Lawsuit Filed Over Oklahoma's 'Fracking' Earthquakes as Its Third Largest Quake Is Felt in 7 Other States
The Sierra Club and the public interest law firm Public Justice have filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against three energy companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking, in Oklahoma.
The suit against New Dominion, Chesapeake Operating and Devon Energy Production Company alleges that wastewater from fracking and oil production have contributed to the state's alarming spike in earthquake activity.
The lawsuit demands the companies, as a first step, to “reduce, immediately and substantially, the amounts of production waste they are injecting into the ground.”
The lawsuit was filed the same day that the Oklahoma Corporation Commission made their largest push yet to curb the state's seismic activity. According to the Associated Press, the state's oil and gas regulator ordered operators of nearly 250 injection wells to reduce the amount of wastewater they inject underground.
The commission released a plan that covers more than 5,200 square miles in northwest Oklahoma and called for a reduction of more than 500,000 barrels of wastewater daily, or about 40 percent less than previous levels, the AP reported.
The commission's measure comes three days after a 5.1 magnitude earthquake shook northwest Oklahoma. Not only was the quake felt in seven other states, it's the third-strongest temblor ever recorded in the state, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.
"Without knowing more specifics about the wastewater injection and oil and gas production in this area, the USGS cannot conclude whether or not this particular earthquake was caused by industrial-related, human activities," the agency said. "However, we do know that many earthquakes in the area have been triggered by wastewater fluid injection."
The Sooner State has gone from two earthquakes a year before 2009 to two a day, making it the earthquake capital of the world.
In 2014, seismologists reported more than 5,000 earthquakes in Oklahoma. In 2015, the state experienced 907 quakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater. “The earthquakes are continuing in 2016,” the suit states, noting that “Oklahoma City residents were awakened on January 1 with a 4.1 magnitude earthquake. Six days later, 4.3 and 4.8 magnitude earthquakes occurred back-to-back. [The state] has had 131 earthquakes from January 1 through 16, 2016, ranging from 2.01 to 4.8.”
Scientists concluded in April 2015 that the injection of wastewater byproducts into deep underground disposal wells from fracking operations have triggered the near-daily quakes.
The Tulsa World examined a recent Oklahoma Geological Survey study, which found an 81 percent jump from 2009 to 2014 in wastewater volumes pumped back underground from oil and gas activities, in which wastewater volumes skyrocketed to 1.538 billion barrels in 2014 from 849 million in 2009. The rise coincides with the state’s leap in seismicity, Tulsa World observed.
“The science laid out in our case is clear,” Paul Bland, executive director of Public Justice, said. “Oklahoma may be on the verge of experiencing a strong and potentially catastrophic earthquake. All evidence points to alarming seismic activity in and around fracking operations, and that activity is becoming more frequent and more severe. This lawsuit, which we filed after the three companies named in our suit refused to take steps of their own, is an action brought by residents of Oklahoma in an attempt to protect their property, their communities and their lives.”
The groups said in their complaint that continued injection “may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to health and the environment.”
“The dangers associated with fracking and its related processes has never been more clear than it is here in Oklahoma,” Johnson Bridgwater, director of Sierra Club’s Oklahoma chapter, said. “Oklahomans, just as all Americans do, deserve the right to live in peace and comfort—not to live in fear of man-made earthquakes. It is our hope that these three companies will recognize the immediate danger they are putting communities in, and put our health and our environment ahead of its profits.”
OKLAHOMA SIERRA CLUB SUING ENERGY COMPANIES OVER EARTHQUAKE CRISIS: https://t.co/tNvBsUmcjI #oklahomaearthquakes— Oklahoma Sierra Club (@Oklahoma Sierra Club)1455648977.0
Not only are the groups requesting a substantial reduction in production waste, they are also seeking an order that requires the companies to reinforce vulnerable structures, which could be impacted by large magnitude earthquakes. The suit also asks the court to require the establishment of an independent earthquake monitoring and prediction center.
“If the fracking industry doesn't change its ways, the next earthquake could be catastrophic," Robin L. Greenwald, head of Weitz & Luxenberg’s Environmental, Toxic Tort and Consumer Protection litigation unit, said. "This lawsuit seeks to beat back immediately the amount of production waste that fracking creates, to reduce the deep well injection of that waste and, most important, to limit the amount of damage this process is causing across the Sooner State."
Public Justice attorney Richard Webster told Radio Oklahoma News that "the polluters know very well that their activities will trigger earthquakes and yet they continue to inject large volumes of waste with impunity despite that knowledge.
"What we’re asking them for is to come down to a level where the injection does not induce earthquakes."
Listen to @FPBland & attorney @EnviroWeb discuss our #fracking lawsuit with @RadioOklahoma: https://t.co/FHMUKdtGY3— Public Justice (@Public Justice)1455643715.0
Devon spokesman John Porretto told the AP it would be inappropriate to discuss the suit from the Sierra Club and Public Justice. The other companies didn't immediately reply to requests for comment.
Many have criticized the state's slow response to the regulation of wastewater injection. Al Jazeera America's bombshell documentary, Earthquake State, exposed the maddening hurdles and bureaucracy that state scientists and regulators face in their efforts to halt the potential crisis and national security threat.
As the quakes continue to strike the state with increasing frequency, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin ordered $1.4 million in emergency funds for earthquake research during her annual State of the State last month.
"I'm committed to funding seismic research, bringing on line advanced technology and more staff to fully support our regulators at they take meaningful action on earthquakes," she said in a statement.
The Sierra Club and Public Justice have joined the mounting lawsuits against energy companies. Last month, 14 residents of Edmond, Oklahoma filed suit against 12 "reckless" energy companies, claiming their fracking operations caused the state's string of earthquakes.
Get ready #fracking Co! RT Oklahoma Residents Sue 12 'Reckless' #Fracking Companies for Earthquake Damage https://t.co/oFczFDDG3A @ecowatch— Bianca Jagger (@Bianca Jagger)1453214403.0
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A crowd of climate activists march behind a banner in NYC during Climate Week on September 20, 2020. Erik McGregor / LightRocket / Getty Images
After decades on the political periphery, the climate movement is entering the mainstream in 2020, with young leaders at the fore. The Sunrise Movement now includes more than 400 local groups educating and advocating for political action on climate change. Countless students around the world have clearly communicated what's at stake for their futures, notably Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who just finished her yearlong school strike for climate. Youth activists have been praised for their flexible, big-picture thinking and ability to harness social media to deliver political wins, as Sunrise recently did for U.S. Sen. Ed Markey's primary campaign. They necessarily challenge the status quo.
<p>"Every social movement in the U.S. that has been successful has always had strong youth and students out there leading the charge—and in most cases, leading the charge more aggressively and demanding actions over and beyond the general population," says Robert Bullard, a professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University. That's certainly true for climate, with youth demanding a radical transition away from fossil fuels on decidedly tighter timelines than their predecessors have advocated for. Pressure from youth such as Varshini Prakash, the co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, led Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to endorse a bolder <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/14/890814007/biden-outlines-2-trillion-climate-plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$2 trillion climate platform</a> over the course of the campaign.</p><p>Sena Wazer, co-director of Sunrise Connecticut, describes how her work is often viewed by older activists: "The main response that I think many of us get from older folks is, 'Well, you're so inspirational and give me hope,' which is nice, but it ends up getting really frustrating, because we're not here to give you hope, you know? We're here to get something done."</p><p>Bullard says it's critical that we, as a society, allow youth's energy and optimism bubble to the top, and to empower young people to assume the leadership they're seeking. Having written more than a dozen books on environmental justice, he considers himself an elder in the movement. In contrast, Bullard calls young people "the tip of the spear," and says it's absolutely critical to have them out there "pushing hard for transformative change."</p>
A Convergence of Issues
<p>The unequal impacts of a changing climate have become extremely clear in 2020, so equity has come to the fore of climate conversations in every corner of the country. A global deadly pandemic continues to rage out of control in the U.S., heat waves are setting new temperature records, wildfires are scorching American Western states, and the hurricane season has already made it to the end of the alphabet for naming storms. In all cases, low-income, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities are bearing a disproportionate amount of the impacts.</p><p>"Today, the scab is off, the ugly reality of injustice is hitting us up close and personal, made more realistic by this COVID pandemic," Bullard says.</p><p>This year the decidedly youthful focus on intersectionality is a big part of what defines the transformation of the climate movement. Climate is not just an environmental issue, according to youth activists. It's also a racial justice issue, an economic issue, and an access-to-health care issue.</p><p>"Environmental justice is really seeing the intersection of these issues," says Alex Rodriguez, a community organizer with the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, which aims to make environmental issues a priority for the state's elected leaders. The group is now focusing their efforts on the coming election and recently succeeded in persuading the state to allow absentee voting in November. "We want people to be safe when casting their vote," says Rodriguez, 26, whose fellow grassroots committee members range from age 16 to 60.</p><p>Rodriguez, who also serves on the equity and environmental justice working group for the Governor's Council on Climate Change, says, "We see our programmatic work as a way to help lawmakers see what they can do to improve the dignity of those suffering from environmental racism, systematic racism, and economic oppression."</p><p>Seeing the overlap and bringing these issues together is a strength that Bullard says was missing from the civil rights organizing he was involved with in the 1960s. He says 2020 is unique in many ways.</p><p>"The number of marchers is unprecedented, from different economic, ethnic, and racial groups—an awakening unlike any that I've seen on this Earth in over 70 years," Bullard says. "Today, the different movements are converging, and I think that convergence makes for greater potential for success."</p>Young and Old
<p>But young people are one essential demographic among many when it comes to climate action. With all that's on the line for climate in the coming elections, up and down the ballot, collaboration becomes key. Bullard says previous generations of climate activists can now play the critical role of mentoring, assisting, and supporting. Standing with, not in front of, youth.</p><p>"Youth are leading us and taking on frontline activity," says Jayce Chiblow, the community engagement lead for Indigenous Climate Action, a Canadian organization that works for Indigenous-led climate justice solutions. But in doing so, she says many young Indigenous activists are experiencing the trauma of violence, getting arrested, and being taken away from their land. "All of our older people are supporting those youth: Elders, mentors, people trained in nonviolent action," Chiblow says. "The youth aren't alone."</p><p>That support can go a long way. "There's a lot of anger and a lot of fear, and that's understandable," says Wazer of Sunrise Connecticut. "I definitely feel those things, too, just considering the ways that our future has been threatened and kind of trashed by older generations."</p><p>Under the Trump administration, the number of environmental rollbacks alone can be disheartening, not to mention new <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/video/arctic-national-wildlife-refuge/" target="_blank">drilling permits in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge going up for auction</a>.</p><p>Wazer is frank about the risks of burnout, depression, and anxiety from the stress of it all, but draws inspiration from the example of the late U.S. representative and lifelong civil rights activist John Lewis. "That forgiveness and that ability to keep fighting and stay motivated … I think that that is something really powerful to learn from older generations."</p><p>An intergenerational approach can leverage the individual strengths of youth and older people in all their diversity.</p><p>"The elders hold our stories," says Chiblow, who is Anishinaabe from Garden River First Nation, Ontario. Those stories include lived experiences, culture, history, and generations of adapting to changes in climate. Such collective experience continues to inform Indigenous knowledge and connections to the land, as well as how people manage and govern themselves in relation to it. This knowledge is passed on through relationship-building and storytelling.</p><p>"Every time you hear that story, you're at a different point in your life, and you'll pick up something else … something new," Chiblow says.</p><p>Changes in perspectives that come with time and experience are among the reasons why intergenerational learning and coalitions are critical to the climate movement. To combine that living and learning is to expand the reach and meaning of the message exponentially. As part of her research for her master's degree, Chiblow brought together youth, community leaders, and knowledge keepers in her community to workshop climate action. "Those relationships are vital to keep that movement going," Chiblow says.</p><p>The value of intergenerational relationships resonates far beyond Indigenous cultures, too. Rick Lent, a member of Elders Climate Action in Massachusetts, says he is motivated to act for his granddaughter. He recounts the time she said to him, "Please tell me that there is something hopeful regarding the climate in our, in the future, because I'm going to be living with the repercussions, and I'm scared."</p><p>Lent takes that request seriously and says that working on behalf of future generations translates into effective messaging. "When you show up as a group of elders, and you're talking to your legislator, our pitch is, 'I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this for my grandchildren.' So it gives you a whole different story about who you are and why you're doing this work."</p><p>Elders Climate Action has <a href="https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/H832" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">campaigned to pass a decarbonization plan</a> in the Massachusetts legislature, which would set a net-zero emissions goal for 2050 and codify environmental justice in state law. With the November elections fast approaching, the group's focus is now on assuring everybody can vote safely. In some states, the group's chapters are pushing for voter registration and in others, ensuring people can vote by mail.</p><p>"We're going to be in a pandemic in this year's elections," Lent says, which poses risks to people's health, especially that of older voters. And because most poll workers, traditionally, have been seniors, Elders Climate Action is also encouraging youth to take up that mantle. "We need vote-by-mail," Lent says, "And we need more poll workers, younger poll workers."</p>
The Unique Value Proposition of Elders
<p>Older activists bring unique strengths to the table, according to gerontologist Mick Smyer, who designs strategies to move people from anxiety to action on climate. He calls himself "the aging whisperer to climate groups" and "the climate whisperer to aging groups." He is quick to point out that the learning can go in both directions.</p><p>"I think older adults are untapped resources," Smyer says. "Older adults bring several resources, one of which is their circles of influence. Just by virtue of having lived longer, older adults are going to have denser and richer networks," Smyer says. "The second is, when it comes to voting and civic engagement, older adults, as an age group, outperform all other age groups."</p><p>He uses the 2016 presidential election to illustrate his point: "The older age groups, 70% of them voted. Nobody [else] came close." He is cautious about making sweeping statements about older people broadly, but he says that ageism is alive and well. And that can deter the kind of collaboration that would beget necessary progress on climate action.</p><p>As the twin global patterns of an aging population and a changing climate continue arm in arm, Smyer says a good place for starting this work is within one's family.</p><p>"We each have that power to use in our circles of influence, particularly in our families, and we don't realize it," Smyer says. Whether it's via Zoom or FaceTime or a phone call or a chat in the living room, Smyer says, family members have a superpower: They will listen to each other, and they'll at least start the conversation.</p><p> "Intergenerational collaboration around climate issues, particularly in this election season, starts at home, and then goes to the polling booth," he says.</p>Speaking the Same Language
<p>As an individual's network of family, friends, and connections becomes wider and more diverse, the more work will need to be done to have them all working toward the same goals. That is equally true for the climate movement at large.</p><p>In bridging the gaps among baby boomers, Gen Xers, and millennials, Bullard says, "Each generation will have some idiosyncrasy and uniqueness about it that another generation will not understand or comprehend."</p><p>If everybody in a group or institution is similar, then there's no need to explain a lot, Bullard says. There's usually a fair amount of shared knowledge and values. But the more diverse that group gets, in age, race, gender, or culture, he says, the greater the potential for making mistakes, stepping on people's culture, and causing pain. But the potential for learning also increases exponentially.</p><p>Chiblow says successful collaboration comes down to being able to speak in shared concepts. The term "justice," for example, is an English word that's hard to translate into the Anishinaabe language. Chiblow says that because her community sees itself as belonging to the land, and being part of the land, the Anishinaabe worldview, and therefore their understanding of justice, is necessarily more holistic than the mainstream.</p><p>"Indigenous people have been feeling [the effects of climate change] for so long," Chiblow says. Today, as wildfires rage across the West, the mantra of "I can't breathe" is being driven home on a grand scale. For better and worse, climate justice is finally a front-page story.</p><p>"It's affecting the broader society," Chiblow says. "We're finally at the turning point where we could start to make real change because … people are really starting to feel that urgency."</p><p>The urgency will be tantamount in the coming election. A lot is at stake, says Chiblow: "Incentives, funding, all-around agreement, and also the way we're able to manage our lands and ourselves as people."</p><p>Bullard, too, is insistent on urgency. "This election is one of the most important elections of a generation, because there's so many things at stake," he says. "We can't wait another 40 years on climate. We don't have that much time. We don't have 40 years to get justice."</p><p>Issues of climate justice will be on the ballot in state and local elections this fall, such as Nevada's proposed renewable energy standards and Louisiana's proposed disaster funding. And the topic has finally made it onto the national stage. Joe Biden called Trump a "climate arsonist" for not acting on or even admitting that the wildfires in California are clearly climate-related. The frequency and intensity of such disasters is indisputable.</p><p>"Hurricanes don't swerve to avoid red states or blue states. Wildfires don't skip towns that voted a certain way," Biden <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-address-west-coast-fires-confront-growing-threat/story?id=73000218" target="_blank">said in a speech on Sept. 14</a>. "The impacts of climate change don't pick and choose. That's because it's not a partisan phenomenon."</p><p>In many ways, the results of the upcoming elections will reflect the ways youth activists and older activists are able come to a common understanding of what climate justice means and what they want the future world to look like. </p><p>"There's a lot of knowledge built up in experience, and there's a lot of energy that's stored in young people," Bullard says. "When you put those two together, you have … an excellent recipe for potential success."</p>From Your Site Articles
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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>
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<em>Grayson Jaggers is an assistant professor at the University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.</em><br/>
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<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>
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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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