Three glaciers in West Antarctica have undergone "intense unbalanced melting," risking their stability and further acceleration of sea level rise.
New research published in Nature Communications found that the Smith, Pope and Kohler glaciers in the Amundsen Sea embayment collectively lost about 1,000 feet of ice from 2002 to 2009.
This rapid melt shows how glaciers are being eaten away from the bottom due to a large increase in ocean heat.
For a deeper dive:
Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, NPR, Climate Central, Mashable, Washington Post, TakePart, Xinhua, Gizmodo, Motherboard
For more climate change and clean energy news, you can follow Climate Nexus on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for daily Hot News.
Gina McCarthy, EPA administrator in the Obama administration, speaks during the Climate Action 2016 Summit on May 6, 2016 in Washington, DC, two weeks after the signing ceremony of the Paris agreement. Mark Wilson / Getty Images
President-elect Joe Biden is currently considering the former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under former President Barack Obama to be the domestic "climate czar," Reuters reported.
<p>The appointment of Gina McCarthy would put her in charge of federal policy on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate</a> across agencies. Biden has made the climate crisis a main focus for his upcoming administration, tapping former Obama secretary of state <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/23/politics/john-kerry-biden-climate-envoy/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">John Kerry</a> to be its special presidential envoy on climate, as a cabinet-level official who will sit on the National Security Council.</p>
<p>McCarthy currently serves as the president of the Natural Resources Defense Counsel, an environmental advocacy organization with broad reach. She would be Kerry's counterpart, where she would run domestic policy, with Kerry in charge of international diplomacy with regard to climate.</p><p>In an interview with <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/11/14/934920666/joe-bidens-options-to-combat-climate-change" target="_blank">NPR</a> in November, McCarthy said Biden's climate strategy consisted of re-entering the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/paris-climate-agreement-biden-2648649350.html">Paris agreement</a> immediately, and moving to clean energy by 2035. She mentioned how under President Trump the administration was stacked with fossil fuel executives, which stalled policy on clean energy to move forward. It also stalled on the job front, as clean energy jobs are more likely to produce more employment through creating infrastructure.</p>
<p>She said in the interview that if people who may be skeptical about climate change, or rely on the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuel</a> industry for employment understood the potential of the job market in <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/10/22167938/governors-us-climate-change-alliance-clean-energy-jobs" target="_blank">renewable energy</a> — and the jobs would be more secure — then it could be massive step forward in combating climate change in the U.S.</p><p>And Michael Regan, the current secretary of North Carolina's Department of Environmental Quality, is a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-14/biden-team-considering-north-carolina-official-to-lead-u-s-epa" target="_blank">top contender</a> to head the upcoming administration's EPA office, according to Bloomberg News. One of his largest achievements while in office was in January, where he held Duke Energy Corp accountable for its pollution production, forcing the company to agree to the largest <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal">coal</a> cleanup in the U.S.</p>
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A beaked whale believed to be a new species. Sea Shepherd / CONANP
By Elizabeth Claire Alberts
When a trio of beaked whales surfaced off Mexico's Pacific coast, researchers thought they'd found the elusive Perrin's beaked whale (Mesoplodon perrini), an endangered species that's never been officially sighted alive. But upon closer inspection, the researchers realized they may have stumbled upon something even rarer — a new species of beaked whale altogether.
<p><br/></p>
<p>On Nov. 17, the research team was sailing aboard the <em>Martin Sheen</em>, a vessel operated by conservation group Sea Shepherd, when they spotted the three beaked whales about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Mexico's San Benito Islands. They managed to capture photos and video recordings of the animals, and also dropped a specialized microphone underwater to record the animals' acoustic signals.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk1NzkwNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MjI2MTE4M30.21MYENyBOtZfNM8n4pMNMx7naLGfQ2wpc8vc6aYD1C0/img.jpg?width=980" id="e74d4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6459a987bacd6a6458c6001103e7a266" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Two beaked whales swimming by the Sea Shepherd vessel. Sea Shepherd / CONANP
<p>"The whales, amazingly, surfaced four or five times really close to the ship," Elizabeth Henderson, a bioacoustics scientist at the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific's (NIWC PAC) whale acoustics reconnaissance program and one of the researchers on the expedition, told Mongabay in an interview. "They actually seemed to be circling us. We put in one of our acoustic recorders, and they kind of checked that out. For beaked whales, it was incredible, because beaked whales are typically so elusive when it comes to ships."</p><p>Beaked whales communicate via echolocation clicks above the frequency of human hearing. But when Henderson and her colleagues analyzed the acoustical data, they found that these whales' clicks were slightly different from those produced by Perrin's beaked whales. The whales also appeared to have distinct physical characteristics.</p><p>"The Perrin's beaked whale [has] teeth … right at the end of the rostrum, they're right at the end of the jaw," Henderson said. "And so when we started looking at the photos, we realized that the teeth are further back, so they couldn't be Perrin's. And then when we started to look at other characteristics, including different color patterns and its size …. it's like a jigsaw puzzle. Once we started putting all the pieces together, we realized that not only was it not Perrin's, but it really didn't seem to match any of the other characteristics of described beaked whales."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk1NzkxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MzY2OTAyOH0.__XqTIC_rh-88sdz9FatmzoneVtRb6OnEf8sjWNBdgQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="2e9c6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d069db7029685eccbe1e86e395138428" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The trio of beaked whales encountered by the research team in November. Sea Shepherd / CONANP
<p>While the scientists say they are "highly confident" they found a new species, they took water samples near the whales in order to analyze the environmental DNA, or eDNA, which Henderson says will help assess whether the beaked whales were definitely a new species.</p><p>"We're literally taking water samples from where the whales dove, so right where they were," Henderson said. "The hope is that there's some genetic material left in the water, whether that's sloughed skin, whether it's some remnants of fecal matter."</p><p>"We saw something new," Jay Barlow, a senior scientist at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and another one of the researchers on the expedition, said in a statement. "Something that was not expected in this area, something that doesn't match, either visually or acoustically, anything that is known to exist. It just sends chills up and down my spine when I think that we might have accomplished what most people would say was truly impossible — finding a large mammal that exists on this earth that is totally unknown to science."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk1NzkyOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MzM0Nzg0NX0.6YdlWQFnVLH78ohqMraaSPwBFaN4434VNMWVKjUUQVI/img.jpg?width=980" id="29565" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e85ec6f26d60a1b839c7d40c7a1f943f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
One of the three beaked whales believed to be a new species. Sea Shepherd / CONANP
<p>Takashi Fritz Matsuishi, a professor at Hokkaido University's School of Fisheries Sciences and co-author of a 2019 <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-46703-w" target="_blank">paper</a> identifying another new species of beaked whale — the Sato's beaked whale (<em>Berardius minimus</em>) — said it's very possible that the researchers found a new species near the San Benito Islands. However, he said that a new species could not be accurately identified using only eDNA analysis, acoustics or visual observations.</p><p>"The external morphology and osteological descriptions are strictly required," Matsuishi told Mongabay in an email, referring to the animal's physical features and skeletal structure. "That is the reason that our Sato's beaked whale [took] 6 years to be described as a new species since the publication of the paper showing the genetical difference in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1748-7692.2012.00607.x" target="_blank">2013</a>."</p><p>Matsuishi also said the "new" species might simply be a species already known to science, such as the pygmy beaked whale (<em>Mesoplodon peruvianus</em>) or even the Perrin's beaked whale, which was the researchers' initial assumption.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="63ec1c998195be81e1104da7720012c4"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rBbQJbFpCok?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<p>While Henderson and her colleagues are waiting on the results of their eDNA analysis, they are excited about their possible discovery. Henderson said the team is currently working on a paper to describe the species' acoustics and the morphological characteristics, which they hope to release shortly.</p><p>"I just think it's amazing that in this day and age, when we feel like we know everything, that something as large as a new species of beaked whale is potentially still out there," she said. "I think that just goes to show that we don't know as much as we think we do, and there is still so much more to be explored."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/whale-of-a-find-scientists-spot-beaked-whale-believed-to-be-a-new-species/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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The coal-fired Belchatow Power Station is seen on November 29, 2018 in Rogowiec, Poland. Sean Gallup / Getty Images
European Union leaders reached an eleventh-hour agreement Friday to reduce the bloc's collective greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent of 1990 levels by 2030.
<p>The deal, hashed out over a negotiation all-nighter, managed to reconcile differences between wealthier Western European countries and Eastern European countries such as Poland that are still heavily dependent on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/11/world/europe/eu-climate-emissions.html#:~:text=E.U.-,Agrees%20to%20Slash%20Carbon%20Emissions%20by%202030,substantial%20reduction%20than%20previously%20proposed" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>.</p><p>"Europe is the leader in the fight against <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate change</a>," European Council President Charles Michel tweeted Friday morning, <a href="https://twitter.com/eucopresident/status/1337296150580383744" target="_blank">announcing the news</a>.</p>
<div id="9cdc2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="97b83cd67a1260727f1519ae627fa752"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1337296150580383744" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Europe is the leader in the fight against climate change. We decided to cut our greenhouse gas emissions of at lea… https://t.co/65Pq9FHyn1</div> — Charles Michel (@Charles Michel)<a href="https://twitter.com/eucopresident/statuses/1337296150580383744">1607671222.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The deal comes after the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greta-thunberg-eu-climate-law-2645391457.html?rebelltitem=1" target="_self">drafted a law</a> in March that would make the 27-country bloc carbon neutral by 2050. Activists like Greta Thunberg criticized the plan for setting a benchmark so far in the future. While Thunberg also thought 2030 was too far of a target, analysts told The New York Times that Friday's deal makes the EU's 2050 target more credible.</p><p>European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen championed the new deal.</p><p>"Today's agreement puts us on a clear path to climate neutrality in 2050," The Guardian reported her saying. The agreement was also reached in time for von der Leyen to announce it at a virtual <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/virtual-climate-summit-2020-2649465278.html" target="_self">UN climate meeting Saturday</a>, The New York Times reported.</p><p>The deal came after the bloc failed to agree to a less-ambitious 40 percent emissions reduction target in October. Two key factors bridged the gap between coal-dependent members and the rest.</p>
<ol><li>The deal was reached after the EU agreed on a $2.2 trillion budget Thursday evening that includes funds for transitioning away from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a>.</li><li>The negotiators agreed to make the target a collective one so that each country will not be held to the same standards, and countries with more diverse energy sources can compensate for slower transitions from coal-dependent states.</li></ol><p>"We have an agreement which on the one hand allows us to realize the E.U. target, and on the other creates conditions for a just transition of the Polish economy and the energy sector," Polish minister of climate and environment Michal Kurtyka told The New York Times.</p><p>The deal will also focus on accelerating the transition to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/electric-vehicle" target="_self">electric vehicles</a> and mandate an investment of $420 billion a year this decade for decarbonizing the energy sector, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/eu-summit-climate/eu-leaders-clinch-deal-on-tougher-2030-climate-goal-idUSKBN28L0N3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>.</p>
<p>The deal will now need to be approved by the European Parliament, which supports a more ambitious emissions reduction of 60 percent by 2030.</p><p>"It is important not to be fooled into thinking that a net target of 55 percent is sufficient," Jytte Guteland, the parliament member taking the lead on climate legislation, <a href="https://twitter.com/JytteGuteland/status/1337317060376932352" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tweeted Friday</a>. "I have a strong mandate from the elected representatives in the European Parliament to push for more climate ambition. I intend to do that when we meet and negotiate."</p><p>The Guardian reported that the new commitment means that the EU now has one of the leading climate plans of any major economy. Still, several activists agreed with Guteland that the deal did not go far enough.</p><p>"Governments will no doubt call it historic, but the evidence shows this deal is only a small improvement on the emissions cuts the EU is already expected to achieve. It shows that political convenience takes precedence over climate science, and that most politicians are still afraid to take on big polluters," <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Greenpeace EU</a> policy advisor Sebastian Mang told The Guardian.</p><p>Colin Roche, <a href="https://www.foeeurope.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Friends of the Earth Europe</a> climate justice coordinator, also said the EU should be more ambitious in its goals in order to meet its commitments under the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement" target="_self">Paris agreement</a>.</p><p>"Our leaders must go further to deliver Europe's fair share of global action to cut carbon and live up to the agreement they made in Paris five years ago," Roche told <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/11/eu-leaders-agree-on-55percent-greenhouse-gas-emissions-reduction-target.html" target="_blank">CNBC</a>. "Meanwhile if this new target is to be meaningful, planned new EU infrastructure spending must cut out all fossil fuels now."</p>
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Shasta dam and lake near Redding, California. Kelly M. Grow / California Department of Water Resources
By Tara Lohan
In the aftermath of the Nov. 3 election, President Donald Trump has tried every trick in the book to avoid facing the reality of his loss. A barrage of lawsuits accompanied by disinformation campaigns has attempted to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election.
<p>But a close look at regulatory actions and executive moves shows that, even as Trump makes a show of refusing to concede or transition power to the incoming Biden administration, his team is pushing through a slew of last-minute rules and regulations.</p><p>Many of these changes will harm the environment and public health.</p><p>It isn't surprising that an administration that has attempted to roll back more than <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html" target="_blank">100 environmental protections</a> in the past four years would step up its assault in its waning months. But that doesn't make the continued attacks any less important. Here's some of what's at risk:</p>
<h3>1. Tribal Lands</h3><p>Tribes and environmental groups have fought for decades against a proposed copper mine in an area of Arizona known as Oak Flat, which is a sacred site for a dozen tribes, including the San Carlos Apache.</p><p>Now the Trump administration is pushing to fast-track a deal that would transfer ownership of the land, which is in the Tonto National Forest, to Resolution Copper, a firm owned by mining companies Rio Tinto and Billiton BHP.</p><p>"Last month tribes discovered that the date for the completion of a crucial environmental review process has suddenly been moved forward by a full year, to December 2020, even as the tribes are struggling with a COVID outbreak that has stifled their ability to respond," <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/24/trump-mining-arizona-holy-land-oak-flat-tribes" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">an investigation</a> by The Guardian found. "If the environmental review is completed before Trump leaves office, the tribes may be unable to stop the mine."</p>
<h3>2. FERC Shakeup</h3><p>Just days after the election, Trump switched up the leadership of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has a hand in regulating hydroelectric projects, as well as interstate transmission of electricity, oil and natural gas.</p><p>Chairman Neil Chatterjee was replaced by fellow Republican James Danly, who has a <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/trump-replaces-ferc-chairman-neil-chatterjee-with-commissioner-james-danly" target="_blank">more conservative view</a> on federal energy policy. <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/neil-chatterjee-ferc-energy-transition" target="_blank">Chatterjee</a>, once known as a "coal guy," had recently advocated for policies supporting distributed energy and for regional grid operators to embrace carbon pricing as a market-based solution for addressing climate change.</p>
<h3>3. Hamstringing LWCF</h3><p>The Great American Outdoors Act, a major <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> bill signed into law in August, allocated $9.5 billion to help fix national park infrastructure and permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund.</p><p>But despite (falsely) hailing himself as a conservation hero at the law's signing, Trump has already begun undermining the legislation's effectiveness. An order signed by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Nov. 9 allows state and local governments to veto any land or water acquisitions made through the fund.</p><p>Chris D'Angelo at HuffPost <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-undercuts-public-lands-law_n_5fb81630c5b6cf1e0f07fc6d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">called the move</a> a "parting gift to the anti-federal land movement." Montana Sen. Jon Tester, who advocated for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, <a href="https://www.tester.senate.gov/files/Letters/2020-11-13%20Interior%20LWCF%20letter.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote a letter</a> to Bernhardt urging him to rescind the order. "This undercuts what a landowner can do with their own private property, and creates unnecessary, additional levels of bureaucracy that will hamstring future land acquisition through the Land and Water Conservation Fund," he wrote.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk1Njg0OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzIzNDYzMH0.qY-l-4Cw-EcxGh5DPTV-GVzlaQLfs5t5RVbheEaTZhk/img.jpg?width=980" id="d73c1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0eff7410b6bce6c900e1f04c6e74c3c2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Senator Jon Tester at a press conference to discuss the Land and Water Conservation Fund in 2018. Public domain
<p>In another blow, officials and conservation groups in New Mexico were surprised to learn that <a href="https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2020/12/03/political-retribution-the-doi-rejected-100-of-new-mexicos-proposed-lwcf-projects/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">none of their projects</a> proposed to receive funding through the Land and Water Conservation Fund were selected by the Department of the Interior. Some believe the move is political retribution for being critical of the Trump administration and its policies.</p>
<h3>4. Dam Raising</h3><p>On Nov. 20 the Trump administration<a href="https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2020/11/20/stories/1063719067?utm_campaign=edition&utm_medium=email&utm_source=eenews%3Agreenwire" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> finalized a plan</a> to raise the height of Northern California's 600-foot Shasta Dam by 18.5 feet, which would allow for more water storage. The reservoir feeds the federally run Central Valley Project, which funnels water hundreds of miles south to cities and farms. That includes the politically connected Westlands Water District in the San Joaquin Valley, which formerly employed Interior Secretary David Bernhardt as a lawyer and lobbyist.</p><p>The state of California has strongly opposed the effort to raise the dam's height because it would flood the McCloud River, protected as wild and scenic. Conservation groups also say the plan would threaten endangered species such as Chinook salmon, delta smelt and Shasta salamanders.</p><p>California Rep. Jared Huffman <a href="https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2020/12/03/stories/1063719719" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">called</a> it the "QAnon of water projects, meaning it's laughably infeasible and just not real."</p><p>The staunchest opposition has come from the <a href="https://www.winnememwintu.us/journey-to-justice/shasta-dam-raise/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Winnemem Wintu</a> Tribe, which lost 90% of its sacred sites with the construction of the dam and faces the loss of its remaining sites and burial grounds if the reservoir is expanded.</p>
<h3>5. Pesticide Changes</h3><p>The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa">EPA</a>) announced on Nov. 20 it was taking away a tool states can use to control how pesticides are deployed. The action could further <a href="https://investigatemidwest.org/2020/11/20/trump-epa-removes-tool-states-use-to-protect-farmworkers-environment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">endanger farmworkers and wildlife</a>.</p><p>A <a href="https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-registration/guidance-fifra-24c-registrations" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Section 24 provision</a> of the Federal, Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act lets states set stricter restrictions on federally regulated pesticides in response to local needs and conditions. But after numerous states sought to limit the use of the weed killer dicamba, the agency will now no longer allow states to set more protective rules for any pesticides.</p>
<h3>6. Migratory Birds</h3><p>A gutting of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 took a big step forward at the end of November, clearing the way for the administration to finalize the rule change by the end of Trump's term.</p><p>The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/527735-trump-administration-proceeds-with-rollback-of-bird-protections?" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">released its Final Environmental Impact Statement</a> to redefine the scope of the law to no longer penalize the energy industry or developers for "incidentally" killing migratory birds.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk1Njg2My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMzgwNjU5NX0.YmWS3FpbEfdow2E1sfNKCCZctkp4gSsIStTu8Mo9wVw/img.jpg?width=980" id="060b0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4605240abe50bf6e322195cf512208be" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Pied-billed grebe on an oil-covered evaporation pond at a commercial oilfield wastewater disposal facility. Pedro Ramirez Jr. / USFWS
<p>The agency's own analysis found that the rule change would "likely result in increased bird mortality" because — without penalties — companies wouldn't take additional precautions to help make sure birds aren't killed by their operations.</p><p>That's already proving true. "Since the administration began pursuing its looser interpretation of the law in April 2018, hundreds of birds have perished without penalty, according to documents compiled by conservation groups this year," The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/11/27/migratory-bird-treaty-act/" target="_blank">reported</a>.</p>
<h3>7. ANWR Auction</h3><p>The Bureau of Land Management announced on Dec. 3 that oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would go on sale on Jan. 6, following a shortened time frame for the nomination and evaluation of potential tracts to be drilled.</p><p>"Once the sale is held, the bureau has to review and approve the leases, a process that typically takes months," The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/climate/arctic-refuge-lease-sales.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>. "But holding the sale on Jan. 6 potentially gives the bureau opportunity to finalize the leases before Inauguration Day. That would make it more difficult for the Biden administration to undo them."</p><p>Despite the fact that the Trump administration is intent on opening the door to drilling in the 1.6 million-acre coastal plain — one of the wildest places left in the United States — it's still unclear how interested the oil industry will be. Or how readily they'll be able to finance their operations. All the <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/every-major-bank-has-now-ruled-out-funding-arctic-drill-1845782346" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">major U.S. banks</a> have said they'll no longer fund new oil and gas exploration in the Arctic.</p>
<h3>8. Dirty Air</h3><p>One week into December, the administration finalized its decision <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/epa-overrides-scientists-calls-for-tougher-pollutant-limit/2020/12/07/c21bdf0e-38d7-11eb-aad9-8959227280c4_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">declining to enact stricter standards for regulating industrial soot</a> emissions.</p><p>This came despite the fact that the administration's own scientists found that maintaining the current limits on tiny particles, known as PM 2.5, results in tens of thousands of early deaths each year. And despite the fact Harvard researchers found that those who have lived for decades with high levels of PM 2.5 pollution are at a<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/climate/trump-epa-soot-covid.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> greater risk of dying from COVID-19</a>.</p>
<h3>9. Border Wall</h3><p>The incoming Biden administration has vowed to not build another foot of the border wall, but the borderlands ecosystem remains under threat as the Trump administration is continuing to push ahead.</p><p>In some cases wall builders are even attempting to speed up the work.</p><p>"That's happening from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas to Arizona's stunning Coronado National Memorial and Guadalupe Canyon, a wildlife corridor for Mexican gray wolves and endangered jaguars," <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/11/16/934784015/trumps-border-wall-builders-carry-on-even-though-projects-may-never-be-completed" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NPR reported</a>. "At $41 million a mile, the Arizona sections are the most expensive projects of the entire border wall."</p><p>In Arizona they're needlessly razing vegetation and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/arizona-mountains-blasted-for-trump-wall-no-time-build-2020-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">blasting mountains</a> for roads in remote areas to help enable construction that likely won't even take place.</p>
<h3>10. Harming Whales and Dolphins</h3><p>Trump may be leaving office, but marine mammals won't be able to rest easy. NOAA Fisheries issued a rule on Dec. 9 allowing the oil and gas industry to harm Atlantic spotted dolphins, pygmy whales, dwarf sperm whales, Bryde's whales and other marine mammals in the Gulf of Mexico while using seismic and acoustic mapping, including air guns, to gather data on resources on or below the ocean floor.</p><p>In an effort to further efforts for oil and gas drilling, nearly 200,000 beaked whales and more than 600,000 bottlenose dolphins could be "disturbed." And "pygmy and dwarf sperm whales are expected to be harassed to the point of potential injury, with a mean of 308 whales potentially harmed per year, according to the final rule," E&E News <a href="https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2020/12/09/stories/1063720311" target="_blank">reported</a>.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk1Njg3MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMTQwNjc0NX0.pN11eW0akk0qeDUOjrcTXZZgEktLkRv4QP7lYP3DSZ8/img.jpg?width=980" id="fa50b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="34515b25bbefa366cc39a268ae5062a5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico. Carey Akin / CC BY-SA 2.0
<h3>11. More Lease Sales</h3><p>The Arctic isn't the only place where the rush is on to exploit public lands. On Dec. 9 the Bureau of Land Management <a href="https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/70767/510" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">updated </a>an environmental assessment for a <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2020/12/10/feds-fast-track-plan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2013 plan for leases</a> to extract climate- and water-polluting tar sands on 2,100 acres in northeastern Utah. But then just days late it hit the pause button on the effort.</p><p>While that one may be on hold, the administration <em>did</em> kick off the sale of leases for oil drilling on <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-12-09/trump-california-oil-leases-sale" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">4,100 acres of federal land in California's Kern County</a> on Dec. 10. The first such sale in the state in eight years could be canceled by the Biden administration and if not, would face legal challenges from environmental groups.</p>
<h3>12. Cost-Benefit Rule</h3><p>One of the administration's biggest parting gifts to industry — the "cost-benefit" rule — was finalized on Dec. 9. It would require the EPA to weigh the economic costs of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution">air pollution</a> regulations but not many of the health benefits that would arise from better protections.</p><p>"In other words, if reducing emissions from power plants also saves tens of thousands of lives each year by cutting soot, those 'co-benefits' should be not be counted," in the EPA's new analysis, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/12/09/trump-air-pollution/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">explained</a>.</p><p>The rule would be a big blow to efforts to improve public health and curb pollution.</p><p>"The only purpose in making this a regulation seems to be to provide a basis for future lawsuits to slow down or prevent future administrations from regulating," Roy Gamse, an economist and former EPA deputy assistant administrator for planning and evaluation, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-epa-costs/trumps-epa-to-finalize-rule-making-it-harder-to-issue-new-curbs-on-air-pollution-source-idUSKBN28I36K" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told Reuters</a>.</p><p>Slowing down the Biden administration will continue to be a big part of Trump's last month in office — along with the finalization of more rule changes to add insult to injury.</p><p><a href="https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/clee/reversing-environmental-rollbacks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Legal experts</a> have begun mapping which rollbacks will be quick and easy to undo and those that will take sustained effort. But one thing is certain: There's a long road ahead to reverse dangerous regulations, restore scientific integrity and make up for lost ground on climate change, extinction and other cascading crises.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/trump-attacks-election/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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A new study finds microplastic particles exposed to freshwater or saltwater environments are more likely to be taken up into an animal's cells. Tunatura / Getty Images
By Kasra Zarei
Microplastic particles exposed to freshwater or saltwater environments are more likely than original, non-exposed particles to be taken up into an animal's cells, according to new research.
<p>The study offers new evidence that certain microplastics have more potential to infiltrate animals' bodies than previously thought – and this could be of particular concern for aquatic animals.</p><p>Microplastics, or tiny pieces of plastic, are everywhere, including <a href="https://www.ehn.org/plastic-pollution-mount-everest-2648990943.html" target="_blank">Mount Everest</a>. Over time, plastics discarded by humans break down into small pieces and spread across the environment, especially marine and freshwater ecosystems, and are consumed by organisms including <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18678044/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mussels</a> and <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.6b00183?casa_token=tfRj5tB4tZMAAAAA:_gvjll0GmT_DD0IqEO1t9bCcqha--I2aEeo2oFP3jEKC2u3MIkzVsacT4uZqstweQ-bVdQJ37bDZc8U" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">zebrafish</a>.</p><p>But so much about microplastics has not been studied, including whether particles can enter the cells of different animals and organisms and cause health risks, or affect the environment.</p><p>"There are plenty of knowledge gaps," Christian Laforsch, professor of animal ecology at the University of Bayreuth and senior author of the study, told EHN. "For instance, microplastics go from the digestive tract into the tissue [of certain aquatic organisms], but no one knows exactly why."</p><p>In the new study, Laforsch and colleagues found that microplastics exposed to freshwater or saltwater for several weeks are around 10 times more likely to enter the cells of mice compared to pristine particles. While the study was only done using mice cells, it's possible that a similar relationship could be observed in aquatic animals that encounter such non-pristine microplastics on a regular basis, which could also have further unknown implications for their predators (including humans).</p>
<iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/microplastics-in-ocean" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe>
<p>These microplastic particles develop a coating of other molecules and microorganisms – acting somewhat like a "Trojan horse": other cells are more likely to engulf the coated microplastic particles (compared to pristine, uncoated particles), which can then potentially infiltrate an organism's circulatory system.</p><p>However, the results don't necessarily suggest that microplastics exposed to freshwater or saltwater pose a greater health risk to human or other organisms – that still needs to be studied further.</p><p>"We can't make direct conclusions about the health effects [of the microplastics studied]," Holger Kress, a professor of biological physics at the University of Bayreuth who was also involved in the study, told EHN.</p><p>While there is research about the <a href="https://www3.epa.gov/region1/airquality/pm-human-health.html#:~:text=Health%20studies%20have%20shown%20a,as%20asthma%20attacks%20and%20bronchitis." target="_blank">health risks of inhaling particulate matter</a>, little is known about the health effects of microplastics. Still, the new research adds one piece to a big puzzle.</p>
<p>Many physical and biological properties – for instance, the texture, charge, or size – of a particle may be responsible for the environmental and health effects of microplastics. And understanding which properties are responsible is a step-by-step scientific process.</p><p>"It [the field of microplastics] is such a complex topic, but you have to start somewhere," Laforsch said. "If we know what plastic properties might be toxic, we can design properties that might not harm the environment."</p><p>Furthermore, pristine particles have been primarily used in microplastic-related toxicological studies to date. But plastic particles in nature are often far from pristine.</p><p>"A lot of plastics spend time spiraling through the environment, and the watershed is an active vector to transport them to an aquatic environment," Janice Brahney, an assistant professor of watershed sciences at Utah State University who was not involved in the study, told EHN.</p>
<p>Brahney, who recently <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6496/1257" target="_blank">published a study</a> showing how many microplastic particles accumulate in isolated areas of the United States, notes that the microplastics she has observed through her previous work have in fact not been pristine.</p><p>She adds that because the plastics are so long-lived, "it's very plausible that most environmental plastics will have some aquatic lifetime."</p><p>Pristine microplastics are not very representative of those found in the environment, both in terms of physical properties and how likely they are to get absorbed by an organism. And this may cause scientists to reconsider how they study microplastics in the laboratory going forward.</p><p>"The laboratory studies that only use pristine particles may strongly underestimate the strength of interaction between an organism's cells and the particles," Kress said.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.ehn.org/microplastics-in-water-2649475744.html" target="_blank">EHN</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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