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Yale Poll: Climate Change ‘Personally Important’ to Record Number of Americans
23 January 2019
Climate
Florida Fish and Wildlife officers responding after Hurricane Michael on Oct. 17, 2018. Gus Holzer / Florida Fish and Wildlife
A record number of Americans now say that global warming is "personally important" to them, according to the latest Climate Change and the American Mind survey released Tuesday by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. That number has jumped to 72 percent, up nine percentage points since the survey was last conducted in March of 2018.
<p>"People are beginning to understand that <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a> is here in the United States, here in my state, in my community, affecting the people and places I care about, and now," YPCCC Director Dr. Leiserowitz told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/climate/americans-global-warming-poll.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "This isn't happening in 50 years, 100 years from now."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
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</p><p>The survey, which was conducted between November 28 and December 11 of 2018 to 1,114 adults, also found that the highest number of Americans yet accept that global warming is happening. At 73 percent, that number has risen three points since last March and 10 points since 2015.<br></p><p>Other key results indicate a shift in awareness: </p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Sixty-two percent of Americans think global warming is caused by humans.</li><li>Only 23 percent, a record low, say it is due to natural causes.</li><li>Sixty-nine percent of Americans are worried about global warming, a seven point jump since last March.</li><li>Forty-nine percent think they will be personally harmed by global warming, seven percent more than last March.</li><li>Forty-eight percent say people are being harmed by global warming in the U.S. right now, a nine percent increase since last March.</li><li>Fifty-four percent say they have personally experienced the impacts of global warming, five percent more than last March.</li></ul><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
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</p><p>"I've never seen jumps in some of the key indicators like this," Leiserowitz told The New York Times.<br></p><p>Leiserowitz told The New York Times he thought the spike in climate awareness was due to several factors. <strong></strong></p><ol class="ee-ol"> <li><strong>An uptick in </strong><a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather" target="_self"><strong>extreme weather</strong></a> <strong>events connected to climate change:</strong> The survey found that 65 percent of Americans think that global warming is already impacting whether in the U.S.. Fifty percent thought it made 2018's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires" target="_self">wildfires</a> worse, and 49 percent said the same about Hurricanes <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-michael-florida-panhandle-2611595307.html" target="_self">Michael</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricane-florence" target="_self">Florence</a>. </li><li><strong>The 2018 release of two major reports</strong>: Both the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/" target="_blank">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> (IPCC) report warning <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change-ipcc-report-2610866229.html" target="_self">we have 12 years</a> to radically reduce the use of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a> in order to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels and volume II of the <a href="https://www.globalchange.gov/nca4" target="_blank">Fourth National Climate Assessment</a>, which <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-report-takeaways-2621535494.html" target="_self">laid out dire climate consequences</a> for the U.S., drove up the sense of urgency surrounding the issue.</li><li><strong>President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump'</a>s climate denialism</strong>: Paradoxically, Trump's repeated denial of climate change is feeding Americans' increased awareness of and belief in the issue, Leiserowitz told The New York Times. This is partly because his highly-reported statements focus more media attention on the issue generally, but it is also because Trump is so divisive that when he holds a view, "he tends to drive a majority of the country in the opposite direction," Leiserowitz said.</li></ol>
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During Hurricane Florence, concentrated animal feeding operations like this one in Warsaw, North Carolina, flooded the surrounding community with hog waste.
Justin Cook / Earthjustice
By Emilie Karrick Surrusco
It's been nearly four months since Hurricane Florence battered the North Carolina coast, dumping 9 trillion gallons of water on the state in the span of four days. In Duplin County, home to the nation's largest concentration of industrial hog operations, the storm's deluge laid bare problems that persist in good weather and in bad.
<p>Hurricanes are becoming more commonplace in the southeastern U.S.—since 1999, at least four hurricanes and tropical storms have brought enough precipitation to North Carolina to qualify as "100-year" storms. There is barely time to rebuild and recover before the next storm hits.</p><p>"A lot of people are still displaced, a lot of people still aren't sure what tomorrow is going to hold," said Devon Hall, co-founder of the Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help (REACH) in Duplin County. "What is normalcy? When we look at the frequency of these storms now, it just keeps happening over and over again."</p><p>The flooding caused by these hurricanes exacerbates problems caused by the failure of industrial hog operations, also known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), to adequately store or maintain the massive amounts of waste produced by the <a href="https://waterkeeper.org/waterkeeper/MDAxMWEwMDAwMEh0cjB6QUFC/white-oak-new-riverkeeper/" target="_blank">2.2 million </a>hogs in Duplin County alone.</p><p>Each year, CAFOs in Duplin County produce twice as much urine and feces as the entire New York City metro area. Much of that waste is stored in thousands of hog "lagoons"—open-air pits clustered in the area hardest hit by Hurricane Florence.</p><p>When it rains too much, these poop-filled pits—which carry E. coli, salmonella, cryptosporidium, and other harmful bacteria – overflow into surrounding rivers and streams, or sustain catastrophic structural damage.</p><p>As a result of Hurricane Florence, 49 lagoons were reported to be damaged structurally, actively discharging material, or inundated with surface water, while another 60 nearly flooded, according to the <a href="https://deq.nc.gov/news/deq-dashboard#animal-operations---swine-lagoon-facilities" target="_blank">state's Department of Environmental Quality</a>. </p><p>When all this pig poop is unleashed on the surrounding environment, local residents, who are disproportionately African American, Latino or Native American, live with the consequences—which begin with contaminated drinking water.</p>
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Devon Hall, executive director of REACH, is fighting against air and water pollution from the CAFOs that surround his community.</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Justin Cook / Earthjustice</small></p>
<p>"People don't have drinking water," said Hall, who with REACH has been passing out bottled water since the hurricane. The organization has repeatedly run out because the demand is so high.<br></p><p><a href="http://amp.newsobserver.com/news/business/article220561095.html?__twitter_impression=true" target="_blank">A recent article in the News & Observer</a> notes that several hundred samples of private well water analyzed by the state Laboratory of Public Health showed a marked increase in E. coli after Hurricane Florence. In fact, 14.9 percent of the wells tested positive for E. coli and fecal coliform bacteria—as compared to 2 percent that tested positive in the months before the hurricane hit. Out of all 50 states, North Carolina ranks second in number of people who rely on private wells for drinking water.</p><p>None of this is new for local residents. Hall and others have been fighting for decades against air and water pollution from the CAFOs that surround them, as well as a pervading stench that forces people inside their homes.</p><p>The resulting health problems are well documented. A <a href="https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2018/09/duke-university-study-nc-residents-living-near-large-hog-farms-have#.W6OjV7aZOi4" target="_blank">new Duke University study</a> shows that people living in communities with the highest density of hog operations experienced 30 percent more deaths among patients with kidney disease, 50 percent more deaths among patients with anemia, and 130 percent more deaths among patients with sepsis, as compared to people in communities without big hog operations.</p><p>Despite the obvious health impacts, the EPA has exempted CAFOs from notifying authorities and communities when they release dangerous quantities of toxic gases. On behalf of Waterkeeper Alliance and Sierra Club, and several local environmental groups including REACH, Earthjustice <a href="https://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/foia-complaint-cafo-air-reporting" target="_blank">filed a lawsuit on Sept. 14, 2018</a> to force the agency to disclose public records that could shed light on this decision. Earthjustice filed another lawsuit on Sept. 28, 2018 that asks the court to reverse the exemption and force CAFOs to report toxic emissions before they sicken surrounding communities.</p><p>"Lack of transparency is a huge problem," said Alexis Andiman, an attorney with Earthjustice. "People deserve to know what they're breathing and how it could affect their health."</p><p>There are better ways for North Carolina's CAFOs to store and manage pig waste—and prepare for increasingly severe storms. As Waterkeeper Alliance staff attorney Will Hendrick contends, they could learn from the past.</p><p>"It's sadly predictable," he said. "We've seen it all before, and it's something that we should have taken steps to avoid. It's not going to get better until we make changes. The need for action increases as climate change increases the vulnerability of the coastal area to these storms."</p><p>There are two changes that the state's hog industry—dominated by Smithfield Foods, a corporation that owns roughly three-quarters of the hogs produced in North Carolina—could make to reduce pollution and get ready for future storms.</p>
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A CAFO in Warsaw, North Carolina.</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Justin Cook / Earthjustice</small></p>
<p>The first involves moving industrial animal operations out of the 100-year flood plain. After Hurricane Floyd in 1999, the state created a buyout program for industrial hog operations in flood-prone areas. The program was inundated with applications, and in the end, only had enough funding to buy out 45 industrial animal operations. Today, there are 123 industrial hog operations within 500 feet of the 100-year flood plain, along with 40 industrial poultry operations, according to Waterkeeper Alliance.<br></p><p>The state recently announced $5 million in funding for another round of buyouts, according to <a href="http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2018/10/02/after-hurricane-florence-state-to-restart-its-buyout-program-for-hog-farms/" target="_blank">NC Policy Watch</a>. However, some local residents are concerned that the program will steer taxpayer dollars toward industry-owned CAFOs, as opposed to those operated by independent contractors.</p><p>The second needed change involves the way that CAFOs store and manage waste. Currently, many industrial hog operations lower the level of waste in their lagoons by spraying it on surrounding fields.</p><p>State permits prohibit spraying more than four hours after a hurricane warning, as well as when fields are flooded or saturated with water, because the waste runs off fields into rivers when the rains come and causes contamination and pollution with dire impacts for both humans and wildlife. However, many CAFOs operators disregard this rule. </p><p>"Many CAFO operators are between a rock and a hard place," Hall explains. "They are also victims of the industry's greed."</p><p>The <a href="https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-florence-environment-20180918-story.html" target="_blank">North Carolina Pork Council touted this practice in preparation for Hurricane Florence</a>, saying they lowered "the levels of the lagoons to accommodate more rainwater, using the manure as fertilizer in nearby fields," even though the waste can't act as a fertilizer if its washed off the fields by rain.</p><p>Industrial pig operations operate under a waste management permit that is revised and renewed every five years. This permit has remained unchanged for almost two decades. This year could be different.</p><p>Last spring, Earthjustice—working in partnership with Yale Law School's Environmental Justice Clinic and the North Carolina-based Chambers Center for Civil Rights—settled a civil rights complaint filed in 2014 on behalf of REACH, the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN), and Waterkeeper Alliance. The complaint alleged that DEQ allowed industrial swine facilities to operate with "grossly inadequate and outdated systems of controlling animal waste" resulting in an "unjustified disproportionate impact on the basis of race and national origin against African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans."</p><p>As part of the settlement, DEQ agreed to allow community members to play a greater in the development of its swine waste management permit. DEQ also agreed to update its storm standards—requiring industrial hog operations to better prepare for storms. But those new standards have yet to take effect.</p><p>Last month, Earthjustice and our partners submitted "stakeholder" comments on DEQ's latest draft permit, on behalf of REACH, NCEJN and Waterkeeper. We applauded DEQ's decision to propose stronger storm standards, in line with our civil rights settlement, and urged the agency to take additional steps to protect communities and the environment. A revised draft permit will be available for public review later this year.</p>
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Devon Hall speaks at a REACH meeting.</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Justin Cook / Earthjustice</small></p>
<p>Industrial pig operations, and Smithfield Foods in particular, could take advantage of promising technologies, such as removing the waste from the animals with dry scraping rather than water. This practice would reduce the amount of waste that needs to be stored in a lagoon or spread on a field, and slow the generation of toxic air pollution. Smithfield claims that "high-tech" solutions are too expensive. Instead, the corporation recently announced plans to invest in cesspool covers and digesters that will convert swine waste to energy.<br></p><p>Unfortunately, as Hendrick notes, covers and digesters will do nothing to prevent groundwater contamination, eliminate the noxious stench, or stop the damage caused by spraying nearby fields. What they will do is generate more revenue for Smithfield.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA3NDY5NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU5NTM3MDk2NH0.zMT1V53ommzDfnsoQbAdX6eV6Byj0SibHBH7xyABMws/img.jpg?width=980" id="e86bf" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="94d9aeda486320cc22dcf7a2c5a0dae9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Earthjustice attorney Alexis Andiman, front, attends a REACH meeting.</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Justin Cook / Earthjustice</small></p>
<p>"Smithfield can afford multi-million dollar bonuses for their executives, they can afford multi-billion dollars in profits, they can afford to externalize pollution, but they can't afford ways to better manage their waste," said Hendrick.<br></p><p>In the wake of Hurricane Florence, Earthjustice will continue to work alongside Hall and other local partners to ensure that the voices of local residents are heard—even when there isn't a cloud in the sky.</p><p>"These facilities threaten people every day," said Andiman. "The lagoon-and-sprayfield system is flawed and dangerous at the best of times, and it's become a ticking time bomb with climate change. We need North Carolina to commit to stricter oversight of these facilities, so that people are safer now—and when the next hurricane hits."</p><p><em><a href="https://earthjustice.org/users/emilie-karrick-surrusco" target="_blank">Emilie</a> has spent the past two decades as a journalist, speechwriter and communications strategist in Washington, DC. At Earthjustice, she shares the stories of the people and issues at the heart of our clean energy litigation and policy work.</em></p>
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Hurricane Florence Flooded Poultry Operations Housing 1.8 Million Birds, Investigation Finds
28 November 2018
Animals
Poultry CAFO, September 18. Emily Sutton / Haw Riverkeeper
The heavy rains and high waters after Hurricane Florence flooded 35 industrial poultry operations in North Carolina housing an estimated 1.8 million birds, according to a new investigation by Waterkeeper Alliance and the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
<p>The analysis details how the swine and poultry industry, in the absence of smarter regulation, is not only repeating mistakes, it's compounding them. For instance, 18 of the industrial swine or poultry operations either surrounded or inundated by Florence floodwaters were flooded by Hurricane Matthew, in 2016. And of the 35 industrial poultry operations confirmed flooded, nine were new operations that had been built following flooding by Hurricane Matthew.</p>
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<p>The groups released an interactive map, available <a href="https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/2018_factory_farms_hurricane_florence/" target="_blank">here</a>, showing the location of industrial animal operations in the state where waste pits or piles were either flooded, breached or surrounded by floodwaters after Hurricane Florence. The new report is an update to the <a href="https://waterkeeper.org/fields-of-filth-landmark-report-maps-feces-laden-hog-and-chicken-operations-in-north-carolina/" target="_blank">Fields of Filth</a> investigation the groups produced in 2016, and the <a href="https://www.ewg.org/research/exposing-fields-filth-hurricane-matthew" target="_blank">follow-up</a> in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, when EWG and Waterkeeper Alliance documented 36 swine and poultry operations hit by flooding.<br></p><p>Flooded poultry operations pose a significant environmental threat, as poultry operations are North Carolina's largest and fastest growing source of nutrient pollution, according to a <a href="https://ncdenr.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/Environmental%20Management%20Commission/Water_Quality_Committee_Meetings/2017/March/Attachments/Basinwide%20Manure%20Production%20Report%20%20Appendices.pdf" target="_blank">2017 report</a> from the state's Department of Environmental Quality. North Carolina's poultry industry produced 56.6 million pounds of plant-available nitrogen in 2014, according to the state's report. That was three times as much nitrogen that year as the state's swine industry, which is second in size nationally only to Iowa's. North Carolina's poultry produced 79.8 million pounds of phosphorus in 2014, six times more phosphorus than the swine industry.</p><p>The North Carolina poultry operations that flooded during Hurricane Florence generated an estimated 22,525 tons of waste a year, according to EWG.</p><p>The groups will be doing regular testing of water quality in the coming months, and anticipate releasing a followup report in 2019.</p><p>"There's no permitting system for poultry in North Carolina, so the state doesn't know where these operations are located," said Christian Breen, a field investigator with Waterkeeper Alliance. "No one did the due diligence to say, 'Is this really a good place to build them?'"</p><p>Soren Rundquist, director of spatial analysis at the Environmental Working Group, said that through his work examining satellite images and geotagged aerial photographs following Hurricane Florence, "I've already located hundreds of poultry operations that have been built in North Carolina since Hurricane Matthew hit. Despite the overwhelming evidence that allowing new facilities to be built will result in more flooding and more pollution, regulators are turning a blind eye to the problem."</p><p>Waterkeeper Alliance and the Environmental Working Group used geotagged aerial photographs, high-resolution satellite imagery, a state database of hog operation locations and an earlier Waterkeeper Alliance investigation of poultry locations using satellite imagery to identify hog and poultry operations. The groups used an algorithm based on the state's formula to estimate the number of animals the operations house.</p>
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Damage from Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Florida. Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Hurricane Michael made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in the Florida Panhandle Wednesday afternoon, leaving two dead and nearly 500,000 without power as it rammed through Florida, Georgia and Alabama, BBC News reported.
With winds of 155 miles per hour, it was the third strongest storm in recorded history to hit the U.S. and the strongest ever to hit the affected area, The Washington Post reported.
<p>"We are catching some hell," Timothy Thomas, who stayed with his wife in his home in Panama City, Florida to ride out the storm, told the Associated Press, as BBC News reported.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
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</p><p>The storm rapidly intensified from a tropical depression Sunday because of warmer than average waters in the Gulf of Mexico, an effect consistent with predictions about the impact of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a> on hurricanes. A 2013 study found that waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico had gotten warmer in the past century than would be expected given natural variability, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/climate/hurricane-michael-climate-change.html" target="_blank">The New York Times pointed out</a>.<br></p><p>"There is a pretty strong consensus [among scientists] that the frequency of the high category events like Michael, in most parts of the world, should go up as a result of climate warming," Massachusetts Institute of Technology atmospheric science professor Kerry A. Emanuel told <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/10/health/sutter-natural-disaster-hurricane-michael/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p><p>Michael first made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida at 2 p.m. local time and brought a storm surge of up to eight feet to the coastal city of Apalachicola, BBC News reported. </p><p>Winds blew the roofs off of houses in Mexico Beach and further devastated Panama City, where the eye moved next. Windows were blown out of buildings and others were destroyed entirely by wind or downed power lines and trees, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/10/us/hurricane-michael-wxc/index.html" target="_blank">CNN reported</a>.</p><div id="5426e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="NT84PD1576663341"><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="4" style=" background:#FFF; border:0;
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word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">Letisia Maloney on Instagram: “Cedar point plaza Callaway fl
#foxnewsdesk #CNNweather #AccuWeather #hurricanemicheal”</a></p>
</div></blockquote></div><p>Most building codes aren't designed to withstand 155 mile-per-hour winds, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Brock Long told <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/10/us/hurricane-michael-dangers/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.<br></p><p>"Unfortunately, this is a hurricane of the worst kind," Long said.</p><p>Both of the reported deaths were caused by falling trees. One man was killed by a tree in Gadsden County, Florida, and a child was killed in Seminole County, Georgia when a tree fell on a home, BBC News reported.</p><p>The storm weakened as it headed inland and was downgraded to a tropical storm Thursday. As of Thursday morning it was over eastern Georgia and expected to move into central South Carolina, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tropical-storm-michael_us_5bbed9d5e4b0b27cf47a7ed3" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a>. </p><p>While the wind speed has been reduced to 50 miles per hour, winds, potential tornadoes and heavy rain still posed a threat, especially to parts of the Carolinas still recovering from the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_blank">flooding</a> of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/florence-flooding-carolinas-2605635654.html" target="_self">Hurricane Florence</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
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Coal Ash Was a Disaster in North Carolina Well Before Hurricane Florence — And Now It’s Even Worse
02 October 2018
Insights + Opinion
Sutton coal ash spill, Sept. 21. Jo-Anne McArthur / Waterkeeper Alliance / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
As people in North and South Carolina continue to confront flooding and other massive damage from Hurricane Florence, it's heartbreaking to watch them have to deal with yet another hazard: the toxic coal ash leaked from coal ash ponds and landfills in the region. Even more infuriating is the denial coming from the company responsible for that pollution in the first place—Duke Energy in North Carolina.
<p>On Sept. 19, Duke Energy activated a <a href="http://www.whig.com/article/20180920/AP/309209906#" target="_blank">high-level emergency</a> alert at the retired L.V. Sutton coal-fired power plant in Wilmington, North Carolina, as Hurricane Florence–related flood waters from the nearby Cape Fear River overtook an earthen dike and Sutton Lake. That same day, <a href="https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article218718570.html" target="_blank">the Neuse River</a> flooded all three of Duke's coal ash ponds at the retired H.F. Lee coal plant in Goldsboro.</p><p>On Sept. 21, Duke reported that dams at both the north and south end of Sutton Lake had been breached by floodwaters from Florence. In addition, floodwaters have overtopped a retaining wall between the lake and one of the unlined coal ash dumps at the site. Coal ash was observed in the lake, and <a href="https://www.wate.com/news/national-world/apnewsbreak-dam-breach-at-duke-plant-coal-ash-could-spill/1464153558" target="_blank">Duke acknowledged</a> it's possible that coal ash is flowing into the Cape Fear River.</p><p>Our friends at the Waterkeeper Alliance <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/waterkeeperalliance/sets/72157698057980582/page1" target="_blank">took photos and videos</a> of coal ash in several waterways. Yet, in the wake of Hurricane Florence, Duke Energy has repeatedly downplayed the dangers of its ash ponds, hiding behind the fact that coal ash which contains toxins including arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium, aluminum and chloride—is not designated as a hazardous waste.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODY4MDI4MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNTk5MjMyNX0.ijE0rHNIgkvn3YrtsEbGcnoprVidcWgBGMy-i7JJdxo/img.jpg?width=980" id="7e9ec" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="704a3434d39c0fde06a4d24848d2d685" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Jo-Anne McArthur / Waterkeeper Alliance / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0</small></p>
<p>Duke Energy spokesperson Paige Sheehan <a href="https://www.wral.com/after-florence-coal-ash-sites-near-goldsboro-completely-underwater-/17860975/" target="_blank">claimed in a recent statement</a> that, "It is a very common misconception that ash is toxic, but routine toxicity tests on our basin water continue to demonstrate it's not."<br></p><p>You have got to be kidding me. It's jaw dropping and infuriating to me that utility executives are still claiming coal ash is harmless after all the disasters of recent years—from massive coal ash spills, to the <a href="https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2018/08/20/2008-coal-ash-spill-kingston-perjury-claim-jacobs-engineering/977361002/" target="_blank">health problems plaguing workers</a> who cleaned them up, to the hundreds of other communities home to coal ash sites where families living with polluted air and water are paying the ultimate price for this tired old lie. The public health hazards and environmental threats to nearby communities from unsafe coal ash dumping have been known for many years, including increased risk of cancer, learning disabilities, neurological disorders, birth defects, reproductive failure, asthma and other illnesses.</p><p>The Sierra Club and our allies have worked for years to force cleanup of these sites, both by pushing for stronger federal and state safeguards, and through litigation and organizing at the local level. Represented by our friends at the Southern Environmental Law Center, we even secured a Clean Water Act settlement that required Duke to move its ash from unlined pits at the Sutton plant to a lined landfill. Unfortunately, that work wasn't completed fast enough to prevent some of the damage—and even the lined landfill was also breached by the hurricane, underscoring that while some methods of storing coal ash are better than others, the only true solution is to generate power with clean energy and stop creating coal ash altogether.</p><p>Carolina residents have long warned Duke Energy, state officials, and the public about these coal ash landfills being a disaster waiting to happen—and many of the ash sites had already leaked several times long before Florence came ashore. The coal ash sites are frequently near low-income communities and communities of color, as CityLab's Brentin Mock documents in <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/09/mapping-where-environmental-justice-is-most-threatened-in-the-carolinas/570985/" target="_blank">these two</a> <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/09/the-black-communities-that-have-fought-for-their-right-to-exist-in-the-carolinas/570751/" target="_blank">powerful articles</a> about Hurricane Florence and the long-time environmental justice fights in the Carolinas.</p><p>There is no completely safe way to store toxic coal waste, or to mine and burn coal, that doesn't threaten communities, our waterways, and our climate. Knowing all the problems that coal ash causes, Duke needs to stop burning coal and retire all of its coal plants soon. Duke Energy should also take greater advantage of the abundant and affordable clean, renewable energy sources and phase out its use of unnecessary fracked gas plants. And the EPA should strengthen our federal coal ash safeguards, rather than <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/compass/2018/08/what-s-your-water-trump-s-new-coal-ash-regulation-rollback-threatens-families" target="_blank">gutting them as the Trump administration</a> is now doing.</p><p>Hurricane Florence should be Duke Energy's wakeup call to remove its ash from all of its unlined, leaking coal ash pits next to waterways and take the necessary steps to ensure that all of its landfills are secure as possible and won't contaminate communities—not only when there are massive storms but also from everyday leaching into our groundwater.</p>
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Cassie Rulene Vadovsky / Facebook / Screenshot
Flooding from Hurricane Florence has activated dormant "gallnipper" (Psorophora ciliata) eggs, among others, leading to the hatching of billions of unusually large mosquitoes.
<p>Gallnippers lay their eggs in moist, low-elevation areas, where heavy rains or flooding trigger eventual hatching. In less than a week, larvae grow to adult size, which is about three times that of normal mosquitoes. The insects are so big that they've been <a href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=0948a974ba&e=992ed4d5cc" target="_blank">mistaken for wasps</a> and jokingly called the <a href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=133f610dd7&e=992ed4d5cc" target="_blank">new state bird</a>. </p><p>According to entomology Prof. <a href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=096b158e58&e=992ed4d5cc" target="_blank">Michael Reiskind</a> of North Carolina State University, disease transmission isn't a leading concern with gallnippers and other post-Florence mosquito species. Nevertheless, the outbreak is a public health issue as it drives people to stay indoors and slows the storm recovery process. Last Wednesday, Gov. Roy Cooper directed <a href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=e363dc5230&e=992ed4d5cc" target="_blank">$4 million</a> toward mosquito control efforts in 27 counties.</p>
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<p><strong>For a deeper dive: </strong><br></p><p><a href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=a2ee210c4e&e=992ed4d5cc" target="_blank">CBS</a>, <a href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=1547aa4a3e&e=992ed4d5cc" target="_blank">Huffington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/north-carolina/articles/2018-09-30/after-florence-communities-work-to-keep-mosquitoes-at-bay" target="_blank">AP</a></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></p>
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Mike Pollack searches for a drain in the yard of his flooded waterfront home a day after Hurricane Florence hit the area, on Sept. 15. Wilmington, North Carolina. Mark Wilson/Getty Images
By Robert Walker
Call it "The Great Stall." Hurricane Florence lingered over the Carolinas for four days, dumping some 30 inches of rain. Flood waters are still rising, even as Typhoon Mangkhut, a superstorm 500 miles across, rakes the Philippines and Hong Kong and crashes into China. Florence is just the latest in a long series of catastrophic events generated by stalled weather patterns—slow-moving systems which occur when one of the jet streams that flow around the Earth pinches off a massive section of air from normal wind flows for a prolonged period of time. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has compiled a long list of severe weather events in the U.S., and most of them are linked, in one way or another, to stalled weather systems.
<p>Just in the past few months, the NOAA has reported that "wildfires are burning larger and more intensely than before," and that "unusually persistent harmful algal blooms" are plaguing Florida. The Western U.S. is baking under high temperatures, while the Eastern US is "getting increasingly soggy." <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/featured-images/2017-state-climate-hot-days" target="_blank">The NOAA has even reported</a> that land areas in 2017 "recorded more than 60 days of extreme daytime heat worldwide, nearly double the 1961-1990 average."</p><p>Whether it's record heat, torrential rain or slow-moving currents, stalls can be catastrophic. Last year, Hurricane Harvey stalled out over Houston, dropping as much as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/08/29/harvey-marks-the-most-extreme-rain-event-in-u-s-history/?utm_term=.bac383fb79ea" target="_blank">60 inches of rain in some areas</a> and inflicting an estimated <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2018/01/08/hurricane-harvey-was-years-costliest-us-disaster-125-billion-damages/" target="_blank">$125 billion in damages</a> on the area.</p><p>Just last month, one of the leading climate research institutes, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, <a href="https://www.pik-potsdam.de/news/press-releases/nice-sunny-days-can-grow-into-heat-waves-2013-and-wildfires-summer-weather-is-stalling" target="_blank">cautioned</a> that the warming of the Arctic is "messing" with the giant airstreams that encircle the Earth and contributing to a slowdown in weather patterns in the mid-latitudes. As Dim Coumou, a researcher at the Institute, noted just a few weeks ago, these changes in airstreams can, together with other factors, create "<a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-08/pifc-nsd081618.php" target="_blank">extreme extremes</a>."</p><p>So long as the stalls continue to worsen, so will the resulting extremes. Hurricane Florence <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/florence-a-preview-of-our-climate-future/" target="_blank">may be a sign, just as Hurricane Harvey was last year, of worse things to come.</a> Meteorologists are now projecting that Florence could dump up to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/09/hurricane-florence-the-deluge-begins/570370/" target="_blank">18 trillion gallons</a> of water on North Carolina before it moves out of the state.</p><p>The growing frequency of extreme weather events is not a matter of bad luck; it is bad environmental policy made manifest. Nature, as it turns out, imitates politics. The critically needed political momentum has stalled, and politicians contribute to stalling weather patterns by stalling on climate change action.</p><p>Despite the 2015 Paris climate agreement, officially ratified in November 2016, we have yet to reach "global peaking" of greenhouse gas emissions. Global energy-related carbon emissions rose to a record high of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-energy-carbon-iea/global-carbon-emissions-hit-record-high-in-2017-idUSKBN1GY0RB" target="_blank">32.5 gigatons</a> in 2017. With the Trump administration's repudiation of the Paris agreement and India and China's continued reliance upon coal, the hope of keeping the rise in global temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius—let alone to 1.5 degrees—is rapidly fading.</p><p>The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/08/21/640630613/trump-administration-proposes-new-plan-to-regulate-carbon-emissions-from-coal" target="_blank">proposed rules</a> that would give states far more leeway in regulating carbon emissions from coal-fired plants. Market forces will continue to reduce the US's reliance upon coal-fired plants, but the proposed rule, if adopted, would almost certainly slow the rate at which such plants are retired. The EPA also just announced rules that would <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/epa-change-obama-era-rule-methane-leaks-lead/story?id=57752493" target="_blank">roll back</a> regulation of methane emissions from the natural gas industry.</p><p>But it's not just the U.S. that is stalling on curbing emissions. After declines in 2015 and 2016, the International Energy Agency reported earlier this year that global demand for coal rose <a href="https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/GECO2017.pdf" target="_blank">1 percent</a> in 2017, principally due to rising demand in Asia.</p><p>Population growth and rising consumer demand for energy are working against us. The United Nations projects that the world population will increase <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-2017.html" target="_blank">nearly 50 percent</a>, from 7.6 billion today to 11.2 billion by the end of the century. At the same time, the size of the world's middle class and resulting resource consumption will <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/global_20170228_global-middle-class.pdf" target="_blank">likely expand at an even faster rate</a>.</p><p>Political action is urgently required. Renewable energy is economically competitive in many parts of the globe, but unless the world's political leaders—not just Trump—take steps to close down outdated fossil fuel plants, efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions will fall far short of what is required to avoid more extreme extremes.</p><p>It is widely believed that Republicans in Congress are <a href="https://www.axios.com/climate-change-is-finally-getting-political-cred-821fab52-254a-4620-b84d-c303b7b22c27.html" target="_blank">gradually awakening to the reality of human-induced climate change</a>, and there are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/19/china-aims-to-drastically-cut-greenhouse-gas-emissions-through-trading-scheme" target="_blank">encouraging signs in China</a> that the political leadership in response to domestic concerns about pollution will, at long last, get serious about curbing carbon emissions from coal-fired plants. But before long, it may be too late.</p><p>Stalls, whether political or meteorological, can be costly, dangerous and even life-threatening. It's time to break the "great stall" on climate change.</p><p><em>This article was produced by <a href="http://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>
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2 Women Die During Medical Transport as Florence Flooding Carries Off Sheriff’s Van
20 September 2018
Popular
Women in a sheriff's van died in flooding like this from the Little Pee Dee River. Ricky Carioti / The Washington Post via Getty Images
Two female mental health patients died in flooding caused by Hurricane Florence when a sheriff's department van transporting them from one South Carolina facility to another was swept away Tuesday night, The Associated Press reported.
Horry County Sheriff's Department (HCSD) spokeswoman Brooke Holden told The Associated Press that two deputies and the two detained women were traveling in the van. The deputies tried to get the women out, but were unable to do so. Rescuers were able to extract the deputies from the top of the van.
<p>"The two deputies attempted to extricate the persons being transported," an HCSD press release <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/19/us/south-carolina-inmates-drown-flood-florence/index.html" target="_blank">reported by CNN</a> said. "Despite persistent and ongoing efforts, floodwater rose rapidly and the deputies were unable to open the doors to reach the individuals inside the van."</p><p>Horry County Sheriff Phillip Thompson said in a press release that his office would cooperate with an investigation into what happened. </p><p>"Tonight's incident is a tragedy," he said, The Associated Press reported. "Just like you, we have questions we want answered."</p><p>The investigation will be handled by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.</p><p>The women were identified as 45-year-old Windy Newton from Shallotte, North Carolina and 43-year-old Nicolette Green from Myrtle Beach, CNN reported. </p><p>They were being transported from a hospital in Loris and the Waccamaw Center for Mental Health in Conway, near the South Carolina coast, to McLeod Health Darlington, 65 miles northwest, Chief Deputy Tom Fox said. </p><p>The vehicle encountered flood waters about half a mile from the Little Pee Dee River, which has a flood level of 9 feet and is currently at 14 feet and expected to rise to 15.6 feet by Thursday night. </p><p>A police scanner recorded audio footage of the rescue attempt. </p><p>"The officers report they got out. The van is submerged, and they cannot get their inmates out," one unidentified person said, according to CNN.</p><p>Fox told CNN the women were restrained with seat belts. </p><p>The tragic incident happened after South Carolina faced criticism, in the lead-up to Florence, for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/as-florence-makes-landfall-poorest-once-more-likely-to-suffer-most-from-storms-destruction-2604930208.html" target="_self">declining to evacuate</a> prisoners from facilities in the evacuation zone.</p><p>Specifically, it decided against evacuating at least 650 inmates from MacDougall Correctional Facility, which was in a county, Berkeley, that was covered by an evacuation order, <a href="https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/d3jzkw/at-least-650-inmates-in-south-carolina-could-be-stranded-when-hurricane-florence-hits" target="_blank">VICE News reported</a>.</p><p>North Carolina and Virginia evacuated some facilities ahead of the storm, but South Carolina has not evacuated a prison in advance of a hurricane since 1999.</p><p>"Previously, it's been safer to stay in place with the inmates rather than move to another location," South Carolina Department of Corrections spokesperson Dexter Lee told VICE News.</p><p>New Yorker reporter Daniel A. Gross <a href="https://twitter.com/readwriteradio/status/1040256413543616513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1040256413543616513%7Ctwgr%5E373939313b73706563696669635f73706f7274735f616374696f6e&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rollingstone.com%2Fculture%2Fculture-news%2Fsouth-carolina-prisons-no-evacuation-723722%2F" target="_blank">tweeted</a> conversations with South Carolina prisoners before and after the storm. </p><p>As of Sept. 16, South Carolina prison system director Bryan Stirling said there had been "[n]o damage at all to the prisons," Gross tweeted. </p><p>An inmate he spoke to said the storm had not been as bad as he feared, but he still strongly disagreed with the decision not to evacuate. </p><p>"Hell yea we disagree! What if the storm would have been as bad as predicted?" he said.</p>
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A North Carolina concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO, on Sept.18, 2018, Larry Baldwin / Crystal Coast Waterkeeper.
The North Carolina Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that the historic flooding from Florence has killed about 3.4 million chickens and turkeys and 5,500 hogs.
"This was an unprecedented storm with flooding expected to exceed that from any other storms in recent memory. We know agricultural losses will be significant because the flooding has affected the top six agricultural counties in our state," said agriculture commissioner Steve Troxler in a press release.
The footprint of flooding from this storm covers much of the same area hit by flooding from Hurricane Matthew in 2016, which only worsens the burden on these farmers.
<p style="">
When Matthew hit the state, it flooded more than 140 hog and poultry barns, more than a dozen open hog waste pits and thousands of acres of manure-saturated fields, the
<a href="https://www.ewg.org/" target="_blank">Environmental Working Group</a> and <a href="https://waterkeeper.org/campaign/pure-farms-pure-waters/north-carolina/" target="_blank">Waterkeeper Alliance</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-florence-factory-farms-2604600085.html" target="_blank">reported</a>.
</p><p style="">
Poultry is the number one agricultural industry in North Carolina, with a statewide economic impact of $36.6 billion a year, according to the <a href="http://www.ncpoultry.org/facts/facts.cfm" target="_blank">North Carolina Poultry Federation</a>.
</p><p style="">
Sanderson Farms, the third largest poultry producer in the country, issued a <a href="http://ir.sandersonfarms.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sanderson-farms-inc-provides-update-hurricane-florence-damage" target="_blank">statement</a> on Monday that 1.7 million of its broiler chickens "were destroyed as a result of flooding." Sixty of its 880 broiler houses in North Carolina flooded and another six broiler houses experienced damage. Four breeder houses out of a total of 92 in the state flooded.
</p><p style="">
Additionally, Sanderson said about 30 Lumberton-area farms, housing approximately 211,000 chickens in each, have been isolated by flood waters. More chickens could die if the company is unable to reach those farms with feed trucks.
</p><p style="">
"Losses of live inventory could escalate if the company does not regain access to those farms," the statement read.
</p><p style="">
The state is also the nation's second leading producer of hogs, with more than 2,100 farms that raise about 9 million hogs each year, according to the <a href="http://www.ncpork.org/exports/" target="_blank">North Carolina Pork Council</a>.
</p><p>
<span></span>The 5,500 hog deaths from Hurricane Florence have already exceeded the 2,800 killed during Hurricane Matthew, the industry trade group wrote in a <a href="http://www.ncpork.org/advisory7/" target="_blank">statement</a> Tuesday.
</p><p>
"Our farmers took extraordinary measures in advance of this storm, including moving thousands of animals out of harm's way as the hurricane approached," the statement read. "We do not expect the losses to increase significantly, though floodwaters continue to rise in some locations and circumstances may change."
</p><p>
Animal rights group <a href="https://www.peta.org/" target="_blank">PETA</a> called the animal deaths a "tragedy."
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"These millions of deaths were preventable, but as long as a market exists for animal flesh, some people will turn a profit at the expense of animals," a spokesperson told EcoWatch in an email. "PETA urges everyone to take personal responsibility, not shrug this tragedy off, and actually help stop future suffering by going vegan so that animals are no longer forced to endure the many types of cruelty inherent in the meat industry."
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The <a href="http://www.humanesociety.org/" target="_blank">Humane Society of the United States</a> (HSUS) was similarly "heartbroken" over the deaths.
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"HSUS is heartbroken by the reports of the catastrophic numbers of farmed animal deaths resulting from the flooding related to Hurricane Florence," the organization told EcoWatch via email, adding that the animals "needlessly lost their lives."
</p><p>
"Having an emergency plan, regardless of the numbers of animals at your home, facility, or farm, is the responsibility of the humane steward caring for their welfare," HSUS added. "If the sheer number of animals makes evacuation extremely difficult or impossible, then a hard look needs to be taken at the number of animals being cared for and the opportunity for them to be considered in an emergency plan. The cost of not doing so, as we can see here, has a devastating impact on the community, the environment and the animals, and are further examples of why we need to reduce the reliance on these massive factory farms."
</p><p>
<span></span>Meanwhile, as of Tuesday, at least 77 pig waste lagoons have either breached or are at risk of breaching, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/climate/florence-hog-farms.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a> reported, citing data from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. <span></span>
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North Carolina's hog and other concentrated animal feeding operations, or <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/cafos">CAFOs</a>, produce almost <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-florence-factory-farms-2604600085.html" target="_blank">10 billion gallons</a> of fecal waste a year, according to the Environmental Working Group and Waterkeeper Alliance. Flooded CAFOs could release a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/duke-study-large-hog-farms-north-carolina-2606281665.html" target="_blank">potent mix of pollutants</a> that can potentially harm human health and the environment.
</p><p>
Waterkeeper Alliance has conducted overflights at some of the industrial sites and agricultural operations impacted by Florence and is investigating the possible hazards left in the storm's wake.
</p><p>
<span></span>"We've been working to address environmental hazards caused by industrial waste mismanagement in North Carolina for over two decades," said Will Hendrick, Waterkeeper Alliance staff attorney and manager of the Pure Farms, Pure Waters campaign in a statement received by EcoWatch. "As defenders of the state's rivers, lakes and streams, we're committed to documenting conditions and alerting the public to threats to public health and environmental quality stemming from Hurricane Florence."
</p>
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Florence from International Space Station. NASA
By Andy Rowell
As I write, Typhoon Mangkhut and Hurricane Florence are still making waves on different continents leaving millions of people to pick up the cost of these two destructive storms.
<p>In Asia, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/15/super-typhoonmangkhut-kills-least-eight-smashes-philippines/" target="_blank">Typhoon Mangkhut</a> is one of the most powerful storms to hit the region for decades. Although Mangkhut was downgraded from a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-45543664" target="_blank">typhoon</a> to a tropical storm as it moved into southern China Monday, it has still left a trail of destruction from Hong Kong to the Philippines.</p><p>At least 65 people are dead, with the number likely to rise as frantic efforts are underway to rescue trapped miners in the country. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/17/mangkhut-leaves-death-destruction-and-chaos-from-philippines-to-china" target="_blank">In China</a>, more than 2.4 million people had been evacuated in southern China's Guangdong due to the storm.</p><p>Meanwhile, in the U.S., although Hurricane Florence has weakened in the last two days, the authorities are still concerned about rising waters. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45544424" target="_blank">The coastal</a> city of 120,000 people of Wilmington, North Carolina, is currently cut off from the rest of the state because of heavy floods. Some 17 people are now known to have died.</p><p>As bad as these storms are, could things actually get worse in the future? The short answer is yes. More and more commentators and scientists are warning that the ferocity of these storms is linked to climate change and yes, things could get worse.</p><p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-09-16/extreme-weather-like-hurricanes-can-be-linked-to-climate-change" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a> commentator, David Fickling wrote an article Monday, entitled: <em>You Can Blame Bad Storms on Climate Change</em> that said: "Climate change has dramatically increased the likelihood of several recent extreme weather events ... The frequency of extreme weather events in the U.S. and Canada has been rising for decades."</p><p>As I <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2018/09/13/florence-and-the-extreme/" target="_blank">blogged about last week</a>, <a href="https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/you.stonybrook.edu/dist/4/945/files/2018/09/climate_change_Florence_0911201800Z_final-262u19i.pdf" target="_blank">one study</a> published last week estimated that Florence was stronger and would deposit 50 percent more rainfall due to climate change. The scientists stated: "We find that rainfall will be significantly increased by over 50% in the heaviest precipitating parts of the storm."</p><p>One of the world's most respected climate scientists, Michael E. Mann, and co-author of <em>The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening our Planet, Ruining our Politics and Driving us Crazy</em>, has also weighed into the debate.</p><p>He wrote that "What matters is that there is a consensus we'll see stronger and worse flood-producing storms—and, in fact, we're <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/what-we-know-about-the-climate-change-hurricane-connection/" target="_blank">seeing them already</a>." He called Hurricane Florence "a climatologically-amplified triple threat" of "wind damage," "storm surge" and "inland flooding."</p><p>As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/14/florence-climate-change-triple-threat" target="_blank">Mann</a> stated: "Warmer oceans mean more moisture in the atmosphere. It's one of the simplest relationships in all of meteorology: for each 1C of warming, there is about 7% more moisture in the air. That means those 1.5C-above-normal ocean temperatures have given the storm about 10% more moisture. All other things being equal, that implies about 10% more rainfall."</p><p>He concluded: "Some headlines have reported that Florence is a warning of what is to come. But in reality, it is a warning of what has already arrived. Far worse is to come if we don't get serious, in a hurry, about acting on climate change."</p><p>Indeed, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/15/hurricane-category-6-this-is-how-world-ends-book-climate-change" target="_blank">author Jeff Nesbit's forthcoming</a> book <em>This Is The Way The World Ends</em> is published later this month. At its height Florence was a category 4 Hurricane. Nesbit argued that "There is no such thing as a category 6 hurricane or tropical storm—yet. But a combination of warmer oceans and more water in the atmosphere could make the devastation of 2017 pale in comparison."</p><p>He too warned that more water vapor and water temperatures could create "super storms" that "we haven't seen before—and aren't really prepared for."</p><p>"No one in America has ever experienced the wrath and fury of a category 6 hurricane, which now genuinely seems possible and realistic. We've been lucky," Nesbit wrote: "Unofficial category 6 hurricanes have appeared in other parts of the world, and we're seeing much stronger storms on a regular basis … It's only a matter of time before one hits the U.S."</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2018/09/17/only-a-matter-of-time-before-category-6-hurricane-hits-u-s/" target="_blank">Oil Change International</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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A truck submerged by Florence flooding in Lumberton, NC. ALEX EDELMAN / AFP / Getty Images
Hurricane Florence, downgraded to a tropical depression, pummeled the Carolinas this weekend, killing 18 so far and instigating flooding that officials said could last through mid-week, CNN reported Monday.
Florence, which scientists predicted would be more than 50 percent wetter due to climate change, is expected to dump 40 inches of rain on parts of southeastern North Carolina and northeastern South Carolina, with some swollen rivers not cresting until later in the coming week.
<p>"The storm has never been more dangerous than it is right now," North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said on Sunday, as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45544424" target="_blank">BBC News reported</a>. "Wherever you live in North Carolina, be alert for sudden flooding."</p><p>North Carolina officials are telling people not to travel in the state, and sections of I-95 and I-40 are closed, CNN reported.</p><p>More than 900 people have been rescued from rising water in North Carolina alone, and about 532,338 households in North Carolina and 61,000 in South Carolina are without power.</p><p>Between Sunday and Tuesday, six more inches of rain could fall in North Carolina and Virginia. Forecasters predict the storm will then move north, dumping two to four inches of rain on West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and New England beginning Tuesday. </p><p>The city of Wilmington, North Carolina is entirely cut off by flood water, BBC News reported. </p><p>"Do not come here," New Hanover County Commission Chairman Woody White said, as BBC News reported. "Our roads are flooded, there is no access into Wilmington ... We want you home, but you can't come yet."</p><p>The town of Lumberton, North Carolina was flooded for the second time in two years, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/florence-lumberton-north-carolina-flooding-rescues_us_5b9f2a1ae4b04d32ebf9af36?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_cs=Xn3G4_To12bxLew1LbGq-A" target="_blank">The Huffington Post reported</a>. </p><p>In 2016, flooding from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-matthew-death-toll-2037803913.html" target="_self">Hurricane Matthew</a> forced evacuations and damaged homes, and the residents are now reliving the ordeal.</p><p>"There's a lot of houses in here that haven't been put back together from Matthew yet," Lumberton resident Diana Collazo told The Huffington Post after being rescued from rising flood waters Sunday. </p><p>Flooding was made worse when attempts to reinforce a temporary bern in the levee protecting the city from the rise of the Lumber River failed Sunday afternoon.</p><p>Rains also caused a slope at a <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a> ash landfill near Wilmington to collapse Saturday, displacing about 2,000 cubic yards of coal ash, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/duke-energy-coal-ash-spill-north-carolina_us_5b9dbce0e4b04d32ebf92af7" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a> reported. </p><p>The collapse occurred at the closed L.V. Sutton Power Station used as coal ash storage by Duke Energy, which was the company behind the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/breaking-duke-energy-coal-ash-spill-pollutes-river-and-threatens-drink-1881858992.html" target="_self">devastating coal ash spill</a> in Eden in 2014.</p><p>Company officials said contaminated runoff likely ended up in a cooling pond, and they do not yet know if any spilled from the pond into the Cape Fear River.</p><p>Environmental groups had warned that Duke Energy should do more to protect its coal ash storage sites from <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather" target="_self">extreme weather</a>.</p>"Unfortunately, Duke Energy has spent years lobbying and litigating and still has not removed the coal ash from its dangerous riverfront pits in the coastal area, some of which are in the floodplain," <a href="https://www.southernenvironment.org/" target="_blank">Southern Environmental Law Center</a> senior attorney Frank Holleman told The Associated Press. "When a hurricane like Florence hits, we have to hope and pray that our communities do not suffer the consequences of years of irresponsible coal ash practices by the coal ash utilities."<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
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