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Demonstrators with the Animal Welfare Institute hold a rally to save the vaquita, the world's smallest and most endangered porpoise in Washington, DC, on July 5, 2018. SAUL LOEB / AFP / Getty Images
Scientists announced Thursday that only 10 vaquita porpoises likely remain in the world and that the animal's extinction is virtually assured without bold and immediate action.
<p>The <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/vaquita/index.html" target="_blank">vaquita</a>, the world's smallest and most endangered cetacean, is found only in Mexico's northern Gulf of California. The release of the new vaquita estimate comes just two days after reports of the possible first vaquita mortality of 2019. More details are expected in the coming days.</p>
<p>Thursday's announcement from the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita also calls on Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to end all gillnet fishing and adopt a "zero tolerance" policy of enforcement in the vaquita's small remaining habitat. The committee is an international team of scientific experts assembled in 1996 to assist in vaquita recovery efforts.<br><br>"One of Earth's most incredible creatures is about to be wiped off the planet forever," said Sarah Uhlemann, international program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Yet Mexico has only made paper promises to protect these porpoises from deadly nets, without enforcement on the water. Time is running out for President Lopez Obrador to stop all gillnet fishing and save the vaquita."<br><br>The vaquita faces a single threat: entanglement in illegal gillnets set for shrimp and various fish species, including endangered totoaba. Totoaba swim bladders are illegally exported by organized criminal syndicates from Mexico to China, where they are highly valued for their perceived medicinal properties.<br><br>Despite efforts in Mexico to curb gillnet fishing of shrimp and other fish and efforts in China to reduce demand for totoaba, the vaquita's population dropped 50 percent in 2018, leaving an estimate of around 10 remaining vaquita, with no more than 22 and perhaps as few as six.<br><br>"There is only the tiniest sliver of hope remaining for the vaquita," said Kate O'Connell, a marine wildlife consultant with the Animal Welfare Institute. "Mexico must act decisively to ensure that all gillnet fishing is brought to an end throughout the Upper Gulf. If the vaquita is not immediately protected from this deadly fishing gear, it will go extinct on President Lopez Obrador's watch."<br><br>In 2017, in the face of international pressure, Mexico banned the use of most gillnets within the vaquita's range, but enforcement has been lacking. For example, during the 2018 illegal totoaba fishing season, nearly 400 active totoaba gillnets were documented in a small portion of the vaquita's range, and gillnets continue to be found within the vaquita refuge. Recent violence against conservationists in the region has limited critically important net removal efforts.<br><br>"If Mexico doesn't want to be guilty of wiping out a species, it needs to secure 100 percent gillnet-free habitat now," said Zak Smith, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council's Marine Mammal Protection Project. "What's happening to the vaquita is a disgrace and entirely preventable, yet the Obrador administration has not committed to a robust vaquita recovery plan and has already missed deadlines on vaquita conservation commitments."<br><br>"The organized criminal networks trafficking totoaba swim bladders from Mexico to China are responsible for the illegal fishing nets driving the vaquita to extinction," said Clare Perry, ocean campaign leader for the Environmental Investigation Agency. "Unless Mexico gets serious about enforcement and works with China and key transit countries to dismantle those networks, there is no hope for the remaining vaquita."<br><br>Despite the marine mammal's alarming decline, the international committee emphasized that the vaquita is not extinct and that recovery remains possible. They are still producing offspring, and the remaining animals are healthy, showing no signs of disease or malnutrition. The international community plays a critical role in vaquita conservation.<br><br>In 2018 a U.S. court temporarily banned the import of seafood caught with dangerous gillnets in vaquita habitat. This year parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the World Heritage Convention are considering additional conservation measures for the vaquita and totoaba.</p>
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Orange grove in Polk County, Florida. jmsilva / iStock / Getty Images
Advocates from public-health and environmental groups delivered more than 45,000 petition signatures to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday asking the agency to deny a proposal that would expand spraying antibiotics on citrus fields.
<p>If that proposal is approved, citrus growers could spray more than 650,000 pounds of the antibiotic streptomycin on citrus fields every year to treat the bacteria that causes citrus greening disease. Streptomycin belongs to a class of antibiotics considered critically important to human health by the World Health Organization. By contrast, people in America only use 14,000 pounds of that antibiotic class each year.<br></p><p>"The more you use antibiotics, the greater the risk that bacteria resistant to the drugs will flourish and spread. The bottom line is that the potential problems created by spraying massive amounts of streptomycin on citrus fields could outweigh the original problem the EPA wants to solve," said Matt Wellington, U.S. PIRG's Stop the Overuse of Antibiotics campaign director.</p>
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<p>Spraying antibiotics on citrus fields does not cure citrus greening disease or prevent its spread. If allowed, this would be the largest-ever use of a medically important antibiotic in plant agriculture in the U.S. The EPA has not fully considered the consequences of this unprecedented antibiotic use, especially given its limited potential for success, as laid out in <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/pesticides_reduction/pdfs/Streptomycin-Comments.pdf" target="_blank">comments</a> by the Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and U.S. PIRG. <br><br>"Spraying orange and grapefruit trees with an antibiotic we use to treat human disease is a dangerously shortsighted idea," said Emily Knobbe, EPA policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity. "In addition to increasing the risk of antibiotic resistance, the EPA's own analysis indicates streptomycin could harm foraging mammals like rabbits and chipmunks."</p><p>Recent research <a href="https://www.idsociety.org/news--publications-new/articles/2018/new-estimate-of-annual-deaths-caused-by-treatment-resistant-infections-highlights-gaps-in-research-stewardship-surveillance/" target="_blank">suggests</a> that up to 162,000 Americans die each year from antibiotic-resistant infections. The World Health Organization ranked antibiotic resistance among the top 10 health threats in 2019. Overusing antibiotics in any setting fuels the spread of drug-resistant bacteria.</p><p>Antibiotics should be used as sparingly as possible and only when absolutely necessary. Spraying massive quantities of a medically important antibiotic on citrus fields doesn't fit those requirements.</p>
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Trump EPA OKs 'Emergency' to Dump Bee-Killing Pesticide on 16 Million Acres
18 February 2019
Politics
tzahiV / iStock / Getty Images
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported last week that in 2018 it issued so-called "emergency" approvals to spray sulfoxaflor—an insecticide the agency considers "very highly toxic" to bees—on more than 16 million acres of crops known to attract bees.
<p>Of the 18 states where the approvals were granted for sorghum and cotton crops, 12 have been given the approvals for at least four consecutive years for the same "emergency."</p><p>Last year the EPA's Office of the Inspector General released a <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-09/documents/_epaoig_20180925-18-p-0281_0.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> finding that the agency's practice of routinely granting "emergency" approval for pesticides across millions of acres does not effectively measure risks to human health or the environment.<br><br>"Spraying 16 million acres of bee-attractive crops with a bee-killing pesticide in a time of global insect decline is beyond the pale, even for the Trump administration," said Nathan Donley, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity. "The EPA is routinely misusing the 'emergency' process to get sulfoxaflor approved because it's too toxic to make it through normal pesticide reviews."</p><p>Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, the EPA has the authority to approve temporary emergency uses of pesticides, even those not officially approved, if the agency determines it is needed to prevent the spread of an unexpected outbreak of crop-damaging insects, for example. But the provision has been widely abused.</p><p>That widespread abuse was chronicled in the Center for Biological Diversity's recent report, <em><a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/pesticides_reduction/pdfs/Poisonous_Process.pdf" target="_blank">Poisonous Process: How the EPA's Chronic Misuse of 'Emergency' Pesticide Exemptions Increases Risks to Wildlife</a></em>. The report concludes that emergency exemptions for sulfoxaflor are essentially a backdoor authorization allowing for its ongoing use on millions of acres of crops where exposure to pollinators through contaminated pollen is high. In fact, the so-called "emergencies" cited are routine and foreseeable occurrences.</p><p>Previously, in response to a lawsuit by beekeepers, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the EPA's original registration of sulfoxaflor in 2015. The EPA's new 2016 registration for sulfoxaflor—purportedly designed to ensure essentially no exposure to bees—excluded crops like cotton and sorghum that are attractive to bees. </p><p>A compilation of federal register notices indicates that sulfoxaflor was approved on 16.2 million acres of cotton and sorghum crops in 2018 on an emergency basis. Emergency approvals were granted in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.</p><p>"The EPA is far too eager to find loopholes to approve harmful pesticides when it should be focusing on keeping people and wildlife safe from those pesticides," said Donley. "The routine abuse of emergency exemptions has to stop."</p><p>A recent study <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0430-6" target="_blank">published</a> in Nature found that sulfoxaflor exposure at low doses had severe consequences for bumblebee reproductive success. The authors cautioned against the EPA's current trajectory of replacing older neonicotinoids with nearly identical insecticides like sulfoxaflor.</p><p>A major <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320718313636" target="_blank">study</a> published earlier this month found that more than 41 percent of the world's insect species are on the fast track to extinction, and that a "serious reduction in pesticide usage" is key to preventing their extinction.</p>
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Drone footage of new border wall in New Mexico shows that the Trump administration's border militarization is already damaging ecosystems and wildlife. Trump waived 25 laws that protect clean air, clean water, public lands and endangered wildlife to speed construction of 20 miles of new walls.
The video, taken by the Center for Biological Diversity and available for media use, shows the 18-foot-tall bollard-style barrier constructed in the remote Chihuahuan Desert. The wall replaced waist-high vehicle barriers that allowed wildlife to move back and forth across the border.
<p>"Trump's destructive wall is already being built, as this video shows," said Laiken Jordahl, the Center for Biological Diversity's borderlands campaigner, who helped shoot the video. "He just ripped a 20-mile scar through spectacular New Mexico landscape while Washington politicians fight over the difference between a 'fence' and a 'wall.' It's a ridiculous argument that's completely lost on wildlife harmed by these barriers. Congress shouldn't give Trump another cent for these devastating projects."</p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c3a04e1086847811e0a8e7a80470d5ed"><div class="fb-video" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/EcoWatch/videos/233315840943644/" data-allowfullscreen="true"></div></div><p>The remote wilderness of sagebrush and soaptree yucca is not a crossing point for drug smugglers or migrants. But it is home to rare animals, including the Mexican gray wolf and Aplomado falcon, as well as kit foxes, bighorn sheep and ringtail cats.<br></p><p>The new bollard-style wall blocks the natural migration of wildlife. The $73 million wall is also likely to cause <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding">flooding</a> and erosion.</p><p>In March the Center for Biological Diversity <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/border_wall/pdfs/18-3-22-DC-Complaint_NM-Border-Wall-Waiver.pdf" target="_blank">sued</a> to challenge the New Mexico waivers. The organization also is challenging similar waivers used to rush wall construction in <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2018/border-wall-10-18-2018.php" target="_blank">Texas</a> and <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2018/border-wall-04-09-2018.php" target="_blank">California</a>.</p><p>This month the Trump administration is expected to break ground on more border-wall construction in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, using $1.6 billion approved by Congress last year. The Texas walls would cut through the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/refuge/lower_rio_grande_valley/" target="_blank">Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge</a>, <a href="https://www.nationalbutterflycenter.org/" target="_blank">National Butterfly Center</a>, <a href="https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/bentsen-rio-grande-valley" target="_blank">Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park</a> and the grounds of the historic <a href="http://missiontexas.us/life-in-mission/attractions/la-lomita-chapel/" target="_blank">La Lomita Chapel</a>, as well as family farms and other private property.</p><p>Beyond jeopardizing wildlife, endangered species and public lands, the U.S.-Mexico border wall is part of a larger strategy of ongoing border militarization that damages human rights, civil liberties, native lands, local businesses and international relations. The border wall impedes the natural migrations of people and wildlife that are essential to healthy diversity.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
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The San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in Arizona is a biodiversity hotspot. Bureau of Land Management
Conservation groups filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' approval of a permit that allows a huge master-planned sprawl development project near Benson, Arizona to proceed. The Villages at Vigneto would transform 12,167 acres of largely undeveloped habitat into 28,000 residences, 3 million square feet of commercial space, four golf courses, fountains, lakes and a resort.
<p>The development would rely solely on groundwater, draining the San Pedro River and harming millions of migratory birds, including threatened and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species">endangered species</a>. Yet the Corps refused to analyze these staggering impacts, confining its analysis to a small fraction of the development.</p><p>The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson, says the Corps failed to prepare a comprehensive environmental analysis of the entire development in violation of the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The groups are asking the court to invalidate the permit and order the Corps to complete the necessary environmental analysis.</p><p>"The San Pedro River is the last remaining intact natural river ecosystem in southern Arizona—an oasis in the desert that supports a rich array of species, including millions of migratory songbirds," said Peter Else, chair of the <a href="http://www.lowersanpedro.org" target="_blank">Lower San Pedro Watershed Alliance</a>, a landowner-based conservation association. "It is essential that we take every step to preserve this critical resource, protect <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> habitat and migration corridors, sustainable rural lifestyles, and valuable recreation opportunities."</p><p>The proposed development would depend solely on groundwater to satisfy the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/water">water</a> needs of approximately 70,000 people. That would dramatically increase demand on groundwater resources from approximately 800 acre-feet per year to a projected 8,427 acre-feet per year. </p><p>This magnitude of pumping would deplete surface flows along the San Pedro River and at the St. David Cienega, a groundwater-fed marsh within the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. The development would also transform thousands of acres of upland habitat into impervious surfaces, increasing storm-water runoff, flooding and destructive sediment accumulation in the river.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTEzOTI0MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDA2MDQyMn0.Jwitufd-LWfEBjCptCNFa_016d_vH2k7Jdxyj9Llkys/img.jpg?width=980" id="4be5c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a06b5354a200c3406247b2e8c2a79b5c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The San Pedro riparian area contains about 40 miles of the upper San Pedro River.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/blmaz/26699461675/in/album-72157665367858893/" target="_blank">Bureau of Land Management</a></small></p>
<p>"Hydrology studies show that this development would suck the St. David Cienega dry and have a devastating impact on wildlife that depend on it for their survival," said Robin Silver, cofounder of the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a>. "The science is clear that this level of water pumping would irreversibly degrade the riparian habitat and harm migratory birds, including multiple endangered and listed species. The Corps has abdicated its responsibility to consider these significant impacts."<br></p><p>The San Pedro River depends on groundwater contributions from the regional aquifer, especially during the driest times of the year. In 1988 Congress expressly reserved water rights for the conservation area to protect the river's aquatic and riparian resources, including the St. David Cienega.</p><p>Reports already show that groundwater pumping is depleting the aquifer at an unsustainable rate, threatening the future of the river and riparian habitat that is essential to wildlife.</p>
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<p>"What is most alarming about this proposal for those along the Lower San Pedro River is that a new upstream city of 70,000 people will be pulling water from the ground in an unsustainable way. Most of that water will never be replaced. It's a potential death sentence for the Lower San Pedro," said Pearl Mast, board member of the <a href="https://cascabelconservation.org" target="_blank">Cascabel Conservation Association</a>.<br></p><p>The Corps did not analyze the potential harm to the river or the conservation area caused by the development, claiming they are outside its "scope of analysis." The Corps confined its analysis to 1,919 acres, a small fraction of the proposed development. </p><p>"There is no rational basis for the Corps' refusal to consider the full impacts of the Vigneto development on these unique and critical resources," said Stu Gillespie, a staff attorney with <a href="https://earthjustice.org" target="_blank">Earthjustice</a>. "This is a clear example of the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> administration trying to game the system and shirk its duty to consider and disclose the impacts of its decisions."</p><p>"The San Pedro River is this incredible asset to our state, providing habitat for a diversity of species, a flyway for migratory birds and a wildlife viewing paradise for people from around the world," said Sandy Bahr, director of <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/home" target="_blank">Sierra Club</a>'s Grand Canyon Chapter. "Several species that are dependent on the river are also threatened or endangered due to habitat loss. Arizona has allowed development and other diversions to dry up and destroy several important rivers. We cannot, we must not, allow the San Pedro to join that list."</p><p>"The San Pedro River was the first Global Important Bird Area for the United States and both birds and birders continue to flock to the critical and unique habitat the river provides," said Nicole Gillett, a conservation advocate with <a href="http://tucsonaudubon.org" target="_blank">Tucson Audubon</a>. "A development of this scale and design is unsustainable and will damage not only the environment but the economy built around it." </p><p>The lawsuit was filed by the Lower San Pedro Watershed Alliance, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Tucson Audubon Society, <a href="https://www.maricopaaudubon.org" target="_blank">Maricopa Audubon Society</a> and Cascabel Conservation Association. The groups are represented by Earthjustice.</p>
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A monarch butterfly before migration to Mexico on Oct. 21, 2018 at the Mobile Botanical Gardens in Alabama. patricia pierce / CC BY 2.0
The yearly count of monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico, released Wednesday, shows an increase of 144 percent from last year's count and is the highest count since 2006. That's good news for a species whose numbers had fallen in recent years, but conservationists say the monarch continues to need Endangered Species Act protection.
The count of 6.05 hectares of occupied forest is up from 2.48 hectares last winter. The increase is attributable to favorable weather during the spring and summer breeding seasons and during the fall migration. Monarchs have lost an estimated 165 million acres of breeding habitat in the U.S. to herbicide spraying and development.
<p>"This reprieve from bad news on monarchs is a thank-you from the butterflies to all the people who planted native milkweeds and switched to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/organic">organic</a> corn and soy products," said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a>. "But one good weather year won't save the monarch in the long run, and more protections are needed for this migratory wonder and its summer and winter habitats."</p><p>In 2014 conservationists led by the Center for Biological Diversity and the <a href="https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org" target="_blank">Center for Food Safety</a> petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the butterfly under the Endangered Species Act. The Fish and Wildlife Service's initial decision was that <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species">endangered species</a> protection may be warranted, and a final decision will be issued by June.</p><p>"The question is whether the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> administration wants to do <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/monsanto">Monsanto</a>'s bidding or protect monarchs for future generations," said George Kimbrell, legal director at the Center for Food Safety. "This year's count is a temporary reprieve that doesn't change what the law and science demands, which is that we protect monarchs under the Endangered Species Act before it's too late."</p><p>As recently as the mid-1990s, monarchs covered nearly 21 hectares of forest in their wintering ground, falling to less than 1 hectare in 2014. Scientists estimate that 6 hectares is the threshold to be out of the immediate danger zone of migratory collapse.</p><p>About 99 percent of all North American monarchs migrate each winter to oyamel fir forests on 12 mountaintops in central Mexico. Scientists from <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_offices/mexico" target="_blank">World Wildlife Fund Mexico</a> estimate the population size by measuring the area of trees turned orange by the clustering butterflies.</p><p>Monarch butterflies west of the Rocky Mountains overwinter on the coast of California. Their numbers dropped to fewer than 30,000 this year, down from 1.2 million two decades ago.</p><p>A recent study found that if current trends continue, the western population has a 63 percent chance of extinction in 20 years and more than an 80 percent chance of extinction within 50 years. The western population is now at the threshold of extinction. </p><p>The caterpillars only eat milkweed, but the plant has been devastated by increased herbicide spraying in conjunction with corn and soybean crops that have been genetically engineered to tolerate direct spraying with herbicides. In addition to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glyphosate">glyphosate</a>, monarchs are threatened by other herbicides and by <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/neonicotinoids">neonicotinoid</a> insecticides that are toxic to young caterpillars.</p><p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">Climate change</a> also threatens to disrupt the monarch's migration and render its overwintering habitats unsuitable by the end of the century.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTEzNjQyOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NjA2MjE3N30.oe5oOw7WcI-wa2e2-8981jfHaI7ka_87xgUfbxp7zgM/img.jpg?width=980" id="b06de" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8ca07e8f528c639da5531a2bb3520fee" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Graph by Tierra Curry, Center for Biological Diversity</small></p>
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Return of Supersonic Planes Would Be a Dirty, Noisy Climate Disaster
30 January 2019
Insights + Opinion
A retired Concorde supersonic passenger jet on the roof of the Auto & Technik museum in Sinsheim, Germany. Gilbert Sopakuwa / Flickr
The return of supersonic airplanes would result in 96 million metric tons of carbon pollution per year, according to a new study released Wednesday by the International Council on Clean Transportation.
"In our era of runaway climate change, swapping fuel efficiency for speed is a devil's bargain," said Clare Lakewood, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. "The aviation industry should be reducing its massive carbon footprint, not enlarging it with exorbitant luxuries for the super-wealthy. Supersonics are catastrophic for the climate."
<p>Aviation startups envision a fleet of 2,000 supersonic planes, which will burn <a href="https://www.theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/Environmental_Supersonic_Aircraft_20180717.pdf" target="_blank">five to seven</a> times more fuel per passenger than standard airliners, serving 500 cities by 2035. The study estimates that this fleet would emit 1.6 to 2.4 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide over a 25-year service lifetime—eight times more than the entire U.S. aviation industry emits in a year.</p><p>Supersonic planes also create a loud roar, called a sonic boom, when they break the sound barrier. That continues along the entire supersonic flight route. The planes could double the area exposed to harmful noise pollution around airports compared to standard planes of the same size, the study found. Exposure to aircraft noise is linked to high blood pressure and heart disease, cognitive impairments in children, and life-threatening disturbance for sensitive and endangered <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a>.</p><p>U.S. airports expected to experience 100 or more supersonic landing and takeoffs per day include Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York's JFK. Parts of the country could be exposed to between 150 and 200 sonic booms per day, or up to one boom every five minutes over a 16-hour flight day.</p><p>In August 2018, 38 environmental, public-health and community groups successfully <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/climate_law_institute/transportation_and_global_warming/airplane_emissions/pdfs/Letter-to-US-Senate-Opposing-Authorization-of-Overland-Supersonic-Flight.pdf" target="_blank">urged</a> the Senate to reject a provision in the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that would have lifted a 45-year ban on overland supersonic flight in the U.S. But the bill passed in October 2018 with a provision requiring the FAA to start setting certification standards that will let civilian supersonic planes fly in U.S. airspace—and to consider repealing the overland supersonic flight ban.</p><p>"Federal aviation officials should take a hard look at the science and set standards that keep these flying gas-guzzlers out of our skies altogether," Lakewood said. "Keeping the air we breathe clean and preserving a livable planet are simply more important than trimming flight times."</p>
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Omar Chatriwala / Moment / Getty Images
On Thursday more than 600 environmental groups called on the U.S. House of Representatives to pursue ambitious climate legislation that matches the scale and urgency of the climate crisis.
<p>The groups' <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/climate_law_institute/legislating_for_a_new_climate/pdfs/Letter-to-Congress-%20Legislation-to-Address-the-Urgent-Threat-of-Climate-Change.pdf" target="_blank">letter</a> calls for a thoughtful phaseout of fossil fuel production, a transition to 100 percent <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/renewable-energy">renewable energy</a> by 2035, complete decarbonization of the transportation system, use of the Clean Air Act to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, a just transition to a new green economy and the adherence to treaties upholding Indigenous rights when pursuing these actions.</p><p>"To effectively tackle climate change, policymakers need to commit to transforming the global economy to serve the interests of people and planet, and not the profits of the one percent," said Angela Adrar, executive director of Climate Justice Alliance. "Such a new, green economy needs to be guided by the leadership and knowledge of those most burdened by pollution, poverty and other forms of institutional violence waged by the corporations causing this global ecological crisis."</p><p>"As the world teeters on the brink of climate catastrophe, we're calling on Congress to take large-scale action," said Bill Snape, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Americans want a livable future for their children, and that requires keeping fossil fuels in the ground while greening the economy on a wartime footing." </p><p>"The disproportionate impacts of climate change and dirty energy development in the traditional territories and lands of American Indian and Alaska Natives must be taken into account to ensure the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples are fully recognized in the just transition to a new green economy," said Tom BK Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. "Indigenous and other frontline communities are ready to take the lead with real solutions to move away from a fossil fuel economy."</p><p>Months before the 116th Congress opened, a series of scientific reports warned of the dire consequences of inaction on climate change.</p><p>In October the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/" target="_blank">concluded</a> that policymakers must take "unprecedented action" to limit warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. In November the Fourth National Climate Assessment <a href="https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/" target="_blank">reported</a> that the health and economic costs of climate change are already being felt in the U.S., and that those harms will intensify without "immediate and substantial" cuts to greenhouse gas pollution.</p><p>"At precisely the time that we need our energy policy to swiftly move us into a managed decline of fossil fuel production, the Trump administration is working with the fossil fuel industry to tear down policies and dangerously expand our fossil fuel extraction," said David Turnbull, strategic communications director at Oil Change USA. "We need real climate leaders willing to stand up to this onslaught and work to phase out fossil fuel production, rather than digging the hole deeper."</p><p>"We cannot stop climate change and rising inequality with the half-solutions of the past," said Nicole Ghio, senior fossil fuels manager at Friends of the Earth. "We need action on climate that ends our dependence on dirty energy, puts power in the hands of communities and provides good jobs. If candidates and elected officials say they are committed to climate solutions, this is the litmus test."</p><p>Thursday's letter also notes that the groups will oppose legislation that rolls back existing climate policies, shields the fossil fuel industry from liability or promotes market-based approaches like pollution trading and offsets.</p><p>"The excitement around the Green New Deal should energize Congress to take bold, transformative action on climate change," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. "This means a halt to all new fossil fuel development now, and it means a rejection of dangerous false solutions like market-based emissions trading programs."</p>
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Trump Auctions Off 150,000 Acres of Public Lands for Fracking Near Utah National Parks
12 December 2018
Energy
Arches National Park. Chris Dodds / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
On Tuesday the Trump administration offered more than 150,000 acres of public lands for fossil-fuel extraction near some of Utah's most iconic landscapes, including Arches and Canyonlands national parks.
<p>Dozens of Utahns gathered at the state Capitol to protest the lease sale, which included lands within 10 miles of internationally known protected areas. In addition to Arches and Canyonlands, the Bureau of Land Management leased public lands for fracking near Bears Ears, Canyons of the Ancients and Hovenweep national monuments and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.</p><p>"Utahns have demonstrated their commitment to transition away from dirty fossil fuels through clean energy resolutions passed in municipalities across our state. Yet, these commitments continue to be undermined by rampant oil and gas lease sales, which threaten our public health, public lands, and economy. While Utah's recreational and tourism economies continue to flourish, these attempts to develop sacred cultural, environmental, and recreational spaces for dirty fuels remain a grave and growing threat." said Ashley Soltysiak, director of the Utah Sierra Club. "Utah is our home and the reckless sale of our public lands with limited public engagement is simply unacceptable and short-sighted."</p><p>Fracking in these areas threatens sensitive plants and animals, including the black-footed ferret, Colorado pikeminnow, razorback sucker and Graham's beardtongue. It also will worsen air pollution problems in the Uinta Basin and use tremendous amounts of groundwater. Utah just experienced its <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2018/10/10/utah-just-experienced-its/" target="_blank">driest year</a> in recorded history.</p><p><a target="_self"></a>"This is a reckless fire sale of spectacular public lands for dirty drilling and fracking," said Ryan Beam, a public lands campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. "These red-rock wonderlands are some of the West's most iconic landscapes, and we can't afford to lose a single acre. Fracking here will waste precious water, foul the air and destroy beautiful wild places that should be held in trust for generations to come."</p><p>This lease sale is part of a larger agenda by Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to ramp up fossil fuel extraction on public lands, threatening wildlife, public health and the climate. This year the BLM has offered more than 420,000 acres of public land in Utah for oil and gas extraction. The agency plans to auction another 215,000 acres in March. The Trump administration also has issued new policies, which are being <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2018/greater-sage-grouse-04-30-2018.php" target="_blank">challenged in court</a>, to shorten public-comment periods and avoid substantive environmental reviews.</p><p>"BLM's shortsighted decision threatens Utah's red rock wilderness as well as significant cultural and archaeological resources," said Landon Newell, staff attorney with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "BLM's 'lease everything, lease everywhere' approach to oil and gas development needlessly threatens iconic red-rock landscapes and irreplaceable cultural history in the ill-conceived push for 'energy dominance.'" <br><br>Fracking destroys public lands and wildlife habitat with networks of fracking wells, compressor stations, pipelines and roads. Injecting toxic wastewater into the ground pollutes rivers and groundwater and causes earthquakes that damage infrastructure and property. Oil industry activities also pollute the air with dangerous toxins linked to human illness and death. The federal government's <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2018/5131/sir20185131.pdf" target="_blank">own report</a> shows that oil and gas production on public land contributes significantly to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODk5NjU5MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU5NTQ4ODYzMH0.9MEwt2DEDNyt2D9hyJ9Ve8-uL7w0LCHe9br9IDjxDYk/img.jpg?width=980" id="876e9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="01d359013054f4140c578851987c5ad3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Kara Clauser / Center for Biological Diversity</small></p>
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Lunch in the COP24 food court on Dec. 3. Walker Institute / @WalkerInst
New analysis from the Center for Biological Diversity, Farm Forward and Brighter Green Sunday finds that the meat-heavy menu at the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change conference COP24 could contribute more than 4,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases to the climate crisis.
<p>The data found that if all 30,000 visitors choose meat-based dishes at the conference's largest food court during the 12-day conference, they would contribute the equivalent of burning more than 500,000 gallons of gasoline or the greenhouse gas emissions attributed to 3,000 people flying from New York to Katowice.</p><p>The groups that compiled the research called on the United Nations to create a framework for host countries to prioritize climate-friendly menus at future climate meetings.</p><p>"The meat-laden menu at COP24 is an insult to the work of the conference," said Stephanie Feldstein, director of the Population and Sustainability program at the Center for Biological Diversity. "If the world leaders gathering in Poland hope to address the climate crisis, they need to tackle overconsumption of meat and dairy, starting with what's on their own plates. That means transitioning the food served at international climate conferences to more plant-based options with smaller carbon footprints."</p><p>The menu features twice as many meat-based options as plant-based ones. These meat dishes generate average greenhouse gas emissions four times higher than the plant-based meals. The two dairy-free, plant-based options generate one-tenth of the emissions.</p><p>In addition to higher greenhouse gas emissions, the meat-based dishes on the menu require nine times more land and nearly twice as much water as the plant-based dishes.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODk2MjA2NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjM1MjI2NH0.VqOLlBBZAWIfk8Tv7YWvGbFhmXJBD6MXxSO4u2IBFiM/img.jpg?width=980" id="48a46" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a454f6d6e35acad0ee6104e6c43a1778" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Melissa Amarello / Center for Biological Diversity</small></p><p>"What people eat at a conference may seem like small potatoes when it comes to curbing global emissions," added Farm Forward's Claire Fitch. "But if those at the forefront of global climate negotiations aren't going to 'walk the talk' at the highest-level climate conference, how can we expect the rest of the world to get on board?"<br></p><p>Studies have shown that it will not be possible to meet global climate targets without reducing meat and dairy consumption and production. Yet the need to tackle the overconsumption of animal-based foods has been largely absent from international climate negotiations and commitments. The majority of food-related efforts focus on improving production practices with few or no significant targets for shifting to less climate-intensive diets.</p><p>"We know that we cannot meet the Paris Agreement goals, or the 1.5C target, with business as usual," said Caroline Wimberly of Brighter Green, who will be in Katowice for COP24. "Food is not a matter only of personal choice, but an essential factor in solving the climate crisis. Demand-side policies and efforts, including food waste reductions and shifting diets—prioritizing populations with the highest consumption of animal-based foods—are critical in achieving a climate compatible food system and curtailing emissions."</p>
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Tom Koerner / USFWS
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has refused to ban M-44s, commonly known as cyanide bombs, which cause agonizing deaths for thousands of animals every year.
<p>The agency's decision comes in response to a <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2017/cyanide-bombs-08-10-2017.php" target="_blank">2017 petition</a> authored by the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a> and <a href="https://wildearthguardians.org/" target="_blank">WildEarth Guardians</a> and signed by several other wildlife conservation groups.</p><p>The devices are used to kill coyotes, foxes and wild dogs, purportedly to address conflicts with livestock. But they also pose serious risks of accidental injury and death for people, family pets and imperiled wildlife.</p><p>"Cyanide traps are indiscriminate killers that just can't be used safely," said Collette Adkins, an attorney and biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity. "We'll keep fighting for a permanent nationwide ban, which is the only way to protect people, pets and imperiled wildlife from the EPA's poison."</p><p>The EPA has registered sodium cyanide for use in M-44s by <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/wildlife_services/index.html" target="_blank">Wildlife Services</a>—the secretive U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife-killing program—as well as by certain state agencies in South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico and Texas.</p><p>The devices spray deadly sodium cyanide into the mouths of unsuspecting coyotes, foxes and other carnivores lured by smelly bait. Anything or anyone that pulls on the baited M-44 device can be killed or severely injured by the deadly spray.</p><p>M-44s temporarily blinded a child and killed three family dogs in two separate incidents in Idaho and Wyoming in 2017. A wolf was also accidentally killed by an M-44 set in Oregon last year. Idaho currently has a moratorium on M-44 use on public lands, resulting from the tragedies.</p><p>"The government continues to prioritize the minority anti-wildlife ranching industry over making public lands safe for people, imperiled wildlife and companion animals," said Bethany Cotton, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians. "These dangerous, indiscriminate devices have absolutely no place on public lands, especially given no evidence exists that they actually reduce conflict."</p><p>According to Wildlife Services' own data, M-44s killed 13,232 animals, mostly coyotes and foxes, in 2017. Of these more than 200 deaths were nontarget animals, including a wolf, family dogs, opossums, raccoons, ravens and skunks.</p><p>Unfortunately these numbers are likely a significant undercount of the true death toll, as Wildlife Services is notorious for poor data collection and an entrenched "shoot, shovel, shut up" mentality.</p>
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