Fridays for Future climate activists demonstrate in Bonn, Germany on Sept. 25, 2020. Roberto Pfeil / picture alliance via Getty Images
Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere hit a new record in 2019 and have continued climbing this year, despite lockdowns and other measures to curb the pandemic, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday, citing preliminary data.
<p>Levels of carbon dioxide, a product of burning fossil fuels that <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/are-international-pledges-bold-enough-to-stop-global-warming/a-41343653" target="_blank">contribute to global warming</a>, peaked at 410.5 parts per million in 2019, according to the WMO. The annual increase is larger than the previous year and surpasses the average over the last decade.</p><p>"Such a rate of increase has never been seen in the history of our records," WMO Secretary-General professor Petteri Taalas said, referring to increases since 2015 and urging for a "sustained flattening of the (emissions) curve."</p>
<h2>Lockdown Drops Just a 'Blip'</h2><p>The Geneva-based UN agency noted that shutdowns, border closures, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/to-fly-or-not-to-fly-the-environmental-cost-of-air-travel/a-42090155" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">flight groundings</a> and other restrictions had cut emissions of many pollutants and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/our-addiction-to-growth-is-harming-the-climate/a-41429203" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.</a></p><p>As pandemic measures peaked earlier this year, daily CO2 output dropped 17% below last year's mean level, preliminary results of the WMO's main annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin found.</p><p>But the WMO warned against complacency and said the global plunge in industrial activities due to the pandemic had <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/will-it-soon-be-too-late-to-save-the-climate/a-49889771" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">not restricted record concentrations of the greenhouse gases</a> that are trapping heat in the atmosphere, increasing temperatures, triggering sea levels to rise and prompting extreme weather.</p><p>"The lockdown-related fall in emissions is just a tiny blip on the long-term graph," WMO chief Petteri Taalas said.</p>
<p>The annual impact was expected to be a drop of between 4.2% and 7.5%. But according to the WMO, this will not cause concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere to decrease and warned the impact on concentrations was "no bigger than the normal year to year fluctuations."</p><p>Worldwide data is not yet available for 2020 but the trend of surging concentrations appears to be intact, the group said, citing initial readings from its Tasmania and Hawaii stations.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="876ffb188fb220fd29922a5e2a6b594b"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ynZ1xlsbCXM?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/un-greenhouse-gas-levels-hit-record-high-despite-lockdowns/a-55698828" target="_blank">DW</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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What Portland’s Smoky Summer Can Do for Air Quality Equity Across the Country
23 November
Insights + Opinion
Smoke covers the skies over downtown Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 9, 2020. Diego Diaz / Icon Sportswire
By Isabella Garcia
September in Portland, Oregon, usually brings a slight chill to the air and an orange tinge to the leaves. This year, it brought smoke so thick it burned your throat and made your eyes strain to see more than 20 feet in front of you.
<p><br/></p>
<p>As historic wildfires burned more than 1 million acres and displaced more than 40,000 people in Oregon, photos of the red haze cloaking the Pacific Northwest were spotlighted on national newscasts and ogled on social media. Portland's air quality was the worst in the world for several days, peaking at <a href="https://aqicn.org/city/usa/oregon/portland/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">an Air Quality Index </a>of 486 on Sept. 13. In comparison, the <a href="https://aqicn.org/city/beijing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mean AQI in September in Beijing</a>, known for its smoggy skies, was 77. Just a year before, in September 2019, Portland enjoyed an average AQI more typical for the city: 22.</p><p>The hazardous air of the 2020 fires brought a new awareness of air quality issues in areas that don't normally have to think about them. It prompted fresh conversations about climate change, too: A <a href="https://multco.us/air-quality-public-health-problem/news/wildfire-pollution-obliterates-portland-bad-air-records-and" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Multnomah County news release</a> called the wildfires a "full-on disaster siren that climate change is fully here."</p><p>But when the rain finally came on Sept. 19 and cleared the air, Portlanders rejoiced in the ability to breathe deeply again. The climate conversation and talk of air quality slowly but surely fell out of the news cycle, replaced with the election and the pandemic.</p><p>But what about the communities whose air is filled with dangerous emissions every day without the drama of an apocalyptic glow? What about the people who don't get the reprieve of a breath of fresh air? Poor air quality can be seen in metro areas across the U.S., but the distribution of that burden overwhelmingly falls on communities of color.</p><p>Communities in Texas and Michigan are home to some of the most polluted air in the country, but they are also home to groups that are fiercely fighting for — and making — change.</p>
<h2>Manchester United</h2><p>Houston is known as the energy capital of America, but that title comes with industrial refineries and chemical plants that release toxic emissions into the air. Having grown up in East Houston, near smokestacks and petrochemical plants, Bryan Parras knows this particular toxic air well. He now works for the Sierra Club as a healthy communities organizer and environmental justice advocate. His job is to identify local issues and leverage Sierra Club resources to address them most effectively.</p><p>"In some ways you're like a triage doctor, stopping the bleeding and dressing wounds," Parras explains. "In that process, you learn about the policy decisions that have led to things to begin with. You begin to understand the dynamics that people are dealing with, and you get a deeper grasp of the intersections of housing, environment, immigration status, and all these things."</p><p>Those intersections are clear in an ongoing case against Valero Energy, a midsize oil refinery that <a href="https://www.valero.com/en-us/Pages/Houston.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">produces 235,000 barrels of oil and petroleum products per day</a> in Houston's Manchester neighborhood. Valero applied for a permit to emit poisonous hydrogen cyanide in its refining process in March 2018. To fight back, Manchester community representatives are seeking party status during the permit hearings with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. According to the CDC, exposure to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/emergencyresponsecard_29750038.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this chemical asphyxiant</a> interferes with nearly every organ in the body, especially the brain, heart, and lungs, and can be fatal in high concentrations.</p><p>The toxin is better known in other contexts. Hydrogen cyanide has been <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-04-11-mn-180-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">used for lethal injection</a> and is the primary component of Zyklon B, the gas used for mass murder in Nazi WWII gas chambers. Parras says Valero has long been emitting hydrogen cyanide into the air in the Manchester community, but the amount is unclear because the emission was only discovered, or revealed, after a change in EPA requirements during the Obama administration.</p><p>The permit request is for 512 tons of hydrogen cyanide per year. To put that number in context, community leaders and elected officials in Denver were appalled when the <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2018/04/19/suncor-energy-cyanide-gas-poor-denver-neighborhoods/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment imposed a new limit</a> that allowed nearly 13 tons of hydrogen cyanide to be emitted in 2018.</p><p>The permit request in Houston caught the attention of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (t.e.j.a.s.), an organization aiming to provide Texas communities with environmental and legislative expertise to advocate for environmental justice. The group's co-directors, Juan and Ana Parras, founded the group in 1995. Bryan Parras is their son and a member of the t.e.j.a.s. board of directors.</p><p>"[Valero] were releasing without a permit for over 10 years," Ana says. "These people are just being dumped upon."</p>
<h2>Houstonians Can't Breathe</h2><p>Manchester is one of <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2013/04/23/houston-s-most-polluted-neighborhood-draws-line-keystone-tar-sands/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Houston's oldest neighborhoods</a>. It is surrounded on three sides by a chemical plant, synthetic rubber plant, oil refineries, and a car-crushing facility, all of which belly up to the Houston Ship Channel, one of the busiest sea ports in the world. The fourth side is a train yard.</p><p>A <a href="https://airalliancehouston.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AAH-Executive-Summary.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2019 study commissioned by Air Alliance Houston</a>, an environmental advocacy organization, found that the city's polluting facilities are routinely clustered in and around communities where most of the residents are people of color, or where more than 30% of households are considered low-income. Manchester qualifies as both. As of 2015, <a href="https://www.houstontx.gov/planning/Demographics/docs_pdfs/SN/65_Harrisburg_Manchester.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">82% of Manchester residents are Hispanic</a>, 14% are Black, and 3% are White. Some 41% of residents make $25,000 or less per year.</p><p>The Valero Energy plant is just two blocks from nearby residential homes — or "fence line communities" as Ana and Juan Parras describe them. A <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/double-jeopardy-houston%252523.Wxa161OUv1y" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2016 study from the Union of Concerned Scientists</a> found that 90.2% of the Manchester population lives within 1 mile of at least one regulated industrial facility. The <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2013-11/documents/appendix-a-final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EPA estimates that each year, these types of facilities have about 150 catastrophic releases</a>, which can be fires, explosions, or emissions that pose immediate and significant danger to people and the environment.</p><p>The same study also found the Manchester neighborhood's respiratory hazard index to be 2.56. That far exceeds the EPA's acceptable level, which is less than 1.0. In comparison, Portland, Oregon, has an average <a href="https://regionalbarometer.oregonmetro.gov/datasets/respiratory-hazard-index-map" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">respiratory hazard index of 0.57</a>.</p><p>T.e.j.a.s and two other community representatives have received standing in the administrative hearings for the Valero permit moving forward. But Ana Parras anticipates the case lasting well into 2021, and all the while, Valero continues to emit hydrogen cyanide unrestricted.</p>
<h2>Pushing Back Against Discrimination</h2><p>On a faster track is the Title VI language justice case t.e.j.a.s. filed against the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.</p><p>Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race, color, and national origin in programs that receive federal assistance. Many of the notifications for the community hearings for the Valero case were in English only, even though <a href="https://www.houstontx.gov/planning/Demographics/docs_pdfs/SN/65_Harrisburg_Manchester.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">70% of Manchester residents speak Spanish</a> at home. Also, because there weren't adequate translators, Spanish-speaking parents would bring their bilingual children — some as young as 7 years old — to the hearings to translate for them.</p><p>In this case, t.e.j.a.s. is asking that all notifications be translated into languages congruent with the community demographics, not just the first notification as stated under the current rule.</p><p>"In an unprecedented two weeks, we had a hearing," Ana says.</p><p>The case has the potential to change the national EPA rules, in addition to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality rule.</p><p>"The system is hard to change," Juan says, but if t.e.j.a.s. and other organizers stop fighting these systemic environmental ills, he says, the fence line communities will suffer even greater losses. "Community is always first."</p>
<h2>Environmental Justice Hot Spots</h2><p>In Michigan, organizers with the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition are using scientific research to find and calculate the impact of environmental racism in their state's fence line communities. For years, MEJC members had been showing up to permit hearings for industrial polluters, mobilizing and providing support for the various communities that were at risk. After a while, the coalition realized a flaw in the permitting system.</p><p>"We recognized that these permits were not being considered in relationship to each other," says Jamesa Johnson-Greer, the climate justice director at MEJC. "So, when an air permit is considered for nitrous oxide, for example, that's only considered for that one entity, and that's not considering the fact that these polluting facilities might by near other polluting facilities that are also emitting the same nitrous oxide." Those facilities are often concentrated in and around low-income neighborhoods of color.</p><p>The coalition commissioned a <a href="https://seas.umich.edu/sites/all/files/AssessingtheStateofEnvironmentalJusticeinMichigan_344.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cumulative impact study</a> by the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability. Researchers assigned an environmental justice score for each census tract in the state based on social, demographic, and environmental data.</p><p>In 2019, the researchers reported hot spots of environmental injustice — communities around the state experiencing compounding impacts from 11 environmental factors, including the respiratory hazard index, diesel exposure, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/urban-air-toxics/about-urban-air-toxics" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">air toxics cancer risks</a>, nearby hazardous waste facilities and regulated industrial facilities, as well as traffic proximity. Unsurprisingly, those hot spots were disproportionately clustered in communities of color that had higher levels of poverty, unemployment, and educational attainment (the percent of the population over 25 without a high school diploma) than the statewide average.</p><p>The report confirmed some of what MEJC already knew, such as the intense air pollution in southwest Detroit, particularly <a href="https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/struggling-to-breathe-in-48217-michigans-most-toxic-zip-code/Content?oid=23542211" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the 48217 ZIP code</a>, which is surrounded by more than two dozen industrial polluting facilities. The environmental justice scores around Detroit were as high as 87 out of 100. But there were also surprises, according to Johnson-Greer, like the fact that Grand Rapids, Michigan, had the highest EJ score in the state: 93.99. And despite the egregious water issues in Flint, Genesee County, where the city is located, didn't even make the top 10% of census tracts.</p><p>"That actually influenced the way we did our work this year," Johnson-Greer says, "recognizing that we needed to go and talk to people in those areas who have been doing work around environmental justice or social justice and see what the issues were on the ground."</p><p>By developing relationships with environmental advocates in Grand Rapids, MEJC learned that the town has a long history of logging and paper mills, considered <a href="https://www.intechopen.com/books/environmental-management-in-practice/pollution-prevention-in-the-pulp-and-paper-industries" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">one of the most polluting industries in the world</a> because of the high concentration of chemicals in the wastewater. Johnson-Greer says that recognizing the patterns and similarities across the EJ hot spots throughout the state can help highlight the weaknesses — and, thus, the starting points for equitable environmental transitions — in statewide and national environmental policies.</p><p>In particular, she points to the importance of "prioritizing those communities that are most vulnerable and recognizing that those are the communities that we need to start resourcing immediately, because they have probably also been most under-resourced and have also been left behind in past policies."</p>
<h2>A Shift in the Collective Consciousness</h2><p>For Bakeyah Nelson, the executive director of Air Alliance Houston, putting the most affected communities' needs first means using a diversity of tactics. Air Alliance Houston supports community interests by advocating for long-term legislative solutions, like developing industrial zoning laws in Houston, and by responding as-needed to threats against local communities' air quality, such as monitoring permits for new concrete batch plants so they can alert the nearby residents of their options to fight the permit.</p><p>"In advocacy, I would say there is no one size fits all," Nelson says. "It can be proactive; we can work with groups and coalitions to put forth state level legislation to try to prevent concrete batch plants from being placed near neighborhoods. But, on a day-to-day basis, it's more reactive in that we are tracking the permits; we see a permit and then we respond."</p><p>With limited time and resources, striking an effective balance of reactive and proactive responses can be a challenge, says Bryan Parras of the Sierra Club. But Parras is inspired by the community he serves, as well as the overall shift in public conversation he's seen around pollution and climate change over the past few years. While affluent White communities are typically untouched by environmental racism, they are now facing the unavoidable sign of climate change, as was the case with Portland in this year's wildfires. That can prompt powerful empathy and is moving the needle toward action on environmental justice.</p><p>"Despite all of the problems, you see some real change happening in the collective consciousness," Parras says. "There is a growth, a renaissance of activism and participation in civic life that is really beautiful to see."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/11/18/smoke-portland-air-quality-equity/" target="_blank">YES! Magazine</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
Spruce
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjI3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTM2NzgzOX0.axY0HjeqRctJsR_KmDLctzDpUBLBN-oNIdqaXDb4caQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="774be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8379f35b1ca8a86d0e61b7d4bfc8b46e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="spruce organic cbd oil" /><p>As one of the best brands in the business, Spruce CBD is well-known for its potent CBD oils that feature many additional beneficial phytocannabinoids. This brand works with two family-owned, sustainably focused farms in the USA (one located in Kentucky and one in North Carolina) to create its organic, small product batches. The max potency Spruce CBD oil contains 2400mg of full-spectrum CBD extract, but the brand also offers a lower strength tincture with 750mg of CBD in total.</p>
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CBDistillery
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjkzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTU4OTM4Nn0.ypRdeDSBcE87slYrFfVrRwtJ2qGIK6FD5jBB4pndTMo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b473b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9930b53c9d58cb49774640a61c3e3e75" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="cbdistillery cbd oil" /><p>All of the products from CBDistillery are <a href="https://ushempauthority.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Hemp Authority Certified</a>, and for good reason. The company only uses non-GMO and pesticide-free industrial hemp that's grown organically on Colorado farms. Its hemp oils are some of the most affordable CBD products on the market, yet they still maintain a high standard of quality. CBDistillery has a wide variety of CBD potencies across its product line (ranging from 500mg to 5000mg per bottle) and offers both full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD oils to give customers a completely thc-free option.</p>
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FAB CBD
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDIwOTEyMn0.MlTjz096FJ0ev_-soK7_Z-FeQeJczWoeh9Qi9SSkHsY/img.jpg?width=980" id="04b26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76aa4862f44603242e318982acea6646" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="fab cbd oil" /><p>For an organic CBD oil that has it all, FAB CBD offers plenty of variety for any type of consumer. All of its products are made with zero pesticides and extracted from organically grown Colorado industrial hemp. FAB CBD oil comes in five all-natural flavors (mint, vanilla, berry, citrus, and natural) and is also available in four strengths (300, 600, 1200, and 2400mg per bottle).</p>
$39
NuLeaf Naturals
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzExNTgyMX0.D6qMGYllKTsVhEkQ-L_GzpDHVu60a-tJKcio7M1Ssmc/img.jpg?width=980" id="94e4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3609a52479675730893a45a82a03c71d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="nuleaf naturals organic cbd oil" /><p>As an industry-leading brand, it comes as no surprise that NuLeaf Naturals sources its CBD extract from organic hemp plants grown on licensed farms in Colorado. The comany's CBD oils only contain two ingredients: USDA certified organic hemp seed oil and full spectrum hemp extract.</p><p>NuLeaf Naturals uses one proprietary CBD oil formula for all of its products, so you will get the same CBD potency in each tincture (60mg per mL), but can purchase different bottle sizes depending on how much you intend to use.</p>
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Charlotte's Web
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjk3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MzQ0NjM4N30.SaQ85SK10-MWjN3PwHo2RqpiUBdjhD0IRnHKTqKaU7Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="84700" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2174067dcc0c4094be25b3472ce08c8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="charlottes web cbd oil" /><p>Perhaps one of the most well-known brands in the CBD landscape, Charlotte's Web has been growing sustainable hemp plants for several years. The company is currently in the process of achieving official USDA Organic Certification, but it already practices organic and sustainable cultivation techniques to enhance the overall health of the soil and the hemp plants themselves, which creates some of the highest quality CBD extracts. Charlotte's Web offers CBD oils in a range of different concentration options, and some even come in a few flavor options such as chocolate mint, orange blossom, and lemon twist.</p>
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Cyclone Gati on Sunday had sustained winds of 115 miles per hour. NASA - EOSDIS Worldview
Cyclone Gati made landfall in Somalia Sunday as the equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane, the first time that a hurricane-strength storm has made landfall in the East African country, NPR reported.
<p>Furthermore, at one point before making landfall, Gati strengthened to sustained winds of 115 miles per hour, the equivalent of a Category 3 storm. It is the strongest storm on record for the entire geographical area.</p><p>"Gati is the strongest tropical cyclone that has been recorded in this region of the globe; further south than any category 3-equivalent cyclone in the North Indian Ocean," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) researcher Sam Lillo <a href="https://twitter.com/splillo/status/1330554977870200838" target="_blank">tweeted</a>.</p>
<div id="eb022" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4a22e81d6d14760e4c92ea8fa70eaf9d"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1330554977870200838" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Gati is the strongest tropical cyclone that has been recorded in this region of the globe; further south than any c… https://t.co/p77EMJ3mUw</div> — Sam Lillo (@Sam Lillo)<a href="https://twitter.com/splillo/statuses/1330554977870200838">1606064001.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> is making storms both <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tropical-storm-intensity-climate-crisis-2646033123.html" target="_self">stronger and wetter</a>, and Gati is an example of both. First, it intensified rapidly. The storm began as an area of low pressure observed on Thursday by India's Meteorological Department (IMD), <a href="https://www.accuweather.com/en/hurricane/severe-cyclonic-storm-gati-bearing-down-on-somalia/852100" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AccuWeather reported</a>. By Sunday, it had strengthened to a tropical depression; 12 hours later, it was a severe cyclonic storm. Lillo noted that its 12-hour intensification was the largest on record in the basin.</p><p>Gati intensified partly because of warm <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ocean" target="_self">ocean</a> temperatures, according to AccuWeather. Other factors included low wind shear and the fact that it was relatively small, Lillo told NPR.</p><p>"With climate change we're seeing warmer ocean temperatures and a more moist atmosphere that's leading to a greater chance of rapid intensification for tropical cyclones like Gati," meteorologist and climate journalist Eric Holthaus told NPR. "Gati's strength is part of that broader global pattern of stronger storms."</p>
<div id="8d78f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="78b74a8fa911068186256663c6020cdd"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1330520441929293824" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Cyclone #Gati striking #Somalia with Category 2 force. https://t.co/qGdHTcDE3G https://t.co/QJ5RMCy0e7</div> — UW-Madison CIMSS (@UW-Madison CIMSS)<a href="https://twitter.com/UWCIMSS/statuses/1330520441929293824">1606055767.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The storm is also predicted to be very wet. Somalia usually experiences four inches of rain every year. Gati could dump eight inches, doubling that amount in just two days.</p><p>"The system may impact Socotra, Somalia, Yemen and western Oman from [Sunday] night into Monday and potentially Tuesday, with the main threat being heavy rain and flash <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a>," AccuWeather Lead International Meteorologist Jason Nicholls said.</p><p>Holthaus <a href="https://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/1330558089779683329" target="_blank">noted</a> on Twitter that Somalia only accounts for about 0.002 percent of the total greenhouse gases emitted since the start of the industrial revolution.</p><p>"Today, they're experiencing a rapidly strengthening tropical cyclone that will bring two years worth of rainfall in just two days," he wrote. "This is the heart of climate injustice."</p>
<div id="5b55b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="48485c27d58cba8f2b923a207db706d4"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1330621846497103873" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Tropical Cyclone Gati landfalling in Somalia. https://t.co/3KQcpXgoTQ</div> — CIRA (@CIRA)<a href="https://twitter.com/CIRA_CSU/statuses/1330621846497103873">1606079944.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>There is usually an average of one cyclone in the Arabian Sea every year, <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/years-second-in-arabian-sea-severe-cyclone-gati-headed-to-somalia-7061376/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Indian Express reported</a>. However, Gati is the second to form this year after <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/cyclone-nisarga-mumbai-coronavirus-2646150409.html" target="_self">Cyclone Nisarga</a> made landfall south of Mumbai in June. The number of cyclones forming over the Arabian Sea has increased since 2015, according to IMD data reported by The Indian Express. There were four in 2019 and three in 2018. The uptick in activity has been linked to the climate crisis. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found that the Arabian Sea's surface temperatures are rising.</p>
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1,000 Giant Sequoias Likely Killed in Castle Fire, Many Had Lived for Over 500 Years
19 November
Climate
The Castle Fire burned through portions of giant sequoia groves on the western slopes of California's Sierra Nevada mountains, the only place on the planet where they naturally grow. Al Seib / Los Angeles Times
The Castle Fire killed likely more than a thousand giant sequoias — including many that had stood for well over 500 years and some for 1,000 — on the western slopes of California's Sierra Nevada mountains, the Los Angeles Times reported.
<p>"This fire could have put a noticeable dent in the world's supply of big sequoias," Nate Stephenson, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, told the Times. Sequoias are designed to survive and thrive with <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires">fire</a> — their cones cannot release their seeds without it. But, tinder-like fuel, dried by climate change, and centuries of fire suppression by European settlers combined to set the stage for monstrous conflagrations so intense they burned the gargantuan, fire resilient "monarchs" into what Christy Brigham, science chief at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, described as "blackened toothpicks." </p>
<p>Prior to this year, the worst known fire season for sequoias was in 1297, the year in which William Wallace defeated the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, during the Medieval Warm Period. The September 2020 Castle Fire, Stephenson said, however, was probably worse.</p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p><a href="https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/e2t/tc/VWsSs84SbnK-W1Hffy71HcXLlW1zSvF_4jBs0YN1-yX-t5nxG7V3Zsc37CgHVZW3Mzv2d5Jg5QzW4j3Bvw8x-Wl2W121Yln5G1G-DW3nfWjK7Njd8lW2yKQHq53bKqcW6PldJv1phxhFW1Jr_jn39yFsKVCwNDY6VN_LxW7Lbsmz1qYRS7W28gJPM8tFnjdW4L2llK5PJQk2N5c-B8N--PdCW8NM6J-8sQX7FW4z5fld3xBp_mW3Q3pyc5gXzYYW8KtWy15tjRG3W65NPd53N05MhW1m2YZs2Qmb2CW3nH_nh33n5R_W4YGtpk2hKPdrVZf4yY8ScqWzW2gVQ6m6-w6r9W3-JqxB6b_7bpW2Sllqw77x4z5W4qhbjb5F_8WGW6nrV3t930fQ5VXh0s2885l5BW7_zTVS3sdTzQN8HPYgTSNqStW2GB04958TzwVVKN49w1PQ5frW5JFyD24SWyM53fys1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Los Angeles Times</a></p><p><a href="https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/e2t/tc/VWsSs84SbnK-W1Hffy71HcXLlW1zSvF_4jBs0YN1-yX-t5nxG7V3Zsc37CgHVZW3Mzv2d5Jg5QzW4j3Bvw8x-Wl2W121Yln5G1G-DW3nfWjK7Njd8lW2yKQHq53bKqcW6PldJv1phxhFW1Jr_jn39yFsKVCwNDY6VN_LxW7Lbsmz1qYRS7W28gJPM8tFnjdW4L2llK5PJQk2N5c-B8N--PdCW8NM6J-8sQX7FW4z5fld3xBp_mW3Q3pyc5gXzYYW8KtWy15tjRG3W65NPd53N05MhW1m2YZs2Qmb2CW3nH_nh33n5R_W4YGtpk2hKPdrVZf4yY8ScqWzW2gVQ6m6-w6r9W3-JqxB6b_7bpW2Sllqw77x4z5W4qhbjb5F_8WGW6nrV3t930fQ5VXh0s2885l5BW7_zTVS3sdTzQN8HPYgTSNqStW2GB04958TzwVVKN49w1PQ5frW5JFyD24SWyM53fys1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" 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" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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A dog is seen amongst rubble left behind from Hurricane Eta, in Bilwi, Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, on November 15, 2020, before the arrival of Hurricane Iota. STR / AFP / Getty Images
Hurricane Iota made landfall along the coast of northeastern Nicaragua at 10:40 p.m. Monday night as an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm.
<p>The landfall location was just 15 miles away from where the devastating <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-eta-florida-central-america-2648793233.html">Hurricane Eta</a> made landfall 13 days earlier, according to the <a href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/status/1328546095329202177" target="_blank">National Hurricane Center</a> (NHC). It was also the most powerful storm to make landfall in Nicaragua in November, Colorado State University meteorologist Philip Klotzbach <a href="https://twitter.com/philklotzbach/status/1328547531815456768" target="_blank">noted on Twitter</a>, breaking the record set by Eta.</p><p><span></span>"This is double destruction," Nicaraguan Business owner Adán Artola Schultz told <a href="https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-nicaragua-storms-hurricanes-38bd0f02ad8733c54ab61a6dd19306de" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>. "This is coming in with fury."</p><p>Artola Schultz lives in Puerto Cabezas, or Bilwi, a Nicaraguan city about 30 miles from where the storm made landfall. He said he watched the wind tear a metal roof off of a two-story home.</p><p>Bilwi university student Jason Bermúdez also reported destruction.</p>
<p>"This hurricane is definitely worse" than Eta, Bermúdez told The Associated Press. "There are already a lot of houses that lost their roofs, fences and fruit trees that got knocked down. We will never forget this year."</p><p>Before it even made landfall, the storm blew a metal roof off of a hospital in Bilwi where victims of Hurricane Eta were being treated, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/world/americas/hurricane-iota-updates.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>. Most of the city has been without power since 3 p.m. Monday.</p><p>Iota is the 30th named storm of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tropical-storm-theta-2648850210.html" target="_self">record-breaking</a> 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, the most of any season. It is also the ninth storm this season to rapidly intensify, a phenomenon linked to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, The Associated Press reported.</p><p>Iota strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane but weakened before coming ashore. It was the latest Category 5 storm on record, Klotzbach <a href="https://twitter.com/philklotzbach/status/1328350540904861697" target="_blank">said</a>.</p>
<p>While it was still a Category 5 storm, Iota lashed the Columbian islands of San Andres and Providencia, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/17/weather/hurricane-iota-tuesday/index.html" target="_blank">CNN reported</a>.</p><p>"It's the first time that a Category 5 Hurricane has reached our territory since records began," Colombia President Ivan Duque told reporters. "We are facing an issue with characteristics never before witnessed by our country."</p><p>At least one person died on Providencia and 90 percent of the island's infrastructure has been impacted. Both islands also lost electricity, The New York Times reported. The Colombian city of Cartagena also experienced <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a>.</p><p>Iota has now weakened into a tropical storm with winds reaching 75 miles per hour, according to a 9 a.m. <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT1+shtml/171146.shtml" target="_blank">update</a> from the NHC. It is currently located about 85 miles west of Bilwi and heading further inland across northern Nicaragua today and over southern Honduras tonight.</p>
<p>The storm is still forecast to inundate the region with a dangerous amount of rain; 10 to 20 inches is projected over northern Nicaragua, Honduras, southeast and central Guatemala and southern Belize. Some places could see up to 30 inches of rain. That rain could produce life-threatening flooding, made worse by ground that is still wet from Hurricane Eta.</p><p>"Flooding and mudslides across portions of Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala could be exacerbated by Hurricane Eta's recent effects there, resulting in significant to potentially catastrophic impacts," the <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/MIATCDAT1.shtml" target="_blank">NHC warned</a>.</p><p>Hurricane Iota is expected to dissipate over Central America in the next 48 hours.</p>
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A well-insulated, weather-tight house holds heat longer. DonNichols / Getty Images
Living in an energy-efficient home does not just save money on utility bills. A well-insulated, weather-tight house holds heat longer than one that's poorly insulated and drafty.
<p><br/></p>
<iframe style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/16549994/height/45/theme/standard/thumbnail/yes/direction/backward/" height="45" width="100%" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>Ryan Colker is executive director of the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.resilientalliance.org/">Alliance for National and Community Resilience</a>. He says that if you lose power during a winter storm, the energy efficiency investments that you've made can help keep you in your home.</p><p>A <a target="_blank" href="https://www.urbangreencouncil.org/sites/default/files/2013_baby_its_cold_inside_report.pdf">2014 study</a> from the Urban Green Council found that during a winter blackout in New York City, the temperature inside a typical single-family house would drop to 35 degrees Fahrenheit after just three days. But a high-efficiency house would stay above 60 degrees.</p><p>An efficient house can also stay cooler during a heat wave, even without air conditioning, so it can reduce the risk of heat-related illness.</p>
<p>And Colker says if people can remain safely in their homes, that reduces the burden on a community's limited resources for emergencies.</p><p>"If you can stay in your house, you don't need to go to a shelter, which then reduces the impact on the community," he says.</p><p>So he says that as damaging storms, heat waves, and other extreme weather events grow more common, prioritizing energy efficiency can help communities keep their people safe.</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/11/energy-efficient-homes-stay-more-comfortable-during-power-outages/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A boy plays in the rubble of his Nicaragua home, destroyed by Hurricane Eta, as Hurricane Iota approaches on Nov. 15, 2020. Maynor Valenzuela / Getty Images
Hurricane Iota, the 30th named storm and 13th hurricane of a record-breaking season, is now bearing down upon Central America less than two weeks after Hurricane Eta devastated the region.
<p>Iota was a Category 1 storm 10 a.m. Sunday, with winds of around 90 miles per hour, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/world/americas/tropical-storm-iota.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>. However, it strengthened rapidly overnight and is now a Category 4 storm with winds up to 155 miles per hour, according to a 7 a.m. EST update from the <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT1+shtml/161143.shtml" target="_blank">National Hurricane Center (NHC)</a>.</p><p>"Iota could be a catastrophic category 5 hurricane when it approaches Central America tonight," the NHC warned.</p>
<div id="e8da5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="85d3970ca495adbd4306b0ba7a8d156b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1328306057060380672" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#Hurricane #Iota has rapidly strengthened overnight and now has 155 mph (245 km/h) sustained winds. It could reach… https://t.co/WFgoTuDwGH</div> — National Hurricane Center (@National Hurricane Center)<a href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/statuses/1328306057060380672">1605527817.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Iota is expected to make landfall in northeastern Nicaragua or eastern Honduras Monday night. It threatens a storm surge of up to 12 to 18 feet above normal tide levels, as well as "catastrophic wind damage" as it moves onshore. The NHC predicts it will dump eight to 16 inches of rain on Honduras, northern Nicaragua, Guatemala and southern Belize, with some parts of Nicaragua and Honduras seeing up to 20 to 30 inches.</p><p>"This rainfall will lead to significant, life-threatening flash <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a> and river flooding, along with mudslides in areas of higher terrain," the NHC warned.</p><p>The situation will likely be made worse by the after-effects of Hurricane Eta, the NHC noted Sunday night.</p>
<div id="958f5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="136b1132034320ef357f580bf11232cf"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1328166233796210694" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Hurricane #Iota continues to strengthen. Forecast to become a dangerous category 4 hurricane before it reaches Cen… https://t.co/g2KjzL18DD</div> — National Hurricane Center (@National Hurricane Center)<a href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/statuses/1328166233796210694">1605494480.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The fact that the soil has not yet dried out after the earlier storm could make landslides and floods even more likely, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hurricane-iota-central-america-nicaragua-honduras-b1723521.html" target="_blank">The Independent explained</a>.</p><p>"Our ground is already saturated, so it's to be expected that we have more farming and infrastructure damage," Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said, as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-54941826" target="_blank">BBC News reported</a>.</p><p>Hurricane Eta killed at least 200 people in Central America. One of the worst tragedies occurred in Guatemala, when mudslides in the village of Quejá buried dozens of homes and likely killed around 100 people. Overall, the storm displaced thousands of people after it made landfall as a Category 4 storm Nov. 3, as <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/16/weather/hurricane-iota-monday/index.html#:~:text=(CNN)%20Hurricane%20Iota%20has%20rapidly,Category%204%20storm%20Monday%20night.&text=The%20storm%20is%20moving%20west,of%20Isla%20de%20Providencia%2C%20Colombia." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CNN reported</a>. More than 3.6 million people in the region were impacted by the storm in some way, the Red Cross said.</p><p>Now, Central Americans face further evacuations to prepare for Iota. There are around 63,000 hunkering down in 379 shelters in northern Honduras, The Independent reported. In Nicaragua, 1,500 people were evacuated from low-lying areas as of Sunday afternoon, but 83,000 people in the area were actually in danger.</p>
<p>Both Iota and Eta rapidly intensified, something <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricanes-and-the-climate-crisis-2640136387.html" target="_self">made more likely</a> by the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, since warmer water fuels more intense storms.</p><p>"In a 36-hour period [Eta] went from a depression to a very strong category 4," Climate Adaptation Center CEO Bob Bunting told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/15/scientists-link-record-breaking-hurricane-season-to-climate-crisis" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. "That is just not normal. Probably it was the fastest spin up from a depression to a major hurricane in history."</p><p>2020 overall has been a record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season, with 30 named storms, the most ever in a single season. But it is less the number of storms that scientists attribute to climate change than their power and substantial rainfall.</p><p>The back-to-back attack of Eta and Iota has put Central America in the crosshairs of climate change, but the storms are not the only way that global warming has impacted the region. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought" target="_self">Drought</a> in an area known as the dry corridor, which stretches from northern Costa Rica to southern Mexico, has devastated subsistence farmers and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-implications-migrant-caravan-2616282125.html" target="_self">been linked</a> to migration away from the region.</p><p>"Central America is one of the regions where climate change is felt the most," Guatemala's Giammattei said, as BBC News reported.</p>
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The Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site vulnerable to sea level rise. Ian.CuiYi / Moment / Getty Images
By Erin Seekamp
With global travel curtailed during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are finding comfort in planning future trips. But imagine that you finally arrive in Venice and the "floating city" is flooded. Would you stay anyway, walking through St. Mark's Square on makeshift catwalks or elevated wooden passages – even if you couldn't enter the Basilica or the Doge's Palace? Or would you leave and hope to visit sometime in the future?
<p>The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/" target="_blank">reported</a> that over the next 30 years flooding in Venice will increase. With the Adriatic Sea rising a few millimeters each year, severe flooding that once happened every 100 years is predicted to happen every six years by 2050, and every five months by 2100.</p><p><a href="http://www.veniceinperil.org/pdf/The-Science-of-Saving-Venice.pdf" target="_blank">Venice</a> is just one example of the challenges of preserving iconic landmarks that are threatened by the effects of climate change, such as rising seas and recurrent, intensifying droughts, storms and wildfires. In my research as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=foTLj_oAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">social scientist</a>, I help heritage managers make tough decisions prioritizing which sites to save when funds, time or both are limited.</p><p>That includes planning for threatened <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">World Heritage sites</a> designated as cultural or natural treasures by the <a href="https://en.unesco.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization</a>. Many U.S. national parks <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/climatechange/index.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">are also at risk</a>. And as I see it, success will require new thinking about what preservation means.</p>
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<h2>Ways of Adapting</h2><p>Across the globe, innumerable cultural sites face <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06645-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">storm-related flooding, erosion and inundation from rising seas</a>. They include many in the U.S., such as <a href="https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/a-short-history-of-jamestown.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jamestown Island in Virginia</a>, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/stli/index.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">New York's Statue of Liberty</a> and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/places/charleston-sc.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Charleston, South Carolina's Historic District</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.icomos.org/en/about-icomos/mission-and-vision/mission-and-vision" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Experts in cultural preservation worldwide</a> agree that it is <a href="https://indd.adobe.com/view/a9a551e3-3b23-4127-99fd-a7a80d91a29e" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">impossible to protect all of these places</a> forever. Many would require constant restoration. Others will need defenses like sea walls and flood gates – but those defenses might not be effective for long.</p><p>Some sites could be protected in ways that visibly alter them – for example, elevating or moving buildings, or allowing them to be damaged or removed from the landscape. Such steps go beyond restoration, which can conflict with mandates to preserve sites and structures in perpetuity.</p>
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<h2>Saving Historic North Carolina Buildings</h2><p>An early test of this approach occurred in 1999, when relentless erosion of the North Carolina shoreline forced the National Park Service to move the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/caha/planyourvisit/chls.htm#:%7E:text=In%201999%2C%20after%20years%20of,original%20distance%20from%20the%20sea" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and Keeper's Quarters</a> about a half-mile inland. Relocating these mid-19th-century structures cost $US11.8 million and sparked debate about how to deal with other imperiled historic buildings.</p><p>In 2015, managers at North Carolina's <a href="https://www.nps.gov/calo/index.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cape Lookout National Seashore</a> realized that buildings in Portsmouth Village and Cape Lookout Village, two maritime historic districts on barrier islands, were endangered by storm-related flooding and rising seas. Portsmouth Village, which dates to 1753, served as a thriving port town during colonial settlement, while Cape Lookout Village provided navigational support with construction of a lighthouse in 1812 that was replaced in 1859.</p><p>These buildings are listed on the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/index.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Register of Historic Places</a>, which requires managers to preserve them in perpetuity. But officials were uncertain about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.07.052" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">which historic buildings to save first</a>. They also had to identify a strategy, such as moving or even removing buildings, that would maximize the significance preserved across the park's landscape.</p><p>I developed a process to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2017.08.006" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">quantify the relative significance of historic buildings</a> to help them. Our team then created a planning tool to help National Park Service managers make <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/climatechange/culturalresourcesstrategy.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cost-effective decisions</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.02.011" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Our model</a> compiles data on each building's significance and vulnerability. It evaluates adaptation costs, such as elevating or relocating buildings, given available funding, and charts possible strategies over a 30-year period.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDc3ODE4NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNjkzMDk2M30.D4QE8Sc17hy0ULwo2EA7s2xr8WZf6cDcizdCC_bhw3o/img.jpg?width=980" id="15efe" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="115be23538ecafbf1ed5c2b6d1330a30" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
In 1999 the National Park Service moved the historic Cape Hatteras Lighthouse 2,900 feet inland (new site at lower right in photo) to protect it from shoreline erosion. Mike Booher / NPS
<p>When we tested the model on 17 flood-prone Cape Lookout buildings, we found that the best strategies were elevating them in place or moving them to higher ground and then elevating them. However, interviews with local people revealed that changing the location or the look of these buildings <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage1020015" target="_blank">upset some former residents and their descendants</a>.</p><p>Many people we talked to held deep connections to these places that were part of their personal, family and community identities. Surprisingly, some said they would rather lose some of these buildings than alter them. Other stakeholders – including members of partner organizations and park visitors – had <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2020.105180" target="_blank">different opinions</a> on what should be done.</p><p>After <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL052019_Dorian.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hurricane Dorian</a> severely damaged Portsmouth Village in 2019, park managers made the hard decision to dismantle and remove some of the buildings while restoring others. But an important question remains: What should be done at other highly vulnerable locations?</p>
<h2>Climate-Challenged World Heritage Sites</h2><p>These findings inspired me to explore global, <a href="https://www.iccrom.org/section/people-and-heritage/people-centred-approaches" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">people-centered</a> approaches to preservation and the <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/compendium/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">international policies</a> governing them.</p><p>Climate change <a href="https://en.unesco.org/fieldoffice/ramallah/tangible-cultural-heritage" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">threatens</a> many <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">World Heritage sites</a>. Some are archaeological sites, like Peru's <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/366/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chan Chan</a>, the largest adobe city on Earth, and the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/meve/learn/historyculture/cliff_dwellings_home.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings</a> in Colorado's Mesa Verde National Park. Entire cities – including Venice – and historic buildings such as Australia's <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/166/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sydney Opera House</a> are also in harm's way.</p><p>Current <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/158/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">policy recommendations</a> focus on restoration or defenses, and oppose physical change. In fact, the only process that exists is to add sites undergoing physical change to the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger. However, adding a site to the "danger" list is <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43652726" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">politically undesirable</a> because it can generate bad press, reduce tourism revenue and deter funders from supporting rescue efforts.</p>
<div id="5fdaa" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1c377ac183eacd1fea35742acaef1cea"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1323040885026816008" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">"...a new online exhibition that envisions how the National Mall Tidal Basin can evolve, adapt, and thrive while bu… https://t.co/x7QFCGPRqV</div> — Saving Places (@Saving Places)<a href="https://twitter.com/SavingPlaces/statuses/1323040885026816008">1604272502.0</a></blockquote></div>
<h2>The Need to Transform</h2><p>My research calls for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02812-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a more proactive approach</a>, including preemptive efforts to prevent damage. I see a need for a new category: "World Heritage Sites in Climatic Transformation."</p><p>This approach draws on <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26268226" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the ecological concept of resilience</a>, which is essentially the ability to survive by changing and adapting. It would allow managers to repair, adapt or even transform vulnerable places. This new classification would place communities at the center of the <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/activities/496/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">planning process</a> and create a searchable database of climate impacts and interventions.</p><p>Transforming heritage sites may be controversial, but the clock is ticking. Researching, designing and constructing defenses takes time. For example, floodgates installed to protect Venice are being tested <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/15/venice-controversial-barriers-prevent-flooding-for-second-time" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a decade later than planned</a>.</p><p>In my view, saving cultural and historic sites from climate change will require a new approach to heritage preservation that includes transformation. Now is the time to think creatively, with input from people whose heritages are represented in these places, to discover new pathways to protecting them.</p>
<p>
<em>Erin Seekamp is a professor of parks, recreation and tourism management at North Carolina State University.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Disclosure statement: Erin Seekamp receives funding from the U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service and the U.S. Department of Interior, Geological Survey.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/preserving-cultural-and-historic-treasures-in-a-changing-climate-may-mean-transforming-them-145214" target="_blank">The Conversation</a></em><em>.</em>
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World's Latest Climate Refugees Lived in Guatemalan Village Destroyed by Hurricane Eta
11 November
Climate
Aerial view of a flooded area in the village of Queja, in San Cristobal Verapaz, Guatemala on Nov. 7, 2020 where it is estimated that dozens of people died after a mudslide caused by the passage of Hurricane Eta. ESTEBAN BIBA / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
A large landslide caused by torrential rains during Hurricane Eta buried half a small village's residents, leaving the other half searching for family members and neighbors in Guatemala on Tuesday, The Washington Post reported.
Officials deemed Queja, a farming community of a few hundred residents, "uninhabitable," and ended rescue operations, calling for the survivors to abandon the area now mostly covered in tons of rock and mud. 99 people were reported missing, with 44 confirmed deaths.
Mayor Ovidio Choc, representing the San Cristobal Verapaz region, including Queja, said the evacuated village would be declared a cemetery.
The former director of Guatemala's national disaster management agency said the country is ranked among the highest risk countries for natural disasters, based on data by the World Risk Index.
"It is a structural problem that is linked not only the threat or the probability of producing elements like Eta, but rather other factors that make us vulnerable and are directly tied to the development of the country," Alejandro Maldonado said, The Washington Post reported.
The inability to invest in mitigation plans, and deforestation were likely to be circumstances that caused the landslide, noted Maldonado.
The residents of Queja are the latest addition of what is being called the "great climate migration." Climate change is causing sea level rise and extreme weather conditions, such as intense heat, drought, wildfires and enlarged hurricanes and typhoons, which induce mudslides, landslides and flooding, forcing many to flee their homes, never to return.
And climate refugees are predicted to increase in number in the coming years as more natural disasters occur. According to Ecological Threat Register, a September 2020 report by the non-profit think tank Institute for Economics & Peace, one billion people live in areas were there is not enough infrastructure in place to combat ecological changes.
2020 already claims the largest number of hurricanes and wildfires ever recorded.
Eta first made landfall just south of Puerto Cabezas, a city on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast on Nov. 3, as a Category 4 hurricane, causing 140 mph winds, massive downpours and destructive flooding to several countries in Central America, including Panama, Costa Rica and Honduras.
Hurricane Eta is expected to hit Florida's Gulf Coast in its fourth landfall on Wednesday, as a Category 1 hurricane, bumped up from a subtropical storm with rains hitting southern Florida on Sunday and Monday. While diminished in intensity from its peak in Central America, landslides and flooding are expected.
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Florida National Guard / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
From broken buildings to uprooted trees, extreme weather can leave behind a lot of visible damage. But there is invisible damage, too. Many survivors face mental health struggles after a storm.
<p>"They've experienced traumatic loss, fear, displacement. It's very traumatizing, and that's an abnormal feeling," says social worker Darcy Abbott. "And people need reassurance that it's normal to feel that way — an abnormal event has occurred — and that there's resources and support there … and that they will be resilient and they will get through this."</p>
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<p>Abbott became the mental health coordinator for disaster recovery at the Florida Division of Emergency Management last year.</p><p>After an event such as a hurricane, her job is to work with state agencies, relief organizations, and private counselors to coordinate services so that the state can respond to residents' needs during the recovery process.</p><p>Abbott says that her position is unique. Other states have mental health coordinators, but Florida is the first to connect the role with emergency management.</p><p>And in a state vulnerable to hurricanes and rising seas, the role will be crucial as the climate changes.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/11/florida-hires-mental-health-coordinator-to-help-people-recover-from-disasters/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A satellite view of the Atlantic, from the National Hurricane Center and NOAA.
Tropical Storm Theta became the 29th storm of the exceptionally active and record-breaking 2020 Atlantic hurricane season Monday night.
<p>No year on record has ever seen so many named storms, and officials are tracking two systems that could become named storms in the coming days. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Eta, which already caused <a href="https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/e2t/tc/VWKdKG6CSyRVW4x3HlB2XQnt2W8tMMP_4jd8twN4lQrLh3p_9LV1-WJV7CgW45W1cx6dL8qLd3dW8Mysdk81-39CVT6T1y88YZ26W3dr9MW7jyWwKW6tr5071R0VQPN1jwmJhQRgDyW44YrT61zlyFfW70d13-4Nzp_CVvBcZ96gdTlLW6jZjrZ1WdRwfW1bycTJ5fKy4fW8F7zBV4JldVnW53VJL04FpzRgW8K52rY8rsskKW3styQd5hZgpFW6pRsqk1TFblnVDvtCz7d0l4ZW7HvJQ361tcv9N4D3PxnZMNBXN1j-SPDgwsnbW5sRxKF3FmjSrW3cPgy83gT7sRW1YY8SB3MtYr3W7SnYlh89ksGHW4h6v3k8vyLTgW33HKPm7QzjyRW5l_CHZ3md69VW2SgWDZ3smncj33-t1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">widespread devastation</a> across Central America, dumped more than 13 inches of rain across South Florida and inundated coastlines with storm surge, leaving thousands without electricity. Climate change is increasing extreme precipitation and storm surge.</p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p>Theta: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/11/09/theta-hurricane-season-record/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99464172&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-95P36USDrPBVL2OPkzXs-5LU617GUo6iLZKxUx3SQ7hps0WNPd_Ku6QrbMCYpp4Xa4OYiab-54R173rEeaWQzE6QjRug&utm_content=99464172&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/climate/atlantic-hurricane-season-record.html?searchResultPosition=4&utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99464172&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-80AYrweJyB9yN_3GTavELNV2ZOsXItiu-jbLQRtL__lO8i6kwVLQ2idwkrbyN7acP8D-jfdx_qXDoyqpUYEgtg9EvwjA&utm_content=99464172&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New York Times</a>, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-storms-hurricanes-21435b686e40e9ea2f7a2219d0ccbcb5?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99464172&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9dmiepGmnH0hNAU5C-5YZv5Zw3ukk5YgS38d5fhJUvaURFL4s4d40NC6IW82mZnoqgIxMSzrD6h5ds98ZOFtrz-UVLHw&utm_content=99464172&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AP</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/10/devastating-2020-atlantic-hurricane-season-breaks-all-records?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99464172&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--7b5WHx4SNRB_Kbj5Tvx7Qb3X8c7se__WiuxT9VsQCq_G2BgPH9ysmant1sdc7FIb72hrypF4RlsiqwGQvpRVVLShNGA&utm_content=99464172&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>; Eta: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/us/tropical-storm-eta-florida.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99464172&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9CX1RNgr55FH0f18nTlb5_vGKQQev6RtKtCV2ZSsIGmo2WKK7_4wd_WuUTI90s8D1JteW5pqbSvmC5A7jAqxuNzm88XA&utm_content=99464172&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New York Times</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/us/tropical-storm-eta-florida.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99464172&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9CX1RNgr55FH0f18nTlb5_vGKQQev6RtKtCV2ZSsIGmo2WKK7_4wd_WuUTI90s8D1JteW5pqbSvmC5A7jAqxuNzm88XA&utm_content=99464172&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AP</a>, <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/11/tropical-storm-eta-makes-landfall-in-the-florida-keys/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99464172&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8WY8yvaVkSaMjtUKowofJvhh05vlcrOolvIetaN1W18_PK9ijpscJTzyv3bsRDHHItwy8ksQLo7rCzW5-tA6buyHbIIQ&utm_content=99464172&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>, <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/weather/hurricane/os-ne-tropical-storm-eta-tuesday-update-20201110-dmcz26zw5jc63bvl264kzu7mby-story.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99464172&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8I3BcA5gRD7Phf2nCPAjt3RQ1SLS8Tz4q9tQUO2dpy1hQ4epPODtW61VLv1SBnMiPhUWcHn3grFJ-apTYWJpdpoU05gw&utm_content=99464172&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Orlando Sentinel</a>, <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article247070782.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99464172&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--CrzRDM2-W43PLS9PGjDxwaJT1iksPDrNOSSPMKIX5sA4wLdAAu8EKs3rxjlrmQ_jTnhfJBXz87NMYSJZLhTaD25dmVQ&utm_content=99464172&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Miami Herald</a>; Climate Signals background: <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-change-hurricanes?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99464172&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8Gux49vmOgW-LNgsoAyQqAdIQZLVwcWspG4kQkciVq21qCufNNZqkyAZ3lzFUUkRRGMhuQJK4DLCv_G-B8Hsppk93avg&utm_content=99464172&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Hurricanes</a>, <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/events/atlantic-hurricane-season-2020?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99464172&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--APBS1VTQ_cL9Pv8TnmpT0PQDWJqG0S-zHo6bAfE9piSynFw1y6UhHdc0AEFW48vi1MSHM6Kh8iTpkjkHjyGyb4gUU6g&utm_content=99464172&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season</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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Scientists at Work: Sloshing Through Marshes To See How Birds Survive Hurricanes
10 November
Science
A clapper rail with a fiddler crab in its bill. Michael Gray / CC BY-ND
By Scott Rush and Mark Woodrey
When storms like Huricane Zeta menace the Gulf Coast, residents know the drill: Board up windows, clear storm drains, gas up the car and stock up on water, batteries and canned goods.
But how does wildlife ride out a hurricane? Animals that live along coastlines have evolved to deal with a world where conditions can change radically. This year, however, the places they inhabit have borne the brunt of 10 named storms, some just a few weeks apart.
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jJytBnoAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">wildlife</a> <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mark_Woodrey" target="_blank">ecologists</a>, we are interested in how species respond to stresses in their environment. We are currently studying how marsh birds such as <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Clapper_Rail/overview" target="_blank">clapper rails</a> (<em>Rallus crepitans</em>) have adapted to tropical storms along the Alabama and Mississippi Gulf coast. Understanding how they do this entails wading into marshes and thinking like a small, secretive bird.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDc2Nzk0Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTUxNjcwNn0.g8m9gc2ifd5GeO_6pY-l9KUiJIag_SO5-8F2bGAHFmw/img.jpg?width=980" id="4866c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3a63608ba4a16c0f0557063c227490d9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A least bittern, one of the smallest species of heron. Michael Gray / CC BY-ND
<h2>Mucky and Full of Life</h2><p>Coastal wetlands are <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/habitat-conservation/coastal-wetlands-too-valuable-lose" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">critically important ecosystems</a>. They harbor fish, shellfish and wading birds, filter water as it flows through and buffer coastlines against flooding.</p><p>You wouldn't choose a Gulf Coast salt marsh for a casual stroll. There are sharp-pointed plants, such as <a href="https://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_juro.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">black needlerush</a>, and sucking mud. In summer and early fall the marshes are oppressively hot and humid. Bacteria and fungi in the mud break down dead material, generating sulfurous-smelling gases. But once you get used to the conditions, you realize how productive these places are, with a myriad of organisms moving about.</p><p>Marsh birds are adept at hiding in dense grasses, so it's more common to hear them than to see them. That's why we use a process known as a callback survey to monitor for them.</p><p>First we play a prerecorded set of calls to elicit responses from birds in the marsh. Then we determine where we think the birds are calling from and visually estimate the distance from the observer to that spot, often using tools such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_rangefinder" target="_blank">laser range finders</a>. We also note the type of ecosystem where we detect the birds – for example, whether they're in a tidal marsh with emergent vegetation or out in the open on mud flats.</p>
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<p>Through this process we've been able to estimate the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1672/08-174.1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">distributions of several species</a> in tidal marshes, including clapper rails, <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Least_Bittern/overview" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">least bitterns</a> (<em>Ixobrychus exilis</em>) and <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/seaside_sparrow" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">seaside sparrows</a> (<em>Ammospiza maritima</em>). We've also plotted trends in their abundance and identified how their numbers can change with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-018-1082-x" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">characteristics of the marsh</a>.</p><p>We've walked hundreds of miles through marshes to locate nests and to record data such as nest height, density of surrounding vegetation and proximity to standing water, which provides increased foraging opportunities for rails. Then we revisit the nests to document whether they produce young that hatch and eventually leave. Success isn't guaranteed: Predators may eat the eggs, or flooding could wash them out of the nest and kill the developing embryos inside.</p>
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<h2>Rails in the Grass</h2><p>Our research currently focuses on clapper rails, which look like slender chickens with grayish-brown feathers and short tails. Like many other marsh birds, they have longish legs and toes for walking across soft mud, and long bills for probing the marsh surface in search of food. They are found year-round along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.</p><p>Clapper rails typically live in tidal marshes where there is vegetation to hide in and plenty of fiddler crabs, among <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12237-010-9281-6" target="_blank">their frequent foods</a>. Because they are generally common and rely on coastal marshes, they are a good indicator of the health of these coastal areas.</p>
<p>Water levels in tidal marshes change daily, and clapper rails have some adaptations that help them thrive there. They often build nests in areas with particularly tall vegetation to hide them from predators. And they can raise the height of the nest bowl to protect it against flooding during <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/cond.2010.090078" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">extra-high or "king" tides and storms</a>. The embryos inside their eggs can survive even if the eggs are submerged for several hours.</p><p>When a tropical storm strikes, many factors – including wind speed, flooding and the storm's position – influence how severely it will affect marsh birds. Typically birds ride out storms by moving to higher areas of the marsh. However, if a storm generates extensive flooding, birds in affected areas may swim or be blown to other locations. We saw this in early June when Hurricane Cristobal <a href="https://www.wlox.com/2020/06/09/marsh-birds-blown-by-cristobal-out-place-beach/" target="_blank">blew hundreds of clapper rails onto beaches</a> in parts of coastal Mississippi.</p>
<p>In coastal areas immediately to the east of the eye of a tropical cyclone we typically see a drop in clapper rail populations in the following spring and summer. This happens because the counterclockwise rotation of the storms results in the highest winds and storm surge to the north and east of the eye of the storm.</p><p>But typically there's a strong bout of breeding and a population rebound within a year or so – evidence that these birds are quick to adapt. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2005, however, depending on the type of marsh, it took several years for rail populations to return to their pre-Katrina levels.</p><p>Now we're radio-tagging clapper rails and collecting data that allow us to determine the birds' life spans. This information helps us estimate when large numbers of birds have died – information that we can correlate with events like coastal hurricanes.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDc2Nzk2NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxOTA2MjE1OX0.WBEB0vWEKzJxNnRzhxRULCW_ctDBDuvUWUjtf4R-C9A/img.png?width=980" id="9e588" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dda243a614981e79dccf845c20dd6a8b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Summary map of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, updated Oct. 27. Master0Garfield / Wikipedia
<h2>Losing Parts</h2><p>Tropical storms have shaped coastal ecosystems since long before recorded history. But over the past 150 years humans have complicated the picture. Coastal development – draining marshes, building roads and reinforcing shorelines – is altering natural places that support marsh birds.</p><p>Clapper rails and other species have evolved traits that help them offset population losses due to natural disasters. But they can do so only if the ecosystems where they live keep providing them with food, breeding habitat and protection from predators. Coastal development, in combination with <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-sea-level" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rising sea levels</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1920849117" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">larger tropical storms</a>, can act like a one-two punch, making it increasingly hard for marshes and the species that live in them to recover.</p><p>Biologist Paul Ehrlich has compared species at risk to <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1313377" target="_blank">rivets on an airplane</a>. You might not need every rivet in place for the airplane to fly, but would you fly it through a cyclone if you knew that 10% of its rivets were missing? What about 20%, or 30%? At some point, Ehrlich asserts, nature could lose so many species that it becomes unable to provide valuable services that humans take for granted.<br></p><p>We see coastal marshes as an airplane that humans are piloting through storms. As species and ecosystem services are pummeled, rivets are failing. No one knows where or how the aircraft will land. But we believe that preserving marshes instead of weakening them can improve the chance of a smooth landing.</p>
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<em>Scott Rush is an assistant professor of wildlife ecology and management at Mississippi State University.<br/>
</em><em>Mark Woodrey is an assistant research professor at Mississippi State University.</em>
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<em>Disclosure statements: Scott Rush receives funding from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Mark Woodrey receives funding from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.</em>
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<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-at-work-sloshing-through-marshes-to-see-how-birds-survive-hurricanes-146067" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
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