Colorado River Has Lost 1.5 Billion Tons of Water to the Climate Crisis, 'Severe Water Shortages' May Follow
21 February
Climate
Horseshoe Bend (seen above) is a horseshoe-shaped meander of the Colorado River in Page, Arizona. didier.camus / Flickr / public domain
Millions of people rely on the Colorado River, but the climate crisis is causing the river to dry up, putting many at risk of "severe water shortages," according to new research, as The Guardian reported.
<p>Longer periods of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought" rel="noopener noreferrer">drought</a> and rising temperatures have decreased the river's annual flow by 20 percent compared to the last century. The researchers, who published their study in <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/02/19/science.aay9187" target="_blank">Science</a>, say that global heating has caused mountain snowpacks that feed the river to disappear, which leads to increased evaporation, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/02/20/climate-change-has-stolen-more-than-billion-tons-water-wests-most-vital-river/" target="_blank">The Washington Post reported</a>.</p>
<p>"That's the thing I found most fascinating about this study," lead author Chris Milly of the U.S. Geological Survey said to <a href="https://www.knau.org/post/study-colorado-river-s-flow-decreases-9-percent-every-degree-warming" target="_blank">KNAU</a>. "As the snow cover dwindles due to warming, it's reflecting less sunlight back to the atmosphere. So the basin's absorbing more sunlight. That sunlight is powering evaporation out of the basin. Now when that evaporation—the water is taken out of the basin due to the evaporation, there's less water flowing down the river to the 40 million people that are waiting for it."</p>
<p>Snow and ice reflect sunlight back away from the Earth's surface, a phenomenon known as the albedo effect. The loss of snow and ice means the Earth absorbs more heat.</p>
<p>Milly and his research partner, Krista A. Dunne, found that for every degree Celsius of warming, the river's flow decreases 9.3 percent. Recent studies have confirmed that the river's steady decreased flow since 2000 is due to rising temperatures. The decline has amounted to 1.5 billion tons of missing water, equal to the annual water consumption of 10 million Americans, as The Washington Post reported.</p>
<p>About 40 million people live along the Colorado and it supports nearly $1 trillion in economic activity each year and provides 16 million jobs. Its waters cover a wide expanse, according to The Washington Post. Its waters are channeled as far away as California's Imperial Valley and central Arizona, where its used to irrigate crops, as well as across the Rockies to supply <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water">drinking water</a> for Colorado's biggest cities. The Colorado feeds the two largest water reserves in the U.S., Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Lake Mead supplies Las Vegas with almost all of its water, as The Guardian reported. The huge reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam has dropped to levels not seen since the 1960s.</p>
<p>So far the world has heated up by about 1 degree Celsius over pre-industrial times, but it is on course to rise 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century unless emissions are drastically cut, as The Guardian reported. For the Colorado River this means, an "increasing risk of severe water shortages," the study says. Increased rainfall will not offset the loss in reflective snow. </p>
<p>"This has important implications for water users and managers alike," Brad Udall, a senior scientist at Colorado State University and an expert on water supplies in the west who was not involved in the research said, as The Guardian reported. "More broadly, these results tell us that we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as soon as we possible can. We've wasted nearly 30 years bickering over the science. The science is crystal clear – we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions immediately."</p>
<p>Andrew Mueller, general manager for the Colorado River District, who was not involved in the study, wrote in an email to The Washington Post that the new findings provide "confirmation of significantly grim indicators about future flow in the Colorado River."</p>
<p>He added that the amount of water that would disappear with another 1 degree C temperature rise is nearly five times what Las Vegas uses each year. "A decline in flows of this magnitude will present a significant challenge to all inhabitants in the Colorado River Basin."</p>
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Light breaking through the cloud and catching the monsoon rains over the vast plains surrounding Tucson, Arizona. john finney photography / Moment / Getty Images
By Molly Matthews Multedo
Not much rain falls in the desert city of Tucson, Arizona. And as the climate warms, it's getting even drier. So when it does rain, it pays — literally — to make the most of it.
<iframe style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/12468209/height/45/theme/standard/thumbnail/yes/direction/backward/" height="45" width="100%" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe><p>The city of Tucson pays residents up to $2,000 to help cover the cost of a storage tank that collects rainwater. The idea is to get people watering their plants and gardens with harvested rainwater. That helps conserve the municipal water supply.</p><p>But some residents are concerned about contamination in harvested rainwater, especially in communities near sources of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pollution" rel="noopener noreferrer">pollution</a>. So before residents use rainwater in vegetable gardens, they want to know that it's safe.</p>
<p>Imelda Cortez visits families, bringing materials to test their water.<br></p><p>She works with an initiative called <a target="_blank" href="https://projectharvest.arizona.edu/">Project Harvest</a>. The program helps residents test the rainwater they collect for E. coli and other contaminants so they know if their water is safe.</p><p>Researchers also track the data so they can help communities develop guidelines on using harvested rainwater safely.</p><p>It's a way to empower people with the knowledge they need to keep their families safe and prepare for a water-scarce future.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/01/tucson-based-programs-help-residents-harvest-rainwater/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Kevin Dahl who works at the National Parks Conservation Association shot the video. Kevin Dahl / NPCA / Screenshot
There is an outcry in Arizona after footage captured border wall construction bulldozers plowing over iconic cacti that are protected in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument — a monument created to protect Organ Pipe and Saguaro cacti, as Newsweek reported.
<p>The video depicts the bulldozers running roughshod over the national monument and clearing saguaros in a rush to build a costly and unnecessary wall on the U.S. southern border. </p>
<div id="2d336" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="AOMOGZ1576661342"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1180206058649706497" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">VIDEO: Saguaros are being bulldozed for the #BorderWall in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Trump's reckless bo… https://t.co/n8NkLSGfUj</div> — Laiken Jordahl (@Laiken Jordahl)<a href="https://twitter.com/LaikenJordahl/statuses/1180206058649706497">1570218026.0</a></blockquote></div><p>"Saguaros are being bulldozed for the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BorderWall?src=hash" target="_blank">#BorderWall</a> in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument," wrote Laiken Jordahl, Border Lands Campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity, on <a href="https://twitter.com/LaikenJordahl/status/1180206058649706497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1180206058649706497&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fearther.gizmodo.com%2Fajax%2Finset%2Fiframe%3Fid%3Dtwitter-1180206058649706497%26autosize%3D1" target="_blank">Twitter</a> with a video of the destruction. "Trump's reckless border hysteria is destroying our environment and killing the very species this national monument was designated to protect."</p><p>Kevin Dahl who works at the National Parks Conservation Association shot the video. He told <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-border-wall-construction-saguaro-cacti-organ-pipe-cactus-national-monument-1463559" target="_blank">Newsweek</a> that he was heartbroken and outraged by what he witnessed. </p><p>"At that point, what they were doing was destruction, not construction," he said.</p><p>The actions Dahl witnessed stand in sharp contrast to a <a href="https://www.dvidshub.net/video/711373/usace-task-force-barrier-relocates-cacti-organ-pipe-cactus-national-monument-package" target="_blank">video posted</a> by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that shows an appropriate relocation process, where a cactus is carefully removed with designated extraction tools, as opposed to a bulldozer plowing it over, according to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-border-wall-construction-saguaro-cacti-organ-pipe-cactus-national-monument-1463559" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>.</p><p>"We're watching the destruction of Arizona's most iconic species to make way for a useless border wall that most Arizonans oppose," Jordahl wrote to EcoWatch.</p><p>Dahl watched the crews level saguaros and several other desert plants and then pile them up into slash piles. The destruction he witnessed was on the west side of the park where a 78-mile strip of Trump's wall is slated to stand. </p><p>However, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, which runs up against the border with Mexico already has a significant amount of fencing. As the Earther blog at Gizmodo <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/outrage-new-video-shows-bulldozers-destroying-americas-1838787163" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>, that includes five miles of fence to keep pedestrians out and another 25 miles of posts that act as vehicle barriers. <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/outrage-new-video-shows-bulldozers-destroying-americas-1838787163" target="_blank">Earther</a> classified the actions as "wanton destruction." </p><p>"The Department of Homeland Security says they're relocating cacti, but the videos we shot at the construction site tell a very different story: one of flattened earth and total devastation," Jordahl wrote to EcoWatch. "Even if they do relocate some specimens, any remediation will pale in comparison to the severe and lasting damage done by the wall, stadium lights and enforcement zone."</p>
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9ed9456ab7cb2773c7359affa4d73206"><div class="fb-video" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/EcoWatch/videos/1222429674631276/" data-allowfullscreen="true"></div></div><p>While the current fencing respects the wildlife and the migratory patterns of native desert animals, Trump's border wall does not.</p><p>"So the wall that's currently under construction is 30 feet tall it's made up of a 6 foot wide steel bollards and they're drilling 10 feet into the ground in order to set the foundation for this wall and…will stretch for almost 50 miles," Jordahl said, as <a href="https://kvoa.com/news/2019/10/05/border-wall-construction-crew-bulldoze-cactus-at-national-monument/" target="_blank">NBC Tucson</a> reported. "So that means any migrating wildlife will be completely unable to make it around this barrier."</p><p>The National Park Service and Customs and Border Patrol offered a statement to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-border-wall-construction-saguaro-cacti-organ-pipe-cactus-national-monument-1463559" target="_blank">Newsweek</a> that ran counter to what Jordahl said, stating that they have ensured there will be "locations for small wildlife passages within the new border barrier that would allow for the continued passage of small mammals."</p><p>However, that seems like a dubious claim to environmentalists who have seen the Trump administration trounce over environmental regulations and manipulate environmental impact statements.</p><p>Running roughshod over the fauna in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument presents another set of problems since the site is both a U.S. National Monument and a UNESCO biosphere reserve. The park is also sacred land to Indigenous groups like the Tohono O'odham Nation, as Dahl told <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-border-wall-construction-saguaro-cacti-organ-pipe-cactus-national-monument-1463559" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>.</p><p>"The Tohomo O'odham [Nation], in their taxonomy of life saguaros are very close to humans," Dahl told <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/outrage-new-video-shows-bulldozers-destroying-americas-1838787163" target="_blank">Earther</a>. "And you know, they have a majestic presence, they are the iconic symbol of this part of the world. You know you're someplace different when you're in a saguaro forest."</p><p>Jordahl summed it up succinctly on <a href="https://twitter.com/LaikenJordahl/status/1177642441530167296" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p><p>"Trump's <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BorderWall?src=hash" target="_blank">#BorderWall</a> is under construction through the most pristine Sonoran Desert ecosystem anywhere on the planet — Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument," he wrote. "Endangered species, Indigenous sacred sites & wilderness lands are being destroyed before our eyes."</p>
<div id="09198" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="AW5R0P1576661343"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1177642441530167296" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Trump’s #BorderWall is under construction through the most pristine Sonoran Desert ecosystem anywhere on the planet… https://t.co/VS9lld2B7g</div> — Laiken Jordahl (@Laiken Jordahl)<a href="https://twitter.com/LaikenJordahl/statuses/1177642441530167296">1569606812.0</a></blockquote></div>
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Trump Administration Delays Construction of Border Wall in Arizona Wildlife Preserve
15 August 2019
Politics
Border fence looking from Nogales, Arizona into Nogales in Sonora, Mexico. Rex_Wholster / iStock / Getty Images
The Trump administration is delaying construction on its long-promised border wall that would cut through protected stretches of the Arizona desert.
<p>The Department of Homeland Security was scheduled to replace waist-high barriers with taller fencing in a wildlife refuge, national monument and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" rel="noopener noreferrer">conservation</a> area later this month. However, government attorneys filed a brief this week that construction will be delayed until October.</p>
<p>Authorities plan on using funds earmarked for the Department of Defense that have been slotted for national emergencies, as the <a href="https://apnews.com/114a6cbe438c470f8997712ba9b0aa58" target="_blank">AP</a> reported. In February, President Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border, claiming that a border wall is needed to stop a mounting security and humanitarian crisis.</p><p>Since then, conservation groups have sued the administration for waiving environmental laws and unnecessarily diverting Pentagon money to rush wall construction through protected areas, according to the <a href="https://tucson.com/news/local/trump-administration-delays-border-wall-work-in-arizona-preserves/article_4e8db4b0-bee1-534d-a4ff-343857cfce9b.html" target="_blank">Arizona Daily Star</a>.</p><p>The latest filing is a part of a response in a pending lawsuit by three conservation groups. The environmentally conscious groups claim construction and presence of a wall in those areas would harm endangered or threatened species. </p><p>Last week, the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a>, <a href="https://defenders.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Defenders of Wildlife</a> and the <a href="https://aldf.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Animal Legal Defense Fund</a>, asked a federal judge to stop construction on 68 miles of wall in three Arizona federal preserves: Cabeza Prieta, Organ Pipe and the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. The injunction request says the government unlawfully ignored dozens of laws and that the new barriers will damage wildlife habitat, as the <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2019/08/14/federal-government-delays-trump-border-wall-organ-pipe-cabeza-prieta/2012325001/" target="_blank">Arizona Republic</a> reported. </p><p>"It's a small but important victory for public lands and wildlife," said Laiken Jordahl, borderlands campaigner for the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, as the <a href="https://tucson.com/news/local/trump-administration-delays-border-wall-work-in-arizona-preserves/article_4e8db4b0-bee1-534d-a4ff-343857cfce9b.html" target="_blank">Arizona Daily Star</a> reported. "Every day the project is delayed is a good day."</p><p>He added that the court filing amounted to a "de facto injunction" that will "give the judge a chance to rule on the merits of the case before irreparable harm is done."</p>
<p><span>The government claims the replacement fencing is crucial to protecting national security and it will proceed with construction on a two-mile stretch near an official border crossing beginning next week, according to the </span><a href="https://apnews.com/114a6cbe438c470f8997712ba9b0aa58" target="_blank">AP</a><span>.</span></p><p>The Animal Legal Defense Fund and Defenders of Wildlife joined the Center for Biological Diversity in filing for an emergency injunction to delay the start of construction of a border wall.</p><p>"It's senseless to let bulldozers rip a permanent scar through our borderlands' wildlife refuges and national monuments before the court decides whether the waiver is legal," said Jean Su, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/injunction-sought-to-halt-trumps-wall-in-arizona-2019-08-06/" target="_blank">statement</a>. "Trump's ignoring laws and diverting funds to build this destructive border wall. His grotesque barrier would destroy some of the border's most spectacular and biologically diverse places. We'll do everything in our power to stop that."</p><p>If a federal judge sides with the government, then construction on the wall may continue. However, if the judge rules in favor of the plaintiffs, it could postpone construction for a long time, possibly permanently. The Center for Biological Diversity claims that construction in the federal preserves violates the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act and other laws that protect air and water quality on public lands and the animals that live there, as the <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2019/08/14/federal-government-delays-trump-border-wall-organ-pipe-cabeza-prieta/2012325001/" target="_blank">Arizona Republic</a> reports.</p><p>"Every American should be outraged that the border wall in Arizona will be built across some of our most iconic national wildlife refuges and national park lands," said Bryan Bird, southwest representative for Defenders of Wildlife, in a press release. "It will tear through lands so precious that Congress chose to protect them for all American's posterity and enjoyment. Defenders will continue to fight to stop this abuse."</p>
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Navajo Generating Station, Arizona. Wolfgang Moroder / Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 3.0
The Navajo Nation has decided to stop pursuing the acquisition of a beleaguered coal-fired power plant in Arizona, locking in the plant to be taken offline and its associated coal mine to close later this year.
A Navajo Nation Council committee voted 11-9 last week to stop pursuing the purchase of the 2,250-megawatt Navajo Generating Station, which with the Kayenta coal mine provides more than 800 jobs to primarily Navajo and Hopi workers as well as tribal royalties.
A coalition of utilities that own the plant said in 2017 it would cease operations due to increased economic pressure, and the plant's future has proved a flash point for national and regional energy policy and raised larger questions on how Native communities will handle ties to fossil fuel industries as the economy changes.
For a deeper dive:
Arizona Republic, Indian Country Today, AP, WOKV, Farmington Daily Times
For more climate change and clean energy news, you can follow Climate Nexus on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for daily Hot News.
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The San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in Arizona is a biodiversity hotspot. Bureau of Land Management
Conservation groups filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' approval of a permit that allows a huge master-planned sprawl development project near Benson, Arizona to proceed. The Villages at Vigneto would transform 12,167 acres of largely undeveloped habitat into 28,000 residences, 3 million square feet of commercial space, four golf courses, fountains, lakes and a resort.
<p>The development would rely solely on groundwater, draining the San Pedro River and harming millions of migratory birds, including threatened and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species">endangered species</a>. Yet the Corps refused to analyze these staggering impacts, confining its analysis to a small fraction of the development.</p><p>The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson, says the Corps failed to prepare a comprehensive environmental analysis of the entire development in violation of the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The groups are asking the court to invalidate the permit and order the Corps to complete the necessary environmental analysis.</p><p>"The San Pedro River is the last remaining intact natural river ecosystem in southern Arizona—an oasis in the desert that supports a rich array of species, including millions of migratory songbirds," said Peter Else, chair of the <a href="http://www.lowersanpedro.org" target="_blank">Lower San Pedro Watershed Alliance</a>, a landowner-based conservation association. "It is essential that we take every step to preserve this critical resource, protect <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> habitat and migration corridors, sustainable rural lifestyles, and valuable recreation opportunities."</p><p>The proposed development would depend solely on groundwater to satisfy the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/water">water</a> needs of approximately 70,000 people. That would dramatically increase demand on groundwater resources from approximately 800 acre-feet per year to a projected 8,427 acre-feet per year. </p><p>This magnitude of pumping would deplete surface flows along the San Pedro River and at the St. David Cienega, a groundwater-fed marsh within the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. The development would also transform thousands of acres of upland habitat into impervious surfaces, increasing storm-water runoff, flooding and destructive sediment accumulation in the river.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTEzOTI0MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDA2MDQyMn0.Jwitufd-LWfEBjCptCNFa_016d_vH2k7Jdxyj9Llkys/img.jpg?width=980" id="4be5c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a06b5354a200c3406247b2e8c2a79b5c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The San Pedro riparian area contains about 40 miles of the upper San Pedro River.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/blmaz/26699461675/in/album-72157665367858893/" target="_blank">Bureau of Land Management</a></small></p>
<p>"Hydrology studies show that this development would suck the St. David Cienega dry and have a devastating impact on wildlife that depend on it for their survival," said Robin Silver, cofounder of the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a>. "The science is clear that this level of water pumping would irreversibly degrade the riparian habitat and harm migratory birds, including multiple endangered and listed species. The Corps has abdicated its responsibility to consider these significant impacts."<br></p><p>The San Pedro River depends on groundwater contributions from the regional aquifer, especially during the driest times of the year. In 1988 Congress expressly reserved water rights for the conservation area to protect the river's aquatic and riparian resources, including the St. David Cienega.</p><p>Reports already show that groundwater pumping is depleting the aquifer at an unsustainable rate, threatening the future of the river and riparian habitat that is essential to wildlife.</p>
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<p>"What is most alarming about this proposal for those along the Lower San Pedro River is that a new upstream city of 70,000 people will be pulling water from the ground in an unsustainable way. Most of that water will never be replaced. It's a potential death sentence for the Lower San Pedro," said Pearl Mast, board member of the <a href="https://cascabelconservation.org" target="_blank">Cascabel Conservation Association</a>.<br></p><p>The Corps did not analyze the potential harm to the river or the conservation area caused by the development, claiming they are outside its "scope of analysis." The Corps confined its analysis to 1,919 acres, a small fraction of the proposed development. </p><p>"There is no rational basis for the Corps' refusal to consider the full impacts of the Vigneto development on these unique and critical resources," said Stu Gillespie, a staff attorney with <a href="https://earthjustice.org" target="_blank">Earthjustice</a>. "This is a clear example of the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> administration trying to game the system and shirk its duty to consider and disclose the impacts of its decisions."</p><p>"The San Pedro River is this incredible asset to our state, providing habitat for a diversity of species, a flyway for migratory birds and a wildlife viewing paradise for people from around the world," said Sandy Bahr, director of <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/home" target="_blank">Sierra Club</a>'s Grand Canyon Chapter. "Several species that are dependent on the river are also threatened or endangered due to habitat loss. Arizona has allowed development and other diversions to dry up and destroy several important rivers. We cannot, we must not, allow the San Pedro to join that list."</p><p>"The San Pedro River was the first Global Important Bird Area for the United States and both birds and birders continue to flock to the critical and unique habitat the river provides," said Nicole Gillett, a conservation advocate with <a href="http://tucsonaudubon.org" target="_blank">Tucson Audubon</a>. "A development of this scale and design is unsustainable and will damage not only the environment but the economy built around it." </p><p>The lawsuit was filed by the Lower San Pedro Watershed Alliance, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Tucson Audubon Society, <a href="https://www.maricopaaudubon.org" target="_blank">Maricopa Audubon Society</a> and Cascabel Conservation Association. The groups are represented by Earthjustice.</p>
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</p><div id="25e7f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="WYRAWX1576662461"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="998951355200008192" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Trump Opens Door to Dangerous Fracking in Northern Arizona https://t.co/TOV5ngCmu9 #fracking #Arizona #publiclands… https://t.co/xPu1aUGS8G</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/998951355200008192">1527003537.0</a></blockquote></div>
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To Preserve National Parks in a Warming World, Reconnect Fragmented Public Lands
15 January 2019
Insights + Opinion
Rising temperatures and more frequent wildfires in Alaskan national parks could affect caribou's habitat and winter food sources. Zak Richter / NPS
By Stephen Nash
The Trump administration's decision to keep many U.S. national parks open during the current federal government shutdown, with few or no staff, spotlights how popular and how vulnerable these unique places are.
Some states, such as Utah and Arizona, have spent heavily to keep parks open rather than lose tourist revenues. Unfortunately, without rangers to enforce rules, some visitors have strewn garbage and vandalized scenic areas.
<p>
The most urgent near-term priority for the park system is to either end the shutdown or
<a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/national-park-service-keeping-national-parks-open-during-the-shutdown-is-a-terrible-mistake" target="_blank">cut off public access</a> until it is over, and then restore order once staff can get back in. But beyond the shutdown, the park system faces broader threats, as I show in my book, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520291478/grand-canyon-for-sale" target="_blank"><em>Grand Canyon for Sale</em></a>.
</p><p>
<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">Climate change</a> will force wild species in all national parks to adapt, often by migrating. The problem is that U.S. policies—especially under the Trump administration—are fragmenting connections between parks and other <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-lands">public lands</a> that give natural systems better odds for survival.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="329ca9cdd09c299ec62fe10bfc17427b"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ur4I8tYnxP4?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Photo Evidence: Glacier National Park Is Melting Away | National Geographic</small>
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<a href="https://youtu.be/ur4I8tYnxP4" target="_blank">youtu.be</a>
</small>
</p><h2>Conservation Islands<br>
</h2><p>
External threats to national parks aren't new. Politicians started trying to protect the Grand Canyon from private interests
<a href="https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/historyculture/upload/chapter1.pdf" target="_blank">in the 1880s</a>. Finally, in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt used his power under the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-antiquities-act-has-expanded-the-national-park-system-and-fueled-struggles-over-land-protection-56454" target="_blank">Antiquities Act</a> to designate the canyon as a <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/national-monuments">national monument</a>.
</p><p>
During a visit to the canyon, Roosevelt
<a href="http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/images/trenvpics/trgrandcanyonspeech.pdf" target="_blank">told onlookers</a>, "I hope that you will not … mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the loneliness and beauty of the Canyon. Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it." A decade later, President Woodrow Wilson <a href="https://twitter.com/grandcanyonnps/status/438840802966384640" target="_blank">signed the bill</a> that created Grand Canyon National Park on Feb. 26, 1919.
</p><p>
Aggressive and well-financed private industries, including logging, mining, grazing, energy production and real estate development, operate on other public lands, where they often pose threats to
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-trump-administration-is-scrapping-a-collaborative-sage-grouse-protection-plan-to-expand-oil-and-gas-drilling-108398" target="_blank">plants and wildlife</a>. By expanding development and fragmenting existing tracts of land, they also shut down future survival prospects for wild species in the national parks themselves.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA4OTExNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NzI5NTY3OX0.LvfyNFAJVIW149o4ASOc8wjE8UVCtrcRdZWGE7yj_fs/img.jpg?width=980" id="995eb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="29016037fb0f8799dfaf5969e8fcf958" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Six well pads along boundary of the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://flic.kr/p/pXDk3d" target="_blank">Chris Boyer, Kestrel Aerial Services, Inc. / NPCA</a>, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/" target="_blank">CC BY-ND</a></small>
</p><h2>Parks in a Changing Climate<br>
</h2><p>
Over all of these issues looms the broadest threat: climate change. According to a meta-analysis of 123 research studies conducted between 1990 and 2010, nearly all the land administered by the National Park Service is
<a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/climatechange/upload/ParkScience28-2-Summer2011_10-15_Gonzalez_2804.pdf" target="_blank">located in areas of observed warming in the 20th century</a>. And a 2018 study showed that the parks are <a href="https://theconversation.com/human-caused-climate-change-severely-exposes-the-us-national-parks-103715" target="_blank">bearing the brunt of climate change</a> because many are located in regions that are hotter and drier than the nation as a whole.
</p><p>
Part of the National Park Service's
<a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/to-provide-for-the-enjoyment-for-future-generations.htm" target="_blank">mission</a> is to conserve wild species and natural systems in the parks "by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." Climate change makes this an epic challenge. For example, Grand Canyon National Park's <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/climatechange/upload/GRCA-CFP-Action-Plan-508compliant.pdf" target="_blank">climate change action plan</a> warns of more frequent droughts, habitat fragmentation, more frequent and intense <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires">wildfires</a> and floods, and shrinking waterflows in the Colorado River.
</p><p>
And, of course, the gathering heat. In effect, many national parks' climates will move two or three hundred miles south during this century. By 2100, if global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, Grand Canyon will be as hot as the climate now is along the Mexican border. The climate of
<a href="https://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm" target="_blank">Great Smoky Mountains National Park</a>, the most popular in the system, will slide nearly to Florida. As soon as two decades from now, according to the latest U.S. national climate assessment, the Grand Canyon region and its wild species could endure <a href="https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/chapter/25/" target="_blank">40 to 50 more days with temperatures over 90 degrees yearly</a>.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA4OTEyMi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNjE1Mjk4NH0.QZpDnQN6eO248YwbOsm643KHEOBzXLGP9hFU_sw5wBM/img.png?width=980" id="783a9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="08ef1d7da806eb76be2bc1e871384269" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">According to the 2018 national climate assessment, unchecked climate change could make many U.S. national parks feel like locations much further south by the end of this century. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Chris Zganjar, based on 26 climate model projections, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/" target="_blank">CC BY-ND</a></small>
</p><p>
Similar changes are occurring throughout the park system.
<a href="https://www.usgs.gov/centers/norock/science/retreat-glaciers-glacier-national-park?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects" target="_blank">Glaciers are disappearing</a> from <a href="https://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm" target="_blank">Glacier National Park</a> in Montana. Giant sequoia trees in <a href="https://www.nps.gov/seki/index.htm" target="_blank">Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks</a> in California are threatened by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JG004005" target="_blank">heat, fire and insects</a>. Rising seas are starting to inundate dozens of <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/climatechange/upload/2018-NPS-Sea-Level-Change-Storm-Surge-Report-508Compliant.pdf" target="_blank">parks along coastlines</a>, from Florida's <a href="https://www.nps.gov/drto/index.htm" target="_blank">Dry Tortugas</a> to Alaska's <a href="https://www.nps.gov/bela/index.htm" target="_blank">Bering Land Bridge</a>.<br>
</p><h2>Creating Escape Routes</h2><p>
As climate zones shift, many plants and animals will need to migrate into or out of protected natural areas to stay within temperature and moisture ranges where they have evolved over thousands of years. Scientists are outlining plans to ensure futures for at least some of these species by making it easier for them to move to different habitats. But studies on "<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14373" target="_blank">climate connectivity</a>" warn that if public lands around national parks are used for drilling, mining, logging and commercial development, they won't function as survival paths for wild species.
</p><p>
"You can't manage a national park by itself. That's increasingly a strategy for failure," Northern Arizona University biologist
<a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_5q8kcYAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">Paul Beier</a> told me. "Your park is embedded in the landscape, and we have to get smart about managing the entire landscape, because the climate is moving."
</p><p>
This research signals that if the goal is to guard the endurance of wild species for future generations, Congress and federal agencies will need to find new ways of managing the nation's
<a href="https://nationalmap.gov/small_scale/printable/fedlands.html" target="_blank">million square miles</a> of federal public lands. National parks will need to depend on healthy adjacent national forests, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> refuges, monuments and rangelands, maintained in their natural state.
</p><p>
In a 2017 study, researchers found that
<a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1705834114" target="_blank">creating links among isolated preserves</a> was a surprisingly effective way to maintain wild bird populations in Africa and Brazil. "The issues in the American West are the same," Duke University ecologist and study co-author <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=FmTTcdMAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">Stuart Pimm</a> told me. "A lot of the West is protected, but it's fragmented. Reestablishing that connectivity among public lands will give animals a chance to move, slowing down rates of local extinction."
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a14196d867037b27a8052cc7d4792ad8"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eqHinMdejEc?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Yellowstone to Yukon: 20 Years of Progress</small>
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<a href="https://youtu.be/eqHinMdejEc" target="_blank">youtu.be</a>
</small>
</p><h2>Promoting Extractive Use<br>
</h2><p>
However, the Trump administration is opening public lands in pursuit of "<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-energy-dominance-the-right-goal-for-us-policy-79825" target="_blank">energy dominance</a>." The Interior Department has removed millions of acres from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/travel/bears-ears-utah-politics-trump-national-monument.html" target="_blank">national monuments</a> and opened them for uses such as logging and mining. Oil and gas leasing on public lands has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/climate/trump-fracking-drilling-oil-gas.html" target="_blank">tripled</a> since President Trump assumed office.
</p><p>
Public lands generate wealth for other private interests, too. In the West, some 400,000 square miles managed by the
<a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/natural-resources/rangelands-and-grazing/livestock-grazing" target="_blank">Interior Department</a> and <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/rangeland-management/documents/grazing-stats/2010s/GrazingStatisticalSummaryFY2016.pdf" target="_blank">Forest Service</a> are leased for cattle ranching. These acres provide only one percent of our national supply of beef, but studies have documented that livestock grazing across the west can <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2386504" target="_blank">foul water sources, erode soil and severely diminish survival chances for wild species</a>.
</p><p>
The lease programs cost the government
<a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/grazing/pdfs/CostsAndConsequences_01-2015.pdf" target="_blank">more than six times as much to administer</a> as they bring in. According to data that I obtained from federal agencies, most leases are held by very large, often absentee cattle operators and by corporate interests.
</p><p>
In contrast, studies by
<a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htm" target="_blank">federal agencies</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/sure-pipelines-are-good-for-oil-companies-but-what-about-jobs-related-to-preserving-nature-and-culture-72042" target="_blank">private researchers</a> show that even in raw economic terms, healthy and protected landscapes are worth tens of billions of dollars to their owners—the American public—each year.
</p><p>
Meanwhile, climate change ratchets up. Preserving the nature of U.S. national parks will require connecting and protecting all of America's public lands.</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="b43ba" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="D84U3R1576662088"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1067599092598153216" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#ClimateChange Is Threatening Many Species, But One Is Getting a Boost https://t.co/0t7Uz0hdIF @truthout @savebutterflies @Buzz_dont_tweet</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/1067599092598153216">1543370433.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p>
<p><em>Stephen Nash is a visiting senior research scholar at the University of Richmond.<br></em><em>Disclosure statement:
</em><em>Stephen Nash does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond his academic appointment.</em></p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-preserve-us-national-parks-in-a-warming-world-reconnect-fragmented-public-lands-105926" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
</p>
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Glen Canyon Dam, Colorado River. Sharon Mollerus, CC BY 2.0
By Tara Lohan
In the last few weeks of 2018, the Trump administration set the stage for a big battle over water in the new year. At stake is an important rule that defines which waters are protected under the Clean Water Act. The Trump administration seeks to roll back important protections for wetlands and waterways, which are important to drinking water and wildlife.
<p>This is just one of the upcoming water battles that could serve to define 2019. It's also poised to be a year of reckoning on the Colorado River, which supplies water to 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of farmland. A long-anticipated multi-state agreement is close to completion after an ultimatum from the federal government. And it could also be a landmark year for water management in California, with several key issues coming to a head.</p><p>Big things may also happen on the water infrastructure front and in efforts to address clean-water concerns. Of course, underlying many of the water issues is the specter of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a>, which is bringing both severe <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought">droughts</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding">floods</a> and exacerbating water-supply problems.</p><p>Let's dive into some of the issues experts say we need to keep an eye on in the coming year.</p><h2>Clean Water Rule Change</h2><p>The biggest looming water issue this year has to do with a law passed nearly 50 years ago.</p><p>On Dec. 12 the Trump administration unveiled a proposal to redefine the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/wotus-rule" target="_blank">Waters of the U.S. Rule</a>, also known as the Clean Water Rule, which was adopted in 2015 by the Obama administration to set clear guidelines on how certain waterways and wetlands are regulated under the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/history-clean-water-act" target="_blank">1972 Clean Water Act</a>. The action came after two Supreme Court <a href="http://legal-planet.org/2017/07/03/the-epa-sets-in-motion-its-plan-to-rescind-the-waters-of-the-united-states-rule/" target="_blank">rulings</a> in the early 2000s created some uncertainty about what the Clean Water Act protects.</p><p>Obama's rule slightly widened what was protected under the Clean Water Act (much to the chagrin of many industry groups and developers). For example, the 2015 rule included automatic protections for wetlands and ponds that are "within 100 feet or within the 100-year floodplain of a protected waterway," Vox reporters Brad Plumer and Umair Irfan <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/2/28/14761236/wotus-waters-united-states-rule-trump" target="_blank">explained</a>. And they wrote last month, "In the past, tributaries of navigable rivers were evaluated on a case-by-case basis. But under the new rule, they're automatically protected if they have a bed, a bank and a high-water mark." Overall the change amounted to clarifying protections for about 3 percent of waterways.</p><p>The newly proposed Trump administration rule, however, would swing widely in the other direction, limiting protections to only major waterways, tributaries and adjacent wetlands. As written now, the new rule would strip protections from 18 percent of streams and just over half of the country's wetlands, but there's concern the final rule could be even more restrictive.</p><p>Industry officials praised the Trump plan. Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, called the Trump administration's proposal, "The Christmas present of a lifetime!"</p><p>Environmental groups had a very different opinion. The loss of protections, they said, threatens drinking water and wildlife, with the western U.S. poised to be affected most. In Nevada 85 percent of streams would lose protections, as would more than half in New Mexico and Arizona.</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA1OTY5Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTc3OTIzNn0.bPChwfyL6xHzdbFjnHB9O0DPodpu3ZsUpyStKLrm2H4/img.jpg?width=980" id="9b8f3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c50915d1555c1e9c334e057953497ea2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Nevada</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Cyndi Souza / USFWS)</small></p> <p>"The rollbacks to the Clean Water Act the Trump administration is proposing are the greatest threat to this nation's waterways in 50 years," said Dan Estrin, <a href="https://waterkeeper.org/" target="_blank">Waterkeeper Alliance</a> general counsel and advocacy director. This <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5410914-WAC-Comments-on-WOTUS-Repeal-9-27-17.html" target="_blank">industry-supported</a> proposal would "incentivize polluters to move pollution upstream, where they won't have to worry about federal or citizen enforcement," he said.<br></p><p>A 60-day <a href="https://www.epa.gov/wotus-rule/step-two-revise" target="_blank">public comment period</a> on the proposed regulation is underway. Meanwhile Republicans in the legislature are already attempting to push through <a href="https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2018/12/19/stories/1060110073" target="_blank">their own version</a> of what kind of wetlands and waterways should be protected by the Clean Water Act—in this case, it would only cover permanently "navigable" waters.</p><p>It's not clear what will happen on this front, but however things move forward it will be critically important. "The Waters of the United States law will be tested, implemented, suspended or revoked," said Peter Gleick, president emeritus of the global water think-tank the <a href="http://pacinst.org/" target="_blank">Pacific Institute</a>. Expect the debate over the rule change to be contentious and the final product legally contested.</p><h2>Colorado River Agreement</h2><p>2019 will be a year of reckoning for the Colorado River. It has to be—both nature and the federal government have issued ultimatums.</p><p>First, nature's part: With the basin in a drought for nearly two decades, the river's flow has dropped almost 20 percent (human-caused <a href="https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2017/06/22/climate-change-is-shrinking-the-colorado-river" target="_blank">warming is responsible</a> for at about a third of this reduced flow). By 2020 Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the watershed, could fall low enough to <a href="http://www.inkstain.net/fleck/2018/12/dcp-by-the-numbers/" target="_blank">trigger shortages</a> to Arizona, Nevada and eventually California. In 2020 the water users must also begin a massive renegotiation of how the Colorado River is managed and how we prepare for a future with less water—an epic task that needs to be completed by 2026, when the current agreement expires.</p><p>The three states have been busy working on a <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2018/12/14/climate-change-looms-over-talks-colorado-river-drought-plan/2317125002/" target="_blank">drought contingency plan</a> to slow the decline of Lake Mead, a process that will need to be completed before the larger negotiations begin in 2020. One major snag has come from Arizona, which is trying to resolve <a href="https://www.azpm.org/p/home-articles-news/2018/12/28/143410-a-look-back-at-water-negotiations-at-years-end/" target="_blank">in-state disputes</a>.</p><p>Things are about to get even more interesting, though. At a recent meeting of Colorado River water users, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman set a deadline of Jan. 31 for the three states to settle their plan or else the federal government will step in, which would be a widely unwelcome scenario.</p><p>"This could be very messy," John Fleck, director of the University of New Mexico's Water Resources Program, wrote recently on his <a href="http://www.inkstain.net/fleck/" target="_blank">blog about Colorado River water</a> issues. "It suggests that either voluntarily (through interstate agreement) or imposed by the feds, we'll have new shortage guidelines in place by 2020 to slow the decline of Lake Mead."</p><p>Even if a new shortage agreement is reached in the next month, Gleick said we're still likely to see political conflict among basin water users as water levels in Lake Mead continue to fall. It's not just California, Nevada and Arizona duking things out—the river is also shared with upstream states Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico, as well as with Mexico downstream. What happens to the Colorado affects much of the West, including cities like Denver, Phoenix and Los Angeles.</p><p>And the drought contingency plan is also only a stopgap measure to give all the water users time to pause the crisis until the elephant in the room needs to be officially addressed: The Colorado River simply doesn't have enough water for all the claims made to it.</p><p>"Now, whether through ignorance or malfeasance, we now have communities that have come to expect that fictionally large supply, and few rules to determine who gets less, and how much," <a href="http://www.inkstain.net/fleck/2018/12/beyond-the-colorado-river-drought-contingency-plan/" target="_blank">wrote Fleck</a>.</p><p>This year's work will be a crucial one for setting the stage for these future talks and better understanding the new climate reality.</p><h2>Climate Change</h2><p>2018 ended with some momentum on climate action. International climate talks in December at COP24 in Poland limped to a close with an agreement in hand, but one that fails to meet the urgency and scale of the problem.</p><p>And while the U.S. was conspicuously absent from international dealings, more movement to address climate challenges are afoot on the home front, with increasing calls for political action and a <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/12/21/18144138/green-new-deal-alexandria-ocasio-cortez" target="_blank">Green New Deal</a>.</p><p>Significant climate legislation will likely be out of reach with a Republican Senate and White House, but climate change impacts will continue to make a mark, regardless, and could help to motivate more public action and pressure on elected officials and corporations.</p><p>"Somewhere in the U.S. we'll see unprecedented flooding and somewhere else, unprecedented drought, as climate change continues to worsen extreme hydrologic events," said Gleick. "Temperatures will continue to rise." And all of this will compound water woes like declining flows in the Colorado River, <a href="https://therevelator.org/trump-drinking-water/" target="_blank">harmful algal blooms</a> across the country, the vulnerability of our croplands and declining groundwater levels.</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA1OTcwMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNDM2MjU2NX0.T9bnex72qQa6iFxSEorhCnRYYu338fttqfTsjXlblm0/img.jpg?width=980" id="0903c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d48b922834af5b5e391044da1e6b81b6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Drought-impacted forests in California's Sierra Nevada</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Photo by USGS</small></p>
<p>"I think that the overall story is that catastrophic times are here," said Kimery Wiltshire, CEO and director of <a href="http://www.carpediemwest.org/" target="_blank">Carpe Diem West</a>, a nonprofit that tackles water and climate issues. We need to accelerate the pace and scale of restoration to meet our ecological challenges, she said. "Fortunately, there are a number of communities taking smart, positive steps for water resiliency in the face of climate change."<br></p><h2>California's Grand Bargain</h2><p>In California several long-term and contentious decisions over future water management will be headline-generating in the coming year, and we could see either compromise or conflict between the state and the Trump administration.</p><p>California's Water Resources Control Board has been working on a plan that would increase the amount of water left in key rivers that drain to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the linchpin in California's vast water infrastructure network, to try to protect water quality and wildlife. It's a move that has made municipal and agricultural water users concerned.</p>
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Snow geese take flight above a field on Twitchell Island in the California Delta. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Kelly M. Grow/ California Department of Water Resources</small></p>
<p>But just before 2018 closed out a new "grand bargain" was beginning to emerge between state agencies, federal agencies, irrigation districts and urban water agencies.<br></p><p>If the deal comes to fruition, "it could be revolutionary" in terms of the region's water management, said Ellen Hanak, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California and director of the <a href="https://www.ppic.org/water/" target="_blank">PPIC Water Policy Center</a>. The parties have committed to hammering out the agreement in 2019. "Federal, state and local parties are on the threshold of something really different and potentially much more impactful than what the regulatory situation can do on its own," said Hanak.</p><p>The plan would provide a funding stream for habitat restoration projects for ailing fish populations and also trim water exports from the watershed by urban and agricultural water users. Environmental groups, which were not part of the negotiations, think those water cuts are not nearly enough to protect fish, some of which are endangered.</p><p>"It appears that California's <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/salmon">salmon</a>, thousands of fishing jobs and the health of the Bay Delta estuary are the sacrificial lambs in these series of agreements between the Trump and the Brown administrations," Doug Obegi, a lawyer for the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org" target="_blank">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>, told <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/latest-news/article223114775.html" target="_blank">The Sacramento Bee</a>.</p><p>As the possible settlement is further negotiated this year, the Trump administration could throw another wrench into the plan as it attempts to roll back environment regulations for the delta in an effort to appease the agriculture industry.</p><p>"What's the state water board going to do if they enact stricter regulations just as Trump is undoing a bunch of environmental protections?" asked Chris Austin, publisher of <a href="https://mavensnotebook.com/" target="_blank">Maven's Notebook</a>, which chronicles California's water issues.</p><p>There are also two other major infrastructure issues where California may butt heads with the Trump administration (and others) in the new year. The first is an effort to raise the height of Shasta dam. Another is a $17 billion project to construct new water conveyance tunnels. Both will also be big decisions for the future of imperiled species.</p><h2>Infrastructure and Clean Water</h2><p>There's one more key issue that should dominate water discussions and policy in the next year: Many Americans still don't have access to safe drinking water. The American Society of Civil Engineers has given our nation's water infrastructure a <a href="https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/drinking-water/" target="_blank">D grade</a>, and billions are needed to upgrade aging pipes, pumps and plants.</p><p>Hanak thinks that more progress will be made in efforts to address <a href="http://toxictaps.newsdeeply.com/" target="_blank">water inequities</a> in California, where hundreds of thousands of people, mostly in low-income and communities of color, have chronically contaminated drinking water.</p><p>Issues abound elsewhere, too.</p><p>"The ongoing saga of Flint, Michigan, will go on, and the discussion about the country's failing water infrastructure will continue, with new urban water quality challenges," said Gleick.</p><p>Will there be any progress this year? "There is a chance for some bipartisan action on water infrastructure as part of the broader push to pass infrastructure funding in the U.S. Congress," said Gleick. Like all of these issues, though, that could evaporate quickly as the Trump administration continues its attacks against environmental regulation and protection.</p>
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</p><div id="29098" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0LL8PR1576662461"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1072190235403042816" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">New EPA Rule Would Sabotage Clean Water Act https://t.co/HpPkePSyYy</div> — Enviro Voter Project (@Enviro Voter Project)<a href="https://twitter.com/Enviro_Voter/statuses/1072190235403042816">1544465047.0</a></blockquote></div>
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<p><em>What water issues do you think will matter most in the coming year? Share your thoughts on Twitter using the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=typd&q=%23water2019" target="_blank">#Water2019</a>.</em><br></p><p><em>Tara Lohan is deputy editor of The Revelator.<br></em><em><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://therevelator.org/water-2019/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></em></p>
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Wind farm with solar panels in southern California. 4kodiak / E+ / Getty Images
By Jeff Deyette
Despite the Trump administration's ongoing attempts to prop up coal and undermine renewables—at FERC, EPA and through tariffs and the budget process—2018 should instead be remembered for the surge in momentum toward a clean energy economy. Here are nine storylines that caught my attention this past year and help illustrate the unstoppable advancement of renewable energy and other modern grid technologies.
<h3>1. California Goes All-In for Carbon-Free Electricity</h3><p>In late August, California—the world's 5th largest economy—committed to the target of fully decarbonizing its power sector by 2045. The <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/california_cements_climate_leadership" target="_blank">landmark legislation</a> also strengthens the state's renewable portfolio standard (also known as a renewable energy standard, or RES) from 50 to 60 percent by 2030. What's more, at the bill signing, Governor Jerry Brown signed an <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/adrienne-alvord/even-more-than-100-clean-californias-audacious-net-zero-carbon-challenge" target="_blank">executive order</a> that establishes a goal of achieving carbon-neutrality across all sectors of California's sprawling economy by 2045, cementing the state's place as a global leader in climate action.</p><h3>2. Several States Strengthen Their RES Requirements</h3><p>State-level renewable electricity standards continued to be a primary driver of new renewable energy development in 2018. In addition to California, legislatures in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/nyregion/new-jersey-renewable-energy.html" target="_blank">New Jersey</a> (50 percent by 2030), <a href="https://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?Q=603448&A=4965" target="_blank">Connecticut</a> (40 percent by 2030) and <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/john-rogers/massachusetts-2018-clean-energy-bill" target="_blank">Massachusetts</a> (35 percent by 2030) all adopted stronger targets for renewable energy, accelerating their states' transitions away from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuels</a>. In addition, voters in <a href="https://www.renewableenergyoutlook.com/2018/11/15/nevada-voters-approve-50-renewable-portfolio-standard-by-2030/" target="_blank">Nevada</a> overwhelmingly approved a measure to increase their state's RES to 50 percent by 2030 (the measure must be approved again in 2020 to officially become law).</p><h3>3. Clean Energy Champions Win Gubernatorial Races</h3><p>One of the bright spots in November's election results was the number newly elected governors who campaigned on aggressive clean energy and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a> agendas. Newly elected governors in at least 10 states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico and Wisconsin, have pledged to accelerate clean energy and carbon reductions in their states by supporting U.S. commitments to the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement">Paris agreement</a>, joining the <a href="https://www.usclimatealliance.org/" target="_blank">U.S. Climate Alliance</a> and/or calling for renewable energy targets of 80 to 100 percent. These election results demonstrate the widespread support for greater investments in renewable energy and signal the push for even stronger clean energy policies in the coming year.</p><h3>4. Record Low Prices for Renewables</h3><p>Innovation, growing economies of scale and attractive financing continued to drive the costs down for renewables in 2018. Power purchase agreements for <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wind">wind</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar">solar</a> projects in states like Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas have reportedly ranged between $20 to $30 per megawatt-hour, well below the cost of natural gas generation—and the technologies are positioned for further cost reductions to continue to be low-cost options even as federal tax incentives change. What's even more exciting is that the many of these low-priced projects also include energy storage components, increasing their value to the grid.</p>
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<h3>5. Major Utilities Commit to Low-Carbon Portfolios</h3><p>Earlier this month, <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/joseph-daniel/xcel-commits-to-100-carbon-free-energy" target="_blank">Xcel Energy</a> became the first major utility to commit to a completely carbon-free electricity supply across the eight states it operates in. In doing so, it joins a <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/jeremy-richardson/utilities-look-toward-a-clean-energy-future-yet-the-administration-keeps-looking-back" target="_blank">growing number of utilities</a> that are committing to phasing out their use of coal and transitioning to substantially lower carbon energy portfolios. Also this year, both <a href="https://www.apnews.com/f876e5b74bc941fcadea30a99760aa59" target="_blank">Consumers Energy</a> in Michigan and <a href="https://nawindpower.com/indianas-nipsco-plots-coal-phaseout-transition-to-renewables" target="_blank">NIPSCO</a> in northern Indiana announced plans to phase out coal generation and utility giant <a href="https://www.powermag.com/aep-american-power-giant-sets-goal-to-slash-carbon-emissions-80-by-2050/" target="_blank">American Electric Power</a> announced a goal of reducing its carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050. What's especially exciting about these utility actions is that they are <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/sam-gomberg/trump-clean-energy" target="_blank">driven primarily by economics</a>, clearly demonstrating the competitiveness of clean energy technologies.</p><h3>6. Corporate Renewable Energy Purchases Keep Growing</h3><p>Low renewable energy prices continue to attract major corporations looking to save money and achieve ambitious <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sustainability">sustainability</a> goals. As a result, direct corporate purchases of renewable energy have become a major driver of renewable energy deployment. In 2018, the Rocky Mountain Institute <a href="https://rmi.org/press-release/corporate-renewable-energy-procurement-continues-to-break-records-in-2018/" target="_blank">reports,</a> corporate renewable energy purchases—led by companies like Facebook, Walmart, ATT and Microsoft—reached more than 6.4 gigawatts (GW). The <a href="https://www.rmi.org/our-work/electricity/brc-business-renewables-center/" target="_blank">number of corporations</a> investing in renewables expanded at a record pace this year as well, with nearly two-thirds of Fortune 100 and nearly half of Fortune 500 companies now having set ambitious renewable energy goals.</p><h3>7. Offshore Wind Moves Forward</h3>
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<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Kim Hansen / Wikimedia Commons</small></p>
<p>While no new <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/offshore-wind">offshore wind</a> projects came online in the U.S. this year (the next project—off the Virginia coast—is scheduled for 2020), the industry did take some big leaps toward becoming a major player in the nation's power supply. For example, the <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/john-rogers/low-price-offshore-wind-massachusetts" target="_blank">winning bid</a> for Massachusetts' first request for offshore wind proposals to help meet the state's offshore wind requirements passed in 2016 went to an 800-megawatt project from Vineyard Wind at a shockingly low price of about 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. In addition, the latest U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/derrick-jackson/auction-sets-america-on-course-for-offshore-wind" target="_blank">auction</a> for leasing parcels of water for future projects resulted in 11 bidders and $405.1 million in winning bids, both smashing previous records. And strong state policies, including <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/john-rogers/offshore-wind-massachusetts-rhode-island-new-jersey" target="_blank">new offshore wind requirements in New Jersey</a> and elsewhere, mean that there's a lot more action to come.</p><h3>8. Storage Steps Into the Spotlight</h3>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA0NTM4NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNTAwNTg5N30.omEye9FYOO3TjOiWQPO-XImBKe0VJ1zpdcEeUfHDWW4/img.jpg?width=980" id="7f379" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7046e6104690287c1e001ebc573fbec9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Lithium-ion batteries for advanced energy storage</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Argonne National Laboratory / Flickr</small></p>
<p>Once a fringe player in the electric power sector, the energy storage industry is quickly emerging as a game changer in the transition to a clean energy economy as a tool for integrating much higher levels of renewable energy. In 2018, the pipeline for new storage projects doubled to nearly 33 GW as more utilities are investing in the technology thanks largely <a href="https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-energy-and-levelized-cost-of-storage-2018/" target="_blank">rapidly falling prices</a> and growing support from state policies. While California has led the nation in storage deployment to date, <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/new-york-psc-sets-states-energy-storage-target-at-3-gw-by-2030/544371/" target="_blank">New York</a> recently established the strongest storage requirement in the country at 3,000 MW by 2030. Earlier this year, <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/new-jersey-sets-aggressive-target-2-gw-by-2030-for-energy-storage/524422/" target="_blank">New Jersey</a> set an ambitious storage target of 2,000 MW by 2030 and <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/john-rogers/massachusetts-2018-clean-energy-bill" target="_blank">Massachusetts</a> significantly increased its storage requirement to 1,000 megawatt-hours by 2025. At the federal level, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ferc-order-opens-floodgates-for-energy-storage-in-wholesale-markets/517326/" target="_blank">Order 841</a>, which directs regional grid operators to set market rules that allow energy storage to participate on a level playing field in the wholesale energy, capacity and <a href="https://www.logicenergy.com/what-are-ancillary-services-and-why-do-power-grids-need-them/" target="_blank">ancillary services</a> markets.</p><h3>9. PG&E Turns Down the Gas With Storage and Renewables</h3><p>In one particular sign of what's to come in 2019 and beyond in terms of how these technologies fit together to displace fossil fuels, one of the most exciting <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/storage-will-replace-3-california-gas-plants-as-pge-nabs-approval-for-worl/541870/" target="_blank">regulatory decisions</a> I saw this year was the California Public Utility Commission's approval of PG&E's plan to use energy storage to replace retiring gas generators. One of the key barriers to fully transitioning to a carbon-free economy is replacing natural gas generation and the ancillary services they provide to the power grid. This decision, which marks the first time a utility will directly replace power plants with <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/battery-storage/">battery storage</a>, should spur <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-energy/ca-and-western-states/turning-down-gas" target="_blank">many more similar projects</a> to move forward in California and across the country and open the door for integrating much higher levels of renewable energy onto the power grid.</p><p>These nine stories are just a sampling of what occurred in 2018 to further the clean energy transition. As the year comes to a close, UCS will continue to work hard to keep up the clean energy momentum in 2019.</p>
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</p><div id="5dfb0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="EBO0FK1576662462"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="952909011506139136" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">All Renewables Will Be Cost Competitive With Fossil Fuels by 2020 https://t.co/QectZLGqOF #renewables @350… https://t.co/9rc89HJlCz</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/952909011506139136">1516026187.0</a></blockquote></div>
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<p><em>Jeff Deyette is the director of state policy and analysis at the <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/jeff-deyette/9-clean-energy-stories-from-2018" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>.</em><br></p>
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Democrat Kyrsten Sinema campaigning for Arizona Senate seat on Oct. 21. Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call / Getty Images
A little less than a week after the midterm election, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema has edged out Republican Martha McSally to become Arizona's first female Senator and the first openly bisexual member of Congress, The Guardian reported. She is the first Democrat to win an Arizona Senate seat since 1976.
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="98c2b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9FKACT1576662463"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1062143663835353089" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">BREAKING: Democrat Kyrsten Sinema wins election to U.S. Senate from Arizona. #APracecall at 5:41 p.m. MST. @AP elec… https://t.co/9QzWf6KiTD</div> — AP Politics (@AP Politics)<a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Politics/statuses/1062143663835353089">1542069757.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>Sinema, who has served in the House of Representatives since 2013, has moved to the right since her early days as a Green party activist. During the 2018 midterm campaign, she promoted herself as an independent aisle-crosser in the tradition of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/john-mccain-climate-change-environment-2599542575.html" target="_self">late Arizona Republican Senator John McCain</a>.<br></p><p>"As long as I've served Arizona, I've worked to help others see our common humanity & find common ground. That's the same approach I'll take to representing our great state in the Senate, where I'll be an independent voice for all Arizonans," she said in a tweet announcing her win.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="e333c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="MRMBZH1576662463"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1062147560796614656" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">As long as I’ve served Arizona, I’ve worked to help others see our common humanity & find common ground. That’s the… https://t.co/uBv0oG1YIq</div> — Kyrsten Sinema (@Kyrsten Sinema)<a href="https://twitter.com/kyrstensinema/statuses/1062147560796614656">1542070686.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>But even if she has distanced herself from her Green party roots—the environment does not feature among the "<a href="https://kyrstensinema.com/priorities/" target="_blank">priorities</a>" listed on her Senate campaign page—Simena's win is likely a net positive for the environment. As a Congresswoman, <a href="http://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/kyrsten-sinema" target="_blank">she earned</a> a 2017 score of 80 percent and a lifetime score of 78 percent from the <a href="https://www.lcv.org/" target="_blank">League of Conservation Voters</a>. Her opponent, McSally, also a House member, <a href="http://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/martha-mcsally" target="_blank">earned</a> a 2017 score of 11 percent and a lifetime score of 6.<br></p><p>When <a href="https://eu.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2018/10/08/arizona-elections-many-candidates-arent-talking-climate-change/1494078002/" target="_blank">The Arizona Republic</a> asked both candidates about their stance on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a>, the two gave markedly different answers.</p><blockquote>In response to the questions from <em>The Republic</em>, Sinema said she supports "thoughtful and reasonable approaches to reduce climate pollution while ensuring Arizona families and businesses have affordable, reliable energy to power our economy into the future."<br><br>She said she has supported more <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar" target="_self">solar</a> energy development and "common sense policies like the renewable tax credit, energy efficiency incentives, and state-level renewable portfolios that reduce emissions and provide a smooth transition to cleaner sources of energy."</blockquote><p>McSally, on the other hand, took the opportunity to criticize steps taken by former President Barack Obama to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. She did not deny climate science, but still said she had "fought against" regulations meant to address it. </p><p>"Crushing regulations, such as the Obama administration's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/clean-power-plan" target="_self">Clean Power Plan</a> and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/wotus-rule-clean-water-lawsuit-2596664636.html" target="_self">Waters of the United States</a>, only serve as federal overreaches that further burden Arizona's small businesses and farmers and harm those in poverty with increased utility bills," McSally said in an email.</p><p>However, Sinema's desire to emphasize working with Republicans has sometimes caused her to waffle on the causes of climate change. In a televised debate with McSally, a listener asked the candidates if they believed climate change was a "man-made problem" and what they would do to combat it, particularly when it comes to preserving Arizona's water.</p><p>"Well, I do believe that climate change is real, and I think it doesn't make a lot of sense for us to spend time debating how we got to the place that we are today. What does make sense is for individuals who have the ability to make a difference moving forward to work together to make that difference," she said. She then promised to work with Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, the Republican appointed to fill in for McCain after his death, on water conservation in the state. </p><p>McSally did not answer with her opinion on climate change specifically, but talked about the importance of water before moving on to address issues related to the military and to criticize Sinema for anti-war statements made in 2003. </p><p>You can see the video here: </p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">McSally and Sinema debate for U.S. Senate seat in Arizona: climate change</small>
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With her win, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became one of four Democrats heading to Congress to push for a Green New Deal. Rick Loomis / Getty Images
Results from the U.S. midterm election are mostly in, and, when it comes to what they mean for the environment, they're a real mixed bag.
<p>On the plus side, the Democrats took the House of Representatives, which, as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46067264" target="_blank">BBC News pointed out</a>, means that President <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> can't pass any more major legislation without their approval. Since big legislative pushes in the Republican controlled House over the past two years included an <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/endangered-species-act-republicans-2586332924.html" target="_self">attack</a> on the Endangered Species Act and a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/farm-bill-anti-environment-policy-riders-2582389975.html" target="_self">Farm Bill</a> that would have limited controls on toxic pesticides and water pollution, this can only be an improvement.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="b3823" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="KYY06Z1576662090"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1060089995078365185" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The latest US election results: Democrats have won their 218th House seat, securing their majority and setting up a… https://t.co/xEe718OY0x</div> — Financial Times (@Financial Times)<a href="https://twitter.com/FinancialTimes/statuses/1060089995078365185">1541580125.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>On the minus side, the Republicans increased their majority in the Senate. Since the Senate is the body that confirms all of the president's judicial and political appointments, there will still be nothing blocking Trump from appointing more judges like Brett Kavanaugh with a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/kavanaughs-environmental-record-2610220986.html" target="_self">dubious environmental record</a>. They will also be able to sign off on whoever Trump finally chooses as <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scott-pruitt" target="_blank">Scott Pruitt</a>'s permanent replacement at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" target="_self">EPA</a>). The House is more likely now to investigate corruption-prone, industry-friendly Interior Secretary <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ryan-zinke" target="_self">Ryan Zinke</a>, but the Senate could go right ahead and confirm a replacement equally likely to sell out <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-lands" target="_self">public lands</a> to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> interests.<br></p><p>When it comes to the environmental implications of individual races and ballot measures, the night was about equally full of gains and losses. But it's important to remember that no matter who wins, popular movements can always make a difference. So whether your favorite candidate won or lost last night, you can and should continue fighting to halt <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a> and ensure a healthy, thriving environment for all life on earth.</p><p>That said, here are a few of the key takeaways from last night.</p><p><strong>1. Big Oil's Big Spending Paid Off</strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-proxy-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vbWVkaWEucmJsLm1zL2ltYWdlP3U9JTJGbWVkaWElMkZEclgyeUV4VkFBRW11elouanBnJTNBbWVkaXVtJmhvPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGcGJzLnR3aW1nLmNvbSZzPTk0NiZoPWZmNDVhMjg3MzRhYThlNjZlYjMwOWVlODhmMzQzNjhjZTFmYzMxYmIwNjI1MDk1YzBiNDA5YmQxYzY2Njc4ZjMmc2l6ZT05ODB4JmM9OTQ1MTk3NjY0IiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODA0Mjk5OX0.-X-2nrVyWzI_WcIkEf99DusQZiOaUCPuc3ZKiXmQQ2g/img.jpg" id="ddafc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7a0e4dd5257c851e2194534ee7509b14">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A graphic showing the results of Washington state's voting on I-1631</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">
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</p><p>Probably the most disappointing result from a climate change perspective is the fact that Washington's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/washington-carbon-tax-big-oil-2616808725.html" target="_self">Initiative 1631</a>, which would have created the nation's first fee on carbon emissions, was defeated in the polls. Colorado's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/colorado-fracking-homes-2608344422.html" target="_self">Proposition 112</a>, which would have banned oil and gas drilling on 85 percent of the state's land, also failed. The fossil fuel industry put more than $73 million into defeating the two initiatives, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/green-new-deal-progressive-democrats_us_5be26f5be4b0769d24c6a954" target="_blank">the Huffington Post reported</a>, so in this case money power was sadly stronger than people power.<br></p><p>In terms of the other ballot measures <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/environmental-ballot-measures-to-watch-2618270364.html" target="_self">EcoWatch was tracking</a>, Arizona's Proposition 127, which would have upped the state's <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" target="_self">renewable energy</a> target to 50 percent by 2030, <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Arizona_Proposition_127,_Renewable_Energy_Standards_Initiative_(2018)" target="_blank">was also defeated</a>, as <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Alaska_Ballot_Measure_1,_Salmon_Habitat_Protections_and_Permits_Initiative_(2018)" target="_blank">was Alaska's Ballot Measure 1</a>, which would have imposed new restrictions on projects that threaten <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/salmon" target="_self">salmon</a> habitat. Florida's unusual Amendment 9, banning both <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/offshore-oil-drilling" target="_self">offshore oil drilling</a> and indoor vaping, was the <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_Amendment_9,_Ban_Offshore_Oil_and_Gas_Drilling_and_Ban_Vaping_in_Enclosed_Indoor_Workplaces_Amendment_(2018)" target="_blank">only one to succeed</a>. </p><p><strong>2. Climate Change Tipping Point</strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="e05e7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="OOHBCD1576662090"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1060004940414926848" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Carlos Curbelo didn't lose, @DebbieforFL won.
This race was fought on climate change and won on climate change.
T… https://t.co/hc6DMi0XSc</div> — Eric Holthaus (@Eric Holthaus)<a href="https://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/statuses/1060004940414926848">1541559846.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>Climate change was also a campaign issue in several key races, and, while it's hard to pinpoint what issue tipped a candidate over the edge to victory, there were some wins where it might have made a difference.<br></p><p>Before the election, <a href="https://grist.org/article/midterms-2018-climate-election-map/" target="_blank">Grist</a> assembled an analysis of five hotly contested races in districts where more than two-thirds of residents were worried about climate change. Turns out, all of the Democrats in those races won or are currently leading in the polls, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/06/us/elections/results-house-elections.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Anti-pipeline and offshore drilling Democrat Tom Malinowski beat Republican incumbent Leonard Lance in New Jersey's seventh district.</li><li>Democrat Colin Allred, who wants to rejoin the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement" target="_self">Paris agreement</a>, defeated incumbent Republican Pete Sessions, who wants to scale back the EPA. This is in Texas' 32nd district, which saw unusually deadly storms and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a> this fall. </li><li>Also in Texas, Republican incumbent John Culberson lost to Democrat Lizzie Pannill Fletcher in the seventh district that includes parts of Houston deeply impacted by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricane-harvey" target="_self">Hurricane Harvey</a> last year. </li><li>Florida's 26th district is its southernmost point, already grappling with tidal flooding due to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea level rise</a>. Republican incumbent Carlos Curbelo <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/gop-new-carbon-tax-bill-2590411558.html" target="_blank">was not a climate denier</a>, and in fact founded the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus. But Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell promised more environmental action and won.</li><li>The race between Republican incumbent Dana Rohrabacher and Democratic challenger Harley Rouda for California's 48th district, which includes parts of coastal Orange County at risk from sea level rise, is still too close to call. But Rouda, who opposed offshore oil drilling and promised clean energy, is leading. </li></ul><p><strong>3. Rise of the Green New Deal:</strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="074dea21725eace9c13bc3895d6fd7d7"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zcQZtpbgVoY?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The Green New Deal: fixing climate and the economy?</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcQZtpbgVoY" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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</p><p>The brightest glimmer of hope to come out of the midterms is the fact that there are now four Democrats in the House who are calling for a Green New Deal, a massive government push to turn away from fossil fuels and build renewable energy infrastructure, The Huffington Post reported.<br></p><p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-climate-2581756053.html" target="_self">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> confirmed her win after her surprise primary victory in New York's 14th district this summer, and she is joined in championing the issue by the first two Muslim women in Congress: Ilhan Omar in Minnesota's 5th District and Rashida Tlaib in Michigan's 13th. Antonio Delgado beat Republican John Faso in New York's 19th district to round out the group. </p><p>While some influential champions of the idea, like Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, lost their races, Penn State University climate scientist Michael Mann said it was important that the idea was gaining ground given the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change-ipcc-report-2610866229.html" target="_self">dire warnings</a> of the most recent <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/" target="_blank">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> report on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. </p><p>"This is the sort of bold and audacious thinking that we need when it comes to confronting the ever-pressing challenge of averting catastrophic climate change," Mann told the Huffington Post.</p>
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</p><div id="bd989" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="FMEBFV1576662090"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1055421267803746304" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">New Green Strategy: Change the Electorate, Not the Election #ClimateVoter #VoteOnClimate #IVoted https://t.co/JGhLvyxC3Z</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/1055421267803746304">1540467013.0</a></blockquote></div>
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Bee and cactus in Tucson, Arizona. Anne Reeves / CC BY-ND 2.0
Bees, already under pressure from pesticides, could be further threatened by climate change, research published Wednesday in Functional Ecology suggests.
Scientists at Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden conducted a two-year study of the blueberry mason bee (Osmia ribifloris) native to the Western U.S. and Northern Mexico. They found that, when a group of bees was exposed to temperatures predicted for Arizona from 2040 to 2099, 35 percent of them died off the first year and 70 percent the year after, a Northwestern University press release reported.
<p>The results have frightening implications for bees in warmer regions.</p><p>"Local bee populations could possibly go extinct in the future because of climate change," lead author Paul CaraDonna told <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/bee-populations-dying-climate-change-global-warming-lead-extinction-1000183" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>. </p><p>Blueberry mason bees build nests in dead tree stumps. To achieve their results, scientists used paint to create nesting environments in Arizona's Santa Catalina Mountains with three different temperatures. They painted some nests black to simulate warmer temperatures, some nests white to simulate cooler temperatures from the 1950s and some nests with clear paint as a control. </p><p>Not only did the bees in the warmer nests die at alarming rates, they were also smaller and emerged from diapause (insect hibernation) in over 50 days instead of just 10 to 15, as is normal. </p><p>"This suggests that they are responding to a stressful environment," CaraDonna told Northwestern University. "Because their emergence times are altered, they now potentially have fewer floral resources available to them as a population, and it might be a lot harder to find mates."</p><p>The study's results aren't just bad news for bees in warmer regions. They are also troubling for the plants the bees pollinate. </p><p>"Native pollinators are a really important part of what makes nature run smoothly," CaraDonna said. "It's estimated that close to 90 percent of all flowering plants benefit from animal pollination. That ends up at around more than 300,000 plant species worldwide."</p><p>The blueberry mason bees are the main pollinators of wild manzanita shrubs. CaraDonna said the bees could move higher up into mountains as temperatures warm, but that would move them farther away from the shrubs and cause problems for both species. </p><p>"This mason bee is probably one of the best pollinators for this plant species, so if you take away the pollinator, you might take away the plant in the longer term," he said. "We need to understand how nature works and see how it responds to important sources of variation. Otherwise, we don't have the ability to keep it safe."</p>
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Petrified Forest National Park. Andrew Kearns / National Park Service
A new Trump administration plan proposes to auction off 4,200 acres of public land for oil and gas development in northern Arizona. The lands straddle the Little Colorado River, are within three miles of Petrified Forest National Park, and are near habitat for a federally threatened fish called the Little Colorado spinedace. Drilling and fracking would threaten to deplete and pollute groundwater in the Little Colorado River Basin.
<p>The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning the September auction—which would convey development rights to fossil-fuel companies—without any site-specific public or environmental review, as required by federal law. Planning documents cite Trump <a href="http://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/373019-new-trump-directive-puts-fossil-fuel-industries-in-charge-of" target="_blank">policies</a> that forego National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis to fast-track fracking on public lands. According to BLM, about 90 percent of new oil and gas wells on public lands are fracked.</p><p>"This dangerous plan puts national parks, precious groundwater and wildlife in the crosshairs. We'll do everything we can to stop it," said Taylor McKinnon with the <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a>. "Fracking is a dirty, dangerous business that consumes enormous amounts of water and threatens wildlife and public health. Northern Arizonans won't tolerate public lands being sacrificed as gifts from Trump to the fossil fuel industry."</p><p>The BLM is using a shortcut to bypass the analysis of fracking's harm to the land and water that is required under <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/nepa-threatened-2570786571.html">NEPA</a>. The sweeping "determinations of NEPA adequacy," or DNAs, presume that oil and gas development complies with the agency's 30-year-old resource management plan, which predates the U.S. fracking boom. The agency is also foregoing tribal consultations, stating that "tribal consultation was adequate for the [resource management plan]." By deferring all analysis until the drilling-permit stage—after industry has the right to develop the land—the bureau is unable to deny subsequent drilling plans.</p><p>"Fracking or drilling development could be catastrophic for the region's groundwater," said McKinnon. "This is Trump's energy dominance policy at work, where nothing matters except fossil-fuel interests."</p><p>Trump policies issued in January <a href="https://www.blm.gov/policy/im-2018-034" target="_blank">require</a> the BLM to auction lands nominated by the fracking industry, skip site-specific environmental review and limit public input. BLM records show that since 2014 the fracking industry requested 145 parcels in northern Arizona for oil and gas leasing, most near the Hurricane Cliffs and Big Valley north of Grand Canyon National Park.</p><p> The Center for Biological Diversity has sued the BLM for using DNAs to plan oil and gas auctions in Ohio and <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2018/colorado-fracking-04-19-2018.php" target="_blank">Colorado</a>. In April the Center for Biological Diversity <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2018/greater-sage-grouse-04-30-2018.php" target="_blank">sued</a> the Trump administration over its January policy encouraging their use.</p>
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