Al Gore at SXSW: We Need to 'Punish Climate-Change Deniers' and 'Put a Price on Carbon'
The South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival is happening now in Austin, Texas. Running from March 9 to 22, it's a massive film, interactive and music festival that is nearly 20 years old. The festival brings together designers, developers, investors, entrepreneurs and politicians for panels and discussions about technology and innovation.
"We need to put a price on carbon to accelerate these market trends,” said Gore. “And in order to do that, we need to put a price on denial in politics."
stocklight / Shutterstock.com
For the third time in the last few years, Al Gore, founder and chairman of the Climate Reality Project, spoke at the festival on Friday. Naturally, his interactive discussion focused on addressing the climate crisis. The former vice president focused on the need to "punish climate-change deniers, saying politicians should pay a price for rejecting 'accepted science,'" said the Chicago Tribune.
Gore said forward-thinking investors are moving away from companies that invest in fossil fuels and towards companies investing in renewable energy. "We need to put a price on carbon to accelerate these market trends,” Gore told the Chicago Tribune, referring to a proposed federal cap-and-trade system that would penalize companies that exceeded their carbon-emission limits. “And in order to do that, we need to put a price on denial in politics."
He called on the tech-minded SXSW crowd, which is dominated by Millenials, to harness technology to launch a grassroots movement to tackle climate change and call out climate deniers. “We have this denial industry cranked up constantly,” Gore said. “In addition to 99 percent of the scientists and all the professional scientific organizations, now Mother Nature is weighing in.”
Years from now, Gore said the next generation will look back at us and ask: "How did you change?," according to Macworld. “Part of the answer may well be that a group of people came to South by Southwest in Austin, Texas in 2015 and helped to make a revolution,” Gore said.
Gore wanted these young, tech-savvy attendees to start a grassroots movement using social media like they did when "net neutrality was threatened or when the Stop Online Piracy Act threatened to blacklist websites that offered so-called illegal content," said Macworld. That means signing petitions to fight climate change, utilizing social media to call out climate deniers in Congress and streaming the Live Earth Road to Paris concert on June 18, an event designed to draw attention to the climate talks in Paris this December.
The former Veep even gave a nod to Pope Francis during his talk, showing a slide of the pontiff and saying "How about this Pope?" Pope Francis celebrated his two-year anniversary as Pope on Friday, riding a wave of popularity "that has reinvigorated the Catholic Church in ways not seen since the days of St. John Paul II," said the Chicago Tribune. Gore said he was looking forward to the Pope's highly anticipated encyclical on the environment which is due to be released in June or July. “I’m not a Catholic,” Gore said, “but I could be persuaded to become one.”
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Trump's Post Office Chaos Leads to Deaths of Thousands of Chicks Shipped to Maine Farmers
11h
Animals
Chicks shipped to Maine are arriving dead amid post office chaos. HerbertT - Eigenproduktion / CC BY-SA 3.0
Trump administration cuts to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) have had tragic consequences for Maine farmers and their chicks.
<p>Since 1918, the USPS has been the only organization that will ship live chicks and other small animals. Maine farmers have long relied on this service to order chicks from hatcheries in other parts of the country, but, this summer, at least 4,800 of those chicks have arrived dead, the <a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2020/08/19/dead-chick-deliveries-costing-maine-farmers-thousands-of-dollars/" target="_blank">Portland Press Herald reported</a>.</p><p>"We could hear a few, very faint peeps," Maine resident Rhiannon Hampson told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/21/us/postal-service-mail-rural.html" target="_blank">The New York Times of her experience</a> picking up chicks from the post office. "Out of 500, there were maybe 25 alive. They were staggering. It was terrible."</p>
<p>In another incident, Pauline Henderson of Pine Tree Poultry in New Sharon, Maine said all 800 chicks she ordered from a hatchery in Pennsylvania arrived dead.</p><p>"We've never had a problem like this before," Henderson told the Portland Press Herald. "Usually they arrive every three weeks like clockwork. And out of 100 birds you may have one or two that die in shipping."</p><p>The post office has been hit by a one-two punch this year, The New York Times explained. First, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic both dramatically increased package orders and sickened the staffers who would handle them. Then, newly-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy instituted a series of cuts and service changes beginning in June that have slowed and disrupted deliveries, <a href="https://apnews.com/4a3de5a041fe6353a4d055f866a1b62a#:~:text=Thousands%20of%20chicks%20arrive%20dead%20to%20farmers%20amid%20USPS%20turmoil,-yesterday&text=PORTLAND%2C%20Maine%20(AP)%20%E2%80%94,Chellie%20Pingree%20said." target="_blank">The Associated Press explained</a>. In Maine, two mail-sorting machines at its distribution hub were dismantled.</p>
<p>Democratic Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree called out the changes in a letter to DeJoy and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.</p><p>"It's one more of the consequences of this disorganization, this sort of chaos they've created at the post office and nobody thought through when they were thinking of slowing down the mail," Pingree told the Portland Press Herald. "And can you imagine, you have young kids and they are getting all excited about having a backyard flock and you go to the post office and that's what you find?"</p>
<div id="78e0e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="82771d48d72005a3c37c5d5c0993e663"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1296558217133252609" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Since 1918, @USPS has handled chicks safely and humanely.
Only after Postmaster DeJoy started slowing down mail d… https://t.co/v0aoBzliOh</div> — Chellie Pingree (@Chellie Pingree)<a href="https://twitter.com/chelliepingree/statuses/1296558217133252609">1597958542.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>DeJoy's changes included the dismantling of sorting equipment, reducing trips by mail carriers and the eradication of overtime.</p><p>DeJoy said Tuesday he would suspend the changes until after the November election following an outcry from Democrats, state attorneys general and civil rights groups, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/us/politics/postal-service-suspends-changes.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>. The groups were concerned that the changes could disrupt mail-in voting, which is likely to be high because of the pandemic.</p><p>However, it is not clear if DeJoy will also reverse measures already put in place, such as the destruction of mail sorting machines.</p>
<p>DeJoy was a major donor to President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> before being put in charge of the post office this spring. Trump has also spoken out against the USPS and blocked $25 billion in emergency aid for the agency, admitting he wanted to curb mail-in voting, according to The Associated Press.</p><p>However, some rural Americans have noted that, by attacking the post office, the administration is actually harming its base. Rural areas disproportionately rely on the USPS in order to send and receive mail.</p><p>"This is an attack on a tried-and-true service that rural America depends on," Ohio farmer and former Trump supporter Chris Gibbs told The New York Times. "It pulls one more piece of stability, predictability and reliability from rural America. People don't like that."</p>
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The fossilized remains of one marine reptile inside the stomach of another. Da-Yong Jiang, et al. / UC Davis
An unusual meal some 240 million years ago was preserved in stone, and now it's changing the way scientists think about the eating habits of marine reptiles in the prehistoric ocean.
<p>In a paper published in <a href="https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(20)30534-4" target="_blank">iScience</a> Thursday, scientists announced the discovery of a fossil of a five meter (approximately 15 foot) ichthyosaur with the remains of a four meter (approximately 12 foot) thalattosaur in its stomach. The fossil is probably the earliest evidence of megafaunal predation — when an animal preys on another animal human-sized or larger — in marine reptiles.</p><p>"We have never found articulated remains of a large reptile in the stomach of gigantic predators from the age of dinosaurs, such as marine reptiles and dinosaurs," study coauthor and University of California, Davis professor of earth and planetary sciences Ryosuke Motani said in a <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/ichthyosaurs-last-meal-evidence-triassic-megapredation" target="_blank">university press release</a>. "We always guessed from tooth shape and jaw design that these predators must have fed on large prey but now we have direct evidence that they did."</p>
<div id="9c5ba" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="be025802522393380cb72ea6c960d421"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1296482325228904460" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Ichthyosaur’s Last Meal Is Evidence of Triassic Megapredation - UC Davis https://t.co/f1731XeqmE</div> — UCDavis News Service (@UCDavis News Service)<a href="https://twitter.com/UCDavisNews/statuses/1296482325228904460">1597940448.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Ichthyosaurs were a type of marine reptile that first evolved some 250 million years ago after the Permian mass extinction. Their bodies resemble modern tuna, but they breathed air like dolphins or whales.</p><p>This particular ichthyosaur was a type called <em>Guizhouichthyosaurus. </em>Its remains, first discovered in China's Guizhou province in 2010, were unique because of a large bulge of other bones discovered in the creature's stomach. Upon investigation, the researchers discerned that the bones belonged to a species of the lizard-like reptile thalattosaur called <em>Xinpusaurus xingyiensis</em>.</p><p>The find was remarkable in part because early ichthyosaurs don't have the kind of sharp, serrated teeth usually associated with apex predators, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/08/ancient-marine-reptile-ichthyosaur-preyed-on-large-sea-creature-thalattosaur/#close" target="_blank">National Geographic explained</a>. Instead, their blunt, cone-shaped teeth suggested a preference for softer, squid-like creatures.</p>
<p>But the fossil evidence indicates that the ichthyosaur used its blunt teeth to grip the slightly smaller reptile, the way predators like orcas and crocodiles do today, according to the press release. Because other marine reptiles from the same time period have similar teeth, the researchers think megafaunal predation was more widespread than previously believed.</p><p>"Sometimes the details of a prehistoric crime scene tell us a weapon was a lot more capable of damage than we thought," University of Edinburgh paleontologist Stephen Brusatte, who was not involved with the study, told National Geographic.</p><p>In this case, the murdered thalattosaur may have had its revenge. Its remains were not digested, indicating that the ichthyosaur died soon after swallowing it. And the ichthyosaur fossil showed evidence of a broken neck.</p><p>"The prey is lighter than the predator but its resistance must have been fierce," Motani told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-reptiles/monster-swallows-monster-fossil-reveals-doubly-fatal-triassic-encounter-idUSKBN25G1SD" target="_blank">Reuters</a>. "The predator probably damaged its neck to some extent while subduing the prey. Then it took the head and tail of the prey off through jerking and twisting, and swallowed the trunk using inertia and gravity. These activities may have expanded the damage of the neck to the point it was fatal."</p>
<p>But while the meal may have been fatal for both animals involved, it offers hope for the resilience of life overall, University of Oslo paleontologist Aubrey Jane Roberts, who was not part of the study, told National Geographic.</p><p>Apex predators are usually the last animals to emerge when a food chain reassembles. The fact that they evolved so soon after the Permian mass extinction, in which 90 percent of marine species disappeared, is remarkable.</p><p>"That's why this paper is so important," Roberts said. "It tells a story about how marine seas recovered from basically complete destruction to having a fully formed ecosystem."</p>
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It is reasonable to make a connection between smoke exposure and risk of viral infection. Needpix
By Luke Montrose
If I dare to give the coronavirus credit for anything, I would say it has made people more conscious of the air they breathe.
<p>A friend texted me this week after going for a jog in the foothills near Boise, Idaho, writing: "My lungs are burning … explain what's happening!!!"</p><p>A wildfire was burning to the east of town – one of dozens of fires that were sending smoke and ash through communities in <a href="https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/" target="_blank">hot, dry western states</a>. As <a href="https://www.boisestate.edu/ceh/luke-montrose/" target="_blank">an environmental toxicologist</a>, I research how air pollution, particularly wood smoke, impacts human health and disease.</p><p>I gave my friend the short answer: The state had issued a yellow, or moderate, air quality index warning due in part to wildfires. The high temperature for the day was expected to reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and it was already approaching 90. <a href="https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/how-smoke-fires-can-affect-your-health" target="_blank">That combination of high temperatures and elevated levels of particles</a> from a fire can affect even healthy lungs. For someone with lung damage or respiratory illness, moderate levels of smoke particulate can <a href="http://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1409277" target="_blank">exacerbate respiratory problems.</a></p><p>That's only the start of the story of how wildfire smoke affects humans who breathe it. The rest, and how to stay healthy, is important to understand as the western wildfire season picks up.</p>
What’s in Wildfire Smoke?
<p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-018-0064-7" target="_blank">What exactly is in a wildfire's smoke</a> depends on a few key things: what's burning – grass, brush or trees; the temperature – is it flaming or just smoldering; and the distance between the person breathing the smoke and the fire producing it.</p><p>The distance affects the ability of smoke to "age," meaning to be acted upon by the sun and other chemicals in the air as it travels. <a href="http://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b01034" target="_blank">Aging can make it more toxic</a>. Importantly, large particles like what most people think of as ash do not typically travel that far from the fire, but small particles, or aerosols, can travel <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2018.06.006" target="_blank">across continents</a>.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3MzYyMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NzIwMzAwMH0.boNzt5uWMc0amtWkXnOwz6KV-k_Wqs1Jb7D2mqGl0YE/img.jpg?width=980" id="5aefd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ca57ac8fc66ed110ce105819d49700c0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Smoke from wildfires obscures the California sky on Aug. 19, 2020. Lauren Dauphin/NASA Earth Observatory
<p>Smoke from wildfires contains <a href="https://www3.epa.gov/airnow/wildfire-smoke/wildfire-smoke-guide-revised-2019.pdf" target="_blank">thousands of individual compounds</a>, including carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides. The most prevalent pollutant by mass is particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, roughly 50 times smaller than a grain of sand. Its prevalence is one reason health authorities issue air quality warnings using PM2.5 as the metric.</p>What Does That Smoke Do to Human Bodies?
<p>There is another reason <a href="https://www.calhospital.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/wildfire_smoke_considerations_for_californias_public_health_officials_august_2019.pdf" target="_blank">PM2.5 is used to make health recommendations</a>: It defines the cutoff for particles that can travel deep into the lungs and cause the most damage.</p><p>The human body is equipped with natural defense mechanisms against particles bigger than PM2.5. As I tell my students, if you have ever <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/mucociliary-clearance" target="_blank">coughed up phlegm</a> or blown your nose after being around a campfire and discovered black or brown mucus in the tissue, you have witnessed these mechanisms firsthand.</p><p>The really small particles bypass these defenses and disturb the air sacks where oxygen crosses over into the blood. Fortunately, we have specialized immune cells present in the air sacks called macrophages. It's their job to seek out foreign material and remove or destroy it. However, <a href="http://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305744" target="_blank">studies</a> have shown that repeated exposure to elevated levels of wood smoke can suppress macrophages, leading to increases in lung inflammation.</p>What Does That Mean for COVID-19 Symptoms?
<p>Dose, frequency and duration are important when it comes to smoke exposure. Short-term exposure can irritate the eyes and throat. Long-term exposure to wildfire smoke over days or weeks, or breathing in heavy smoke, can raise the risk of <a href="https://www.calhospital.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/wildfire_smoke_considerations_for_californias_public_health_officials_august_2019.pdf" target="_blank">lung damage</a> and may also contribute to <a href="https://health.ny.gov/environmental/outdoors/air/smoke_from_fire.htm" target="_blank">cardiovascular problems</a>. Considering that it is the macrophage's job to remove foreign material – including smoke particles and pathogens – it is reasonable to make a <a href="http://doi.org/10.3109/08958378.2012.756086" target="_blank">connection</a> between smoke exposure and risk of viral infection.</p><p>Recent evidence suggests that long-term exposure to PM2.5 may make the coronavirus more deadly. A nationwide study found that even a small increase in PM2.5 from one U.S. county to the next was associated with a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.05.20054502" target="_blank">large increase in the death rate</a> from COVID-19.</p>What Can You Do to Stay Healthy?
<p>The advice I gave my friend who had been running while smoke was in the air applies to just about anyone downwind from a wildfire.</p><p>Stay informed about air quality by identifying local resources for air quality alerts, information about active fires, and recommendations for better health practices.</p><p>If possible, avoid being outside or doing strenuous activity, like running or cycling, when there is an air quality warning for your area.</p><p>Be aware that not all face masks protect against smoke particles. In the context of COVID-19, the best data currently suggests that a cloth mask benefits public health, especially for those around the mask wearer, but also to some extent <a href="https://theconversation.com/cloth-masks-do-protect-the-wearer-breathing-in-less-coronavirus-means-you-get-less-sick-143726" target="_blank">for the person wearing the mask</a>. However, most cloth masks will not capture small wood smoke particles. That requires an N95 mask in conjunction with fit testing for the mask and training in how to wear it. Without a proper fit, N95s do not work as well.</p><p>Establish a clean space. Some communities in western states have offered "clean spaces" programs that help people take refuge in buildings with clean air and air conditioning. However, during the pandemic, being in an enclosed space with others can create other health risks. At home, a person can create clean and cool spaces using a window air conditioner and a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH5APw_SLUU" target="_blank">portable air purifier</a>.</p><p><span></span><a href="https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/how-smoke-fires-can-affect-your-health" target="_blank">The EPA also advises</a> people to avoid anything that contributes to indoor air pollutants. That includes vacuuming that can stir up pollutants, as well as burning candles, firing up gas stoves and smoking.</p>From Your Site Articles
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Yet another extraordinary event could be added to 2020's list of historic disruptions, as two developing hurricanes may make landfall in the U.S. at the same time early next week, according to The Weather Channel.
<p><br/></p>
<p>"What are the odds? It has never happened before that two hurricanes made landfall on the same day," said Brent Watts, chief meteorologist at WDBJ, the CBS News affiliate in Roanoke, VA, in a tweet. "A tropical storm and a hurricane made landfall at Midnight on Sep. 5, 1933. We'll see how this plays out over the next 5 days."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What are the odds? It has never happened before that two hurricanes made landfall on the same day. A tropical storm and a hurricane made landfall at Midnight on Sep. 5, 1933. We'll see how this plays out over the next 5 days. <a href="https://t.co/oTgPaPdsia">pic.twitter.com/oTgPaPdsia</a></p>— Brent Watts WDBJ (@wattsupbrent) <a href="https://twitter.com/wattsupbrent/status/1296658027609821188?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>If the two developing storms strengthen into systems with sustained winds above 39 miles per hour, they will be named Laura and Marcos, respectively. That will mark the earliest L and M named storms in history, according to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tropical-depression-13-atlantic-threaten-united-states/" target="_blank">CBS News</a>.</p><p>"Tropical Depression 14 has formed in the western Caribbean," said Phillip Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University, in a tweet, "The next Atlantic named storm in 2020 will be #Laura. Current Atlantic record for earliest 'L' storm is Luis on August 29, 1995."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tropical Depression 14 has formed in the western Caribbean. The next Atlantic named storm in 2020 will be <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Laura?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Laura</a>. Current Atlantic record for earliest ‘L’ storm is Luis on August 29, 1995. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/hurricane?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#hurricane</a> <a href="https://t.co/2haa6JvLOK">pic.twitter.com/2haa6JvLOK</a></p>— Philip Klotzbach (@philklotzbach) <a href="https://twitter.com/philklotzbach/status/1296457478457229312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>They are currently classified as Tropical Depression 13 and 14. Tropical Depression 13 started on Wednesday east of Lesser Antilles. According to CBS News, the depression is expected to gather strength and churn, possibly hitting South Florida as early as Monday. Of course, it could lose strength and fall apart before hitting the U.S. </p><p>On Thursday, Tropical Depression 14 formed in the Caribbean Sea due south of Cuba and east of the Guatemala-Nicaragua border. It is expected to move up through the Gulf of Mexico, past Cozumel and up towards Houston and the Gulf Coast, according to the National Hurricane Center, as <a href="https://abc11.com/national-hurricane-center-noaa-tracker-tropical-depression/6381534/" target="_blank">WTVD</a> in Raleigh, North Carolina reported.</p>
<p>The current projections have both storms passing through the Gulf of Mexico and barreling into the coast at the same time on Wednesday morning. Tropical Depression 13 is expected then to hit the Florida panhandle and Alabama, while Tropical Depression 14 has Texas and Louisiana in its cone.</p><p>Just because Tropical Depression 13 formed first does not mean it will be named Laura. The designated 'L' name will go to the storm that first crosses over from depression to tropical storm, according to WTVD.</p><p>If the two are in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time next week, one will likely strengthen at the expense of the other, according to CBS News.</p><p>Earlier this year, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/2020-hurricane-forecast-2646909602.html" target="_self">an extremely active hurricane season</a>, with roughly 24 or 25 named storms. That would make 2020 the second most active season on record, slotting it behind the 28 that took place in 2005. And yet, all signs so far say that 2020 will blow past that mark since we may see 14 named storms by the end of the weekend and we are weeks away from the halfway mark of hurricane season, according to CBS News.</p><p>The normal peak for hurricane activity is around Sept. 10, with the season running through November.</p><p>The hurricane season starts on June 1, but the arrival of tropical storm Arthur on May 16 made this the sixth consecutive year that the season started in May.</p>
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José Catzim Castillo throws a freshly caught lobster into his father's net. Agostino Petroni and Sandali Handagama
By Agostino Petroni and Sandali Handagama
José "Josh" Catzim Castillo, a 25-year-old lobster fisher, circles a hollow concrete box resting on the seafloor, just off the coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. He slips a snare into the box and shakes it. Three spiny lobsters, or langostas, shoot out and try to flee, but Castillo is too quick.
<p>He surfaces, hoisting his catch. Its tail snaps loudly, and its antennae makes a <a href="https://jeb.biologists.org/content/205/16/2375" target="_blank">high-pitched squeak</a>. Castillo's father, Pablo Catzim Pech, 51, hauls the <a href="https://oceana.org/marine-life/cephalopods-crustaceans-other-shellfish/caribbean-spiny-lobster" target="_blank">spiny lobster</a> into their fishing boat. The creature is one of most sought after crustaceans in the Caribbean. Marked by its thick antennae and sharp spines that run the length of its body, it can sell for <a href="http://www.keywestseafooddepot.com/Spiny-Lobster-Tails-by-the-pound_p_80.html" target="_blank">$40 a pound</a> in the United States.</p><p>Castillo and his father Pech are part of a <a href="https://www.pesqueracozumel.com/historia-cooperativa-cozumel" target="_blank">collective</a> with exclusive rights to fish spiny lobsters in <em>Maria Elena </em>bay<em>, </em>part of Mexico's <em>Sian Ka'an</em> national park. The lobster fishers of <em>Maria Elena</em> are an ecological success story. Even as the lobsters face increasingly chaotic weather and overfishing around the Caribbean, they are flourishing in the bay, thanks to the efforts of the collective.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3MzQ2Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxOTA1NTM4OH0.hwjELefaSudMF3-CMbB1ZUbNG8Jg_iLoR1GGsgAR9ys/img.jpg?width=980" id="1d4d6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1741c9460b45d998b7f44ef33ed6e02e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Castillo is left behind in the ocean, as his father, Pech, steers the boat away from the rain to keep the lobsters alive. Agostino Petroni and Sandali Handagama
<p>When it starts to rain, Pech dips two rags in the ocean and spreads them over the plastic crates attached to the sides of his boat, each one filled with dozens of lobsters submerged in saltwater. Pech steers the boat back to shore, leaving Castillo with only his mask and flippers — and no life jacket — in the ocean behind him.</p><p>"Sweetwater kills the lobsters," Pech said.</p><p>Climate change is bringing <a href="https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/joc.3889" target="_blank">more intense rainfall</a> to the region, flooding the bay with freshwater, menacing the lobsters, which can only survive in <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/outreach-and-education/fun-facts-about-luscious-lobsters" target="_blank">saltwater</a>. The fishers say they are finding it harder to understand the weather. To make matters worse, rising seas are eroding the narrow beaches of <em>Maria Elena</em>. Seven years ago, a hurricane destroyed all but one cabana along the beach, while rainwater stagnated in the bay and killed many lobsters.</p><p>Then there is overfishing. Since the 1980s, lobster populations have dropped as much as 40 percent across the Caribbean, according to Eloy Sosa, a marine biologist at the research center <a href="https://www.ecosur.mx/" target="_blank">Ecosur</a>, who works with Castillo's collective to protect the spiny lobster.<em> </em>The crustaceans are diminishing in number and becoming harder to find, so fishers are having to dive as much as 40 meters underwater, weighed down by oxygen tanks, to try to nab them.</p><p>That's not the case in <em>Maria Elena</em>, where the lobsters are thriving. The bay's newest lobsterman, Jose Eduardo Uitz, actually came to the reserve because he no longer wanted to risk his life going deeper into the ocean to catch lobsters. In <em>Maria Elena</em>, they lie just under the surface.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3MzQ2NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzc2NjI5MX0.-00ur92NleVjPZxmcL7vDnOCZXLl_y6T6Ul1zuGMsj0/img.jpg?width=980" id="554c4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="96c57c2c64b2de56a5a96de22d4fc41e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Fishers of Maria Elena prepare to go to sea. Agostino Petroni and Sandali Handagama
<p><em>Maria Elena </em>wasn't always a lobster haven, however. The collective was granted special permission to fish in the reserve after it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987, but it wasn't until a decade later that the collective adopted sustainable fishing practices.</p><p>"Nobody knew anything about sustainability back then. Fishermen would take the eggs from a pregnant lobster, go home and scramble them with chicken eggs," Pech said.</p><p>Things changed when scientists like Sosa began conducting workshops inside the park, showing the fishers how to protect the lobsters by allowing them enough time to grow and reproduce. Thanks to the collective's efforts, lobster numbers have risen in <em>Maria Elena</em>, though they have yet to return to levels seen in the 1980s.</p><p>"The old men say that when they first arrived, there were so many lobsters that they even used to walk up to the shore," Castillo said.</p><p>Today's fishers are far more responsible than their forebears. They treat the crustacean like an investment and guard it jealously, hoping to nurture it back to its former glory.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3MzQ2Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MDQzNDcwMH0.oQhr2Y0FebDchE6D0hC5OmV63qKLdHhq--NkU_pvQ_4/img.jpg?width=980" id="6080d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a8e51e6faa5354a41c65849f448f01fa" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Pablo Catzim Pech measures the tail of a smaller lobster with a 5-inch ruler. If the tail is shorter than the ruler, he will throw the lobster back into the ocean. Agostino Petroni and Sandali Handagama
<p>"Being in <em>Maria Elena</em> is a privilege," Sosa said. "If an associate breaks the rules, the punishment is tough. They could expel you from the collective."</p><p>A descendant of <em>Maria Elena</em>'s founders, Castillo knows this better than most. He is still trying to earn his place in the collective, waiting for a position to open up in the group of 50. For now, he is just an employee of his father, who is a member.</p><p>"I hope he will take charge of everything. I am teaching him everything about the lobster fields, the reef, and how to be a good captain," Pech said.</p><p>To keep the lobsters healthy, Pech inspects each one that Castillo catches. If it looks too small, he measures it. If the tail is shorter than the five-inch ruler, he throws the lobster back into the sea.</p><p>"We also free the biggest lobsters, weighing more than six pounds. The market doesn't pay their value. They are usually females, and they keep the species alive," he said.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3MzQ2OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMTgzNjAyOX0.rEESijGM-KJlYec2orgHg62rHAMCnbJkyiuByEoyiY0/img.jpg?width=980" id="46899" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2a50126ad7cb128fc6953921b14f9ffe" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Lobster tails, cut from the animals that died during capture, are collected in a bucket to be sold separately from the live exports. Agostino Petroni and Sandali Handagama
<p>When the lobster fishers throw a female back into the ocean, they not only protect the local population, they also support lobster populations in <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0064970" target="_blank">other parts</a> of the Caribbean. The females lay millions of eggs that grow into larvae and float along ocean currents to new homes thousands of miles away.</p><p>After measuring and sorting the lobsters, the fishers send them to Cozumel to be sold. Occasionally, they keep a few for themselves, to be cooked on a hot skillet in a crowded cabana on the beach. It is a small indulgence for fishers who have nurtured the lobsters back into abundance in<em> Maria Elena</em> bay.</p><p>"The biggest threat to this place is us," Pech said. "We are in the lobsters' habitat. It is our livelihood, but we are invading a place we do not belong."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/these-mexican-lobstermen-are-a-model-of-sustainable-fishing-30b6a48fcd15" target="_blank">Nexus Media.</a></em></p>
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Coronavirus Pandemic Delays 2020 Earth Overshoot Day by Three Weeks, But It's Not Sustainable
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Humanity now consumes around 60% more than Earth can yield in a year, meaning we need 1.6 planets to sustain us. elenabs / Getty Images
By Stuart Braun
Back in 1970, the earth's biocapacity was more than enough to meet annual human demand for resources. But in the half century since, we have steadily outgrown our single planet. Humanity now consumes around 60% more than Earth can yield in a year, meaning we need 1.6 planets to sustain us.
<p>In 2019, we had already spent our resource budget for the year by July 31, the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/world-marks-earliest-earth-overshoot-day/a-49781325" target="_blank">earliest Earth Overshoot Day</a> ever recorded by the <a href="https://www.overshootday.org/" target="_blank">Global Footprint Network</a>, which has been calculating global and national ecological impacts for near three decades. In that time, humanity has overshot its biocapacity — defined as an "ecosystems' capacity to produce biological materials used by people and to absorb waste material generated by humans" — by a few more days each year.</p><p>But due to the global coronavirus lockdown, 2020 has bucked the trend. This year, Earth Overshoot Day has moved back by more than three weeks to August 22.</p><p>Projections point to almost 15% reductions in CO2 emissions (around 60% of the total footprint) in 2020 as a result of the pandemic-related slowdown in fossil fuel use across the transport, power, industry, aviation and residential sectors. The global Earth Overshoot calculation, which uses data from the likes of the International Energy Agency, also includes forest production, which dipped nearly 9%, and our food footprint, which was steady.</p>
One Planet Misery or Prosperity?
<p>According to Mathis Wackernagel, founder and president of the Global Footprint Network, this year's contraction is welcomed. But he says the fact that it is accidental means it is not sustainable.</p><p>"The tragedy of this year is that the reduction of carbon emissions is not based on a better infrastructure such as better electricity grids or more compact cities," he told DW. "We need to move the date by design, not by disaster."</p><p>To meet the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/what-is-the-ipcc-and-what-does-it-do/a-50552119" target="_blank">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> (IPCC) targets to limit warming to 1.5-2 degrees Celcius, the current decline in the emissions curve would have to continue at the same rate for the next decade, Wackernagel points out. At present, however, this is being achieved through economic and social suffering.</p><p>"Not doing anything, being stuck at home. That's not the kind of transformation we need. It's not lasting," Wackernagel said.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3MzEwMS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMDI3MTc4MX0.tzNoNILjFMjlZQUFG8CFdDDioaZQyetMyZi7aMAP5fI/img.png?width=980" id="8ea44" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e8d1b897c66760abe884f838ed331df5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>The goal must be to "systemically adjust to the physical budget we have available," added the Swiss-born Global Footprint Network founder and 2018 World Sustainability Award winner. "Do you want one planet misery or one planet prosperity?"</p><p>Wackernagel argues that the coronavirus is itself a reflection of ecological stress. "These pressures that we see like pandemics, like famine, like climate change, like biodiversity loss, they're all manifestations of an ecological imbalance," he said.</p>
Lowering Emissions for the Benefit of All
<p>A key side effect of disaster-driven emission reductions is the fact that "the pain is going to be unevenly distributed," according Wackernagel. Marginalised groups, especially people of color, have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic's "huge economic impacts," said Sarah George, a senior reporter with Edie, a UK media company that promotes sustainable business practices.</p><p>Edie conducted its first Earth Overshoot webinar in 2019, with the aim of educating organizations to reduce their resource footprint through business models that are sustainable for everyone in the long-term.</p><p>George says this year's webinar on August 22 will also address the misnomer spread by some climate skeptics that a green, low-consumption future is only possible under the deprivations of a lockdown. </p><p>"They have used the situation to say that lockdown is 'what green campaigners want,' and that we cannot enjoy things like international travel, economic growth, etc. in a green future," George told DW. </p><p>But <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/life-after-coronavirus-we-can-shape-a-totally-different-world/a-53496208" target="_blank">post-lockdown</a>, George says the goal is to create a one planet model through which businesses can couple "better economic and social outcomes" with "lower emissions and air pollution."</p>Ecological Debt Balloons in Developing Nations
<p>Earth Overshoot Day is calculated both globally and among individual countries, and reveals how developed nations are eating up the earth's biocapacity at a much faster rate.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3MzE4Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzEzMDE1Mn0.sz6z3dpuzZ-E_vci7P4iXh5hfqr0JoL6NKXVeehn6LM/img.png?width=980" id="51dbd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1519d77652201256443981b21b88a635" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>In the U.S., where overshoot day falls on March 14 this year, citizens will require around five planets to maintain their outsized ecological footprint. Germany overshoots 50 days later on May 3, but still requires two planets.</p><p>"In Sweden we live as if we had about 4 planets according to WWF and Global Footprint Network, and roughly the same goes for the entire Nordic region," wrote climate activist Greta Thunberg last October when rejecting a Nordic Council environment award on the grounds that people in power should instead "listen to the current, best available science."</p><p>While Scandinavia is known for world-leading investment in renewable energy, and in rapid transport electrification in the case of Norway, Global Footprint Network data shows that individual consumption remains highly unsustainable. By contrast socialist outpost Cuba, which overshoots on December 1, is one of the few nations that's almost living within its means. </p><p>In Australia, a country regarded as a biocapacity giant due to its relatively small population and vast natural resources, is now running a biocapacity deficit for the first time in its history following the devastating <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/study-says-australias-bushfires-harmed-3-billion-animals/a-54344204" target="_blank">fires of 2019-2020</a>. The world's driest continent exhausted its ecological capacity on March 30 this year.</p>
<p>A fire-ravaged Australia has, according to a Global Footprint Network report, shown "how fragile biocapacity can be."</p><p>"With climate change and resource overuse, we place greater demand on ecosystems that are essential for the survival of not only humanity but wildlife species as well," wrote the authors. "Growing demand met by less robust biocapacity becomes a dangerous combination."</p><p>But any attempt to move the date towards one planet compatibility will require a systematic reduction of our ecological footprint in a way that also conforms with the strictures of climate science.</p><p>For Mathis Wackernagel, this must start with the individual, a principle that is also fundamental to fighting the coronavirus. "If you protect yourself, you protect everyone," he says.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from<a href="https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-pandemic-delays-earth-overshoot-day-by-three-weeks/a-54572459?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank"> Deutsche Welle</a></em><em>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2647050359#/" target="_self"></a></p>
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Arctic sea ice in the Denmark Strait on the east coast of Greenland. NASA
The records of Greenland's ice melt date back to 1948 and nothing in that record compares to what happened in 2019. The amount of ice lost was more than double what it has been any year since 2013. The net ice loss in 2019 clocked in at more than 530 billion metric tons for 2019. To put that in context, that's as if seven Olympic-sized swimming pools were dumped into the ocean every second of the year, according to The Guardian.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The new study, which used NASA satellite data to measure the size of Greenland's ice, found that in July alone, Greenland lost 223 billion tons of ice. That means for that one month, it lost what it normally loses in an entire year, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/climate/greenland-ice-loss-climate-change.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>The study was published Thursday in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-020-0010-1,"><em>Communications Earth and Environment</em></a>. It follows a trend of troubling news coming out of Greenland. Another new study published in the same journal found that even if the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> stopped today, Greenland's ice sheet is so diminished it will never recover, as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenland-ice-sheet-melting-2647005347.html">EcoWatch</a> reported earlier this week. That study found the ice is retreating in rapid bursts and may portend an ominous revision of predictions of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise">sea level rise</a>.</p>
<p>This new study also spells trouble for coastal cities as it may force scientists to revise their predictions to match the accelerated pace of ice melt, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-arctic/greenlands-ice-sheet-saw-record-mass-loss-in-2019-study-finds-idUSKBN25G1RM" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported. The island's ice sheet holds enough water to raise sea levels by 20 feet, or six meters, if it were to melt away completely.</p><p>"We are likely on the path of accelerated sea level rise," said Ingo Sasgen, a glaciologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and co-author of the study, to Reuters. "More melting of the ice sheet is not compensated by periods when we have extreme snowfall.</p><p>"What this shows is that the ice sheet is not only out of balance but it's increasingly likely to produce more and more extreme loss years," he added, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/20/weather/greenland-ice-sheet-melt-climate-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>Sasgen noted that 2010 and 2012 were also years with massive amounts of melting and he expects more are in the not-too-distant future.</p>
<p>"The real message is that the ice sheet is strongly out of balance," Sasgen said, as The Guardian reported. "If we look at the record melt years, the top five occurred in the last 10 years, and that is a concern. But we know what to do about it: reduce CO2 emissions."</p><p>Greenland's ice sheet is the second largest in the world, behind Antarctica's. CNN notes that the amount of ice it loses everywhere will start to increase sea level beyond the one millimeter it adds annually, pointing out that planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions are the culprit. And all that warming is creating a dangerous feedback loop.</p><p>"This extreme melt kicks off feedbacks that may accelerate the mass loss. This is what is worrying, the extremes are increasing and we understand too little about how the ice sheet will respond to more extreme climate variability," Sasgen said, as CNN reported.</p>
<p>The amount of melting that's happening means trouble for the hundreds of millions of people that live along coastlines, but there is still time for them to retreat inland. The ice sheet will likely not melt entirely since the rate of melt tends to slow down as the ice retreats from warmer <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans">ocean</a> waters. Furthermore, the centuries it will take to melt completely gives us some time to reverse course on emissions, according to The Guardian.</p><p>"If we reduce CO2, we will reduce Arctic warming and we will therefore also reduce the sea level rise contribution from the Greenland ice sheet," Sasgen said, as The Guardian reported. "So even though it might eventually disappear in large part, it happens much slower, which would be better as it would allow more time for the 600 million people living near coasts to move away."</p>
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