The Anderson Community Group. Left to right, Caroline Laur, Anita Foust, the Rev. Bryon Shoffner, and Bill Compton, came together to fight for environmental justice in their community. Anderson Community Group
By Isabella Garcia
On Thanksgiving Day 2019, right after Caroline Laur had finished giving thanks for her home, a neighbor at church told her that a company had submitted permit requests to build an asphalt plant in their community. The plans indicated the plant would be 250 feet from Laur's backdoor.
<p>Laur has a premalignant blood disease, and for the past two years, she has been trying to build up her immune system to prevent the disease from evolving into a terminal form of cancer. "When I heard about this plant," Laur says, "I went to the Duke Cancer Research Center, and a Duke scholar in my illness told me this would be a life-threatening situation for me, and I would have to leave." Having to move from her home, where she has lived for 15 years, would be devastating for Laur, not to mention a monetary loss. Who would buy a home 250 feet from an asphalt plant?</p>
<p>Laur lives in Anderson, North Carolina, a rural <a href="https://northcarolina.hometownlocator.com/counties/subdivisions/data,n,township%2520of%2520anderson,id,3703390056,cfips,033.cfm" target="_blank">township with just over 2,000 people</a> (and zero cell towers). It is one of the many predominantly Black communities in the United States experiencing a perfect storm of injustices threatening the health of residents and their environment.</p><p>An informal community survey shows that more than 70% of Anderson residents are Black, while the <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/caswellcountynorthcarolina,NC/PST045219" target="_blank">county and state's populations</a> are 32% and 22% Black, respectively. Predominantly <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5844406/" target="_blank">Black neighborhoods in the U.S. have historically been exposed to higher rates of air pollution</a>. Specifically, Black people in America are exposed to about 1.5 times more particulate matter—a form of air pollution known to cause cancer—than White people. This <a href="https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/health-and-environmental-effects-particulate-matter-pm" target="_blank">exposure leads to higher incidences of health problems</a> such as heart attacks, asthma, and decreased lung function.</p><p>A growing number of studies show <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412016301386" target="_blank">polluting facilities are disproportionately located in Black and minority communities</a>, so it's hardly surprising that the asphalt plant was slated for construction in Anderson. A 2018 study from the Environmental Protection Agency concluded that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5844406/" target="_blank">the discrepancy goes beyond geography or poverty</a>, too: Not only are more factories in minority neighborhoods, but these factories are more likely to produce greater emissions than those in non-minority neighborhoods.</p><p>These days, the risks are even higher. Because <a href="https://www.who.int/airpollution/ambient/health-impacts/en/" target="_blank">exposure to air pollutants decreases lung function</a>, communities in polluted areas are more susceptible to COVID-19; a recent <a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/covid-pm" target="_blank">Harvard study found that people in areas with high particulate matter are 8% more likely to die</a> of the coronavirus than those in areas where the pollution is just one unit lower. That's been borne out in North Carolina, where <a href="https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/dashboard/cases" target="_blank">Black residents make up 33% of the state's 1,568 COVID deaths as of July 15</a>, despite only making up only 22% of the population.</p><p>"This is not just an Anderson community health crisis," Laur says. "This is a North Carolina health crisis. It's an American health crisis."</p>
Grassroots Resistance
<p>The plant that would threaten Laur's health and home was awaiting the approval of an air permit by the North Carolina Department of Air Quality which, if approved, would basically greenlight the project. "This made me get out and go door to door," Laur says. One by one, she alerted her neighbors to the prospect of the asphalt plant. "I got to meet some of my neighbors I never knew before," she says. "There's no secret that there has always been a pretty strong line between the White community and the Black community here." In the end, three neighbors joined her efforts—the Rev. Bryon Shoffner, Anita Foust, and Bill Compton. Together, they formed the Anderson Community Group to advocate for environmental justice in their community.</p><p>"We are all the four corners of the community," Laur says with a laugh. "You've got a sick old White lady, Rev. Shoffner is a disabled vet, you've got Anita, who is a Black woman, and you've got a White, old country farmer. We all come from different faiths, but we've all come together as one."</p><p>Suddenly thrust into activism, the group contacted the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, a coalition that provides resources and connections with other groups. "We advocate, we organize, and we assist communities with whatever actions they are thinking of trying to protect themselves," says Naeema Muhammad, the network's co-director. Muhammad met with the activists from Anderson and recognized their need for legal advice, so she connected them with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The legal resources were key when the group determined that the data from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality's environmental justice report wasn't adding up.</p><p>The report—a requirement for all DEQ permit requests—stated that the Anderson community was 33% minority. That seemed far too low to the residents, so the Anderson Community Group did a census of each house within a 1-mile radius of the proposed plant—the same radius considered in the DEQ's environmental justice report.</p><p>"Rev. Shoffner went out into the community and did his own survey and found out that it was more than 70% minority," Laur says. "That was huge, because that changed the situation to a Title VI matter." Title VI is a federal civil rights law that prevents people from being discriminated against on the grounds of race, color, or national origin. Title VI cases require a more rigorous and comprehensive environmental justice report, so recognizing the Anderson community as a Title VI matter increases the strength of their request for a more in-depth report.</p><p>The massive difference in race demographics comes down to census data, Laur says. The DEQ was using race data from the 2010 census, which was only <a href="https://www.censushardtocountmaps2020.us/?latlng=35.77385,-78.73807&z=7&query=coordinates::36.44038,-79.36343&promotedfeaturetype=states&arp=arpRaceEthnicity&baselayerstate=4&rtrYear=sR2010&infotab=info-rtrselfresponse&filterQuery=false" target="_blank">completed by about 64% of the population of Caswell County</a>—the county where Anderson is located. Laur says the Anderson population response rate could be even lower because the community is considered <a href="https://www.nccensus.org/about-the-census#hard-to-count-communities" target="_blank">"hard-to-count" by the U.S. Census Bureau</a>.</p><p>"The people who don't fill it out are rural people who want to keep their land and don't want zoning and minorities," Laur says, which creates skewed race demographics. The Anderson Community Group said that when they brought up this issue with the director of North Carolina DEQ, he said he was aware of the problem.</p><p>"So that tells me that all the EJ reports in North Carolina that have been done may not even be valid, just like ours," Laur says. "We were told that we are the first [community members] who have ever doubted it and checked it out."</p>Elevating Voices
<p>Determined to have new data collected, the Anderson Community Group rallied in early 2020. After learning from the state Department of Air Quality, the department responsible for approving or rejecting the asphalt air permit, that 100 statements of concern from community members would be sufficient to trigger a public hearing, the Anderson group gathered letters of concern from their community. They submitted more than 108.</p><p>"Then we were told there wasn't enough concern to have a public hearing," Laur says. "So, we started inundating the [Department of Air Quality director with emails and phone calls from the community."</p><p>Finally, in February 2020, the DEQ declared a public comment period for the issue, effectively placing the air permit for the asphalt plant on hold until a public hearing August 3. The public hearing will be held online because of COVID-19, but Laur says most people in Anderson don't own computers, and won't be able to attend. When the community group filed a complaint regarding accessibility, the DEQ then allowed public comments to be submitted via voicemail.</p><p>"Well, we don't have a cell tower out here," Laur says. She has personally never been able to use her cellphone in her home, and even her landline phone drops calls frequently. Even being able to afford a landline is a luxury in Anderson, Laur says.</p><p>To make sure community voices are heard, Laur says, the Anderson Community Group is "begging, fighting, scratching, and screaming" for the public comment period to be extended until the hearing can be held in person. The group fears that the community won't be able to properly participate, and as a result, the DEQ will approve the asphalt permit without listening to residents' concerns or considering accurate data.</p><p>The health impacts on the community could be huge. During Shoffner's unofficial survey, he also found that more than 90% of those within a 1-mile radius of the proposed plant have health conditions such as asthma, lung disease, and previous strokes and heart attacks that would be exacerbated by polluting industries.</p><p>"That's the thing that we feel they are truly missing: They're not allowing data to catch up," Shoffner says. Not only is the existing data outdated and inaccurate, he argues, but even data from 2018 would only provide a partial picture, because it does not account for the effects of COVID-19 on the community. "Of course, our ultimate goal is for them to say they're not going to build a polluting industry in a Black neighborhood, but our next move is to get them to postpone it until they get the data that shows how the asphalt plant and COVID-19 is affecting Black and brown people."</p><p>Shoffner says that the pandemic has thankfully slowed down the whirlwind of decisions on the asphalt plant and given the team time to consider what else they can do to halt its construction. For example, in July, the group <a href="https://acejustice.org/ej-petition" target="_blank">created a mail-in petition</a> for the North Carolina governor to stop the permit process.</p><p>"This team has been able to research and dig and get in a lot of doors," he says, noting that they have had productive conversations with leaders from the North Carolina DEQ. "We're winning as long as we're on the phone and getting conference calls. When they stop taking our calls, that's when we'll start asking what to do now."</p><p><em>CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Anita Foust. Text has been updated.</em></p><p><em>Isabella Garcia </em><em>is a former solutions journalism intern for YES!.</em></p><p><em><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/07/23/north-carolina-community-pollution/" target="_blank">YES! Magazine</a>.<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2646927403#/" target="_self"></a></em><em></em></em></p>
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Flooding at Duke Energy's H.F. Lee Energy Complex in Goldsboro, North Carolina on Oct. 10, 2016 after Hurricane Maria. Travis Graves, Lower Neuse Riverkeeper
By Emilie Karrick Surrusco
The toxic mess left behind from burning coal is a growing, nationwide problem. But we're seeing that state governments can be convinced to do the right thing and clean it up. Recently, North Carolina joined its neighboring state to become a trendsetter in the proper disposal of coal ash waste.
<p>Following on the heels of similar news in Virginia, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on April 1 ordered Duke Energy to completely excavate and close all of its coal ash ponds in the state.</p><p>This is no less than "momentous news," according to Earthjustice attorney <a href="https://earthjustice.org/about/staff/lisa-evans" target="_blank">Lisa Evans</a>, for a state that is the nation's ninth largest producer of coal ash — a toxic byproduct from burning coal. For states across the nation where federal regulations are forcing companies to submit closure and cleanup plans for coal ash contamination, North Carolina's plan provides an example of what safe closure looks like. For states that are formulating their own coal ash rules, like Illinois, the North Carolina plan is a blueprint.</p><p>"The state decided that protection of human health and the environment must be placed above the convenience of Duke Energy," Evans said. "It's a great moment when the state government has the courage to make the right decision for the people of North Carolina. This is truly a model for the nation."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTM1OTQ0NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzE0NjM0OH0._DXTEyKf16GHwmgitk3PlcGsHl1gr54ALfBFQtNZ6ys/img.jpg?width=980" id="632fb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="10db6412f18b19ecc2c1739f6ad13c9d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Coal ash spilled by Hurricane Florence coats a turtle in North Carolina. (Riverkeepers cleaned and released the turtle.)
PETE HARRISON / EARTHJUSTICE
<p>For decades, utilities have disposed of toxic coal ash dangerously, storing it in unlined pits that allow the coal ash to leak into groundwater and spill into nearby lakes, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/rivers">rivers</a> and streams. The true implications of this improper disposal are only beginning to be understood. After federal coal ash regulations required utilities to publicly report groundwater monitoring data, Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project released a report last month that <a href="https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2019/first-comprehensive-national-study-of-coal-ash-pollution-finds-widespread-groundwater-contamination" target="_blank">analyzes groundwater monitoring data at 265 power plants across the country</a> for the first time.</p><p>The report shows that groundwater near 91 percent of power plants with monitoring data contained unsafe levels of one or more of the pollutants in coal ash — including arsenic, a known carcinogen, and lithium, which is associated with neurological damage, among other pollutants. In many cases, the contamination is significant enough that coal plant operators must submit cleanup plans. In the next six months alone, we are expecting about 100 such plans.</p><p>"The modus operandi of this industry from 1900 to today is to dispose of its toxic waste as cheaply as possible. This has had disastrous consequences," said Evans. "The long-term remedy is to stop producing the dangerous waste, but short of that, if you have ash in groundwater, you have to excavate."</p><p>This report also listed the nation's most contaminated sites — including Duke Energy's Allen Steam Station in Belmont, North Carolina.</p><p>Duke Energy, which has 14 former power plant sites in North Carolina, has consistently tried to cover up the problem of coal ash contamination and dispose of its toxic stew improperly — its actions resulted in a $102 million fine and a guilty plea to nine criminal violations of the Clean Water Act stemming from activities at multiple North Carolina coal plants.</p><p>The Southern Environmental Law Center, along with tenacious activists across the state, have spent the past seven years fighting Duke Energy, resulting in victories that forced the nation's largest utility to clean up its mess at eight plant sites. Now, thanks to the state's order, Duke Energy is required to file a plan by Aug. 1 that explains how it will empty and close its six remaining plant sites in the state, which include 11 coal ash ponds.</p><p>"Public meetings were held at the six sites, and local communities came out in force. They were unanimous in demanding that Duke Energy remove the coal ash from unlined pits," said Frank Holleman, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. "Duke has several weeks to decide if they are going to accept this decision, or instead if it's going to continue to litigate and lobby to put off dealing with its coal ash pollution."</p><p>While the state's order is a significant victory for the people of North Carolina, it's been a long time coming for activists and community leaders who have watched as beloved lakes and rivers have become increasingly polluted and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water">drinking water</a> wells became undrinkable.</p><p>In 2014, North Carolina experienced a grim wake-up call when 39,000 tons of coal ash spilled from Duke Energy's Dan River plant — sending 27 million gallons of sludge filled with toxic chemicals into a river that supplies drinking water to surrounding communities. Following that spill, the state legislature passed the Coal Ash Management Act (CAMA), which required the DEQ to evaluate coal ash disposal at each of Duke Energy's plant sites.</p><p>At the same time, hurricanes and increasingly heavy rains have caused coal ash pits across North Carolina and the southeastern U.S. to overflow. During Hurricane Florence, when 35 inches of rain fell over four days in North Carolina, coal ash from the Duke Energy plant in Goldsboro spilled into the Neuse River, and a coal ash lagoon at the L.V. Sutton Power Station in Wilmington was flooded.</p>
<p>"From climate change-fueled storms to industry spills, a perfect storm of disasters was enough to make a state like North Carolina do the right thing when communities demanded protection," said Evans.</p><p>Unfortunately, the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> administration's U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa">EPA</a>) is intent on keeping that from happening at the national level. Turning a blind eye to the mounting evidence of contamination from coal ash dumps and the increasing intensity of storms that cause coal ash spills, the Trump EPA has moved to weaken the 2015 coal ash rule rather than strengthen it. Despite a court order from the DC Circuit Court to expand and strengthen the federal rule, EPA abides by its industry-friendly agenda to gut federal protections.</p><p>However, as North Carolina and Virginia have shown, state governments can be convinced to take action where the Trump administration won't.</p><p>In Illinois, progress is happening piecemeal, with hopes that the state will soon take comprehensive action. The Coal Ash Cleanup and Storage Act was recently introduced in the state legislature to address the fact that 22 of the state's 24 coal-fired power plants have contaminated groundwater with unsafe levels of one or more toxic pollutants. In addition, Earthjustice, on behalf of the Prairie Rivers Network, recently filed a <a href="https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/Final%20Complaint%20%28as%20filed%29.pdf" target="_blank">lawsuit against Dynegy</a>, a local utility that has been allowing toxic waste from its coal-ash pits to leach into groundwater and the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River, Illinois' only Wild and Scenic River.</p><p>"The public wants protection from coal ash and coal ash pollution," said Holleman. "The only place in the country where there is backward movement on this is in the Trump administration and the EPA. I have never encountered a person who wanted less protection from coal ash pollution and this includes in communities that voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Trump."</p><p>Despite EPA's lack of action, communities across the nation are stepping forward to demand that polluters clean up their toxic mess — state governments are starting to listen and pick up where the federal government left off. </p>
<div id="76c9f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="GWUEQI1576663676"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1069350656367108098" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">New Report Reveals Severe #Groundwater Contamination at Illinois #CoalAsh Dumps https://t.co/kAM9ixJyRk @BeyondCoal @Coal_Ash</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/1069350656367108098">1543788038.0</a></blockquote></div>
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Animal protection groups rescued piglets from a flood at the "Big Ditch" levee in Oakville, Iowa in 2008. Farm Sanctuary / Flickr
On Thursday the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa struck down the Iowa Ag-Gag law, holding that the ban on undercover investigations at factory farms and slaughterhouses violates the First Amendment. In 2017, a coalition of animal, environmental and community advocacy groups, including Center for Food Safety, challenged the law's constitutionality. Federal courts have similarly struck down Ag-Gag laws in Idaho and Utah as unconstitutional.
<p>Iowa's Ag-Gag law criminalizes undercover investigations at a broad range of animal facilities including factory farms, puppy mills and slaughterhouses; preventing advocates from exposing animal cruelty, environmental harm, workers' rights infractions and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/food/">food</a> safety violations. The law achieved its goal of suppressing undercover investigations—no investigations have taken place since the law's passage in 2012. </p><p>"Ag-Gag laws unconstitutionally allow Industrial Ag to hide in the darkness, and today's decision is another important pulling back of that curtain," said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of Center for Food Safety. "This decision is a victory for all those who support humane treatment of farm animals and safe food."</p><p>For more than a century, the public has relied on undercover investigations to expose illegal and cruel practices on factory farms and slaughterhouses. No federal laws govern the conditions in which farmed animals are raised, and laws addressing slaughter and transport are laxly enforced. Undercover investigations are the primary avenue through which the public receives information about animal agriculture operations. Iowa is the biggest producer of pigs raised for meat and hens raised for eggs in the U.S., making it critically important that investigations there are not suppressed.</p><p>"Ag-Gag laws are a pernicious attempt by animal exploitation industries to hide some of the worst forms of animal abuse in the United States," said <a href="https://aldf.org" target="_blank">Animal Legal Defense Fund</a> Executive Director Stephen Wells. "Today's victory makes it clear that the government cannot protect these industries at the expense of our constitutional rights."</p><p>Center for Food Safety is also co-counsel and co-plaintiff in another case successfully striking down Idaho's Ag-Gag law in 2017, and part of ongoing cases in North Carolina and Kansas.</p><p>A copy of the decision is available upon request (please email us at pr@centerforfoodsafety.org).</p><p>The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the Animal Legal Defense Fund, <a href="http://iowacci.org" target="_blank">Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement</a>, <a href="https://bailingoutbenji.com" target="_blank">Bailing Out Benji</a>, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (<a href="https://www.peta.org/" target="_blank">PETA</a>) and Center for Food Safety. They are represented by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Iowa, Public Justice, the Law Office of Matthew Strugar and Center for Food Safety.</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="7fc16" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="LY9X381576661811"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1060910158539194368" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">This Victorious California Ballot Measure Could Improve the Lives of Farm Animals Nationwide https://t.co/EITIAYdOCl</div> — SSF-BERF-DEFM (@SSF-BERF-DEFM)<a href="https://twitter.com/SSF_BERF_DEFM/statuses/1060910158539194368">1541775667.0</a></blockquote></div>
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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>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA3NDcxNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0Mjc0NzA0MH0.GV9mz50BURdSpCYHcj42BoTCzbmXQAKEdlt3gU07QD0/img.jpg?width=980" id="ae251" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="38f395620c6435480e7758397748b25c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<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>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA3NDcwNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODUyMTY4NX0.haq2q1w2Me7FDWsumsicNMyy9yWGwBF3YqkLtKPmXAg/img.jpg?width=980" id="a1268" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="37c9030dd379dd14ccafb9f4ad8e306d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<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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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA3NDcwMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTY2NjIxOH0.GJ5LzFIN8t0rHjYJHBrX9HCtxa_u3_KXFqy-PFq-8TU/img.jpg?width=980" id="724a1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3d81e9c7dd230bf2a1c2b1ff71f1fca6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<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>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA3NDY5NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1ODQ0Mjk2NH0.yC8hIh20OxydM99yzKXD0CG8_bq-pzZRSdg8__hY4BU/img.jpg?width=980" id="728ee" 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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2018: A Year of Deadly Climate Disasters and an 'Ear Splitting Wake-Up Call'
28 December 2018
Climate
Aerial view of Florence, Nichols, Conway and Waccamaw, South Carolina, impacted by floodwaters on Sept. 21. South Carolina Air National Guard
2018 is set to rank as the fourth warmest year on record—and the fourth year in a row reflecting a full degree Celsius (1.8° Fahrenheit) temperature rise from the late 1800s, climate scientists say.
This was the year that introduced us to fire tornadoes, bomb cyclones and in Death Valley, a five-day streak of 125°F temperatures, part of the hottest month ever documented at a U.S. weather station.
<p>2018 also brought the world's highest-ever low temperature, as nighttime temperatures fell to a sizzling 109°F in Quiryat, Oman, on June 28, smashing a 2011 record-high low.</p><p>A startling 95 percent of the oldest and thickest <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/arctic">Arctic</a> sea ice <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/scientists-shocked-that-warming-has-wiped-out-oldest-thickest-arctic-sea-ice-febe927ab619/" target="_blank">is now gone</a>—and we're losing Arctic <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-ice">ice</a> at a rate of 14,000 tons <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/scientists-shocked-that-warming-has-wiped-out-oldest-thickest-arctic-sea-ice-febe927ab619/" target="_blank">per second</a>, according to recent research, three times as fast as roughly three decades ago.</p><p>It was a year notable both for its overwhelming, climate-fueled impacts as well as its gut-wrenching predictions for what <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a> still has in store for us if we fail to act. So much happened, frankly, that it's been hard to keep it all straight.</p><h3>Stark Warnings</h3><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA0NzMzOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MDkxODAxMH0.SCkSpZrEy7pCCSmMUdtqLADavs15CLFM2cUEVkCaNZE/img.jpg?width=980" id="1463d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="13b1a588c06f29dc90a4e257f2ca2f84" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Actively eroding coastal permafrost bluff on Barter Island, located on the northern coast of Alaska, July 3, 2018 </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Shawn Harrison, U.S. Geological Survey</small></p><p>The year delivered increasingly powerful warnings from scientists and international agencies about the need to shift away from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuels</a> and slash greenhouse gas emissions. In the U.S., 2018 saw a <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/411444-trump-administration-doubles-down-on-climate-skepticism" target="_blank">presidential administration</a> and Republican-controlled Congress <a href="https://www.macombdaily.com/news/nation-world-news/gop-is-falling-in-line-with-climate-skeptics/article_4c64386e-bc40-59c0-b0e0-c1c2d7420dc7.html" target="_blank">packed with politicians</a> and administrators who <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-denier">refuse to recognize</a> the scientific consensus that the climate is changing because of fossil fuel pollution and other human activities.<br></p><p>(How strong is that consensus? We've <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/sep/27/global-warming-ipcc-report-humans" target="_blank">known for years</a> that the probability that greenhouse gas pollution is causing climate change is <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/" target="_blank">more than 95 percent</a>—and that's according to a panel of 1,300 scientific experts from all over the world who were brought together by the United Nations.)</p><p>In fact, in 2018, the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> administration's own U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a 1,656 page National Climate Assessment, which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/23/climate/us-climate-report.html?module=inline" target="_blank">warns</a> of hundreds of billions of dollars in damage on the horizon from climate change.</p><p>The Trump administration <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/25/climate/trump-climate-report.html" target="_blank">sought to bury</a> that report—but it couldn't bury a UN report, published in October, which warned that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report" target="_blank">we have 12 years</a> to slash greenhouse gas emissions worldwide if we're to stave off the worst impacts of a changing climate.</p><p>"This report by the world's leading climate scientists is an ear-splitting wake-up call to the world," UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote in a <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2018-10-08/statement-secretary-general-ipcc-special-report-global-warming-15-%C2%BAc" target="_blank">statement</a>. "It confirms that climate change is running faster than we are—and we are running out of time."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="e6aec" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="AEJ9J41576662435"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1049443195157966848" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The new @IPCC_ch report is a wake-up call to the world: it confirms that climate change is running faster than we a… https://t.co/FRjtlAsCmv</div> — António Guterres (@António Guterres)<a href="https://twitter.com/antonioguterres/statuses/1049443195157966848">1539041730.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>Greenhouse gas emissions had climbed to a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-energy-carbon-iea/global-carbon-emissions-hit-record-high-in-2017-idUSKBN1GY0RB" target="_blank">record high</a> in 2017, after a three-year period where carbon emissions held relatively steady. Levels of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/methane">methane</a>, another powerful greenhouse gas, <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/after-2000-era-plateau-global-methane-levels-hitting-new-highs" target="_blank">also broke records</a> in 2017, following a relatively steady period of recorded global levels from 1999 to 2006.<br></p><p>"We are already seeing the consequences of 1°C of global warming through more <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather">extreme weather</a>, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, among other changes," <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/session48/pr_181008_P48_spm_en.pdf" target="_blank">added</a> Panmao Zhai, who helped prepare the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report for the UN.</p><p>Indeed, 2018 brought some of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history—many of them linked to climate change, scientists have said.</p><h3>California Wildfires</h3><p>In November, Paradise, California suffered a horrific wildfire that killed <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/12/03/camp-fire-death-toll-california-deadliest-wildfire/2199035002/" target="_blank">at least 85</a>, destroyed 14,000 homes and seared images of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsVk0bJWCNQ" target="_blank">traffic jams</a> on roads surrounded by walls of fire into the minds of millions, as those fleeing posted terrifying videos of their escapes online.</p><p>The fire was hot enough to melt <a href="https://weather.com/news/weather/video/camp-fires-flames-so-hot-aluminum-wheels-melted-into-liquid" target="_blank">the wheels</a> of cars left behind—and the cars of some who escaped <a href="https://www.ijpr.org/post/harrowing-personal-account-how-camp-fire-devastated-paradise#stream/0" target="_blank">emerged</a> from the inferno with melted headlights and rear bumpers.</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="afa547c0277956f50c65a858e1ec3e35"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/amUW2NrA9S8?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...">Escaping the 'Camp Fire' in Butte County</small>
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<a href="https://youtu.be/amUW2NrA9S8" target="_blank">youtu.be</a>
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</p><p>In southern California, the Woolsey Fire near Malibu <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/southern-california-woolsey-fire-fully-contained-mudslides-rain-latest-forecast-today-2018-11-21/" target="_blank">killed three</a> and burned 1,600 buildings, including <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/in-malibu-woolsey-fire-claims-celebrities-homes/" target="_blank">homes belonging to</a> Neil Young, Miley Cyrus and other celebrities, and leaving a dark scar <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/21/us/woolsey-fire-malibu-california-burn-scar-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">visible</a> from outer space in <span style="background-color: initial;">NASA</span> images.<br></p><p>"California is vulnerable—not because of poor forest management as DT (our so-called president) would have us think," Neil Young wrote in a <a href="https://www.neilyoungarchives.com/#/news/1/article?id=Big%20Winds%20Blow&_k=1d21ky" target="_blank">statement</a> calling for action on climate change after his home was destroyed. "We are vulnerable because of Climate Change; the extreme weather events and our extended drought is part of it."</p><p>The <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/paradise-lost-inside-california-camp-fire-60-minutes/" target="_blank">Camp Fire</a> was the most deadly wildfire in the U.S. <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/11/22/5714558/" target="_blank">in a century</a>, spurred by a long-running <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought">drought</a> and the spread of tree-killing bark beetles into <a href="http://www.climatecentral.org/news/why-bark-beetles-are-chewing-their-way-through-americas-forests-15429" target="_blank">newly warming regions</a>—which together left <a href="https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/catastrophe/californias-129-million-dead-trees-pose-a-major-wildfire-hazard-110378.aspx" target="_blank">129 million dead trees</a> in the parched state.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA0NzM0Mi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMTc3MTYwNX0.YRvG7dTgkFcc95Gw3KmbRC0n5b5uONQ1W-FdPcg1EII/img.png?width=980" id="47b50" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="de062668381d52468ecad5fc8af926f5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Dead trees along a mountain road in the Sequoia National Forest in November 2016</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">U.S. Forest Service</small></p><p>But while some in Paradise plan to rebuild, to literally raise their town from ashes, a less-noticed piece of the <span style="background-color: initial;">U.S.</span> was more permanently wiped off the map. An 11-acre Hawaiian island <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/entire-hawaiian-island-was-just-erased-by-hurricane-east-walaka-chip-fletcher-monk-seals-green-sea-turtles" target="_blank">virtually disappeared</a> below the waves, the victim of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise">sea level rise</a> and Hurricane Walaka.<br></p><p>California was hardly the only place to experience extraordinary <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires">wildfires</a> in 2018. The <a href="https://weather.com/science/weather-explainers/news/2018-05-12-pyrocumulus-fire-cloud-severe-thunderstorm-hail-texas" target="_blank">Mallard Fire</a> in Texas in May grew so hot that it formed its own pyrocumulous clouds, or fire clouds, which caused a supercell thunderstorm and one-inch hail north of Wheeler, Texas.</p><p>And in July, wildfires burned inside the Arctic Circle following an unprecedented drought, with locals in Sweden <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/world/europe/heat-wave-sweden-fires.html" target="_blank">comparing the glow</a> from the blaze to the Northern Lights. Horrific wildfires also burned across Greece in July, <a href="http://www.startribune.com/greece-wildfire-toll-now-100-as-man-dies-months-later/502842191/" target="_blank">killing 100 people</a> and forcing hundreds more to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/greece-wildfires-athens-greeks-flee-to-sea-escape-flames-death-toll-latest/" target="_blank">flee into the sea</a> to escape the fire.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="2b567" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="RQVU8Y1576662435"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1022824879840747520" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">A #firenado came dangerously close to these emergency vehicles as they battle the Carr fire near Redding, Californi… https://t.co/Ldkky1Sh3a</div> — CNN Weather Center (@CNN Weather Center)<a href="https://twitter.com/CNNweather/statuses/1022824879840747520">1532695429.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>The year began with the Montecito mudslides on Jan. 9, which killed 27 Californians and destroyed 130 homes, after a 200-year rainstorm dumped a half inch of rain in just five minutes onto steep slopes which were stripped barren of vegetation by the <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/california-fires-update-blaze-larger-new-york-city-destroys-1000-buildings-745045" target="_blank">Thomas wildfire</a>, which in early January became—at the time—<a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/12/27/16822180/thomas-fire-california-largest-wildfire" target="_blank">the largest wildfire</a> in California's history. That one-two punch bore the fingerprints of a changing climate.<br></p><p>"It wasn't just the drought; it wasn't just the fire; it wasn't just the rain. It was the compound effect," <a href="http://www.polsci.ucsb.edu/people/leah-stokes" target="_blank">Leah Stokes</a>, a climate policy researcher at UC Santa Barbara, told The Independent in January, discussing the Montecito disaster. "Climate change causes all kinds of abnormal events—you can really think of it as 'climate disruption' or 'global weirding.'"</p><h3>Flooding and Hurricanes</h3><p>2018 saw an unusually high number of violent storms, particularly in the Pacific, which saw "the most intense hurricane season ever recorded," according to <a href="https://www.popsci.com/hurricane-season-historic-atlantic-pacific#page-2" target="_blank">Popular Science</a>, including 10 storms that reached Category 4 or 5.</p><p>Climate scientists <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-scientists-mull-category-six-storm-classification-report-says/" target="_blank">proposed</a> the creation of a "Category 6" for <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricanes">hurricanes</a> more powerful than any yet seen. "Scientifically, [six] would be a better description of the strength of 200 mph (320km/h) storms, and it would also better communicate the well-established finding now that climate change is making the strongest storms even stronger," climatologist Michael Mann <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-scientists-mull-category-six-storm-classification-report-says/" target="_blank">told</a> CBS News.</p><p>The Atlantic coast was hit by two of the most devastating storms to hit the continental U.S., following a 2017 in whic three Category Four storms, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricane-harvey">Harvey</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricane-irma">Irma</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricane-maria">Maria</a>, smashed all records for hurricane damage and did over $300 billion in damage.</p><p>A year after Maria, Puerto Rico was still recovering, and the official death toll was recognized this year as 3,057 people—after Governor Ricardo Rossello <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45338080" target="_blank">accepted</a> a report raising the number of recognized deaths from 64.</p><p>This year's worst Atlantic hurricanes, Michael and <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/10/01/hurricane-florence-historic-flooding-south-carolina-climate-change" target="_blank">Florence</a>, left much of the southern U.S. underwater at points.</p><p>Michael, America's strongest-ever October hurricane, carried sustained winds of 155 miles an hour and struck the Florida panhandle, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/10/21/mexico-beach-house-hurricane-michael-trump-climate-denier-politicians" target="_blank">flattening towns like Mexico Beach</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="02aca" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8DHP0F1576662436"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1051581029507575810" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">HURRICANE MICHAEL'S WRATH: Stunning drone footage shows the cleanup in Mexico Beach, Florida, after the storm ravag… https://t.co/uoPGUCly1d</div> — CBS News (@CBS News)<a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews/statuses/1051581029507575810">1539551429.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>Florence, meanwhile, spurred officials to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/09/10/hurricane-florence-driving-life-threatening-conditions-toward-east-coast/1253945002/" target="_blank">call for</a> the evacuation of more than 1 million people, then left parts of the Carolinas flooded <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/us/hurricane-florence-flooding-carolinas.html" target="_blank">for weeks</a>, after it slowed to a crawl and deluged more than 8 trillion gallons of water into the region.<br></p><p>"When people say the wildfires, hurricanes and heatwaves they're experiencing are unlike anything they've seen before," Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science at the <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>, said in a statement <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/24/climate-change-report-trump-administration-democrats-reaction" target="_blank">in November</a>, "there's a reason for that and it's called climate change."</p><p>Even before Florence hit, one <a href="https://www.livescience.com/63571-hurricane-florence-bigger-due-to-climate-change.html" target="_blank">study</a> found that the storm would be 50 miles wider, and dump 50 percent more rain, because of the impacts of burning fossil fuels and other greenhouse gas pollution.</p><h3>Heatwaves and Noreasters</h3><p>The year started with a prolonged run of winter storms in the Northeastern U.S., including winter storms dubbed Riley, Quinn, Skylar and Toby, which some researchers warned may have been tied to climate change—showing just how inapt the term "global warming" can be. When the jet stream <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02022018/cold-weather-polar-vortex-jet-stream-explained-global-warming-arctic-ice-climate-change" target="_blank">began to wobble</a>, it allowed cold air that would normally be trapped over the Arctic to make its way down to the continental U.S.—making the weather warmer up north and colder farther south.</p><p>The cold spell was so pronounced in New York and southern Canada that Niagara Falls <a href="http://time.com/5084294/niagara-falls-frozen-2018/" target="_blank">froze</a> on New Year's Day.</p><p>That freezing weather was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/aug/14/it-cant-get-much-hotter-can-it-how-heat-became-a-national-us-problem" target="_blank">followed</a> by a summer heatwave that prompted heat warnings for 100 million Americans in the summer, and caused 93 deaths in Montreal.</p><p>More than 30,000 people were hospitalized in Japan for heatstroke as summer temps soared there as well.</p><p>And while droughts hit hard in Germany, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/04/world/europe/rhine-drought-water-level.html" target="_blank">drying up</a> the Rhine river, Baltimore, Maryland has seen nearly <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/weather/bs-md-rain-update-20181221-story.html" target="_blank">70 inches of rain</a>. A <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-44287175/maryland-floods-the-city-where-roads-turned-to-rivers" target="_blank">flash flood</a> in Ellicott City, Maryland, swept away cars as roadways abruptly became rivers.</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="a675e1e7ac0f55a92bfe6db46a6e2bd4"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mgs4uC3mcQ8?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...">Flash flooding hits Ellicott City, Maryland</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">
<a href="https://youtu.be/Mgs4uC3mcQ8" target="_blank">youtu.be</a>
</small>
</p><p><span style="background-color: initial;">"</span>The evidence, if we needed any more, continues to stack up. The record-high heatwaves, record-low Arctic sea ice, above average tropical cyclones and deadly wildfires are an alarm bell impossible to ignore," Jens Mattias Clausen, who represented <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/" target="_blank">Greenpeace</a> at the <span style="background-color: initial;">UN</span> <a href="http://cop24.gov.pl/" target="_blank">COP24</a> climate talks in Poland, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/29/four-years-hottest-record-climate-change" target="_blank">told The Guardian</a> this month. "It's no longer our future that is in peril; our today is at risk."</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="0ab7d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="YHHEIF1576662436"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1078486964142247937" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">9 #Renewable Energy Highlights of 2018 https://t.co/roGl0U14Jq https://t.co/RfjHi9UkmK</div> — Clean Coalition (@Clean Coalition)<a href="https://twitter.com/Clean_Coalition/statuses/1078486964142247937">1545966304.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/12/28/year-deadly-climate-disasters-ear-splitting-wake-call-scientists" target="_blank">DeSmogBlog</a>.</em><br></p>
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9 States Sue 'Flat-Out Wrong' Trump Administration Over Seismic Blasting in Atlantic
21 December 2018
Oceans
Seismic airgun blasting has been proposed within the same main range of imperiled North Atlantic right whales. NOAA
A coalition of attorneys general from nine states added their clout to a South Carolina-based lawsuit against the Trump administration to block seismic airgun blasting off the Atlantic coast.
Democratic attorneys general from Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York filed a motion on Thursday to intervene in a lawsuit filed earlier this month by several conservation groups and South Carolina coastal communities.
<p>
These seismic surveys will expose <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/seismic-airgun-blasting-zooplankton-2446336882.html" target="_self">marine life</a> to repeated sound blasts louder than 160 decibels, according to a press release from Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, who is leading the coalition.
</p><p>
<span></span>What's more, the release noted, these tests are a precursor to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/offshore-drilling">offshore drilling</a> for oil and gas, which will harm coastal and marine resources should a leak occur.
</p><p>
"Seismic testing will have dangerous consequences for hundreds of thousands of marine mammals, including <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/seismic-blasting-trump-atlantic-2621963424.html">endangered species</a>," Frosh said in the press release. "While the administration continues to place the interests of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuel</a> industry ahead of our precious natural resources, attorneys general up and down the Atlantic coast will continue to fight these and other efforts to open the waters off our shores to drilling for oil and gas."
</p><p>
Diane Hoskins, campaign director for <a href="https://oceana.org/" target="_blank">Oceana</a>, one of the nine conservation groups suing the Trump administration, applauded Thursday's motion from the AGs.
</p><p>
<span></span>"These attorneys general are standing up for their states, their way of life and their coastal economies," Hoskins said in an emailed statement to EcoWatch. "Putting our oceans, marine life and coastal economies at risk for dirty and dangerous offshore drilling is wrong and we are not backing down. Seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic defies law, science and common sense. They acted unlawfully and we're going to stop it. Oceana is pleased so many states are joining this critical fight."
</p><p>
Last month, the National Marine Fisheries Service issued five Incidental Harassment Authorizations that permit companies to use airgun blasting in waters off the Atlantic coast.<span></span>
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="224ac" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="PGMR7N1576662594"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1068552794557333504" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">"Seismic testing is the first step toward economically devastating oil spills and climate disasters like flooding u… https://t.co/3yzgFlYsvK</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/1068552794557333504">1543597813.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>
During these seismic surveys, ships fire blasts of air to the bottom of the sea every 10 to 12 seconds for weeks or months at a time to map the contours of the ocean floor in search of oil and gas deposits. The loud, continuous and far-reaching noise can damage the hearing and potentially disorientate and kill <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/marine-life">marine life</a>, displace fish, devastate zooplankton and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/pilot-whales-stranded-new-zealand-2252575529.html" target="_self">cause whales to beach</a>. Blasting can also impact commercial and recreational fishing by decreasing catch rates.
</p><p>
The permitting also came at the heels of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-report-takeaways-2621535494.html" target="_self">National Climate Assessment</a>, which warned that human activities, predominantly the burning of fossil fuels, is causing rapid <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate change</a>.
</p><p>
"The federal government's decision is flat-out wrong, and offshore drilling will harm our pristine coast and the residents and industries that rely on it," New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said Thursday at a news conference, as quoted by <a href="https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2018/12/20/new-jersey-among-9-states-suing-flat-out-wrong-trump-administration-to-prevent-oil-drilling-off-coast/" target="_blank">CBS</a>. "Now it is also clear the (Trump) administration is willing to harm over 300,000 marine mammals, even endangered species, in pursuit of its fossil fuel agenda."
</p>
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Court Orders Atlantic Coast Pipeline Work Stoppage Over Impact on Endangered Species
11 December 2018
Energy
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline would cross the Greenbrier River in West Virginia. West Virginia Rivers Coalition / YouTube screenshot
Work on the controversial Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would carry fracked natural gas along a 600 mile route through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina, has been halted by court order and may not resume for several months, The News & Observer reported Monday.
A federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia ruled on Friday that work must stop on the pipeline until March, when courts are set to review federal permits that allow the pipeline to operate in the habitat of four endangered species, which wildlife advocates say were rushed.
<p>"When we said we won't stop fighting this dirty, dangerous, unnecessary pipeline, we meant it. Every day that this pipeline isn't operating is a day that it's not hurting our health, water, climate and communities," <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/home" target="_blank">Sierra Club</a> Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign director Kelly Martin <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2018/12/atlantic-coast-pipeline-halts-all-construction" target="_blank">said in a statement</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="4b7e3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="W6OD301576662506"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1071175719533862912" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">BREAKING: Fracked gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline Halts All Construction.
“This latest setback casts serious doubts on… https://t.co/LUuM75AGJB</div> — Sierra Club (@Sierra Club)<a href="https://twitter.com/SierraClub/statuses/1071175719533862912">1544223167.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>The Sierra Club has joined with other environmental groups including the <a href="http://www.vawilderness.org/" target="_blank">Virginia Wilderness Committee</a> to sue to stop the pipeline through the <a href="https://www.southernenvironment.org/" target="_blank">Southern Environmental Law Center</a> (SELC). A case brought by these groups led the courts to vacate <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/second-controversial-fracked-gas-pipeline-runs-into-legal-trouble-2593893066.html" target="_self">two key permits for the project in August</a>. But work resumed when federal agencies issued <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/atlantic-coast-pipeline-construction-2606259760.html" target="_self">revised permits in September</a>. It is the revised permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) that the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond has once again put on hold until a full legal challenge can be considered.</p><p>"The Fish and Wildlife Service scrambled to reissue this permit and its haste is evident in its analysis," SELC attorney Patrick Hunter told <a href="http://www.wfae.org/post/atlantic-coast-pipeline-work-halted-after-court-stays-key-permit#stream/0" target="_blank">WFAE</a>. "This is yet another instance of government agencies rushing out ill-considered permits for this project."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="16991" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7IP6GB1576662506"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1071163315039162370" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Breaking news: Atlantic Coast Pipeline construction halted after court determines U.S. Fish and Wildlife permit is… https://t.co/sG2tBVe99w</div> — SELC (Environmental Law) (@SELC (Environmental Law))<a href="https://twitter.com/selc_org/statuses/1071163315039162370">1544220210.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>Dominion Energy, which is building the pipeline with Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and the Southern Company, announced Friday it was stopping construction.<br></p><p>"Dominion Energy, on behalf of Atlantic and itself, has stopped construction on the entire project, except for stand-down activities needed for safety and that are necessary to prevent detriment to the environment," it wrote in a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reported by WFAE.</p><p>However, the pipeline's builders are also challenging the work stoppage, arguing that the habitat of the species in question only covers 100 miles of the route in Virginia and West Virginia, and that they should be able to continue construction in other areas. </p><p>Here are the species at the heart of the dispute, and how pipeline construction could impact them, according to The News & Observer.</p><p><strong>1. Indiana Bat</strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODk5MzA0MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzOTkzODU0Mn0.qUa2Ymb1hHYOzCjAAJ6eUiaEWAk_HUnh_rAtX0H2XKU/img.jpg?width=980" id="b39db" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="135b445031c0b7a97650f3d53870642a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">An Indiana bat</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Andrew King, USFWS</small></p><p>The Indiana bat lives along most of the pipeline's route in Virginia and West Virginia. The clearing of trees for the pipeline would compel pregnant female bats to change their flight patterns and make them more vulnerable to predators.<br></p><p><strong>2. Clubshell Mussel</strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODk5MzA0My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMTAzODQ5NH0.8r-83IvsteGTZWrMG1XsCKdqbfeuzkb-_DLVEDNX7c0/img.jpg?width=980" id="b7bdd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1163311879a3f3295f20ad7949ee8323" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Clubshell mussels </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">USFWS</small></p><p>This freshwater mussel could be buried alive by the dredging and grading required to build the pipeline.</p><p><strong>3. Madison Cave Isopod</strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODk5MzA0NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNjgwMjU3N30.o5aBXF7N7GV8PUG-TBRlQTluOtjH4pzRL_IwoN0YEVo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b1558" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3584ce72c270fab869594313b2778d74" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A Madison cave isopod </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">USFWS Northeast Region / <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en" target="_blank">CC BY 2.0</a></small></p><p>A type of freshwater crustacean, this tiny isopod could be crushed or trapped by digging or blasting by the pipeline builders.<br></p><p><strong>4. Rusty-Patched Bumblebee</strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODk5MzA0NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyODQyMzQyMn0.1aPb2XKmNlEoi_MBJlpIhuHdEBAarb8L5wo542DH1cw/img.jpg?width=980" id="f5e6a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7a40c465a2c092dffe9f118723723280" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A rusty-patched bumblebee</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Kim Mitchell, USFWS</small></p><p>The rusty patched bumblebee could be hurt or killed by falling of trees cleared to make way for the pipeline.</p><p>.</p>
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Invasive Tick Spreads to Ninth State, CDC Warns of 'New and Emerging Disease Threat'
30 November 2018
Health + Wellness
The Asian longhorned tick has been found in nine states. CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned of a "multistate infestation" with the Asian longhorned tick—the first new tick species to enter the U.S. in 50 years.
New Jersey was the first state to report the Haemaphysalis longicornis on a sheep in August 2017. Since then, it has been found in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, according to Friday's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
<p>
"The presence of H. longicornis in the United States represents a new and emerging disease threat," the report said.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODk0MDczMS9vcmlnaW4uZ2lmIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNzczMTgxMn0.VdaMclBlBZ9O4N6aFOr-MhO0zCvFzLsygyuOIgZZXWM/img.gif?width=980" id="bca2a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5443d60b6c91674d510bb1e8301cc95a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The ticks were reported from 45 counties in nine states from August 2017 to September 2018.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">CDC</small>
</p><p>
As
<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/asian-long-horned-tick-spreads-2593977156.html" target="_self">EcoWatch previously mentioned</a>, in Asia the species carries a disease that kills 15 percent of those infected, but no human diseases have been linked to the species in the U.S. since it was first found in New Jersey.
</p><p>
The CDC is currently working with public health, agricultural and academic experts to understand the possible threat posed by the insect.
</p><p>
"The full public health and agricultural impact of this tick discovery and spread is unknown," said Ben Beard, Ph.D., deputy director of CDC's Division of Vector-Borne Diseases in a
<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2018/p1129-tick-spreading-widely.html" target="_blank">press release</a>. "In other parts of the world, the Asian longhorned tick can transmit many types of pathogens common in the United States. We are concerned that this tick, which can cause massive infestations on animals, on people, and in the environment, is spreading in the United States."
</p><p>
<span></span><a href="https://www.livescience.com/64198-longhorned-tick-spreading-us.html" target="_blank">LiveScience</a> further reported:<br>
</p><blockquote>
<span></span>"In other parts of the world, longhorned ticks are known to spread diseases, including the bacterial infections <a href="https://www.livescience.com/14763-babesiosis-tick-disease-rising.html" target="_blank">babesiosis</a>, ehrlichiosis, theileriosis and rickettsiosis, as well as certain viral diseases. In China and Japan, the longhorned tick transmits a disease called severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), which can be deadly."
</blockquote><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="3f186" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9UDOVH1576662467"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1068525061718437888" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The Asian longhorned tick is new to the United States and has the potential to spread germs. People should take ste… https://t.co/P34DHHTsTa</div> — Dr. Robert R. Redfield (@Dr. Robert R. Redfield)<a href="https://twitter.com/CDCDirector/statuses/1068525061718437888">1543591201.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>
Unlike most tick species, a single female Asian longhorned tick can reproduce offspring without mating and lay up to 2,000 eggs at a time.
</p><p>
This means hundreds to thousands of ticks can be found on a single animal, person or in the environment, the CDC said.
</p><p>
Earlier this month, the CDC
<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/data-summary/index.html" target="_blank">reported</a> that in 2017, state and local health departments reported a record number of tickborne illnesses like Lyme disease.
</p><p>
"Tick-borne diseases like Lyme hit an all-time high this year, just as a new tick capable of spreading disease rears its ugly head," Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal
<a href="https://twitter.com/SenBlumenthal/status/1068537694064713728" target="_blank">tweeted</a> Friday in reaction to the report. "It's clear, urgent federal action is needed to fight the debilitating & growing public health threat of tick-borne diseases."
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="d3f4c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="KL71J51576662467"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1068537694064713728" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Tick-borne diseases like Lyme hit an all-time high this year, just as a new tick capable of spreading disease rears… https://t.co/U536hH5A5d</div> — Richard Blumenthal (@Richard Blumenthal)<a href="https://twitter.com/SenBlumenthal/statuses/1068537694064713728">1543594213.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>
You can protect yourself from tick-borne diseases by using
<a href="https://www.epa.gov/insect-repellents" target="_blank">insect repellents</a>, wearing protective gear and clothing, checking your body and clothing for ticks after returning from potentially tick-infested areas and showering soon after being outdoors, the CDC advises.
</p><p>
The CDC also advised livestock producers and pet owners to work with their veterinarians to maintain regular tick prevention and report any unknown tick species to their local department of agriculture.
</p><p>
<span></span>Here's the agency's advice on what you should do if you think you have found an Asian longhorned tick:
</p><ul class="ee-ul">
<li><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/removing_a_tick.html" target="_blank">Remove</a> any tick from people and animals as quickly as possible.</li>
<li>Save the ticks in rubbing alcohol in a jar or a ziplock bag, then:
<ul class="ee-ul">
<li>Contact your <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/stltpublichealth/healthdirectories/healthdepartments.html" target="_blank">health department</a> about steps you can take to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/avoid/on_people.html" target="_blank">prevent tick bites</a> and tickborne diseases.</li>
<li>Contact a veterinarian for information about how to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/avoid/on_pets.html" target="_blank">protect pets</a> from ticks and tick bites.</li>
<li>Contact your state agriculture department or local agricultural extension office about ticks on livestock or for tick identification.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODk0MDc2NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NTQwMzM0OX0.PXR_-0X_EF3N79iKtuA5bXNhANmG2ivT4oBnX8vR51Y/img.jpg?width=980" id="0cdca" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="425c36faf207283b605c06b4925cdb28" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Longhorned tick. Nymph and adult female, underside</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">CDC</small>
</p>
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A red wolf in captivity in Florida. Mark Conlin / Getty Images
Here at EcoWatch, we love red wolves. Seriously, I challenge you to watch this video of "Four Weeks Young" wolves at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina and not fall in love:
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2e702337c4b9829851b2b5e10a02af22"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AqKZ67tLT08?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...">Red Wolf Adventures "Four Weeks Young"</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=AqKZ67tLT08" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
</small>
</p><p>That's why we were so sad to report this spring that there are only around 40 members of this adorable but extremely <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered species</a> left in the only wild population in North Carolina, and that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) estimated <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/red-wolf-endangered-2563600067.html" target="_self">they could go extinct</a> within eight years.<br></p><p>Worse, instead of fighting to preserve this shrinking population, FWS <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/red-wolves-fws-proposal-2582052817.html" target="_self">released a proposal</a> in June limiting the red wolves' safe territory to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-lands" target="_self">public lands</a> in northeast North Carolina and allowing private landowners to kill or trap any wolves that crossed their property lines. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_blank">Conservation</a> groups were understandably outraged, saying it "doomed" the red wolves' chances for survival in the wild. </p><p>But now a North Carolina judge has come to the rescue, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/11/05/federal-judge-blasts-fish-wildlife-service-says-endangered-wolves-cannot-be-shot/?utm_term=.92c0c731029c" target="_blank">The Washington Post reported</a>. In a <a href="https://awionline.org/sites/default/files/press_release/files/AWI-WL-Red-wolf-summary-judgment-1118.pdf" target="_blank">ruling</a> Monday, Chief Judge Terrence W. Boyle ripped the FWS for chipping away at a previously successful program reintroducing red wolves in North Carolina and said the FWS violated the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act by doing so. </p><p>Here's just an excerpt of Boyle's thorough takedown:</p><blockquote>The Red Wolf Program having been declared a success in 2007, defendants, beginning in approximately 2014 and without consultation or formal review, determined to disregard management guidelines which had been in place since 1999 which distinguished between problem and non-problem wolves in regard to landowner take requests, to cease introductions of wolves into the wild, to cease pup-fostering, and to cease actively attempting to manage the threat from coyotes on the viability of the wild red wolf population. While a shift in any one or some of these activities may fall within the agency's discretion, when taken together, these actions go beyond the agency's discretion and operate to violate USFWS' mandate to recover this species in the wild. </blockquote><p>The ruling goes on to note that the wolves' population saw a "drastic decrease" from 2013 to 2015. That's around when FWS stopped its successful policies and made the shameful decision to allow landowners to shoot and kill wolves, even if they weren't causing any problems.</p><p><a href="https://www.southernenvironment.org/" target="_blank">The Southern Environmental Law Center</a> (SELC) initiated a lawsuit on behalf of three other conservation groups to stop that killing in 2015, and Monday's ruling now makes permanent a 2016 court order banning those killings, giving the red wolves a new lease on life.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="5380b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="KC6UYB1576663751"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1059578932482240512" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Court victory: World’s last wild red wolves get another chance at survival https://t.co/sms9MNmGXT #savethewolves… https://t.co/0zukCCYIrU</div> — SELC (Environmental Law) (@SELC (Environmental Law))<a href="https://twitter.com/selc_org/statuses/1059578932482240512">1541458278.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>"For four years now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been dismantling one of the most successful predator reintroductions in U.S. history," SELC senior attorney Sierra Weaver said in a <a href="https://www.southernenvironment.org/news-and-press/press-releases/court-victory-wild-red-wolves-get-a-chance-at-survival" target="_blank">press release</a>. "The service knows how to protect and recover the red wolf in the wild, but it stopped listening to its scientists and started listening to bureaucrats instead. The law doesn't allow the agency to just walk away from species conservation, like it did here."<br></p><p>But what does the lawsuit mean for the FWS proposal to shrink the red wolves' territory? SELC said the proposal was a blatant attempt to get out of the pending court case, and Monday's decision makes clear that it goes against the service's conservation obligations.</p><p>"Rolling back protections is the opposite of what this species needs," <a href="https://redwolves.com/newsite/" target="_blank">Red Wolf Coalition</a> Executive Director Kim Wheeler said in the SELC press release. "The court's ruling today makes clear that the USFWS must recommit to red wolf recovery and resume its previously successful management policies and actions."</p><p>It is also wildly unpopular. Of the 108,124 comments FWS received on the proposal, 99.9 percent of them opposed it. And of the 19 comments that supported restricting the wolves' territory, 13 came from just one real estate developer. </p><p>Red wolves once roamed the entire eastern U.S. before they were hunted nearly to extinction. In the late 1970s, a few pairs were bred in captivity, and in the late 1980s, two breeding pairs were reintroduced into the wild in North Carolina. Their numbers swelled to nearly 140 in the early 2000s before the FWS dropped the ball. Hopefully, this court order will allow them to thrive once again. </p>
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Hurricane Florence caused flooded roads in Mullins, SC on Sept. 20. U.S. Army National Guard Photo by Staff Sgt. Jorge Intriago
By Rhea Suh
A widening madness threatens the world, only one thing can avert catastrophe, and we're running out of time.
That's no Hollywood action film trailer. It's the sobering and all-too-real warning sounded by the world's top climate scientists in an authoritative report released this week. We can still prevent runaway climate disaster, they conclude, but only by taking "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented" action now to shift to cleaner, smarter ways to power our future. We can do this, the report says, but we have about a decade—tops—to get it right.
<p>In a tragic reminder of the urgency we face, the people of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas are grappling with the aftermath of yet another unexpectedly powerful hurricane. Many factors combine to create a storm like <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-michael-florida-panhandle-2611595307.html">Michael</a>; however, we do know that <a href="https://hosted.ap.org/semissourian/article/85f9b966fc754c009550d309c7ab7873/turbocharged-how-michael-got-55-percent-stronger-1-day" target="_blank">warming oceans and air pack more energy and moisture into a storm</a>, setting the stage for greater damage when they reach our shores, in yet another indicator of the growing dangers of climate disruption.</p><p>"Climate change represents an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies and the planet," states <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/" target="_blank">the report</a> from the <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/" target="_blank">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> (IPCC), a United Nations body. It's the work of nearly 100 climate experts drawing on more than 6,000 peer-reviewed studies from scientists worldwide.</p><p>Yes, we've seen similar reports before. This one, though, uses the most current <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/science/">science</a> to draw a stark line between <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/demand-climate-action" target="_blank">climate threats</a> we can manage and runaway destruction we won't be able to reverse. The difference comes down to whether we can hold global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Whether we succeed will be determined by what we accomplish between now and 2030. There's no time left to squander.</p><p>To no one's surprise, this urgent call to action <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/10/trumps-abdication-new-climate-change-report-is-very-on-brand/?utm_term=.8200f3b03a4e" target="_blank">fell on deaf ears at the White House</a>. President <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> is doing all he can to <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/nihilism-trumps-climate-policy" target="_blank">accelerate the growing dangers of climate change</a> and leave our kids to pay the price. He's working to roll back common sense standards to <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/david-doniger/trump-epas-dirty-power-plan-coming-soon" target="_blank">clean up our dirty power plants</a> and our <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/nrdc/trump-administration-reverses-clean-car-standards-gutting-another-key-climate-policy" target="_blank">cars and trucks</a>, the biggest sources of the dangerous carbon pollution that's driving climate change. He's <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/trump-watch/interior-department-jumps-epas-secret-science-bandwagon" target="_blank">diminishing the role of science</a> in protecting the environment and public health. And he's working to <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/demand-climate-action" target="_blank">withdraw U.S. participation</a> in the landmark <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement">2015 Paris climate agreement</a>.</p><p>That's not leadership. It's a betrayal, frankly, of the public trust and an abdication of the duty we have to leave future generations a better world. And it's not what the American people want, not when <a href="https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2480" target="_blank">64 percent of us expect our government to do more,</a> not less, to fight climate change.</p><p>Fortunately, decision makers in businesses, cities and states across the country are singing a different tune. Just last month, <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/global-climate-action-summit" target="_blank">more than 4,000 of these leaders and activists from around the world</a> gathered in San Francisco <a href="https://medium.com/natural-resources-defense-council/the-message-from-last-weeks-climate-summit-is-clear-864127dd39b1" target="_blank">to rally around a historic slate of actions</a> to dramatically advance a global effort to meet climate change head-on.</p><p>True leaders understand what's at stake. They have a vision for confronting climate change. And they're putting policies in place to accelerate the shift away from the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">dirty fuels</a> that are driving this global scourge and toward <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/">cleaner, smarter</a> ways to power our future.</p><p>That starts with improving <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/issues/energy-efficiency" target="_blank">energy efficiency</a>, so we do more with less waste. It means building, right here in our country, some of the best all-<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/electric-vehicles">electric</a> and hybrid vehicles anywhere. And it means getting more <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/save-clean-power-plan" target="_blank">clean, homegrown American power</a> from the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wind">wind</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar">sun</a>.</p><p>By doing those things and shifting away from <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal">coal</a>-fired power plants to cleaner energy sources, <a href="https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec12_3.pdf" target="_blank">we've cut our carbon footprint more than 14 percent</a> since 2005 while <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDPC1" target="_blank">our economy has grown 21 percent</a> in real terms.</p><p>The shift to a clean energy economy, by the way, has created <a href="https://www.e2.org/cleanjobsamerica/" target="_blank">well-paying jobs for 3.2 million Americans,</a> nearly three times the number of people working to produce coal, oil and gas and to staff the power plants that burn those fuels.<br></p><p>By building on clean energy progress and accelerating these gains, <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/americas-clean-energy-frontier-report.pdf" target="_blank">we can cut our carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050</a>. The new report from the IPCC makes clear why we need to do that.</p><p>A century of increasingly intensive fossil fuel use has already raised the average global temperature, land and sea, by 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit. That's why, in this century alone, we've seen 17 of the 18 hottest years since global record-keeping began in 1880.</p><p>The results are already reshaping our world. <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise">Seas are rising</a>. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/24/world/asia/living-in-chinas-expanding-deserts.html" target="_blank">Croplands are turning to desert</a>. We're <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/07/12/earth-is-on-its-way-to-the-biggest-mass-extinction-since-the-dinosaurs-scientists-warn/?utm_term=.2b4b6f64c171" target="_blank">losing entire species at the fastest rate since the dinosaurs disappeared</a> 60 million years ago. <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/great-barrier-reef-25000000-bc-ad-2017" target="_blank">The Great Barrier Reef is dying</a>. Wildfires, storms and floods are raging.</p><p>The reason is that burning coal, oil and gas has raised the level of carbon dioxide, a powerful earth-warming gas, in the planet's atmosphere. It's up nearly <a href="https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/weekly.html" target="_blank">45 percent over a little more than a century</a>. Nearly half the increase has occurred since 1980, and we're continuing to raise it faster than at any other time in the past 800,000 years.</p><p>That has already baked in more warming to come. Since 1970, in fact, the global average temperature has been rising at a rate of 1.7 degrees Celsius per century. We have to slow that down, in order to hold total warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Here's the difference between 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming and 2 degrees:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Losing 70 percent of the world's tropical ocean reefs vs. losing pretty much all of them</li><li>Experiencing life-threatening <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/climate-change-and-health-extreme-heat#/map" target="_blank">heat waves</a> every five years that affect 14 percent of the world's people vs. 37 percent</li><li>More than half of habitat becoming uninhabitable for 4 percent of the world's vertebrate animals vs. 8 percent</li><li>The disappearance of Arctic sea ice one summer per century vs. one summer every decade.</li></ul><p>The IPCC report also highlights the intersection of sustainable development and global justice. Just as the benefits of industrialization have favored some nations over others, the world's poor are paying the highest price for climate disruption. Scores of millions of people in low-income countries already struggle with food scarcity and forced migration that contribute to regional instability and brutal poverty. </p><p>We know that number is going to rise as we approach 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming as early as 2030. If we go to 2 degrees of warming, hundreds of millions more people will suffer, as withering drought and blistering heat take a growing toll on livestock and crops like rice, maize and wheat across Africa, Southeast Asia and South America; as freshwater sources become depleted or dry up; and as mosquitoes widen their range, spreading diseases like dengue fever, malaria and the Zika virus.</p><p>The science is clear. We must move away from fossil fuels and transition to cleaner, smarter ways to power our future—and do so quickly—or we'll condemn our children to a world of widening damage and growing peril. </p><p><span></span>Generations from now, when our children's children's children look back on this report, they will know we understood the threat. They will know that we were warned. They will know us by how we respond.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="b1a74" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="V9KKI41576663338"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="951160659433152512" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">100+ Candidates for Congress Want to Win in 2018 on a Platform of Decisive Climate Action https://t.co/qda6zRjXZ1… https://t.co/VfDCIcYHrL</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/951160659433152512">1515609347.0</a></blockquote></div>
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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>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<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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North Carolina Produces 60% of the Country’s Sweet Potatoes. The Crop Is in Trouble
29 September 2018
Food
Logan Mock-Bunting / Aurora / Getty Images
By Dan Nosowitz
North Carolina dominates the country's production in sweet potatoes the way few other states dominate few other crops.
<p>The state produces about 60 percent of the country's total sweet potato crop, more than the next three states—California, Mississippi, and Louisiana—combined. Hurricane Florence's path of destruction has been fairly well tracked for livestock, especially pigs and chickens, but for plants, the damage is much less certain.</p><p><a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article218683595.html" target="_blank">The Charlotte Observer</a> dives deep into this year's sweet potato crop, finding that the rainfall from Florence fell at just the wrong time, and in just the wrong way. The sweet potato crops are near harvest, unlike the previous nasty hurricane, Matthew, which came in early October of 2016. Also unlike Matthew, Florence dropped a great deal of water over an extended three-day period, not allowing the floodwater to drain off.</p><p>Sweet potatoes are not fantastically choosy plants, but one thing they can't handle is periods of water saturation. The tubers, which are what we mostly eat, become waterlogged, soggy, and rotten, and are generally unsellable. (The leaves and vines of the plant are also perfectly edible and tasty, unlike the barely related potato, but sweet potato greens are not eaten all that often in most of the U.S.)</p><p>Even worse, this year, according to the Charlotte Observer, sweet potato farmers delayed harvest due to a dry summer, hoping for a little extra time and rain to get their tubers up to weight. Florence was not really what they wanted.</p><p>Some farmers will try to leave their sweet potatoes in the ground for a little while longer, to hope that they dry out a bit before harvest. Nobody knows exactly what the damage will be, though some estimate it could be in the 25-35 percent loss range. As a result of the pessimistic outlook, <a href="https://www.thepacker.com/article/north-carolina-sweet-potatoes-take-hit-florence" target="_blank">prices of sweet potatoes</a> jumped by about $2 per carton.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="http://modernfarmer.com/2018/09/north-carolina-produces-60-of-the-countrys-sweet-potatoes-the-crop-is-in-trouble/" target="_blank">Modern Farmer</a>.</em><em></em></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>.
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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.
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"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."
</p><p style="">
"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.
</p><p>
"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."
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<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>
</p><p style="">
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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