EJSCREEN mapping tool</a>, to help identify these communities.</p><p>EPA officials will need to coordinate these enforcement efforts with the U.S. Department of Justice, which is responsible for prosecuting cases. In addition, the EPA will need to set clear expectations that states, which do the lion's share of enforcement, also prioritize environmental justice communities.</p>
<div id="d8964" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="df5954a2a0e147a6292baacc1851f18a"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1340399106414567425" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Quoted in story re: our 25-year fight 2 reduce polluting clusters of waste transfer stations in the communities of… https://t.co/x2ytpTDetm</div> — Eddie Bautista (@Eddie Bautista)<a href="https://twitter.com/eddiebautista08/statuses/1340399106414567425">1608411025.0</a></blockquote></div>
<h2>Spotlight Discrimination and Analyze New Rules for EJ Impact</h2><p>Another thing the EPA can do now is make better use of its authority under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Specifically, Title VI of the Civil Right Act prohibits organizations that receive federal funds from <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ogc/facts-title-vi-civil-rights-act-1964" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">discriminating against protected groups</a>. This includes state and local agencies that issue permits and carry out other activities to implement federal pollution control laws.</p><p>As external assessments have shown, the EPA has an <a href="https://publicintegrity.org/topics/environment/pollution/environmental-justice-denied/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">abysmal record of applying Title VI</a>. Historically it has not been willing to make findings of discrimination, or in many cases even to conduct serious investigations of credible allegations. In one of the few exceptions, when Michigan officials approved siting the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-01/documents/final-genesee-complaint-letter-to-director-grether-1-19-2017.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Genesee Power Station</a> in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Flint, Michigan, over community objections, the agency's finding that this was discriminatory came 25 years after the initial complaint.</p><p>The EPA can improve this process by opening its door to Title VI claims and handling them promptly and fairly. Doing so will show environmental justice communities that it takes their concerns seriously, and make clear to state and local agencies that discrimination is not acceptable.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTUzNjg5NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MjQxMjE0MX0.GJFJ-UxzAYpGKfN5-PWSiuAQi7bn3lO5XixeIaUMqRY/img.jpg?width=980" id="9c042" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4354250e5e919653c514b49adaf38370" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1200" data-height="982" />
Michael S. Regan, President Biden's nominee to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, grew up near a coal-burning power plant in North Carolina and has pledged to "enact an environmental justice framework that empowers people in all communities." NCDEQ
<p>A fourth immediate action the EPA can take is to make it routine practice to consider environmental justice in its rule-making. President Clinton's 1994 executive order suggested doing this, but unlike traditional cost-benefit analysis, it is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0143814X18000077" target="_blank">not a regular part</a> of agency decision-making.</p><p>Fortunately <a href="https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/technical-guidance-assessing-environmental-justice-regulatory-analysis" target="_blank">the EPA already has guidance</a> that was published in 2016 showing how to do environmental justice analysis. Through more careful attention to how new rules affect low-income communities and communities of color, the agency can make its decisions more transparent and adopt policies with fewer impacts on already overburdened communities.</p><p>Achieving environmental justice is a long-term project, and the EPA is just one of many government agencies that need to change their ways before the U.S. can make progress. Eventually Congress will need to provide the EPA with new tools. Until that time, the agency can more effectively use its current authorities to get started.</p>
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<em>David Konisky is a professor of public and environmental affairs at Indiana University.</em><br/>
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<em>Disclosure statement: David Konisky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em>
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<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-has-pledged-to-advance-environmental-justice-heres-how-the-epa-can-start-152512" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
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By Katherine Kornei
Clear-cutting a forest is relatively easy—just pick a tree and start chopping. But there are benefits to more sophisticated forest management. One technique—which involves repeatedly harvesting smaller trees every 30 or so years but leaving an upper story of larger trees for longer periods (60, 90, or 120 years)—ensures a steady supply of both firewood and construction timber.
<p>To determine when this management practice first arose in Europe, researchers have analyzed oak construction timbers from historical buildings and archaeological sites dating from the 4th to 21st centuries. They spotted a characteristic tree ring pattern indicative of this technique in timber dating back to the 6th century. That was a surprise, the researchers noted, because this forest management practice shows up in historical documents beginning only in the 13th century.</p>
A Pattern in the Rings
<p>The <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/coppice-standards-0" target="_blank">coppice-with-standards</a> management practice produces a two-story forest, said <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bernhard_Muigg" target="_blank">Bernhard Muigg</a>, a dendrochronologist at the University of Freiburg in Germany. "You have an upper story of single trees that are allowed to grow for several understory generations."</p><p>That arrangement imprints a characteristic tree ring pattern in a forest's upper story trees (the "standards"): thick rings indicative of heavy growth, which show up at regular intervals as the surrounding smaller trees are cut down. "The trees are growing faster," said Muigg. "You can really see it with your naked eye."</p><p>Muigg and his collaborators characterized that <a href="https://ltrr.arizona.edu/about/treerings" target="_blank">dendrochronological pattern</a> in 161 oak trees growing in central Germany, one of the few remaining sites in Europe with actively managed coppice-with-standards forests. They found up to nine cycles of heavy growth in the trees, the oldest of which was planted in 1761. The researchers then turned to a historical data set — more than 2,000 oak <a href="https://eos.org/articles/podcast-discovering-europes-history-through-its-timbers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">timbers from buildings and archaeological sites</a> in Germany and France dating from between 300 and 2015 — to look for a similar pattern.</p>A Gap of 500 Years
<p>The team found wood with the characteristic coppice-with-standards tree ring pattern dating to as early as the 6th century. That was a surprise, Muigg and his colleagues concluded, because the first mention of this forest management practice in historical documents occurred only roughly 500 years later, in the 13th century.</p><p>It's probable that forest management practices were not well documented prior to the High Middle Ages (1000–1250), the researchers suggested. "Forests are mainly mentioned in the context of royal hunting interests or donations," said Muigg. Dendrochronological studies are particularly important because they can reveal information not captured by a sparse historical record, he added.</p><p>These results were <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-78933-8" target="_blank">published in December in <em>Scientific Reports</em></a>.</p><p>"It's nice to see the longevity and the history of coppice-with-standards," said <a href="https://www.teagasc.ie/contact/staff-directory/s/ian-short/" target="_blank">Ian Short</a>, a forestry researcher at Teagasc, the Agriculture and Food Development Authority in Ireland, not involved in the research. This technique is valuable because it promotes conservation and habitat biodiversity, Short said. "In the next 10 or 20 years, I think we'll see more coppice-with-standards coming back into production."</p><p>In the future, Muigg and his collaborators hope to analyze a larger sample of historic timbers to trace how the coppice-with-standards practice spread throughout Europe. It will be interesting to understand where this technique originated and how it propagated, said Muigg, and there are plenty of old pieces of wood waiting to be analyzed. "There [are] tons of dendrochronological data."</p><p><em><a href="mailto:katherine.kornei@gmail.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Katherine Kornei</a> is a freelance science journalist covering Earth and space science. Her bylines frequently appear in Eos, Science, and The New York Times. Katherine holds a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of California, Los Angeles.</em></p><p><em>This story originally appeared in <a href="https://eos.org/articles/tree-rings-reveal-how-ancient-forests-were-managed" target="_blank">Eos</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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Icebergs near Ilulissat, Greenland on Oct. 13, 2020. Climate change is having a profound effect with glaciers and the Greenland ice cap retreating. Ulrik Pedersen / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Earth's ice is melting 57 percent faster than in the 1990s and the world has lost more than 28 trillion tons of ice since 1994, research published Monday in The Cryosphere shows.
<p>"It was a surprise to see such a large increase in just 30 years," said Thomas Slater, a study co-author. There have been huge efforts to study ice loss research in individual regions of the world, allowing the researchers to combine data to assess ice loss worldwide. Their findings show that <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/arctic">Arctic</a> ice is disappearing the fastest, with 7.6 trillion tons melting between 1994 to 2017. The report also found land ice melt alone contributed to a global average <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise">sea level rise</a> of 3.5 centimeters. However, land ice is only a small portion of the world's ice. Sea ice shelves, which float on water, are disappearing quickly. If they collapse, the land ice (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glaciers">glaciers</a>) some sea ice shelves hold in place would be released and could accelerate sea level rise for centuries.</p>
<p>As reported by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/25/global-ice-loss-accelerating-at-record-rate-study-finds" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>:</p><blockquote>The greatest quantities of ice were lost from floating ice in the polar regions, raising the risk of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/jan/05/climate-change-feedback-loops" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feedback mechanism</a> known as albedo loss. White ice reflects solar radiation back into space – the albedo effect – but when floating sea ice melts it uncovers dark water which absorbs more heat, speeding up the warming further in a feedback loop.</blockquote><blockquote><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/apr/18/glacier-loss-is-accelerating-because-of-global-warming" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Glaciers</a> showed the next biggest loss of ice volume, with more than 6tn tonnes lost between 1994 and 2017, about a quarter of global ice loss over the period. The shrinking of glaciers threatens to cause both flooding and water shortages in some regions, because as large volumes melt they can overwhelm downstream areas, then shrunken glaciers produce less of the steady water flow needed for agriculture.</blockquote><blockquote>Inès Otosaka, report co-author and a PhD researcher at the University of Leeds centre for polar observation and modelling, said: "As well as contributing to global mean sea level rise, mountain glaciers are also critical as a freshwater resource for local communities. The retreat of glaciers around the world is therefore of crucial importance, at both local and global scales."</blockquote>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong><br/></p><p><a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2021/01/25/stories/1063723345?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=108160364&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--7OMtsTb9kCpSwUWAfK-1w4RfBTHXWMU81abwwTutRgGEIJA3fSnlDesdadRkMvsgcpBBP04YAuYMZxhOduTr8NZHJ5A&utm_content=108160364&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">E&E</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN29U0U0?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=108160364&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9-8UucsT6TVmReejromCcMzNZqdAHqhU0B_PfrC2LXLf3iFna_bB5Zyjhp46KfWOHrYKj2hvMQ-sx6iCBcLqTYW5jn9Q&utm_content=108160364&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Reuters</a>, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25012021/global-ice-loss-sea-level-rise/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=108160364&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8k4dWFukZ_uwRfUUP32KwYlGvv30xk3sWoDBNuhdJbEBtrvEHaHcOeinehxKiPujeo3oJYCG_YeixY1dHOrgGo4RYMCg&utm_content=108160364&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">InsideClimate News</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/25/global-ice-loss-accelerating-at-record-rate-study-finds" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/this-giant-ice-cube-represents-how-much-ice-were-losing-1846126447?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=108160364&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9k27-8HgLyeoO1YU5MVcUYsTclhB5hwreKiT2nJUY1C4E-smt8qDe23bOsQXJgCPu0MxGAKYKVx1ghM7zbJlT_7hlyDQ&utm_content=108160364&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Earther</a>, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/535670-the-worlds-ice-is-melting-57-percent-faster-than-in-the-1990s-study?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=108160364&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--MxyfdilgAnC-YLxaXsuWSUFAwCW93LFuLHL6TMrk7n5wDszpKfs9rBhv0PWJDJh03keVFojaBGVfqegQNpKhYnDY4mQ&utm_content=108160364&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Hill</a></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, sign up for daily </em><a href="https://www.linktrack.live/hot-news-sign-up" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>, and visit their news site, </em><a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Nexus Media News</em></a><em>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Caribbean islands such as Trinidad have plenty of water for swimming, but locals face water shortages for basic needs. Marc Guitard / Getty Images
By Jewel Fraser
Noreen Nunez lives in a middle-class neighborhood that rises up a hillside in Trinidad's Tunapuna-Piarco region.
<p>Accessed by a long, winding road bordered by trees, the houses, built in the 1970s and 1980s, are mainly painted in pastel shades. Dotted among fruit trees in their sizeable backyards are huge water tanks, mounted on concrete slabs.</p><p>The tanks are evidence that even this affluent community is not insulated from the water stress experienced across the Caribbean.</p><p>Residents fill the tanks from the main pipes to use during scheduled outages by the water authority. But the supply is often unreliable and further impacted by low pressure for those living further up the hill.</p><p>Nunez says outages have become a regular occurrence, with water often shut off for all but a few hours during the night.</p><p>"Most of the time you have to buy food from outside or have food catered and buy bottles of water to drink," she said. "You use disposable dishes."</p>
<h2>Patchy Infrastructure and Leaky Pipes</h2><p>Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Kitts and Nevis are all classed as <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ER.H2O.INTR.PC" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">water scarce</a>, which the <a href="http://www.fao.org/land-water/world-water-day-2021/water-scarcity/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UN defines</a> as countries with less than 1000 cubic meters per capita of renewable water resources a year.</p><p>Barbados' situation, with only 350 cubic meters per capita, is especially grave, according to Keithroy Halliday, general manager of the Barbados Water Authority.</p><p>While most people outside of rural mountainous areas in the Caribbean are connected to the public water supply, they frequently face outdated infrastructure in need of repair, resulting in major losses of drinking water.</p><p>Alan Poon King, head of Trinidad and Tobago's Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), says the utility loses as much as 60 million gallons of water each day from leaking infrastructure — and that much again is wasted by problems like leaking taps on private properties.</p><p>The picture is similar in Jamaica, which Peter Clarke, managing director of the country's Water Resources Authority, says suffers from "a serious loss of water that has been produced and is supposed to be delivered, but it is not reaching the end user because of the aging infrastructure — it's leaky, it's perforated."</p>
<h2>Climate Change Increases Pressure</h2><p>If these structural problems are left unaddressed, things are only likely to deteriorate as the planet heats up.</p><p>"There are many other problems that are facing the water sector in the Caribbean and climate change is exacerbating those existing, underlying conditions," said Adrian Cashman, who sits on the global technical advisory committee for the Global Water Partnership.</p><p>Officials say <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018GL079408?af=R" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">drought conditions</a> across the region over the past couple of years mean there just hasn't been enough rain to replenish aquifers at the usual rate.</p><p>"This past summer [in Jamaica] we went through a significant drought," said Clarke. "It really was challenging for the water supply providers."</p><p>In Trinidad and Tobago, Poon King said it was difficult to quantify the impacts of climate change, but that it was an ongoing challenge: "We've seen reduced precipitation that could be anywhere in the range of 10-20% in the dry season."</p><p>Halliday said climate change has already "significantly impacted" Barbados' water supply, too. All of Barbados' internal renewable water resources come from rainfall, he explained, and in 2019 the country saw its lowest recorded levels since 1947.</p>
<h2>Climate Finance and Water-Wise Living</h2><p>The Caribbean region enjoys relatively high standards of living, with most countries defined by the UN as <a href="https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"upper-middle income."</a> This excludes them from much international development funding. At the same time, high levels of public debt combined with their vulnerability to <a href="https://unctad.org/system/files/non-official-document/tdb_efd2c01_Munevar_en.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change</a> makes it difficult to secure investment in infrastructure. </p><p>However, one of the region's first major water projects financed by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which was set up to help developing countries cope with the changing climate, is currently underway in Grenada.</p><p>Project head Hans-Werner Theisen says about half of the €45 million the GCF has allocated to the project will be spent improving infrastructure like water tanks, reservoirs and pipes. There will also be financial incentives to cut water waste from sectors like agriculture and tourism, which are among the biggest consumers of water.</p><p>Encouraging the public to use water more carefully is key to the project in Grenada, too. "What I think is very important is that everyone, every citizen, can contribute to water-saving measures, so we have to be water-wise in day-to-day living," Theisen said.</p><p>Elsewhere, Barbados has passed laws prohibiting the use of potable water for washing cars, gardening, filling swimming pools and similar activities. As in Jamaica, people are encouraged to use wastewater for such activities.</p>
<h2>Water, Water Everywhere…</h2><p>Despite day-to-day water outages, a 2017 UN Water <a href="https://www.cepal.org/sites/default/files/static/files/sdg6_c1900676_web.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">report</a> showed most people in the Caribbean have access to a safe — if irregular — water supply.</p><p>But in Trinidad, Nunez is infuriated living on an island with 360-views of the turquoise waters and nothing coming out of the tap.</p><p>"Water and air are things that humans need to live," she added. "I can't understand how on an island surrounded by water, they can't find some way of using — desalinating — the water."</p><p>According to <a href="https://www.sdg6data.org/country-or-area/Trinidad%20and%20Tobago" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2019 figures</a>, the region gets some 12% of its water supply from desalination. Poon King said in Trinidad and Tobago that figure is 20% but expanding this is problematic due to high energy costs.</p><p>For Nunez, water shortages are out of step with her country's development status. Trinidad and Tobago have profited from its oil reserves. Yet despite its high income, it struggles to adequately supply this most basic of necessities.</p><p>"There are glass buildings and universities and huge international airports and everything like this, but there is no water," she said. "We've got the latest architectural structures and homes and houses, but it seems like indoor sanitary ware and kitchens are just for show."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/climate-change-puts-pressure-on-failing-caribbean-water-supplies/a-56306009" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.</em></p>
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