Environmental Leaders Expose How the Coal Industry Poisons Our Water
Waterkeeper Alliance
Waterkeeper Alliance, Sierra Club, Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice and Clean Water Action led the carefully planned, highly coordinated release of a hard hitting national report, Closing the Floodgates: How the Coal Industry Is Poisoning Our Water and How We Can Stop It.
Waterkeeper Alliance President Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Director Mary Anne Hitt, Environmental Integrity Project Executive Director Eric Schaeffer and Catawba Riverkeeper Sam Perkins show boatloads of reporters an illegal discharge of toxic heavy metals from the Duke Energy Riverbend coal ash pond. The ash pond pond dam at Riverbend leaks at least five bright orange colored streams of waste into Mountain Island Lake daily. Photo credit: Waterkeeper Alliance
And since seeing is believing, they took five boat loads of reporters and news crews up to a bright orange stream of polluted coal waste flowing into Mountain Island Lake, the drinking water source for more than 800,000 people in Charlotte, Mount Holly and Gastonia.
That one-two punch of a detailed technical report coupled with a trip to see the toxic pollution flowing from a coal-fired power plant into a public drinking water reservoir took the invisibility cloak off this hidden pollution problem.
The story was covered by news media outlets all over the country, from Muskogee, OK, to Florence, AL, to the Charlotte Business Journal to New Bedford, MA. It was was also covered by local news stations in Charlotte who showed a great video of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. taking on the coal industry with his local Catawba Riverkeeper, Sam Perkins, who demonstrated the high volume of pollution from Duke Energy:
The environmental groups have plans to keep the industry from slinking back under the invisibility cloak they have been hiding under for the past 31 years. To help highlight the report’s findings and raise awareness about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) critical new coal plant water pollution standards, many local events will be held across the country.
Environmental groups took five boat loads of reporters to see this foully polluted stream of waste leaking from the Duke Energy Riverbend coal-fired power plant coal ash pond dam. Photo credit: Waterkeeper Alliance
From a “toxic lemonade stand” in Pennsylvania to a “Miss and Mr. Toxic Water Swimsuit Competition” in Missouri, and from a kayaking trip outside a coal plant in Oklahoma to a fish-less fish fry in Illinois, activists from coast to coast will be calling for the EPA to finalize the strongest possible standards to protect American families from dangerous toxic water pollution.
If you think it is past time for the U.S. to stop the unlimited discharge of arsenic and other poisons in our waterways, tell the EPA to choose option five during the public comment period on the proposed new rules. Help us keep the truth of their pollution visible so it can be stopped.
Visit EcoWatch’s COAL and WATER pages for more related news on this topic.
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Scaling up offshore renewable energy is one of the ways that governments can improve ocean sustainability efforts. BerndBrueggemann / Getty Images
On Wednesday, governments responsible for 40 percent of the world's coastlines and 20 percent of global fisheries announced a series of new commitments that comprise the world's biggest ocean sustainability initiative.
<p>The <a href="https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/e2t/tc/VW_ypy3S_jgNN9byR2ys4BzfW824bMN4k7sNjN1YBnv93p_8SV1-WJV7CgNTvW9lfXJd8Fkx0GW5DDTkJ49SyXxW1dVD6l3GPhxqW3pj49q59Yv1YN7nnMSZvnSpjW7HfmFt5wwRTrW6mC5VB1wCPgyW6qF3Pg2sCSF-W8z9Mzy5hzzCDVJHN8W53qh_6VdPWX39c5V7wW5tGWbp13HrrCW9kjgt71hRg7MW1blDfF4_LL4bW2Jh8Pw2Jhmx0W1yBYXL3yTLnMV6KD3l8Kq5FrW8_TXGL79rTMpN2K08B9YP9qDW20s99V5wybyfW349WdH7brMdpW8p2dkf4zJQJl35S_1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">fourteen countries</a>, which combined control an ocean area the size of Africa, committed to sustainably manage their national waters by 2025 and encouraged all other nations to join them by 2030. </p><p>In practice, this means that these governments will pursue a range of strategies, including reducing shipping emissions, reducing marine pollution, scaling up offshore renewable energy, and taking a precautionary approach to deep sea mining. </p><p>"You can't just prosper, prosper, prosper—fish more, drill more," Jane Lubchenco, an environmental scientist, former NOAA administrator, and one of the panel's expert co-chairs, told Fast Company.</p>
<p>"You have to do it in a way that minimizes the impacts on the ecosystem and maximizes the equitable benefit." </p><p>The new sustainable ocean agenda, if achieved worldwide, would dramatically increase food and renewable energy production, and contribute a fifth of the greenhouse gas pollution reductions required to stay within 1.5°C of global warming.</p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/02/global-sustainable-fishing-initiative-agreed-by-14-countries?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101740057&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_UWMXguHF4B8mDRgLMPfsNbTEZWLXr2iO9m1C_OOJ5RXJqUEZCuHm1ZpfkTqtz_kbAuLwIQ2qcG8bXRzcCvZLRun3B0wqw6Hd67TBFFD-5WjQihwk&utm_content=101740057&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90581007/14-countries-launch-a-new-plan-to-achieve-a-sustainable-ocean-economy?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101740057&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8eHPkod09Lrg8Olfh8Rc8t1dqwdt7DkRJG7ZSBgLdxj50vaR-bmOaOyn7aogHUlftEA3W064mZFANV2PKwax17ZFL0VJx7s51jFvDRHE90ulz_Hfk&utm_content=101740057&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Fast Company</a>, <a href="https://www.nature.com/immersive/d42859-020-00084-7/index.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101740057&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8aHFAlO_LqaMAAZlXr_dLoOJIoDZOdIrB_yIyCdJUXBS5vynN4PGaVhtwUokL1XYzT7o6MN57Re1x1hQfO6Aq9KzPyiSXNyDRmPsPiKk5ij5morsg&utm_content=101740057&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Nature,</a> <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/oceans-key-to-solving-climate-crisis-say-world-leaders/a-55789573?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101740057&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_ascIVyKdy3ucnvJQIbAyxCLhXw2y5t8dkt02FOqfFYZiMl_aOCDpD86z33ei5xjwhXkL-c-DV2vJTWBkZkcFfeieRg77HaIPcPaY77lqwv-1hbc4&utm_content=101740057&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/oceanpanel/bbc-world-service-with-pm-solberg-of-norway?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101740057&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_WkSVHR0EtEthuS5HEYKxTL0MThvp12bEdGOc3BBtkP4BBK_SHhza8_CkpYOg3FRTp1zHD1GAwkxCcuUdu_RvrDWgB7uhS3cJT4pZLGO3hC4zKy0k&utm_content=101740057&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">BBC Radio</a>, <a href="https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2020/12/02/14-nations-commit-to-manage-sustainably-their-waters-by-2025/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101740057&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_JundZm7dqs79UkBXFXwOYFOHNuKpGM7ttOVH7QyH3zCxjiibJhyhhi_imQLbWeuRks4_zUEswZjN20kdG03AP6wxEXEqY4HW8jHOFWnNHSZXLdLg&utm_content=101740057&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Undercurrent News</a>, <a href="https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/environment-sustainability/world-s-biggest-ocean-sustainability-initiative-signed-by-14-countries?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101740057&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9lnymFpaQ5SYT7ihvf-KB6OHlRD1h2YmBE2vUI0KGEZjL5JNKaM-trcJpO03T7NxoRmu2KnKeR4PP6N2sjhiDc8GIW_KLgayzH9yciuIYmSPpu214&utm_content=101740057&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Seafood Source</a>, <a href="https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2020/12/02/key-fishing-nations-endorse-the-protection-of-30-of-the-ocean/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101740057&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--koAEW4Ll_dwV60oqQazyGoxxnw-t1kwDqzskZXHjGG_aJGf9XnyTBlwgRAGfPlEFzRb8bl6A37uGxREfm6sQJEMVamLsel0o2C76_YbURgvBRPuo&utm_content=101740057&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">National Geographic</a>; Commentary: <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03303-3?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101740057&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--STJt6CIUuKWYBNapAcJj35oaKn8XqMcBhePyf8rXh3bENLGMVinUwsVuJxIqw2EVfiSAp9kUd6ZcVbgkOJkg1Bya52Iy3sgeep0dfL1WyB6Y6Sp4&utm_content=101740057&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Nature, Jane Lubchenco, Peter Haugan, Mari Elka Pangestu comment</a>, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03302-4?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101740057&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8T5OTZHQQTzZYnSOW3cS-bSiqCGwcH2PBruHmvxGwH16S4Ku_1BPQekFufmWHoYo7vtcC97aA-VPxrCompd7j-gtGrSfP8GM3_mAiHboxPY1q7ABw&utm_content=101740057&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Nature, Erna Solberg op-ed</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>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Sheep like these will no longer be exported from England and Wales for slaughter under a proposed ban. Chris Jackson / Getty Images
The UK has taken steps toward becoming the first European country to ban the export of live animals for slaughter.
<p>Environment Secretary George Eustice announced the new plans Thursday, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/03/uk-to-become-first-country-in-europe-to-ban-live-animal-exports" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>. The ban would fulfill a campaign promise from the ruling Conservative Party, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55167473" target="_blank">BBC News explained</a>.</p><p>"We are committed to improving the welfare of animals at all stages of life," Eustice told <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/live-animal-export-ban-uk-defra-b1765196.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a>. "Today marks a major step forward in delivering on our manifesto commitment to end live exports for slaughter."</p><p>The ban would apply to live animals exported for slaughter from England and Wales, BBC News reported. The plan will first undergo an eight-week consultation period that will cover how to improve animal welfare during transport within the UK. The results will be presented to Parliament in the summer of 2021 and should go into effect by the end of 2021.</p>
<p>The plan already includes a few exceptions. Animals will still be exported from Northern Ireland, and the export of poultry or animals intended for breeding will not be covered by the ban, according to The Guardian. The results of the eight-week consultation will be used to discuss a joint ban with Scotland.</p><p>The announcement won wide praise from UK <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/animal-welfare" target="_self">animal welfare</a> groups. Both the <a href="https://www.rspca.org.uk/" target="_blank">RSPCA</a> and <a href="https://www.ciwf.org.uk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Compassion in World Farming</a> told The Independent that they had campaigned against the practice for more than 50 years.</p><p>"There is absolutely no reasonable justification to subject an animal to an unnecessarily stressful journey abroad simply for them to be fattened for slaughter," RSPCA chief executive Chris Sherwood told The Independent. "Ending live exports for slaughter and further fattening would be a landmark achievement for animal welfare."</p>
<p>The government stressed that the proposed ban was made possible by Brexit.</p><p>"Now that we have left the EU, we have an opportunity to end this unnecessary practice. We want to ensure that animals are spared stress prior to slaughter," Eustice told The Independent.</p><p>In 2012, for example, a local government in Kent tried to ban the practice after a truck full of lame sheep was discovered at a port and had to be put to sleep, BBC News reported. However, the High Court ruled that the ban violated EU free trade laws.</p><p>"The government has long maintained that exporting live animals was a practice which could be ended as a result of Brexit — a good example of where leaving the EU would bring benefits," BBC political correspondent Helen Catt wrote. "No surprise then that it is keen to deliver on it fully."</p>
<p>The government has also promised a number of other post-Brexit animal protection measures.</p><p>"This announcement marks the start of renewed efforts from government to raise standards on animal welfare even further now we are outside the EU, including taking steps to ban primates as pets and crack down on the illegal smuggling of dogs and puppies, with further proposals to improve standards and eradicate cruel practices expected to be set out in the coming months," the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said in a statement, The Independent reported.</p><p>However, a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/brexit-environment-risk-2559682645.html?share_id=3522712" target="_self">2018 analysis</a> from <a href="https://friendsoftheearth.uk/" target="_blank">Friends of the Earth</a> found that Brexit was likely to weaken environmental regulations overall in both the UK and the EU.</p>
<p>Yet there are also moves within the EU to restrict the practice of animal export, according to The Guardian. In September the Dutch suggested that animal transport should be limited, and a European parliamentary committee on the protection of animals during transport has been holding hearings since October.</p><p>Animal welfare groups in the EU also responded favorably to the news of the proposed UK ban.</p><p>"This is great news, it is far too stressful to export live animals for slaughter," Iris Baumgaertner from Germany's Animal Welfare Foundation told The Guardian.</p>
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A group of climate activists that have been cycling from the North of the country in stages to draw attention to the climate case are arriving to the Court of Justice on the day that the climate lawsuit against Shell starts in The Hague, on December 1st, 2020. Romy Arroyo Fernandez / NurPhoto / Getty Images
By Julia Conley
Representing more than 17,000 claimants who support climate action, the international organization Friends of the Earth on Tuesday opened its case against fossil fuel giant Shell at The Hague by demanding that a judge order the corporation to significantly reduce its carbon emissions in the next decade.
<p>Milieudefensie, the Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth, <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2020/12/01/climate-change-activists-take-energy-giant-shell-to-court-in-the-hague-over-emissions" target="_blank">says</a> Shell has broken the law in The Netherlands by knowingly standing in the way of the country's phase-out of fossil fuels. Shell says it has set a goal of cutting its emissions to net zero by 2050, but the group is demanding a more rapid reduction. </p><p>"We are relying on the Dutch courts to protect communities around the globe," tweeted Nils Mollema, a policy advisor at ActionAid, which is supporting Milieudefensie in the case. </p>
<div id="47348" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5afbc9986f5a700bcaa4f88e3046024b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1333715559301713922" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Today in The Hague: Shell on trial for its role in climate catastrophe. @Shell must take responsibility and correct… https://t.co/siy20sVKxF</div> — Nils Mollema (@Nils Mollema)<a href="https://twitter.com/MollemaNils/statuses/1333715559301713922">1606817543.0</a></blockquote></div><p>The case comes five years after the Dutch government was ordered to reduce its emissions by at least 25% from 1990 levels by the end of 2020. Under the Paris climate agreement, the European Union has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030.</p><p>"The claimants therefore conclude that Royal Dutch Shell's corporate policy is on collision course with global climate targets," Roger Cox, a lawyer representing Milieudefensie in the civil case, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/dutch-climate-activists-take-shell-to-court-over-emissions/2020/12/01/ed68d494-33ac-11eb-9699-00d311f13d2d_story.html" target="_blank">told</a> a panel of three judges at The Hague District Court on Tuesday. </p><p>The organization has vehemently rejected Shell's defense in the case, in which the multinational corporation is suggesting that it is no more responsible for solving the climate emergency than other businesses or individuals.</p><p>"What will accelerate the energy transition is effective policy, investment in technology, and changing customer behavior," Shell <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2020/12/01/climate-change-activists-take-energy-giant-shell-to-court-in-the-hague-over-emissions" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> Tuesday as the first of four days of hearings began. "None of which will be achieved with this court action."</p><p>Cox noted in his opening remarks that Shell is responsible for about 1.2% of the planet's industrial fossil fuel emissions.</p><p>"The main argument of Shell is that everybody is responsible: the consumer, the state, the international community, everybody is responsible except Shell, except the biggest polluter of the Netherlands, one of the 10 biggest polluters in the world," said Donald Pols, director of Milieudefensie, on Monday. "And we are going to change that."</p><p>The case opened a month after Shell drew outrage from climate action campaigners by <a href="https://twitter.com/Shell/status/1323184318735360001" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">posting a poll </a>on its official Twitter account, asking ordinary citizens what they plan to do to help mitigate the climate crisis. </p><p>"I'm willing to hold you accountable for lying about climate change for 30 years when you secretly knew the entire time that fossil fuels emissions would destroy our planet," U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/02/shell-oil-asked-what-people-are-willing-do-reduce-emissions-im-willing-hold-you" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">replied</a> at the time, denouncing the company's "audacity."</p><p>On Monday, Pols called the opening of the case at The Hague "a historic moment."</p><p>"This is actually 'the People versus Shell,' a company that has got away with greenwashing for too long," he said in statement. "This case will make it clear to everyone that more than 95% of what Shell does is causing dangerous climate change. This has to change as soon as possible."</p><p><span></span><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/01/friends-earth-vs-shell-historic-moment-climate-movement-takes-big-oil-hague" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>. </em></p>
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Eat Just, Inc. announced that its cultured chicken has been approved for sale in Singapore as an ingredient in chicken bites. The company has developed other cultured chicken formats as well. Eat Just
As concern mounts over the environmental impacts of animal agriculture, Singapore has issued the world's first regulatory approval for lab-grown meat.
<p>The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has declared that the U.S.-based company <a href="https://www.ju.st/en-us" target="_blank">Eat Just</a> can sell its cultured "chicken bites" in the country, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/02/no-kill-lab-grown-meat-to-go-on-sale-for-first-time" target="_blank">The Guardian reported Wednesday</a>.</p><p>"I think the approval is one of the most significant milestones in the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/food/" target="_self">food</a> industry in the last handful of decades," Eat Just co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick said in a statement reported by The Guardian. "It's an open door and it's up to us and other companies to take that opportunity. My hope is this leads to a world in the next handful of years where the majority of meat doesn't require killing a single animal or tearing down a single tree."</p>
<p>Giving up on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/meat-consumption" target="_self">meat consumption</a> is one of the most important things an individual can do to fight the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> and environmental destruction, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/vegan-climate-change-2558286917.html" target="_self">studies</a> have <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/vegan-earth-footprint-2574241439.html" target="_self">found</a>. Companies have tried to tap into this growing ecological awareness by offering meat alternatives. Plant-based meat replacements like <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/beyond-meat" target="_self">Beyond Meat</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/impossible-foods" target="_self">Impossible Foods</a> are gaining traction, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55155741" target="_blank">BBC News pointed out</a>, and the market for meat alternatives could be worth about 10 percent of the global meat industry within the next decade.</p><p>However, some companies think that plant-based meat replacements will not be enough to wean meat-lovers off of steak and chicken, The Guardian pointed out. Instead, companies like Eat Just, Future Meat Technologies and the Bill Gates-backed Memphis Meats have worked to grow meat in labs, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/01/singapore-issues-first-regulatory-approval-for-lab-grown-meat-to-eat-just.html" target="_blank">CNBC reported</a>. They argue that their meat is also less cruel, healthier for consumers and better for the environment.</p><p>"We think that [the way] to really solve the meat problem — which is a health problem, a deforestation problem, a morality problem — is to make animal protein," Tetrick told CNBC.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDg1NzE4Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTUzMjA4N30.-5EwlKgZejlzA25BqWo0VkOuhK2_4BZ6nxbfLcrtC4M/img.jpg?width=980" id="9c1fe" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="01f8f414e028394386321c455c4436f8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Eat Just's cultured chicken has been approved for sale in Singapore as an ingredient in chicken bites. Eat Just
<p>Eat Just worked to gain the approval of Singapore health regulators for about two years. To do so, they had to develop a consistent manufacturing process for their product and satisfy food safety standards for new foods.</p><p>"It was found to be safe for consumption at the intended levels of use, and was allowed to be sold in Singapore as an ingredient in Eat Just's nuggets product," the SFA ruled, as BBC News reported.</p><p>Eat Just's meat is made by putting animal stem cells into a culture that feeds the cells, and then putting the growing cells in a bioreactor, CNBC explained. Tetrick said the process was similar to making beer.</p><p>The product already has health benefits compared to conventional meat. It has a high protein content and many amino acids, but it has no antibiotics and very low amounts of microbes like salmonella.</p><p>It is also largely cruelty free. The meat cells can be taken from live animals, and they are fed with plant-derived nutrients, The Guardian explained. The Singapore lab chicken did use a growth serum from foetal bovine blood, but a plant-based serum will be used for the next round of production.</p>
<p> Lab-grown meat also uses less land and water than conventional meat. However, the process does have some environmental disadvantages. It is high-energy, and, because it is currently being done at a small scale, requires a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Once the process is scaled up, the energy costs will go down.</p><p>There are many challenges that must be overcome before cultured meat is widely available. Eat Just's product will first be offered in just one restaurant in Singapore, Tetrick told CNBC.</p><p>"We're going to start out with a single restaurant and then scale out to five, 10, 15 and then eventually into retail," Tetrick told CNBC. "The infrastructure required to do it is primarily the bioreactors, so we'll eventually be moving to 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000 liters."</p><p>It is currently costly to produce cultured meat, and the product will be the price of premium chicken. However, costs have already decreased from $50 per chicken nugget, according to BBC News. They are expected to continue to do so as production is scaled up, and Eat Just says its products will eventually be cheaper to produce than conventional meat, according to The Guardian.</p><p>Another hurdle is making meat lovers comfortable with the idea of lab-grown meat.</p><p>Still, Bruce Friedrich of the Good Food Institute called the new approval a "very big deal for the future of meat production globally."</p><p>"A new space race for the future of food is under way," he told The Guardian.</p>
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Wildfires are seen burning out of control on November 30, 2020 on Fraser Island, Australia. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services / Getty Images
The world's largest sand island has been on fire for the past six weeks due to a campfire, and Australia's firefighters have yet to prevent flames from destroying the fragile ecosystem.
<p>The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires" target="_blank">wildfires</a> on <a href="https://fido.org.au/moonbi/backgrounders/49%20Fraser%20Fauna%20Backgrounder.pdf" target="_blank">Fraser Island</a>, also called by its Indigenous name K'gari, have burned almost <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/01/australia/australia-bushfire-fraser-island-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank">200,000 acres </a>of its unique habitat, including large sand dunes, swamps and rainforests. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-environment-july-2639073995.html?rebelltitem=1" target="_blank">Fraser Island</a> is near Brisbane on the northeastern coast, where dingos, swamp wallabies, sugar gliders and more than 60 reptile species call the island home. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992.</p><p>Several tourists visiting the island had to be <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-bushfires/bushfires-threaten-tourist-areas-on-australias-fraser-island-idUSKBN28C05U" target="_blank">evacuated</a> as conditions worsened, Reuters reported.<br></p><p>"I think it's frustrating for everybody, the fact that a campfire has started this fire. Having the impact that it has had, it started in a very, very remote part of the island… really difficult to access," Queensland Fire and Emergency Services deputy commissioner Mike Wassing told CNN affiliate Nine News, according to Reuters.</p><p>Since Saturday fire crews have dropped more than 200,000 gallons of water and flame retardant on the island, Reuters added. </p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/dec/01/catastrophic-bushfire-on-queenslands-fraser-island-threatens-ecological-disaster" target="_blank">The Guardian </a>reported that crews are mainly addressing the problem from above, focusing on key ecological areas and sites that are important to the Butchulla Aboriginal people, who have called the island home for thousands of years.</p>
<p>However, fighting sand fires is difficult, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services assistant commissioner Gary McCormack told The Guardian. He explained how water quickly drained from the sand floor, even when dropped from above. Ground conditions weren't any better due to a lack of firebreaks. </p><p>"Unfortunately the current conditions are not conducive to extinguishment," McCormack said.</p><p>The fires are approaching the Valley of Giants, a tourist attraction known for its 1,000-year-old trees. </p><p><span></span>Researcher Dr. Gabriel Conroy, a conservation biologist at the University of the Sunshine Coast whose work focuses on Fraser Island, took a student group there last week.</p><p>"A northerly wind had kicked in and it was other-worldly with ash falling down on the students," he told The Guardian. "There's a sense of panic on the island."</p>
<p>Conroy explained that traditional fire practices by the Butchulla people were suppressed more than a century ago, and European loggers altered the island's ecology. Prior to this, the Butchulla had burned smaller fires on the island for thousands of years in order to prevent more widespread ones.<br></p><p>"This is a very large and very hot fire for this island. It's a big fire and it's the wrong kind of fire," Conroy said. He added, "It's a catastrophe. Even ecosystems that are meant to burn don't bounce back from widespread hot fires. It can be beyond their capacity to bounce back."<span></span></p><p>According to <a href="Queensland's Bureau of Meteorology said the fire danger is likely to be exacerbated by strong winds and extreme heat wave conditions, which are forecast to continue in the state for the next few days." target="_blank">CNN,</a> Queensland's Bureau of Meteorology warned that an extreme heat wave and strong winds, forecast for the next couple of days, would likely worsen the fires.</p><p>The current fires may be the start of a harsh and long fire season, and are already drawing comparison to the devastating <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20201112231540-id4yp/#:~:text=Fires%20razed%20more%20than%2011,called%20Australia's%20%22black%20summer%22." target="_blank">wildfires</a> Australia experienced in early 2020, where more than 37 million acres were destroyed, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/australia-wildfires-animals-2646814591.html" target="_blank">three billion animals killed</a>, and 33 people died.</p>
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