Environmental Integrity Project
Late last week, First Energy announced that it will close the R. Paul Smith plant in Williamsport, Md. by Sept. 1, 2012. Based on the most recent emissions data, Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) expects the closure to reduce annual emissions of carbon dioxide by more than 200,000 tons annually, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions by at least 2,000 tons, and particulate matter by 120 tons. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide contribute to fine particle pollution that is known to cause heart disease and premature death. Nitrogen oxide pollution creates ozone and contributes to nutrient overloading in the Chesapeake Bay.
Since 2010, EIP and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) have been leading regulatory and legal challenges to the plant in Maryland, which has not installed pollution controls to comply with environmental laws and protect public health.
“First Energy made a responsible decision to retire an old and dirty power plant,” said Jennifer Peterson, an attorney with EIP. “Shutting down the R. Paul Smith plant opens the door for clean energy sources, and cleaner air and water for Maryland communities.”
The plant, built in 1947, is unable to comply with Maryland’s Healthy Air Act and had been put under intense pressure to clean up or close down by local citizens and environmental groups. The plant is one of six aging power plants in three states to be shut down by First Energy by Sept. 1, 2012 due to an inability to meet new federal and state environmental standards.
“This is a victory both for children’s lungs and for efforts to fight climate change in Maryland,” said Mike Tidwell, CCAN director. “One less plant that burns dirty coal is one more step toward a real energy solution that includes wind and solar and energy efficiency.”
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Presidential nominee Joe Biden has not taken a stance on gas exports, including liquefied natural gas. Ken Hodge / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 2.0
By Simon Montlake
For more than a decade, Susan Jane Brown has been battling to stop a natural gas pipeline and export terminal from being built in the backcountry of Oregon. As an attorney at the nonprofit Western Environmental Law Center, she has repeatedly argued that the project's environmental, social, and health costs are too high.
All that was before this month's deadly wildfires in Oregon shrouded the skies above her home office in Portland. "It puts a fine point on it. These fossil fuel projects are contributing to global climate change," she says.
<p>Jordan Cove, the $10-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project that Ms. Brown is trying to stop, has yet to break ground. But environmental lawsuits and permitting delays aren't the only barriers. A calamitous crash in natural gas prices and a glut of LNG capacity have cast doubts over its commercial viability and, more broadly, the easy promise of converting abundant U.S. gas into a global commodity and geopolitical tool.</p><p>"There's too much oil. There's too much gas. There's not enough demand," says Clark Williams-Derry at the liberal-leaning Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.</p><p>Still, even if projects like Jordan Cove are shelved, several other LNG terminals on the Gulf Coast already have all their permits and are waiting to secure financing. Their expansion over the next five years would make the U.S. the world's largest LNG producer, creating jobs at home and opening new markets in energy-hungry Asia. </p><p>For a future Biden administration, that's a wrinkle in any serious climate plan. Once built, these LNG plants would potentially lock in decades of heat-trapping emissions that are already hurling the planet toward a hotter, less stable future. "Once you build the infrastructure it's there, and it gets run on a different economic basis than if it's not there," says Mr. Williams-Derry, who tracks the LNG industry. </p>
<p>Proponents say natural gas is cleaner than the coal that it replaces both in the U.S., where it now produces around 40% of electricity, and in countries like India and China. That makes it a "bridge fuel" to a fully renewable energy future that hasn't yet arrived, says Fred Hutchison, president and CEO of LNG Allies, an industry group. "Gas can continue to be part of a low-carbon energy system globally," he says.</p><p>He predicts that LNG firms would be comfortable with a Biden presidency. "He's got a great affinity for working people and labor, and labor is very much on board with regards to LNG," he says. </p><p>On the campaign trail, Mr. Biden has gotten heat over his support for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which left-leaning Democrats oppose but which is seen as important for winning Pennsylvania, a battleground state in November's election. Far less attention has been paid to where the oil and gas goes, and whether support for LNG exports is compatible with Mr. Biden's clean-energy agenda and plans for tackling climate change.</p><p>"It's not going to save the climate if we're just exporting our emissions overseas," says Collin Rees, a campaigner for Oil Change U.S., an environmental nonprofit. </p>
Moderates Feeling the Heat
<p>If elected, Mr. Biden has vowed to stop new drilling for oil and gas on federal land and in federal waters and to rejoin the 2015 Paris climate accord that President Donald Trump gave notice of quitting. He would reinstate Obama-era regulations of greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, the largest component of natural gas.</p><p>The Biden climate platform also states that all federal infrastructure investments and federal permits would need to be assessed for their climate impacts. Analysts say such a test could impede future LNG plants and pipelines, though not those that already have federal approval. </p><p>Climate change activists who pushed for that language say much depends on who would have oversight of federal agencies that regulate the industry. Some are wary of Biden's reliance on advice from Obama-era officials, including former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who is now on the board of Southern Company, a utility, and a former Obama environmental aide, Heather Zichal, who has served on the board of Cheniere Energy, an LNG exporter. </p><p>In a letter sent earlier this month, Mr. Rees and other signatories urged Mr. Biden to ban "all fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, and representatives" from any future administration.</p><p>That Obama-era moderates are under fire over their climate bona fides is a measure of rising leftist clout in the Democratic coalition. It also reflects how the climate debate has shifted since Biden was in office, in response to extreme weather events and troubling scientific findings. This includes research into lifecycle emissions from natural gas production and methane leaks and flaring that muddies the argument that it's a transition fuel to a carbon-free future.</p><p>"We've gotten more proof on the science that switching to gas is not enough," says Mr. Rees. </p>
The Push for U.S. Fuel Exports
<p>As vice president, Biden was part of an administration that pushed hard for global climate action while also promoting U.S. oil and gas exports to its allies and trading partners. As fracking boomed, Obama ended a 40-year ban on crude oil exports. In Europe, LNG was touted both as an alternative to coal and as strategic competition with Russian pipelines.</p><p>That much, at least, continued with President Trump. Under Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the agency referred to liquified U.S. hydrocarbons as "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/us/freedom-gas-energy-department.html" target="_blank">freedom gas</a>."</p><p>Mr. Trump has also championed the interests of coal, oil, and gas while denigrating the findings of government climate scientists. He rejected the Paris accord as unfair to the U.S. and detrimental to its economy, but has offered no alternative path to emissions cuts. </p><p>Still, Trump's foreign policy has not always served the LNG industry: Tariffs on foreign steel drove up pipeline costs, and a trade war with China stayed the hand of Chinese LNG importers wary of reliance on U.S. suppliers. </p><p>Even his regulatory rollbacks could be a double-edged sword. By relaxing curbs last month on methane leaks, the U.S. has ceded ground to European regulators who are drafting emissions standards that LNG producers are watching closely. "That's a precursor of fights that will be fought in all the rest of the developed world," says Mr. Hutchison. </p><p>Indeed, some oil-and-gas exporters had urged the Trump administration not to abandon the tougher rules, since they undercut their claim to offer a cleaner-burning way of producing heat and electricity. "U.S. LNG is not going to be able to compete in a world that's focused on methane emissions and intensity," says Erin Blanton, a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. </p>Stepping on the Gas
<p>In July, the Department of Energy issued an export license to Jordan Cove's developer, Canada's Pembina Pipeline Corp. In a statement, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said the project would provide "reliable, affordable, and cleaner-burning natural gas to our allies around the world."</p><p>As a West Coast terminal, Jordan Cove offers a faster route to Asia where its capacity of 7.8 million tons of LNG a year could serve to heat more than 15 million homes. At its peak, its construction would also create 6,000 jobs, the company says, in a stagnant corner of Oregon.</p><p>But the project still lacks multiple local and state permits, and its biggest asset – a Pacific port – has become its biggest handicap, says Ms. Blanton. "They are putting infrastructure in a state where there's no political support for the pipeline or the terminal, unlike in Louisiana or Texas," she says. </p><p>Ms. Brown, the environmental lawyer, says she wants to see Jordan Cove buried, not just mothballed until natural gas prices recover. But she knows that it's only one among many LNG projects and that others will likely get built, even if Biden is elected in November, despite growing evidence of the harm caused by methane emissions. </p>From Your Site Articles
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Eating lots of fruits and vegetables will boost the immune system. Stevens Fremont / The Image Bank / Getty Images
By Grayson Jaggers
The connection between the pandemic and our dietary habits is undeniable. The stress of isolation coupled with a struggling economy has caused many of us to seek comfort with our old friends: Big Mac, Tom Collins, Ben and Jerry. But overindulging in this kind of food and drink might not just be affecting your waistline, but could potentially put you at greater risk of illness by hindering your immune system.
<p>Hear the word "nutrition," and often what comes to mind are fad diets, juice "cleanses" and supplements. Americans certainly seem concerned with their weight; 45 million of us spend <a href="https://www.bmc.org/nutrition-and-weight-management/weight-management" target="_blank">US$33 billion</a> annually on weight loss products. But <a href="https://nccd.cdc.gov/dnpao_dtm/rdPage.aspx?rdReport=DNPAO_DTM.ExploreByLocation&rdRequestForwarding=Form" target="_blank">one in five Americans</a> consumes nearly no vegetables – less than one serving per day.</p><p>When the emphasis is on weight loss products, and not healthy day-to-day eating, the essential role that nutrition plays in keeping us well never gets communicated. Among the many things I teach students in my <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=o_1CmfkAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">nutritional biochemistry course</a> is the clear relationship between a balanced diet and a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nutres.2020.07.005" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">strong, well-regulated immune system</a>.</p><p>Along with social distancing measures and effective vaccines, a healthy immune system is our best defense against coronavirus infection. To keep it that way, proper nutrition is an absolute must. Although not a replacement for medicine, good nutrition can work synergistically with medicine to improve vaccine effectiveness, reduce the prevalence of chronic disease and lower the burden on the health care system.</p>
<h3>The Impact of the Western Diet</h3><p>Scientists know that people with <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html?" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">preexisting health conditions</a> are at greater risk for severe COVID-19 infections. That includes those with diabetes, obesity, and kidney, lung or cardiovascular disease. Many of these conditions are linked to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.05.025" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dysfunctional immune system</a>.</p><p>Patients with cardiovascular or metabolic disease have a delayed immune response, giving viral invaders a head start. When that happens, the body reacts with a more intense inflammatory response, and healthy tissues are damaged along with the virus. It's not yet clear how much this damage factors into the increased mortality rate, but it is a factor.</p><p>What does this have to do with nutrition? The Western diet typically has a high proportion of red meat, saturated fat and what's known as "<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41538-018-0020-x" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">bliss point foods</a>" rich in sugar and salt. Adequate fruit and vegetable consumption is missing. Despite the abundance of calories that often accompanies the Western diet, many Americans <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12061735" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">don't consume nearly enough</a> of the essential nutrients our bodies need to function properly, including vitamins A, C and D, and the minerals iron and potassium. And that, at least in part, causes a dysfunctional immune system: too few vitamins and minerals, and too many empty calories.</p><p>A healthy immune system responds quickly to limit or prevent infection, but it also promptly "turns down the dial" to avoid damaging the cells of the body. Sugar disrupts this balance. A high proportion of refined sugar in the diet can cause <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcad.2017.12.001" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">chronic, low-grade inflammation</a> in addition to diabetes and obesity. Essentially, that "dial" is never turned all the way off.</p><p>While inflammation is a natural part of the immune response, it can be harmful when it's constantly active. Indeed, obesity is itself characterized by chronic, low-grade inflammation and a dysregulated immune response.</p><p>And <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2019.01071" target="_blank">research shows</a> that vaccines may be less effective in obese people. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590616/" target="_blank">The same applies</a> to those who regularly drink too much alcohol.</p>
<h3>How Nutrients Help</h3><p>Nutrients, essential substances that help us grow properly and remain healthy, help maintain the immune system. In contrast to the delayed responses associated with malnutrition, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm7090258" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">vitamin A</a> fights against multiple infectious diseases, including measles. Along with <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/nu7043011" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">vitamin D</a>, it regulates the immune system and helps to prevent its overactivation. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9111211" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Vitamin C</a>, an antioxidant, protects us from the injury caused by free radicals.</p><p>Polyphenols, a wide-ranging group of molecules found in all plants, also have anti-inflammatory properties. There's plenty of evidence to show a diet rich in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11040751" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">plant polyphenols</a> can lower the risk of chronic conditions, like hypertension, insulin insensitivity and cardiovascular disease.</p><p>Why don't we Americans eat more of these plant-based foods and fewer of the bliss-based foods? It's complicated. People are swayed by advertising and influenced by hectic schedules. One starting place would be to teach people how to eat better from an early age. Nutrition education should be emphasized, from kindergarten through high school to medical schools.</p><p>Millions of Americans live in <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2017/16_0408.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">food deserts</a>, having limited access to healthy foods. In these circumstances, education must be paired with increased access. These long-term goals could bring profound returns with a relatively small investment.</p><p>Meantime, all of us can take small steps to incrementally improve our own dietary habits. I'm not suggesting we stop eating cake, french fries and soda completely. But we as a society have yet to realize the food that actually makes us feel good and healthy is not comfort food.</p><p>The COVID-19 pandemic won't be the last we face, so it's vital that we use every preventive tool we as a society have. Think of good nutrition as a seat belt for your health; it doesn't guarantee you won't get sick, but it helps to ensure the best outcomes.</p>
<p>
<em>Grayson Jaggers is an assistant professor at the University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.</em><br/>
</p><p>
<em>Disclosure statement: </em><em>Grayson Jaggers 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 his academic appointment.</em>
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<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/good-nutrition-can-contribute-to-keeping-covid-19-and-other-diseases-away-145086" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
</p><script async="async" data-counter="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145086/count?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" id="theconversation_tracker_hook" src="https://theconversation.com/javascripts/lib/content_tracker_hook.js" type="text/javascript"></script>From Your Site Articles
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Affordable, Self-Administered COVID-19 Tests Could Use Your Cell Phone
25 September
Health + Wellness
A graphic shows how Rhoel Dinglasan's smartphone-based saliva test works. University of Florida
As the world continues to navigate the line between reopening and maintaining safety protocols to slow the spread of the coronavirus, rapid and accurate diagnostic screening remains critical to control the outbreak. New mobile-phone-based, self-administered COVID-19 tests being developed independently around the world could be a key breakthrough in making testing more widely available, especially in developing nations.
<p>Point-of-care testing (POCT) involves the use of easily portable devices to carry out analytical testing outside of a central laboratory, in places like long-term care facilities, local clinics and patients' homes, a new study by the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7288261/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">National Center for Biomedical Information</a> said. POCT provides early and fast diagnostic results; when combined with microfluidic systems that can measure traces of diseases and infections based on small amounts of fluids with daily high sensitivity and speed, POCT can result in faster, more cost-effective diagnostic instruments that do not require any trained healthcare workers to administer them, the study reported. Smartphone-based microfluidic POCT uses personal mobile devices to carry out the whole analytical process using bodily fluids like saliva. Critically, this also will result in earlier diagnoses that can help slow the spread of diseases like COVID-19.</p>
<p>Recently, Rhoel Dinglasan, a University of Florida infectious diseases professor and his industry collaborators won second place in a national technology competition sponsored by the National Institutes of Health for a smartphone-based, rapid saliva test they developed that can be used to diagnose COVID-19, along with two other diseases of major global importance, malaria and anemia. The test adapted the team's existing mobile-based test for malaria to also test for anemia and COVID-19, explained Dinglasan in a <a href="https://ufhealth.org/news/2020/smartphone-based-saliva-test-can-detect-covid-19-earns-uf-professor-honors-national" target="_blank">University of Florida Health news release</a>.</p><p>"This test will leverage existing technology to fill a pressing and unmet need in global public health by allowing us to differentiate between three diseases that can present similarly in terms of symptoms," Dinglasan said in the release. "As treatment and containment protocols differ for each disease, the proper diagnosis delivered in literally minutes could save lives."</p>
<p>Their solution is the CLIP-CAM, an adapter that attaches to a smartphone that fits a detection cassette, the release detailed. A saliva sample is self-collected and activated, and a droplet is put into the cassette. The camera flash is used to excite the detection system in the cassette, which can then be read by a smartphone app. Results are available in 15 minutes or less, Dinglasan said, the release reported.</p><p>He further explained the importance of quick diagnoses to the <a href="https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/coronavirus/2020/09/18/uf-professor-earns-national-honors-smartphone-base-saliva-test-covid-19/3486844001/" target="_blank">Gainesville Sun</a>: "When we go out to work in these different countries, we need to differentiate when a person comes in, we need to know if it is COVID-19, malaria or anemia. Without that ability, how would we know if we should send this person home to quarantine because we think he has COVID-19? What if it is malaria? You need to give that child or adult anti-malaria drugs or they will die."</p>
<p>Similar prototyping is underway around the world. At the University of Utah, electrical and computer engineering professor Massood Tabib-Azar adapted the platform he used to detect the Zika virus to now detect COVID-19, reported <a href="https://www.biospace.com/article/nsf-funded-smartphone-covid-19-dx-puts-testing-in-the-hands-of-the-public/" target="_blank">BioSpace</a>. His sensor can also test for the presence of the virus on surfaces like door handles or desks by brushing a swab on a surface and then onto the sensor, the news report said. Tabib-Azar is also exploring the potential of detecting COVID-19 in floating microscopic particles in enclosed spaces like an elevator.</p><p>The Utah sensor is reusable, because samples can be destroyed using a small electrical current to disintegrate viruses or saliva can be placed on a disposable sheet like a piece of paper put on top of the sensor, Tabib-Azar told BioSpace. His test is also designed to upload the results to a central server that can map out positive results in an area to give public health experts a better idea of where outbreak hotspots are, the report said.</p>
<p>"Mobile-based epidemic monitoring is nothing but a logical next step, because only the mobile devices that move with people can keep up with the contacts they make," Tabib-Azar said, speaking of related research in <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8626091" target="_blank">IEEE Access</a>.</p><p>In Ontario, Canada, a third diagnostic prototype called Atlas hopes to use the same saliva-to-mobile-phone testing concept to make testing more widely available, from remote communities to front-line screening, reported <a href="https://www.hospimedica.com/covid-19/articles/294783026/smartphone-powered-saliva-based-covid-19-diagnostic-test-delivers-lab-quality-results-to-app-in-20-minutes.html" target="_blank">HospiMedica.com</a>. Atlas is designed as a single-use, disposable device that could deliver results in 20 minutes.</p><p>All three tests have received enough funding to get through the prototype phase. Additional support will help to quickly transform the design concepts into mass-produced products for global health.</p>
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A meteorologist monitors weather in NOAA's Center for Weather and Climate Prediction on July 2, 2013 in Riverdale, Maryland. Mark Wilson / Getty Images
The Trump White House is now set to appoint two climate deniers to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in one month.
<p>First, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/david-legates-noaa-2647660690.html" target="_self">David Legates</a>, a University of Delaware professor who has questioned the scientific consensus that human activity drives the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> and has argued carbon dioxide emissions are actually beneficial, was named deputy assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation. Now, the Trump administration is in the process of appointing meteorologist Ryan Maue to serve as the agency's chief scientist, two NOAA officials confirmed to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/21/noaa-chief-scientist-maue/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Washington Post Monday</a>. Maue, who runs the site <a href="http://weathermodels.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">weathermodels.com</a>, does accept that the burning of greenhouse gases is impacting the global climate. However, he has spoken out against worst-case-scenario climate predictions and criticized activists for using <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather" target="_self">extreme weather</a> events to argue for reducing the burning of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a>.</p>
<p>"For the second time this month, a person who misrepresents, distorts, and disagrees with climate science is being placed in a science position at NOAA," professor <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/katharine-hayhoe-climate-change-2550366098.html" target="_self">Katharine Hayhoe</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/KHayhoe/status/1308235952381362178" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tweeted</a> in response to the news.</p><p>Maue previously served as an adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank that questioned mainstream climate science, The Washington Post pointed out. He co-wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal challenging the climate predictions of NASA scientist James Hansen, which have been supported by peer-reviewed studies. Most recently, he has lashed out against California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his supporters for linking the climate crisis to the state's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/wildfires-california-washington-oregon-photos-2647585008.html" target="_self">record-breaking wildfire season</a>.</p><p>"Seems the Democrats have coordinated their efforts to use the devastating California fires as an opportunity to score political points in the upcoming election by blaming them solely on climate change (and Trump)," he wrote in a deleted tweet recovered by The Washington Post.</p>
<p>However, a number of studies have shown that changes to the climate are making the state's fires more frequent and more intense.</p><p>As chief scientist, Maue would influence NOAA's research agenda for oceanic and atmospheric science, as well as its scientific integrity policy. He still has to pass ethics and security reviews, but would not require Senate confirmation.</p><p>Other scientists questioned whether Maue had the credentials for the role.</p><p>"Normally, when people are chosen for high-profile positions relating to climate change, I've heard of them. I have no idea who this person is, other than I've seen him saying things about climate that are wrong on social media and in op-eds. I suspect that he has the one and only necessary qualification for the job: a willingness to advance the agenda of climate deniers," Texas A&M climate scientist Andrew Dessler <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewDessler/status/1308241184234631168" target="_blank">tweeted</a> in reaction to Maue's likely appointment. "To me, this emphasizes how thin the climate deniers' bench is. I'm sure they'd prefer to have someone with actual credentials take the job, but this shows that credentialized experts who dispute mainstream climate science simply don't exist."</p>
<p>Maue told <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/climate-science-critic-be-chief-scientist-key-us-climate-research-agency" target="_blank">E&E News</a> he believes in "lukewarming."</p><p>"Lukewarming is not climate denial," Maue said. "Most of us on this side of the issue believe in lower climate sensitivity. We don't believe there's going to be 5° of warming; we figure it's at the lower end of 1.5°."</p><p>However, most scientists think the world could hit 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels within the next two decades and then continue to heat up.</p>
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A plastic bag caught in a tree in New Jersey's Palisades Park. James Leynse / Stone / Getty Images
New Jersey is one step closer to passing what environmental advocates say is the strongest anti-plastic legislation in the nation.
<p>The state Legislature passed a sweeping measure Thursday that would ban <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastic-bags" target="_self">plastic bags</a> from stores and restaurants and single-use food and drink containers made from polystyrene foam, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/nyregion/nj-paper-plastic-bag-ban.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>. The ban is noteworthy for being the first in the country to include supermarket paper bags as well as plastic ones.</p>
<p>"This is the single most comprehensive plastics and paper reduction bill in the nation," former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Administrator and <a href="https://beyondplastics.org/" target="_blank">Beyond Plastics</a> President Judith Enck said in a <a href="https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/environmental-leaders-cheer-nj-legislative-votes-pass-single-use-waste-ban-bill-legislation-now-strongest-country/" target="_blank">statement published by Insider NJ</a>. "Building on the success of local laws adopted throughout New Jersey to reduce plastic pollution, the NJ State Legislature listened to the people and not the polluters and embraced a sensible environmental strategy."</p><p>The bill now passes to Gov. Philip Murphy, who intends to sign it, a spokesperson told The New York Times. The bans on bags and containers will go into effect 18 months after he does so, <a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/environment/2020/09/24/nj-plastic-bag-ban-2020-nj-one-step-away-nations-toughest-ban/3506419001/" target="_blank">NorthJersey.com reported</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to banning plastic and paper bags and plastic food containers, the bill will also limit <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastic-straws" target="_self">plastic straws</a> in restaurants so that they will only be available upon request. There are exemptions for newspaper bags; bags used for loose produce, fish or meat; dry-cleaning bags and prescription drug bags.</p><p>The measure effectively settles a long-running debate about whether plastic or paper bags are worse for the environment by banning both. Plastic bags account for about 12 percent of U.S. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastic-pollution" target="_self">plastic pollution</a>, according to The New York Times. But paper bags need more energy, and therefore more <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate</a> pollution, to make. <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/new-jersey" target="_blank">New Jersey Sierra Club</a> Director Jeff Tittle said the new legislation would encourage people to use more sustainable, reusable shopping bags.</p>
<p>However, the ban on paper bags was also the key to getting an important supermarket trade group to support the bill, NorthJersey.com reported. The organization argued that it would cost stores too much to supply customers with only paper bags.</p><p>"The ban on paper bags is critically important to the success of this legislation," New Jersey Food Council President Linda Doherty said ahead of Thursday's vote. "Without a ban, consumers will simply move to paper single-use bags and we will not address the underlying goal of reducing our reliance on single-use products."</p><p>However, the food council originally opposed any sort of statewide bag ban, <a href="https://www.njspotlight.com/2020/09/sweeping-nj-bag-ban-plastic-paper-restricting-polystyrene-foam-food-containers/" target="_blank">NJ Spotlight News reported</a>. It changed its position after as many as 57 communities passed their own separate bans and it decided it would be easier to deal with a single, statewide law than a patchwork of local ones.</p>
<p>Not everyone has been persuaded, however. American Forest and Paper Association President and Chief Executive Heidi Brock said the bill unfairly targeted her industry.</p><p>"The New Jersey Legislature has undermined an environmentally responsible option for consumers," she said in a statement reported by The New York Times. "Furthermore, the ban on paper bags sends an alarming message in devaluing family wage jobs, which are often union labor, in addition to the indirect jobs supported by the paper and wood products industry in the state."</p>
<p>Republican Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi, meanwhile, argued that the bill would put an additional burden on a restaurant industry already struggling because of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic.</p><p>"We're essentially kicking them in the head,'' she said, as NJ Spotlight News reported.</p><p>On the other hand, environmental advocates argued that plastic has long polluted New Jersey waterways. In recent years, more than 80 percent of the litter gathered on beaches by <a href="https://www.cleanoceanaction.org/index.php?id=334" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Clean Ocean Action</a> from Cape May to Sandy Hook has been plastic, NorthJersey.com reported. The material has even been found in some of the state's most pristine rivers and creeks.</p><p>"Now, we can all look forward to picking up less trash on our beaches," Clean Ocean Action executive director Cindy Zipf told NorthJersey.com. "There will be less plastics in the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ocean" target="_self">ocean</a> to cause harm and death to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/marine-life" target="_self">marine life</a>."</p>
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