Storks in a nest near a construction crane. In the past 50 years, America's bird populations have fallen by a third. Maria Urban / EyeEm / Getty Images
By Tara Lohan
What does a biodiversity crisis sound like? You may need to strain your ears to hear it.
<p>In the past 50 years, America's bird populations have fallen by a third, and worldwide the average mammal population has dropped 60%, writes acclaimed environmental philosopher and nature writer <a href="https://www.riverwalking.com/" target="_blank">Kathleen Dean Moore</a> in her new collection of essays, <a href="https://www.counterpointpress.com/dd-product/earths-wild-music/" target="_blank"><em>Earth's Wild Music: Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World</em></a><em>.</em></p><p>And with all that loss comes an unsettling silence.</p><p>"Unless the world acts to stop extinctions, I will write my last nature essay on a planet that is less than half as song-graced and life-drenched as the one where I began to write," she explains in the book's preface. "My grandchildren will tear out half the pages in their field guides. They won't need them."</p>
<p>Her book uses sound as a reference point to better understand what we stand to lose as extinction rates climb higher. But the essays are also a celebration of the natural world's chorus and the joy of learning to hear what's still there.</p><p>The essays are also being <a href="https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/feature-story/music-save-earth-s-songs" target="_blank">set to music in a series</a> for Oregon State's Spring Creek Project that will feature 20 4-minute-long concerts combining live musical performance with excerpts from <em>Earth's Wild Music</em>.</p><p>"I've never been so excited about a project in my life," Moore tells us. "It combines everything I care about with the cause that I believe in more than anything else."</p><p><em>The Revelator</em> spoke to Moore about the moral stakes of our environmental crisis, what it's like to find a truly quiet place to listen, and what we lose as wild songs disappear.</p>
<p><strong>You've been writing about nature for 50 years. During that time our environmental problems have become graver. Has this changed how you approach your work?</strong></p><p>At first I was a celebrant. I believed Mary Oliver when she said, "My work is loving the world... which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished." And that went along fine for years and years, but then it became clear that what I was writing celebrations of were disappearing.</p><p>I was right in the midst of an essay on frog song, and bulldozers came and took away the marsh and put in a condominium. I was writing about a bald eagle nest, and the nest — and the tree it was in — burned to the ground in a forest fire. So it was starting to become clear to me that I was going to have to do more than celebrate. I was going to have to demonstrate. I was going to have to protect. I was going to have to defend the natural world.</p>
<p><strong>Why did you decide to focus this collection on sound?</strong></p><p>I started thinking about how I could open people's hearts without breaking them. How I could point to the onrushing extinctions and not force people to turn away in absolute grief. I decided that I was going to have to write in a way that was like a wave — I would lift people and smash them at the same time.</p><p>What is it that reaches people without breaking them? What is it that goes straight into people's hearts? What do they love about the world and will call them to action?</p><p>I decided that of all the things I loved about the world, what I loved the most was the music. What I loved the most was the sound. I've been writing about this for quite some time, so I had a couple of essays already under my belt, and I couldn't think of a more wonderful writing assignment for myself then to go outside and listen.</p>
<p><strong>Nature may be getting quieter. But people are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/science/ocean-marine-noise-pollution.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">getting louder</a>. How is our noise affecting wildlife?</strong></p><p>We are deafening. Noise that we create is causing extraordinary harm to the creatures. Think about the pain caused to the whales from the exploratory thudding of those machines that go through the ocean and stamp to try to find oil.</p><p>Think about the meadowlarks that lived in the fracking fields and had to endure endless noise of drilling and trucks. And as a result, the songs of the meadowlarks are fractured and abbreviated. They haven't been able to hear their parents well enough to imitate them.</p>
<iframe src='https://www.xeno-canto.org/612865/embed' scrolling='no' frameborder='0' width='340' height='220'></iframe>
<p><strong>Many of us may be out of practice at listening. In fact, a lot of folks walk around with earphones on so we can't hear what's around us. How do we get better at both listening to and understanding the sounds of nature?</strong></p><p>Listening is an art that we should practice because it does two things. It makes us shut up and it makes us open up. We stop listening just to the songs of "me, me, me." When we set aside our own stories, it opens us up so we can listen to the stories of other beings. It's a skill of empathy, isn't it? Listening to other people's stories and other creatures' sounds is a way of understanding the world from their point of view. It's a moral training.</p><p>When it comes to understanding what we hear, Rachel Carson, who wrote <em>Silent Spring</em>, and cared so much about bird song, took pains to tell us that it doesn't matter if we know the names of what we see. That comes later. But the first thing that has to happen is love.</p><p>So I'm not so concerned about knowing which bird is calling. I'm surrounded by people who could do that in a majestic way. My husband can identify birds by their call. My neighbor can. I think it's a beautiful skill that I don't have.</p><p>But I do have the ability to catch a song. To hear it, which isn't nothing. It can catch my attention and I can seek it out and I can listen to it. Knowing its name — maybe that's not so important as knowing its tune.</p>
<p><strong>How are people affected by this loss of nature's song, and what's the importance of preserving silent places where we can still experience what's left?</strong></p><p>We lose joy. Let's face it — the sounds of the natural world are beautiful and they make us happy. I think we also lose a connection to the world around us.</p><p>In the book, I write about going with acoustic ecologist <a href="https://www.soundtracker.com/about-gordon-hempton/" target="_blank">Gordon Hempton</a> to <a href="https://onesquareinch.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">One Square Inch of Silence</a>, a small spot in Olympic National Park [possibly the quietest place in the United States]. It was a wonderful experience. At the time, we were in pouring rain. Nature itself was cacophonous, but we didn't hear a human sound for 20 minutes, which is the definition in Gordon's mind of a quiet place.</p><p>Gordon now is recording in a jungle somewhere that can only be reached by canoeing down a wild river, because it's one of the last places on Earth he can find that's silent.</p><p>He's famous for these recordings called the <a href="https://www.discogs.com/Gordon-Hempton-Dawn-Chorus/release/7648571" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Dawn Chorus</em></a> that captured the outpouring of bird song that's triggered by morning light. But he couldn't do that anymore, because that music box is broken. We're in the process of wrecking what we should be treasuring.</p><p>It's hard to find a balance between grief and celebration. But you know, people often ask me, "What can one person do?" And I say, "Stop being one person."</p><p>You don't have to do it all. Other people are working all around the world on the same causes you believe in. Find them, join up with them. You'll find your place in the choir. [Author and teacher] <a href="https://www.joannamacy.net/main" target="_blank">Joanna Macy</a> says to choose what you love and devote yourself to it. That, she says, is enough.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/earths-music-moore/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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A car is seen driving in the snow in Dallas in Feb. 2021. Matthew Rader / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons
By Matt Casale
There were many lessons to be learned from Texas' prolonged periods of lost power during its cold snap, which saw temperatures drop into the single digits. But one many people may not recognize is that electric vehicles, or EVs, can be part of a smart resiliency plan — not only in the case of outages triggered by the cold but in other scenarios caused by extreme weather events, from fire-related blackouts in California to hurricane-hit power losses in Puerto Rico.
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY4MzUzMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODE5NDUyNX0.HsCUIOHci2bS-YOU-V6mfoODWVeCapEzr1YbNdFqnig/img.jpg?width=980" id="b6c31" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1af172a4964aad443c982a094d7c85d9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1080" data-height="720" />
A car driving in the snow in Dallas, Feb. 2021. Matthew Rader / CC BY-SA 4.0
<p>Experts recognize that electric vehicles are a central climate solution for their role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But EVs are also essentially batteries on wheels. You can store energy in those batteries, and if EVs are equipped with something called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle-to-grid" target="_blank">vehicle-to-grid</a> or vehicle-to-building technology, they can also be used to keep the lights on in emergencies. The technology allows the energy being stored in an EV battery to be pushed back into the grid or into buildings to provide power.</p><p>There are hurdles: The technology is still <a href="https://www.greenbiz.com/article/vehicle-grid-technology-revving" target="_blank">developing</a>, the vast majority of EVs currently on the road do not have this capability, and utilities would need regulatory approval before bringing it to scale. But done right it could be a great opportunity.</p><p>Electric car batteries can hold approximately <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2019/11/how-california-can-use-electric-vehicles-keep-lights" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">60 kilowatt hours (kWh)</a> of energy, enough to provide back-up power to an average U.S. household for two days. Larger electric vehicles like buses and trucks have even bigger batteries and can provide more power. The American company Proterra produces electric buses that can store <a href="https://www.proterra.com/press-release/proterra-launches-zx5-electric-bus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">up to 660 kWh of energy</a>. Electric <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/electric-trash-trucks-are-coming-quietly-to-your-town-11602098620#:~:text=Electric%20trash%20truck%20love%20is%20in%20the%20air.&text=A's%20program%20to%20reduce%20carbon,being%20primarily%20electric%20by%202023." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">garbage trucks</a> and even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/business/electric-semi-trucks-big-rigs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">big-rigs</a>, with bigger batteries, are becoming a reality too.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY4MzUzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NTM2MzEwNn0.KL9N8R5wSAaHQUpJVAFdUkc4DyNAV3ERQSP6vhAxj1c/img.jpg?width=980" id="a2215" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f089d78a004c8cb279189d1c3f068bf5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="800" data-height="562" />
MTA New York City Transit / Marc A. Hermann / CC BY 2.0
<p>If equipped with vehicle-to-grid or vehicle-to-building technology, those cars, buses and trucks could prove invaluable during future blackouts. People could rely on their cars to power their houses. Municipalities, transit agencies and school districts could send out their fleets to the areas most in need. We could power homes, shelters and emergency response centers — and could keep people warm, healthy and comfortable until power could be restored.</p><p>But to add this great resiliency tool to our arsenal in times of extreme weather, we must significantly increase the number of EVs on the road. In 2019 electric cars accounted for only about <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/fotw-1136-june-1-2020-plug-vehicle-sales-accounted-about-2-all-light-duty" target="_blank">2%</a> of all light-duty vehicle sales in the country. Electric buses and trucks are becoming more common in the United States, but still only represent a tiny fraction of the fleet. As it stands now, the EVs currently on the road, even if equipped with vehicle-to-grid technology, would do little to help a broad swath of the population in need of power.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY4MzU0OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMDM3MjIxOX0.7YMrPnmM94g_wIhBA7irS7WeIeHQJQUhkZ30nEsWEFY/img.jpg?width=980" id="15537" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="abb30f1e8d614f5aa8bf4fb5c4c14f7f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="799" data-height="533" />
A line of electric cars at charging stations. Andrew Bone / CC BY 2.0
<p>There are some signs that this is changing. <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/09/23/governor-newsom-announces-california-will-phase-out-gasoline-powered-cars-drastically-reduce-demand-for-fossil-fuel-in-californias-fight-against-climate-change/" target="_blank">California</a> and <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gasoline-car-sales-to-end-by-2035-in-massachusetts/" target="_blank">Massachusetts</a> have both announced intentions to explore a policy that would require all new cars after 2035 be electric. General Motors is the latest major automaker to announce an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/01/28/general-motors-electric/" target="_blank">intention</a> to move toward producing only electric cars. Several major transit agencies, including in <a href="https://www.capmetro.org/electricbus#:~:text=CapMetro%20has%20purchased%20a%20total,and%20more%20riders%20per%20bus." target="_blank">Texas</a>, are starting to switch to all-electric buses.</p><p>But we must move faster. If we <a href="https://uspirg.org/feature/usp/electric-buses-america-0" target="_blank">electrified the nation's transit and school bus fleets</a> by 2030, for example, we could have more than 500,000 large mobile batteries available across the country.</p><p>To support widespread adoption of electric vehicles, we need to invest in the <a href="https://uspirg.org/reports/usp/plugging" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">charging infrastructure necessary</a> to accommodate explosive growth. We also need to make sure that as EV adoption increases, the vehicles and infrastructure are set up to use the power-transfer technology. Nissan already does this with its <a href="https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1127590_nissan-leaf-as-home-energy-device-wallbox-will-soon-enable-it-in-the-u-s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leaf-to-home</a> system. <a href="https://www.proterra.com/press-release/proterra-introduces-new-high-power-interoperable-ev-charging-technology/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Proterra</a> offers transit buses equipped with the technology. <a href="https://www.dominionenergy.com/our-stories/electric-school-buses" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dominion Energy</a> in Virginia is working with school bus manufacturers to develop and operationalize a large-scale school bus vehicle-to-grid program.</p><p>To standardize the technology and make it accessible to everyone, utilities should seek regulatory approval to implement programs and invest in vehicle-to-grid capable infrastructure, and automakers should make it easy for consumers to install chargers that can send power both ways.</p><p>As that happens, governments at all levels should work to incorporate electric vehicles into their emergency response plans. Shelters, hospitals, emergency response centers and other buildings critical to crisis management should be equipped with the infrastructure necessary to pull power from EVs. Heavy-duty fleets like buses and trucks present particularly promising opportunities to provide power to people in need, but all the electric buses in the world won't do any good if we're not prepared to have them charged and ready to deploy to the areas that need them the most.</p><p>A <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7vyvk/texas-tesla-owners-are-drawing-power-from-their-cars-during-blackouts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">few Tesla owners</a> in Texas were able to draw power from their cars to stay warm and keep the lights on this month, which is great. But this valuable resource shouldn't be limited to a few select people on a one-off basis. With more EVs on the road and careful planning and preparation, we could have millions of mobile batteries available to help keep the power on for <em>everyone</em> in emergencies.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/casale/" target="_blank"><em>Matt Casale </em></a><em>is the transportation campaign director for U.S. PIRG, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the public interest and speaks out for a healthier, safer world in which we're freer to pursue our own individual well-being and the common good. Matt works on the local, state and federal levels to bring about policy changes that will reduce the need to drive, electrify buses and electrify cars — so the easiest, cheapest and most pleasant ways to travel are also the cleanest and healthiest. Matt lives in Boston with his wife and two daughters.</em></em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/texas-blackouts-electric-vehicles/" target="_blank">The Revelator.</a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><em><br></em>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
Spruce
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CBDistillery
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjkzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTU4OTM4Nn0.ypRdeDSBcE87slYrFfVrRwtJ2qGIK6FD5jBB4pndTMo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b473b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9930b53c9d58cb49774640a61c3e3e75" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="cbdistillery cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>All of the products from CBDistillery are <a href="https://ushempauthority.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Hemp Authority Certified</a>, and for good reason. The company only uses non-GMO and pesticide-free industrial hemp that's grown organically on Colorado farms. Its hemp oils are some of the most affordable CBD products on the market, yet they still maintain a high standard of quality. CBDistillery has a wide variety of CBD potencies across its product line (ranging from 500mg to 5000mg per bottle) and offers both full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD oils to give customers a completely thc-free option.</p>
$35
FAB CBD
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDIwOTEyMn0.MlTjz096FJ0ev_-soK7_Z-FeQeJczWoeh9Qi9SSkHsY/img.jpg?width=980" id="04b26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76aa4862f44603242e318982acea6646" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="fab cbd oil" data-width="800" data-height="800" /><p>For an organic CBD oil that has it all, FAB CBD offers plenty of variety for any type of consumer. All of its products are made with zero pesticides and extracted from organically grown Colorado industrial hemp. FAB CBD oil comes in five all-natural flavors (mint, vanilla, berry, citrus, and natural) and is also available in four strengths (300, 600, 1200, and 2400mg per bottle).</p>
$39
NuLeaf Naturals
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzExNTgyMX0.D6qMGYllKTsVhEkQ-L_GzpDHVu60a-tJKcio7M1Ssmc/img.jpg?width=980" id="94e4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3609a52479675730893a45a82a03c71d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="nuleaf naturals organic cbd oil" data-width="600" data-height="600" /><p>As an industry-leading brand, it comes as no surprise that NuLeaf Naturals sources its CBD extract from organic hemp plants grown on licensed farms in Colorado. The comany's CBD oils only contain two ingredients: USDA certified organic hemp seed oil and full spectrum hemp extract.</p><p>NuLeaf Naturals uses one proprietary CBD oil formula for all of its products, so you will get the same CBD potency in each tincture (60mg per mL), but can purchase different bottle sizes depending on how much you intend to use.</p>
$38.50
Charlotte's Web
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjk3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MzQ0NjM4N30.SaQ85SK10-MWjN3PwHo2RqpiUBdjhD0IRnHKTqKaU7Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="84700" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2174067dcc0c4094be25b3472ce08c8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="charlottes web cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>Perhaps one of the most well-known brands in the CBD landscape, Charlotte's Web has been growing sustainable hemp plants for several years. The company is currently in the process of achieving official USDA Organic Certification, but it already practices organic and sustainable cultivation techniques to enhance the overall health of the soil and the hemp plants themselves, which creates some of the highest quality CBD extracts. Charlotte's Web offers CBD oils in a range of different concentration options, and some even come in a few flavor options such as chocolate mint, orange blossom, and lemon twist.</p>
$60
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A swamp wallaby searches for food in a bushfire-scorched forest on February 3, 2020 in Braidwood, Australia. John Moore / Getty Images
By Tara Lohan
A hailstorm in South Texas. Tornadoes in Tennessee. Wildfires across the West. A barrage of Gulf Coast hurricanes. Those are among the record 22 weather and climate disasters that each topped $1 billion in damages last year in the United States.
<p>In all, the price tag for 2020 hit a whopping $95 billion — and that's just in the United States. Reinsurance firm Swiss Re put <a href="https://www.swissre.com/media/news-releases/nr-20201215-sigma-full-year-2020-preliminary-natcat-loss-estimates.html" target="_blank">global economic losses</a> at $175 billion last year, including $32 billion for <a href="https://qz.com/1950391/the-10-most-expensive-natural-disasters-of-2020/" target="_blank">floods in China</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/22/weather/cyclone-amphan-damage-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank">$13 billion in damages</a> from Cyclone Amphan across India and Bangladesh.</p><p>The worst news? Our profligate burning of fossil fuels means we're in store for more.</p><p>Studies show that climate change is supercharging some weather and climate events and will lead to more severe and longer-lasting <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/305/5686/994" target="_blank">heat waves</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/climate/climate-changes-hurricane-intensity.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stronger hurricanes</a>, an <a href="https://www.c2es.org/content/wildfires-and-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">increased wildfire risk</a> and a longer wildfire season. We can also expect more <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2881/earths-freshwater-future-extremes-of-flood-and-drought/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">heavy rain events</a> and <a href="https://www.c2es.org/content/drought-and-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">severe droughts</a>, not to mention other extreme events like February's polar vortex.</p><p>"You can't attribute any particular storm to climate change, but what we do know is that climate change tips the odds of making many of these events more severe," says Bruce Stein, chief scientist and associate vice president at the National Wildlife Federation.</p><p>While experts tabulate the economic losses — homes destroyed, crops ruined, businesses shuttered — ecosystems and wildlife can also sustain damage that's harder to quantify.</p><p>Many plants and wildlife evolved with and have adapted to dealing with large-scale disturbances, but we're beginning to see "megadisturbances" at levels beyond what we saw in the past, says Stein.</p><p>And that can take a toll. Extreme weather can kill animals directly — or indirectly, like by destroying food sources, contaminating water or altering habitat, forcing a species to move into areas where there may be more competition, fewer resources or a greater risk of predation.</p><p>"What we begin to find when you get some of these mega disturbances is that it's beyond the ability of a species — or their adaptive capacity — to bounce back," says Stein.</p>
<h1>The Research</h1><p>The effects of climate change on the natural world are being felt at two speeds. One is more gradual, referred to by scientists as "ramping" — shrinking glaciers, rising sea levels. The second is quick, like extreme weather events.</p><p>Both are problematic, says Sean Maxwell, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Queensland's Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science. But, he adds, "I think the changes to acute events have the greatest potential to devastate local populations or ecosystems, and the impacts of these events are often more difficult to plan for or avoid."</p><p>Maxwell was the lead author of a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ddi.12878" target="_blank">2018 study</a> published in the journal <em>Diversity and Distributions</em> that examined how changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather and climate events affected wildlife. The researchers looked at 519 studies of ecological responses to extreme events — including cyclones, droughts, floods, and heat and cold waves — that took place from 1941 to 2015. They found that the response was negative 57% of the time. (And in those instances where species benefited, they were mostly invasive species.)</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY3MjMxMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MDQ5MjcwMX0.vWOhTY5PgWrupHYIMFFce6KUG1XH6n1aw0qMCWv3-bE/img.jpg?width=980" id="3f9df" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f1ccfeffe9a6723900d8f76612d9f9b8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="799" data-height="533" />
A manatee stranded by Hurricane Irma in Melbourne, Florida. Bill Greer, FWC / CC BY-ND 2.0
<p>"Some of the negative responses we found were quite concerning, including more than 100 cases of dramatic population declines and 31 cases of local population extinction following an extreme event," says Maxwell. "Populations of critically endangered bird species in Hawai'i, such as the palia, have been annihilated due to drought, and populations of lizard species have been wiped out due to cyclones in the Bahamas."</p><p>Plant species, the researchers found, had the highest number of negative responses to extreme events, followed by reptiles and amphibians.</p><p>"Collectively, the studies in our review suggest that extreme weather and climate events have profound implications for species and ecosystem management," the researchers concluded.</p><h1>The Most Vulnerable</h1><p>Species that are already threatened or endangered are of course especially at risk.</p><p>Take the Attwater prairie chicken. A million of these birds once ranged across the prairies of Texas and Louisiana.</p><p>Today fewer than 100 remain in the wild and scientists have sought to bolster their populations with captive breeding programs. But when Hurricane Harvey walloped Texas with 130-mile-per-hour winds and record rainfall in 2017, the birds were right in harm's way.</p><p>"The Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge tracked 29 individual birds, mostly hens. Post-hurricane, staff confirmed only five of them still alive," <a href="https://texasclimatenews.org/features/attwaters-prairie-chicken-population-hit-hard-by-harvey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Texas Climate News</a> reported. "The hurricane also killed roughly 80% of a prairie chicken population on private property in Goliad County."</p><p>Other species with limited ranges, like those on islands, also face big threats.</p><p>"If a species is well distributed, then if one part of its range gets hit, there's the ability for it to recover," says Stein. "But if essentially all its eggs are in one basket, and that particular place gets hit by one of these big disturbances, that's when you have a real concern."</p><p>In 2017 Hurricane Maria <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/after-hurricane-dorian-survey-shows-hope-and-concern-bahamas-birds" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cut the population of just 200 Puerto Rican parrots</a> in half. The year before, Hurricane Matthew was believed to have wiped out the last Bahama nuthatches (<em>Sitta insularis</em>). It took two years before a few of the birds were found — and then Hurricane Dorian struck in 2019, making their survival unlikely, according to Diana Bell, a professor of conservation biology at the University of East Anglia.</p><p>"In fact, Dorian may have not only sealed the fate of the nuthatch but also severely impacted other birds endemic to these islands, particularly the Bahama warbler and the Abaco parrot," Bell <a href="https://theconversation.com/hurricane-dorian-was-also-a-catastrophe-for-the-bahamas-unique-birds-123493" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote</a> in an essay for <em>The Conversation</em>. "Also known as the Bahama Amazon parrot, this subspecies uniquely nests in limestone cavities on the ground which are likely to have been flooded by the storm surge."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY3MjMxOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3NTgxMjYyMH0.GEcdU7i6_0jsNoolMUAM1ZNpvsQWjlDj8KfSZzLxvNE/img.jpg?width=980" id="47539" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0aaf95300b450d0f8d0a49b310aeae5a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="799" data-height="533" />
Damage in the Bahamas from Hurricane Dorian. Seaman Erik Villa Rodriguez / U.S. Coast Guard
<h1>Compounding Crises</h1><p>The risk to wildlife from extreme storms can be compounded by the ramping effects of climate change, too.</p><p>"If you have increasingly severe hurricanes where you've also got sea-level rise essentially providing a higher lodge point for the storm surge, then you start seeing impacts beyond the historical record," says Stein.</p><p>In other places, extreme weather is an extra blow to species already struggling with other environmental pressures, like habitat loss, invasive species or pollution.</p><p>Last year the world watched in horror as land-use management, climate change and drought helped push Australia's bushfires to a terrifying new level, killing 34 people and burning 37,500 square miles.</p><p>In the immediate aftermath, one expert put the death toll for wildlife at <a href="https://therevelator.org/australia-bushfires-extinction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1 billion animals lost</a>. Since then the figure has been revised to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/study-says-australias-bushfires-harmed-3-billion-animals/a-54344204" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">3 billion killed or displaced</a> by the blazes.</p><p>A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-1251-1.epdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a> published in <em>Nature Ecology and Evolution</em> found that the fire impacted the critical habitat of 832 native species, with 70 species losing more than 30% of their natural range. Twenty-one of those were already at risk of extinction.</p><p>Those that survived could find themselves hard-pressed in future climate disasters. "Multiple extreme events are likely to act in synergistic ways to exacerbate risk of species' extinction," wrote Maxwell and the other researchers of the 2018 study.</p><p>Australia already has one of the highest extinction rates, and the wildfires could limit the capacity of some species to recover — like the endangered Kangaroo Island dunnart and the long-footed potoroo — and threaten others. Australia's record blazes last year could push the number of endangered species in the country up by 19%, the study in <em>Nature Ecology and Evolution </em>found.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY3MjMyMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTE0NDI3NX0.GIq4Um10O8jxxaX6lV8YLVU0ZEeSfml4KGSas0xx_rc/img.jpg?width=980" id="b65a7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="23f41600dfbd2c618b67fac0e1b87ac6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="799" data-height="533" />
Kangaroo Island, the only habitat of the endangered Kangaroo Island dunnart, after the 2019-2020 Australia wildfires. StephenMitchell / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
<h1>Solutions</h1><p>When Hurricane Irma sacked the Florida Keys in 2017, the storm tossed boats ashore, destroyed more than 1,000 homes and left a trail of debris across the islands.</p><p>It also endangered one of the region's beloved endemic species, the tiny Key deer, which today primarily live on Big Pine Key. Some deer were killed in the storm, and surviving animals faced threats to their already limited freshwater supply as the storm surge dumped saline ocean water into freshwater pools.</p><p>Island residents responded the way folks often do after a disaster — they offered help to their neighbors.</p><p>"What you saw during and shortly after Irma is that these Key deer were coming up to houses looking for fresh water," says Stein. "And people were putting out kiddie pools of water for them."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY3MjMyNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MjM4MTE0OH0.x_zKoXw0-UArsFon5rOFwKQ93UVDBTyJdRClAD98qvE/img.jpg?width=980" id="7cf53" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7af4c5a126d38d68aeda4daaaa4ad61c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="799" data-height="533" />
Key deer after Hurricane Irene. Carol Lyn Parrish /CC BY-ND 2.0
<p>Following Australia's bushfires last year, the country's government jumped to the aid of wildlife by dropping 4,000 pounds of carrots and sweet potatoes to starving brush-tailed rock-wallabies who lost their food source in the blazes.</p><p>"There's a lot of things that we can do to help human communities as well as wildlife after these acute disturbances," says Stein.</p><p>But beyond immediate food and water relief, there's a much bigger task ahead: reducing greenhouse gas emissions to address the ongoing dangers of climate change and the ability of ecosystems to adapt. Key deer, for example, also face a long-term threat to their drinking water supply from rising seas, something no number of kiddie pools can repair. And more severe hurricanes are likely in their future, too.</p><p>"As climate change continues to ensure extreme climate and weather events are more and more common, we now need to act to ensure species have the best chance to survive," says Maxwell. "Wherever possible, high-quality and intact habitat areas should be retained, as these are the places where species are most resilient to increasing exposure to extreme events."</p><p>If such intact habitat doesn't exist, ecological restoration efforts can be used to help species adapt, his study found.</p><p>And the more we know, the better.</p><p>"Incorporating extreme events into climate change vulnerability assessments and adaptation plans will be challenging," the researchers of the 2018 paper concluded. "But by doing so we have a greater chance of arriving at conservation interventions that truly address the full range of climate change impacts."</p><p>And that could give more species a fighting chance in a changing climate.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/taralohan/" target="_blank"><em>Tara Lohan </em></a><em>is deputy editor of The Revelator and has worked for more than a decade as a digital editor and environmental journalist focused on the intersections of energy, water and climate. Her work has been published by The Nation, American Prospect, High Country News, Grist, Pacific Standard and others. She is the editor of two books on the global water crisis.</em></em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="The%20Revelator" target="_blank">The Revelator.</a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Wild rice growing in Kathio State Park, Minnesota. Brett Whaley / CC BY-NC 2.0
By Tara Lohan
For 10,000 years we've relied on domesticated plants for our staple foods. But it's the wild relatives of those crops that are becoming increasingly important to our future food supply.
<p>Over hundreds of thousands of years, these wild foods have adapted to pests, diseases, extreme climates and other inhospitable conditions. That makes their genes particularly important for plant breeding, especially when we're looking for foods that can withstand a changing climate. Some varieties are still key food and cultural resources today, too.</p><p>In a <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/117/52/33351" target="_blank">new study</a> published in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, researchers have taken stock of these wild foods and the conservation threats they face. They inventoried and modeled the distribution of 600 native wild taxa in the United States, including the relatives of barley, beans, grapes, hops, plums, potatoes and other foods.</p>
<p>What they found was concerning: More than half of the wild relatives are endangered in their native habitats. And that poses a threat to our future.</p><p>"The contributions of crop wild relatives to food security depend on their conservation and accessibility for use," the researchers wrote. With mounting extinction threats, the researchers recommended that three quarters of the taxa be deemed an "urgent priority" for collection to boost conservation.</p><p>To do that we need a multipronged approach.</p><p>"Given the diversity of U.S. native crop wild relatives prioritized for action, ambitious collaborative conservation efforts are needed among gene banks, botanical gardens, community conservation initiatives, and organizations focused on habitat conservation," they wrote.</p><p>So far <em>ex situ</em> conservation — in gene banks and botanical gardens — is insufficient. The study showed 14% of the plants were entirely absent from these repositories, and another 33% were found in fewer than 10 locations. That leaves us with "relatively limited genetic variation for research and education," the researchers concluded.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY0OTU5My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0Njg0MzA5M30.qp4lE9r-YJKLndnIEgv8G1FTTMk0XC17PUECQxEQsyA/img.jpg?width=980" id="13e1a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a45522bebe72c855b0c85395e2315421" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="799" data-height="533" />
Crop Wild Relatives seed bank at the International Potato Center in Lima, Peru. Michael Major, Crop Trust / CC BY-ND 2.0
<p>Better collaboration with botanical gardens, hobby gardeners and citizen conservationists can help close that gap, they recommend.</p><p>Outside of seed banks and gardens, protecting the habitat where these species grow naturally is also important.</p><p>Based on the researchers' mapping of the potential distribution of the plants, some are likely to be found in areas that are already protected — such as the Patuxent Research Refuge, the Grand Canyon, Olympic National Park, the Indiana Dunes, Gulf Islands, Yellowstone and other areas.</p><p>But more habitat conservation efforts are needed, and that may include the widening of current protected areas or the establishment of new protected spaces, they write.</p><p>That can be tough to do with competing demands on land, but it will also provide additional benefits.</p>
<p>Conserving these natural habitats, the study finds, will help safeguard ecosystems and other species, providing both "known as well as currently unrecognized benefits to society."</p><p>Beyond the work of scientists and land managers, the fate of these wild foods may come down to better public awareness. And for that, botanical gardens could be the best champions.</p><p>"While all involved organizations will need to enhance their public outreach around native crop wild relatives," the researchers conclude, "botanical gardens, which receive more than 120 million visitors a year in the United States, could play a particularly pivotal role in introducing these species to people, communicating their value and plight, and better connecting the concepts of food security, agricultural livelihoods, and services provided by nature for the public."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/crop-wild-relatives/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a></em><em>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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An Indigenous Canadian woman fishes for salmon in the river. nattrass / Getty Images
By Tara Lohan
Andrea Reid grew up surrounded by water on Canada's Prince Edward Island with fish "very much just in my blood," she says. When she went to college, she realized that fish could be a career, too.
<p>The shape of that career began to form when she worked as a biologist on fish and fisheries in Uganda, Indonesia, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands. "I really began to see just how much fishers know," she says. "And I started bringing that thinking home."</p><p>Last month <a href="https://oceans.ubc.ca/andrea-reid/" target="_blank">Reid</a>, a citizen of the Nisga'a Nation, helped launch the <a href="https://oceans.ubc.ca/centre-for-indigenous-fisheries/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Center for Indigenous Fisheries</a> at the University of British Columbia, where she's an assistant professor in the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries.</p><p>The center aims to work on culturally significant fish and fisheries "through community-based approaches that put Indigenous needs, priorities and voices at the center of all our projects, research and outreach," explains Reid, who serves as its principal investigator.</p><p><em>The Revelator</em> spoke with her about how this approach to research differs from Western methods, how it can expand scientific processes and the challenges Indigenous fisheries face.<span></span></p><p><strong>It seems like the work the center aims to do would break new ground. How do you think it could change research and the way fisheries science is conducted?</strong></p><p>There's nothing else that we know of that centers on community-based research and creating a space for Indigenous fisheries knowledge and methodologies in the university space in this country. We're trying to fill a pretty critical gap.</p><p>At its core, it's really about employing key principles of respect, responsibility, relationality, reciprocity — building those elements that are foundational to many Indigenous world views into how we move through the research process.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTYzMzQ2NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTg3OTMxN30.N-pOsDiH_8lNNsq0nNB-vlLQ2hqb1k1VGVGSko4OO0c/img.jpg?width=980" id="4f708" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0d0a64d3db556b60fb9f1e5922b2dc0c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="768" data-height="960" />
Andrea Reid, principal investigator at the Centre for Indigenous Fisheries. Alex Sarna
<p>A lot of Indigenous research methodologies are deeply community centered and are trying to move us away from the model that has pervaded in Western science for a long time, which is researchers coming into communities, extracting data and using it for their own needs and purposes.</p><p>Putting Indigenous knowledge and communities at the forefront of research has the potential to change outcomes, but I think it can also change the way that we even ask questions. It certainly changes the way we go about answering them and how much difference the work actually makes. In the fisheries world there's this slogan, "Bring fishers on board or miss the boat." And the same applies to communities, right?</p><p>If we want to have people buying into these recommendations that we're putting forward as scientists, we need to engage them in that process, have them understand what it is that we're talking about and what the research is intended to achieve. If you do that, you can get a lot more buy-in and credibility in the work. It's a whole different way of operating in many respects.</p><p><strong>What threats do Indigenous fisheries face? </strong></p><p>The Indigenous fisheries in which I have done a lot of my work on the Pacific Coast of Canada have been extremely long standing. They date back millennia and have really been shaped by the knowledge systems that have been passed down generation to generation.</p><p>Indigenous fisheries systems are often very well matched to the environment in which they're set, where certain gear types or the times of year that you're fishing or how you fish all match that environment.</p><p>There's a great diversity in Indigenous cultures around the world so I don't want to paint with too broad a brush, but a lot of Indigenous fisheries adhere to worldviews that center on relationality. Many see the fish as an extension of our lives. On the Pacific Coast, we identify as salmon people and we see salmon as relatives, not necessarily as commodities or resources.</p><p>That view really changes the way that one might operate in the fishery — whether you take everything that you can get your hands on, or maybe you take a small amount and leave some for the next family, the next person that comes along.</p><p>But Indigenous fisheries along the Pacific coast, but also around the world, share a lot of parallels in terms of colonial processes and their dispossession and displacement through colonization. In many cases Indigenous fishery systems have been placed in pronounced bounds where they can only operate in certain ways and under certain conditions. A lot of Indigenous fishery practices have been outlawed, banned or totally criminalized.</p><p><strong>That's the focus on one of your upcoming projects called "Fish Outlaws," right?</strong></p><p>Yes. That's a new National Geographic Society-supported project that centers on telling stories around dispossession and criminalization, and how, in many cases, what we see here in Canada quite frequently today is that simply exercising constitutionally protected fishing rights can be deemed illegal in certain circumstances, with people getting heavy fines and even facing jail time for practicing what our constitution protects.</p><p>A big part of this project is aimed at bringing this to light to understand the histories of what we call "fish outlaws" — people who've been criminalized for simply participating in the fishery that has been passed down across generations and to which they have clear well-defended rights.</p><p><strong>Where do you see the center's work going as it develops? Will you start by focusing on Canada?</strong></p>
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<p><em><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/taralohan/" target="_blank"><em>Tara Lohan </em></a><em>is deputy editor of The Revelator and has worked for more than a decade as a digital editor and environmental journalist focused on the intersections of energy, water and climate. Her work has been published by The Nation, American Prospect, High Country News, Grist, Pacific Standard and others. She is the editor of two books on the global water crisis.</em></em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/indigenous-fisheries-reid" target="_blank">The Revelator.</a></em></p>Taylor Wale, Andrea Reid and Collin Middleton on board the Ocean Virtue in 2016 where they were tagging and tracking Pacific salmon on BC's North Coast. Katrina Cook
<p><span style="background-color: initial;">To begin we are focusing on British Columbia First Nations and partnering with communities and nations here. But I am also on the front end of developing a partnership in the Great Lakes of North America with nations and tribes on either side of the border looking at invasive sea lamprey.</span><br></p><p>There are also budding partnerships with fisheries in other contexts and communities. There's a lot of parallels with Aboriginal fishers in Australia, with Māori fishers in New Zealand and native Hawaiian fishers. But again, we are focusing local and then overtime building into more of that trans-local community.</p><p>We're starting as a small group of principally Indigenous scholars. And over time we really hope to grow what we're doing so that this becomes a space for community members, fishers and managers — that they feel welcomed and see room for themselves in [academia, which] historically, has not been very kind to underrepresented groups. And there are not many Indigenous students in post-secondary education. There's not many Indigenous students typically in science.</p><p>And so I hope that the creation of the Center for Indigenous Fisheries doesn't ask students to leave part of themselves at the door or to depart from their worldview in order to gain access. But that instead it creates a space for them and that over time it can really help to build strong partnerships with communities and grow beyond the confines of the university.</p><p>There is a Mi'kmaw teaching called <em>Etuaptmumk</em> or "two-eyed seeing." And it's carried by a specific elder currently, Dr. Albert Marshall, who's doing a lot of work to bring it forward into the literature but also into public spaces as well.</p><p>It's defined as learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western dominant or mainstream knowledge and ways of knowing. And learning to use both these eyes together for the benefit of all.</p><p>In our fisheries and in biodiversity at large, we're facing so many big crises where we need all of the tools that are available at our disposal. And those can equally come from Indigenous knowledge systems as well as Western scientific ones. So it's really about bringing together the best tools for the job.</p>
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Saltwater wetlands face functional extinction without a coordinated effort to save them. TahirAbbas / Getty Images
By Jeff Peterson
America's coastal saltwater wetlands are on a course toward functional extinction in the coming decades. Their demise will come at the hands of steadily accelerating sea-level rise and relentless coastal development. As these wetlands disappear, they will take with them habitat, storm buffering and carbon sequestration benefits of tremendous value.
<p>Fortunately, there is still time to change course. A determined and coordinated effort by local, state and federal governments — led by the Biden administration — could dramatically increase the number of saltwater wetlands that survive and go a long way to maintaining their ecological and societal benefits into the future.</p><h1>Saltwater Wetlands: To Know Them Is to Love Them</h1><p>The <a href="https://www.fws.gov/wetlands/documents/status-and-trends-of-wetlands-in-the-coastal-watersheds-of-the-conterminous-us-2004-to-2009.pdf" target="_blank">most recent estimate</a> of the extent of saltwater wetlands along the American coast, published in 2009, found some 6.4 million acres with about half occurring along the Gulf of Mexico. This is a mere remnant of their historic extent and a decline of some 95,000 acres from the previous assessment in 2004, largely in the Gulf of Mexico. Ominously, the rate of loss increased by 35% from the prior five-year reporting period.</p><p>The remaining saltwater wetlands still provide an <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/infographic/infographic-value-coastal-wetland-habitat" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">impressive array</a> of ecological services and benefits to society. Often termed "<a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/habitat-conservation/coastal-wetlands-too-valuable-lose#benefits-of-coastal-wetlands" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the most productive ecosystems on Earth"</a> they are nursery grounds for fisheries and provide habitat for birds, mammals and other wildlife.</p><p>Wetlands also protect communities from storm surges and flooding. Along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts the protective value of wetlands is <a href="https://coast.noaa.gov/applyit/wetlands/understand.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">estimated to be</a> about $1.8 million per square kilometer annually. On top of all that, saltwater wetlands help fight global warming by storing carbon at a rate that is about <a href="https://www.thebluecarboninitiative.org/about-blue-carbon" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">two to four times greater</a> than that observed in mature tropical forests.</p>
<h1>The Saltwater Wetland Extinction Scenario</h1><p>Rising sea level and steady coastal urbanization pose an existential threat to saltwater wetlands.</p><p>The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that sea level along much of the American coast is <a href="https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/publications/techrpt83_Global_and_Regional_SLR_Scenarios_for_the_US_final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">likely to rise</a> by 2 to 4 feet, and may rise by as much as 8 feet, by 2100. And seas will continue to rise in the centuries to come, with an "intermediate" estimate of more than 9 feet by 2200.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTYyMTMzMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NzEyNjA4OX0.ahj_0jYV5D1zFSnQfg0kwjhszfVeuwGFHGpvxc7FDLs/img.jpg?width=980" id="81e12" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8505405b3db45f5d2f906c91db8ee1ac" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="799" data-height="600" />
NOAA's National Geodetic Survey installs a device to provide data to model the fate of a Chesapeake Bay marsh in the face of rising water levels. National Ocean Service Image Gallery
<p>The rising seas will eventually drown all the saltwater wetlands that now exist, converting them to open water. Some wetlands will survive in place for a time if seas rise slowly enough. But the rate of sea-level rise is <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2680/new-study-finds-sea-level-rise-accelerating/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">accelerating rapidly</a> and other factors, such as<a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1392/pdf/circ1392.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> land subsidence</a>, will shift the balance in favor of rising seas in the years ahead.</p><p>For most saltwater wetlands, survival will require landward migration. This is possible where geography does not present obstacles, such as steep slopes, and where human development has not already staked a claim. There is no national assessment of the feasibility of saltwater wetland migration, but several studies of smaller geographic areas present a bleak picture.</p><p>On the Pacific coast, some 83% of wetlands are projected to become open water by 2110 and "migration of most wetlands was constrained by coastal development or steep topography," according to a 2018 <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/2/eaao3270" target="_blank">study</a> in <em>Science Advances</em>. Along the Gulf of Mexico, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10750-006-0413-8" target="_blank">estimated</a> conversion of wetlands to open water varies for each state, with rates from 24 to 37% by 2060.</p><p>The outlook for saltwater wetland survival darkens further when one considers new coastal development occupying dry land that might otherwise become a new wetland. Population in the 100-year coastal floodplain is expected to almost double by 2060, significantly expanding the coastal development footprint.</p><p>And the rising sea levels that drive wetlands inland will also prompt people to defend the land they are on, often with seawalls, bulkheads or levees. Some <a href="https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/dissertations/v405sb56q" target="_blank">14% of the coast is already armored</a> by this infrastructure and, if the current rate of armoring continues, that percentage is expected to double by 2100.</p><p>Finally, wetlands that are able to migrate will need years to provide the same degree of ecosystem services they did originally. A <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001247" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a> of over 600 restored wetlands worldwide found that biological structure and biogeochemical functioning "remained on average 26% and 23% lower, respectively, than in reference sites" even a century after restoration, which means that even the wetlands to do survive won't provide the same benefits.</p><h1>Envisioning a Strategy for Saving Saltwater Wetlands</h1><p>What can be done to help saltwater wetlands survive the one-two punch of a changing climate and coastal development?</p><p>A critical step is to admit we have a problem and agree that we need a national response strategy. A national strategy should define a goal for saltwater wetlands protection (e.g., a net increase in acreage nationally and by state) and charge a federal agency (e.g., NOAA) with leading the effort.</p><p>The heart of a new strategy needs to be carefully planned for landward migration of saltwater wetlands and deployment of new authority and resources toward that end. This key objective is <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.13169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">widely supported</a> in the academic literature and the work to address it must engage local, state and federal agencies.</p><p>Since it's been more than a decade since the last published assessment of the United States' coastal wetlands, existing saltwater wetlands need to be mapped anew. Then their varying rates of natural change should be assessed and the feasibility of landward migration evaluated. Evaluation of migration should include obstacles, such as natural features, and both existing and likely future development. Coastal places that are not wetlands today but are well suited to become wetlands as sea level rises, should be identified. All this information should be used to develop place-specific plans to protect and preserve the land that wetlands will need to migrate inland on a priority basis.</p><p>While that work is going on, we'll also need to focus on dampening the rate of population growth right along the coast. This will be essential to leave space for successful landward migration of saltwater wetlands. State and local government have <a href="https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s13157-020-01280-x?author_access_token=BVrkh0I-RsR-zwrtMB-pQ_e4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY6kExNXewHYUveAvGcgFjSKck9Xs7TNlJbVCRyYZvxz-9YhI7kpMQod3Q0WUR_hCrO0jELrUDiwSIpnJKdD0C2FKN6dzmBYMXZY7YgKcItWjA%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">diverse tools</a>, including land-use plans and regulations, to apply to this challenge, but the federal government needs to help. For example, FEMA should stop issuing federal flood insurance for new development in coastal floodplains.</p><p>Another critical tool is expanded authority to restrict new coastal armoring projects that would prevent landward migration of saltwater wetlands. <a href="https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/dissertations/v405sb56q" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Eight states</a> have implemented total or partial bans on coastal armoring, but efficacy and enforcement vary. All states should adopt and enforce such bans. These projects also require permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and existing requirements should be revised to give stronger preference for <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/insight/understanding-living-shorelines" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"living shorelines"</a> that replace traditional structures with designs using biological and natural materials.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTYyMTMzNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3MjM2MTE1OH0.wAbTXl5VcvJwgDMIpQGEJmc4WZ7m1QHJwk9Lm_UM0qE/img.jpg?width=980" id="85b52" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ca47e6e3afb4a545e0f58688d5ba16c7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="799" data-height="452" />
<p><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/jeffpeterson/" target="_blank"><em>Jeff Peterson </em></a><em>is a retired senior policy advisor at the Environmental Protection Agency and the author of A New Coast: Strategies for Responding to Devastating Storms and Rising Seas. </em><em><em><a href="https://islandpress.org/books/new-coast" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://islandpress.org/books/new-coast</a></em></em></p><p><em><em><a href="https://islandpress.org/books/new-coast" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a></em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/wetlands-rising-seas-solutions/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>Creating a "living shoreline" in the Delaware estuary. Danielle Kreeger CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
<p>In some places, regulation will not be enough and acquisition of real estate will be necessary. Some states have land-acquisition programs that consider sea-level rise. For example, <a href="https://toolkit.climate.gov/case-studies/using-sea-level-rise-model-identify-and-prioritize-wetlands-conservation-acquisition" target="_blank">Maryland</a> identifies "coastal lands with the highest potential to aid in adaptation if sea level rises a meter per century" and uses the assessment in making conservation investments. People in the San Francisco Bay area voted for <a href="https://www.kqed.org/science/677501/measure-aa-asks-bay-area-residents-to-help-protect-against-sea-level-rise" target="_blank">Measure AA</a> to provide local funds for wetlands protection in the face of sea-level rise. These programs and some others are a foothold but more states need to follow this example.</p><p>Federal agencies need to support these state initiatives by expanding modest existing federal programs that protect coastal wetlands to include purchasing land for prospective wetlands and removing buildings and other structures where needed.</p><p>Saving saltwater wetlands will require that Congress, federal agencies, states and local governments collaborate to agree on the strategy and then approve the new tools and funding needed to carry it forward. This will require years of effort, but the start of a new Congress and a new administration is an auspicious time to begin this important work.</p>
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A Townsend's warbler on March 6, 2020. Dan Streiffert / Flickr
By John R. Platt
What's in a species name?
In some cases, the answers include paternalism, colonialism, sexism and racism.
<p>Take the Townsend's warbler (<em>Setophaga townsendi</em>), for example. This small, bright yellow North American bird was first scientifically described at Fort Vancouver in Washington state, just a few miles from where I live. We get a ton of them in our backyard every year.</p><p>But the Townsend's warbler, beautiful though it may be, is a bird whose name has a dark history. It was named by American naturalist John Kirk Townsend, who described dozens of species in the early 19th century — right around the same time he was stealing human remains from Native American grave sites and shipping the skulls back East to help support a friend's racist theory that Indigenous peoples were actually separate species.</p>
<p>As you might expect, in these more enlightened times, several experts have proposed renaming the Townsend's warbler, along with dozens of other North American birds that bear the names of other <a href="https://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/news/birdwatching/racial-justice-new-push-rename-birds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ethically dubious researchers or historical figures</a>.</p><p>And North American birds are not alone.</p><p>Around the world, taxonomists and conservationists say we need to address similar species-naming issues, although most aren't as glaring as the Townsend case.</p><p>An example comes from biodiversity-rich New Caledonia, an archipelago in the southwest Pacific Ocean about 750 miles east of Australia.</p><p>Like many islands, New Caledonia's remoteness allowed unique species to develop and thrive. Hundreds of unique plants and animals call the islands home, including the world's largest gecko, the 14-inch Leach's giant gecko (<em>Rhacodactylus leachianus</em>), known by many as "the Leachie" and named after English zoologist William Elford Leach, who never set foot on the islands.</p>
<p>"The Leachie" is just one example. A new paper published in the journal <em>Biological Conservation</em>, "<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320720309927?dgcid=rss_sd_all#!" target="_blank">The inequity of species names: The flora of New Caledonia as a case study</a>," examines the names of more than 650 plants native to New Caledonia that have been named after particular people — usually botanists or collectors. It found that just 7% of the species were named after people born on the islands. Further, only 6% of these plants were named after women (and some of those women were the wives or daughters of the botanists).</p><p>This isn't just a function of decisions made centuries ago, either. Most of the species were named by researchers in the past 50 years.</p><p>"We should be more inclusive in our taxonomic practice and think about the consequences for the conservation of the species that are newly named," says Yohan Pillon, the author of the study and a biologist with Institut de Recherche pour le Développement in Montpellier, France.</p>
<p>Of course, naming a plant species in New Caledonia is, at best, challenging due to their stunning variety.</p><p>"The flora of New Caledonia is extremely diverse and complex," Pillon says. "There are over 100 species in the genus <em>Phyllanthus</em>, over 90 species in the genus <em>Psychotria</em>. Few people on Earth can tell them apart."</p><p>Even beyond that challenge, purposefully identifying taxonomic names based on more culturally relevant identifiers poses a few problems. New Caledonia, now a territory of France, was originally inhabited by the Kanak community, who currently represent about 41% of the total population. They've been joined over the centuries by people from Polynesia, Europe and southeast Asia. French is the dominant language, and while the dozens of Indigenous Kanak languages are still spoken and taught, they're not as strong as they once were.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTU5Mjc1Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3NjgyNjA2M30.NbzzrWQBdnM3gwnVlCiy2lfGPdV2pV51L2Ku5XMCDUU/img.jpg?width=980" id="1f953" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0cec9a6d1cfcc1628891e8ad4eb02ea5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1920" data-height="1080" />
New Caledonia. Chris Hoare / CC BY 2.0
<p>"There are 30 Indigenous languages, some spoken by very few people or poorly studied," Pillon says, "which makes ethnobiological surveys complex compared to places like Hawai'i. You need both acute botanical and linguistic knowledge for that. Vernacular names are therefore a very difficult information to collect in New Caledonia and often not very reliable. In New Caledonia, few endemic plants have a known common name."</p><p>But despite any challenges that might come in determining a species' taxonomic moniker, picking the right name can have conservation benefits. Pillon points out a case from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7j8-magqck&t=599" target="_blank">earlier this year</a> in which local people expressed support for naming a new plant species after its sole remaining habitat.</p><p>A similar situation occurred last month in Guiana, where an orchid newly described by scientists had its name chosen by the Pemón Arekuna Indigenous community. Polish researcher Mateusz Wrazidlo told <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/01/new-orchid-species-from-guiana-highlands-named-by-indigenous-group/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mongabay</a> that this was an example of "decolonizing science nomenclature and giving more representation to Indigenous [and] local languages."</p>
<p>Pillon echoes that sentiment. "Conservation science needs to be more inclusive," he wrote in his paper, "and the naming of new species offers an excellent opportunity to acknowledge more broadly the diversity of individuals who have contributed to our understanding of the natural world. Areas of high biodiversity often overlap with areas of high linguistic diversity, but the links among biodiversity and cultural and linguistic diversity are often underappreciated. To promote the preservation of biodiversity, species should be named with an eye toward how these names will be perceived by the local communities involved."</p><p>And it's not just plants and animals that should be named more thoughtfully or renamed to reverse an inequity. Place names also matter. Last year in the United States, Rep. Deb Haaland — currently on track to be the Biden administration's secretary of the Interior — <a href="https://haaland.house.gov/media/press-releases/haaland-green-introduce-bill-address-racist-names-land-units-geographic" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">introduced a bill</a> to reexamine geographic places or features currently known by offensive or racist names, which often belittle Native peoples or erase longstanding Indigenous place names.</p><p>That's no small challenge — there are more than 1,400 of these questionably named locations in the United States alone — but names have power. Renaming something or thoughtfully identifying it in the first place offers one more tool for helping to protect the world's threatened species and habitats — while they still exist for us to name.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/decolonizing-species-names/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Minimal snow was found at the Phillips Station meadow before the start of the first snow survey of 2018, conducted by the California Department of Water Resources. Kelly M. Grow / Calif. Department of Water Resources
By Tara Lohan
Most of us know a bad drought when we see one: Lakes and rivers recede from their normal water lines, crops wither in fields, and lawns turn brown. Usually we think of these droughts as being triggered by a lack of rain, but scientists also track drought in other ways.
<p>"The common ways to measure droughts are through precipitation, soil moisture and runoff," says Laurie S. Huning, an environmental engineer at the University of California, Irvine. Her most recent work adds another dimension to that by looking at water stored in snowpack.</p><p>Huning is the co-author of a study in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, with U.C. Irvine colleague Amir AghaKouchak, which developed a new <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/117/33/19753" target="_blank">framework for characterizing "snow droughts</a>." These can occur when there's an abnormally low snowpack, which may be triggered by low precipitation, warm temperatures or both.</p>
<p>Their research is timely. This winter, southwestern states have received just a quarter to half of the average snow-water equivalent — the amount of water held in the snowpack — the key metric for determining a snow drought.</p><p>And that can have sweeping impacts. The water content of a snowpack can change the amount and timing of when runoff occurs, and that has implications for <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.7126?af=R" target="_blank">wildlife</a>, ecosystems, water resources, flood control, hydropower and drought mitigation.</p><p>Snow droughts can also have far-reaching effects on <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/agriculture">agriculture</a> — and economies. California's Central Valley, the heart of its agriculture industry, relies on snow melt from the Sierra Nevada. The state saw $2.7 billion in losses in the sector following low precipitation and warm temperatures during 2014-2015.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTU1Nzc5OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDk4MzU3NH0.f2MXyjaFO6xyjrhcpBnjuF2yPGDmd1_f_rXbiywCRIo/img.jpg?width=980" id="3dd99" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e47adb32e3286543cd6eed458226597c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1200" data-height="801" />
Frank Gehrke of the Calif. Dept. of Water Resources during the April 1, 2015 snow survey in the Sierra Nevada, which found zero snow for the first time since surveys began in 1942. Florence Low / California Department of Water Resources
<p>Snow droughts can also make conditions dire in regions that are already stressed by conflict and resource shortages. A snow drought in Afghanistan in 2017-2018 triggered crop failures and livestock loses that left 10 million people food insecure.</p><p>The concept of a "snow drought" has been around for several years, and it's been studied in certain key locations, but until now scientists and water managers lacked a worldwide method to assess them.</p><p>The study aims to solve that. Huning and AghaKouchak have developed a standardized snow-water equivalent index in an effort to better characterize and compare the duration and intensity of snow droughts around the world.</p><p>The results already reveal some areas of concern. Looking at data from 1980 to 2018, the researchers found a few hotspots where snow-droughts became longer and more intense during the 21st century.</p><p>The most notable area was the western United States, which saw a 28% increase in the length of periods of snow drought. Eastern Russia and Europe also saw increases, though less severe.</p><p>And on the flip side, some areas saw a decrease in snow drought duration, including the Hindu Kush, Central Asia, greater Himalayas, extratropical Andes and Patagonia.</p><p>"It's important to remember that not only does the snowpack vary but the impact that it has differs across the world," says Huning.</p>
<p>Huning hopes the framework developed for the study can help water managers better understand the amount and timing of snowmelt, and to integrate that with drought monitoring systems to recreate better resiliency and management of resources.</p><p>"We know that the snowpack is highly variable," she says. "Further development of this framework can improve our near real-time monitoring of drought."</p><p>The study didn't delve into the specifics of <em>why</em> snow droughts may be becoming more severe in certain places, but other studies have found that climate change is playing, and will play, a role in reducing snowpack in some areas — including western U.S. states.</p><p>A <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2020GL088679" target="_blank">study</a> by UCLA climate scientists published on Aug. 10 found that in California warmer temperatures will cause more rainfall and less snow during the winter in coming decades. This will likely increase flood risks and reduce the snowpack that usually melts slowly over the spring months.</p>
<p>Earlier research found that a <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/melting-ice-could-cause-more-california-droughts/" target="_blank">decrease in Arctic sea ice</a> leads to changes in atmospheric circulation that creates a high-pressure system, known as an atmospheric ridge, off the Pacific coast. These ridges deflect storms, pushing them northward and leaving the region high and dry. A particularly stubborn system that developed in 2013, nicknamed the "<a href="https://weatherwest.com/archives/5982" target="_blank">ridiculously resilient ridge</a>," had a big hand in California's five-year drought, which extended until 2017.</p><p>Better understanding of how to measure and track snow droughts can give water managers another tool to help plan for similar droughts and to better manage this changing resource.</p><p>"Snow is a natural resource and, given the warming temperatures that some parts of the world will see, the amount of snow is changing," says Huning. "We need to recognize that there are so many different ways the environment and humans will be affected."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/snow-droughts-west/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A monarch butterfly is perched next to an adult caterpillar on a milkweed plant, the only plant the monarch will lay eggs on and the caterpillar will eat. Cathy Keifer / Getty Images
By Tara Lohan
Fall used to be the time when millions of monarch butterflies in North America would journey upwards of 2,000 miles to warmer winter habitat.
<p>But these days the iconic butterfly's numbers are dwindling. The western migratory population is down 97% since the 1980s — a survey this month found <a href="https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/the-monarch-butterfly-population-is-in-danger-of-disappearing/5748017.html" target="_blank">fewer than 2,000</a> — and the eastern population has slipped 80% in just the past 15 years.</p><p>Because of these grim numbers the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-climate-change-wildlife-gardening-traverse-city-acf918688a623a77931a160e268dbc18" target="_blank">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled</a> in December that monarchs deserved protection under the Endangered Species Act, but it would still be several years before the butterflies were listed as threatened or endangered.</p><p>It's time the species may not have.</p><p>Halting the precipitous decline of North American monarch populations hinges, in large part, on milkweed. It's the sole plant the caterpillars eat and where monarchs lay their eggs. It's also quickly disappearing with increasing urbanization and pesticide use.</p><p>Since monarchs can't survive without milkweed, conservation efforts have focused on planting more milkweed. But it's not as simple as it sounds.</p>
<p>"We've learned a good bit in the past two or three years about how to create these types of habitats, but there's not a whole lot of <em>evidence</em> guiding the way we create the plantings," says Adam Dale, an assistant professor in entomology at the University of Florida. "For example, the diversity of plants in a garden, the specific plants that are used and their arrangement — all of those things matter for how the butterflies are able to locate the hosts and move from one to the next."</p><p>In a <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/11/9/648" target="_blank">new study</a> published in the journal <em>Insects,</em> Dale and his colleagues tried to identify whether more diversity of wildflowers in milkweed gardens would be a boon for the beleaguered butterflies or whether plots should contain only milkweed plants.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTU0MTU4NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMDYxMzg1Mn0.zEZfV2vaa9u8XW3icHcnbjs6cCW40P1vINhjXM_X5_I/img.jpg?width=980" id="5e49b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2ed856e3471e09fd659b9f3d20b2be85" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="799" data-height="533" />
A monarch butterfly caterpillar feeds on common milkweed on Poplar Island in Maryland. Photo: Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program, (CC BY-NC 2.0)
<p>Biological diversity in ecosystems is usually a good thing, but a large body of research has shown that more diverse habitat may not be good for species like monarchs that are so specialized in what they eat.</p><p>"There's a potential for actually reducing monarch success by increasing the diversity of plants," in these conservation gardens, says Dale.</p><p>One reason is that a more varied garden can make it harder for the insects to find their host plants if they're obscured visually or chemically. A <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2019.00474/full" target="_blank">recent study</a> from researchers at the University of Kentucky found that monarchs did better when milkweed was planted on the perimeter of gardens.</p><p>Another reason has to do with the "enemies hypothesis," where greater plant diversity means more natural enemies for specialist herbivores like monarchs. Increase the plant diversity and increase the chance of larvae being eaten.</p><p>That's why, Dale says, they were surprised by some of their findings.</p>
<p>In the study, areas where they planted a mix of native swamp milkweed and other wildflowers saw an increase in monarch eggs compared to areas planted with just milkweed. And even though there was an increase in the number of predatory insects, as suspected, it didn't have an effect on the number of monarch larvae that survived.</p><p>"So what we were concerned about didn't come through," he says.</p><p>While the study was done in Florida, Dale says in general the findings should be applicable to monarch populations in other places.</p><p>"Our main goal is to try to create conservation habitat in urban areas where we're replacing natural habitat with human habitat," he says. "So ultimately we're trying to figure out ways to integrate these types of gardens into our yards and green spaces, and just try to make them as good as they can be."</p><p>With monarchs teetering on the edge of extinction, Dale hopes applying what they've learned from research like this can help make conservation efforts more successful.</p><p>"I hope that people who are interested in conserving monarchs and other insects will see this because I think it provides a little more evidence that helps inform how people create these types of gardens," Dale says. "Whether that's a homeowner, a green-space land manager in an urban area, a golf course superintendent looking to create conservation habitat or anyone who's creating these spaces, I think they could use this to improve the condition of the habitat they're creating."</p>
<a href="https://therevelator.org/author/taralohan/" target="_blank"><em>Tara Lohan </em></a><em>is deputy editor of The Revelator and has worked for more than a decade as a digital editor and environmental journalist focused on the intersections of energy, water and climate. Her work has been published by The Nation, American Prospect, High Country News, Grist, Pacific Standard and others. She is the editor of two books on the global water crisis.<br/><br/></em><em>Reposted with permission from T<a href="https://therevelator.org/monarch-milkweed-study/" target="_blank">he Revelator.</a></em>
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Flames approach homes during the Blue Ridge Fire on October 27, 2020 in Chino Hills, California. David McNew / Getty Images
By Tara Lohan
2020 was so bad that even disasters outdid themselves. Last year the United States alone experienced at least 16 weather and climate disasters with losses topping $1 billion each. That's more than twice the long-term average.
<p>What's worse: Expensive disasters are on the rise. 2020 was the sixth year in a row that the United States saw 10 or more billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. And as climate change supercharges storms, wildfires and droughts, this trend will continue to climb.</p><p>To stave off the worst outcomes, scientists say we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which will require steadfast effort from elected officials, policymakers and businesses.</p><p>But since there are no quick fixes for the climate changes already underway, there's one group of experts we'll also need to call on: emergency managers. Unfortunately, although they're tasked with making sure communities are prepared to respond to disasters, they're often left out of conversations about climate change.</p><p><a href="http://www.disaster-ology.com/" target="_blank">Samantha Montano</a>, an assistant professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, and a "disasterlogist," has been working to change that. She's also been calling for emergency management professionals, including government agencies like FEMA, to <a href="http://www.disaster-ology.com/home" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">put the climate crisis and environmental justice</a> at the forefront of their work.</p><p>We spoke to Montano about why we need emergency managers involved in climate conversations, whether disasters are on the rise, and how we prepare for a future with climate-supercharged storms.</p>
<p><strong>We often think of emergency management as responding to "natural disasters," but as you wrote in an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths-about-floods/2019/03/29/d87edce0-5181-11e9-88a1-ed346f0ec94f_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">op-ed</a> for <em>The Washington Post</em>, that term is a bit fraught.</strong></p><p><strong></strong>Disaster experts don't really use the term "natural disaster" because it's a bit of a misnomer. When we're talking about disasters, we're talking about the actual human toll that they take. Is it the fact that a river, which naturally overflows its banks, has caused the disaster? Or is it that we have built homes right next to the river; that we have not maintained the levees that are meant to protect those homes from flooding; that the people who live in that neighborhood and don't have a lot of money aren't able to evacuate; that there aren't government programs there to help people recover quickly?</p><p>All of those things are not natural, right? Those are the human decisions that have ended up making a situation into a disaster. So while a river overflowing its banks may be natural, the fact that it has led to a disaster isn't. So that term "natural disaster" helps to obscure the role of human responsibility in disasters. If everything that happens are just these <em>natural</em> events that we have no control over, then some people may think we can't do anything about it.</p><p>This thinking isn't new in disaster research, but it has gotten a bit more attention in recent years as folks try to understand how climate change fits into all of this. The new term that we hear people using is "climate disaster," which runs into a similar problem.</p><p>Climate change may be a factor that is contributing to a disaster that happened, but it's certainly, again, not the only factor. But if we understand the root causes better, then we can make different decisions and prevent disasters from happening.</p>
<p><strong></strong><strong>There's ample evidence that climate change is supercharging a lot of weather events. Are emergency managers included in conversations about how to fight climate change?</strong></p><p>Within the broader climate change conversation, most of the focus is on carbon emissions and that's very important. And more recently we've seen an uptick in conversations about climate adaptation, which is also important as we begin to experience the consequences of climate change.</p><p>But we hear much less about the pretty significant overlap between climate adaptation and what we in emergency management call "hazard mitigation." It feels sometimes from an emergency management perspective like we're reinventing the wheel a little bit.</p><p>Flooding and wildfires aren't new. We in the emergency management community have been dealing with these hazards for a very long time and we have a lot of knowledge about them. We want to make sure that, especially because of the urgency of the climate crisis, we are pulling from this base of knowledge and experience that we have.</p><p>How much emergency management is integrated into conversations about climate change varies greatly across the country. Maine, for example, just released their plan for a statewide climate council and emergency managers were all on that committee and helped to produce the plan.</p><p>This is a great example of trying to bridge emergency management and adaptation work. But there are other places in the country where you have a part-time emergency manager working in a rural community and they don't have the resources or they're not a part of those climate conversations. There's definitely more work that needs to be done to help bring emergency management and climate adaptation work together.</p>
<p><strong>Climate change can help fuel short-term hazards, like a hurricane, or lead to slow-moving threats such as sea-level rise. How do you differentiate between these from a management perspective?</strong></p><p>We think about hurricanes, wildfires — these more acute events — as ones that emergency management is very obviously on the front line of managing. But issues like sea-level rise, and even longer-term chronic issues like droughts, are areas emergency management is still involved in because it still has an impact on our overall risk.</p><p>Something like an earthquake, which seems pretty far removed from climate change itself, is actually impacted by climate change. Because when we think about the vulnerabilities in our communities that climate change exacerbates, that has an effect on how people are, or aren't, able to respond to an earthquake or the resources that can go toward preparing for an earthquake or mitigating damages.</p><p>So even these events that seem more chronic, or don't seem like they have this direct link to climate change, are actually pretty significantly affected from an emergency management perspective.</p>
<p><strong>It seems there's a new disaster almost every day. Are there really more now? And is climate change to blame?</strong></p><p>It's pretty difficult to find any part of the country that has been untouched by disaster in the past few years. I also think that the way we consume media now also makes them feel more present.</p><p>We watch these disasters unfold live on television in front of us. We get alerts sent to our pockets when a disaster happens. So it's everywhere.</p><p>Climate change, though, I think is a huge part of that. I heard people joke around about not being able to wait until 2020 ends. And I get that. It was a really bad year. But these disasters aren't just going to go away. We're not making the changes we need to be to lessen those disasters or prevent those disasters from happening. We're in this for the long haul until we start making some different choices.</p><p><strong>The coronavirus pandemic is a different kind of disaster than a weather-related event. What were the biggest lessons you'll take away from our response to it?</strong></p><p>The way that we normally approach emergency management in these acute disasters is with help converging from neighboring communities, the state and the federal government. This March, however, was the first time that every single emergency agency in the country at all levels of government was activated simultaneously. So we didn't have the mutual aid, expertise and funding that we can usually send to places in a crisis because everyone was in the middle of their own crisis.</p><p>That has never happened before in the United States. It was a unique situation to see the strain on our systems and to start doing research and analyzing the effect that it has had on the response.</p><p>I draw the parallel there to climate change. Not that there is going to be a flood happening in every single state at one time, but as we see our risk increase, we'll see these disasters increase. In 2017 we saw hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria all happening nearly at once.</p><p>When that happens, what is our ability to meet all of those needs? How does the capacity of the emergency management system handle that? I think COVID has given us a little bit of a window into the future.</p><p>As a researcher I'm really hopeful that by studying how emergency management agencies specifically have responded to COVID we'll be able to take that data and take those findings and use it to inform policy changes for emergency management as we go into the climate crisis.</p>
<p><strong>You have a book coming out this summer about climate change and emergency management. Who do you hope it reaches?</strong></p><p>The book I'm writing is a combination of my experience going to different disasters and pulls from the disaster research to help the public understand what emergency management is and all that is involved in disasters. But it's also a pretty stark warning about the problem that we are barreling headfirst into in terms of how the emergency management system is unprepared to address the consequences of the climate crisis.</p><p>It's a book that will hopefully inspire people to some kind of action, whether locally or nationally, to make sure that disaster survivors across the country, who are the ones on the front lines of the climate crisis, are getting the help that they need. And that we're doing everything we can to prevent those disasters from happening. I'm hoping that it's really an empowering book that gives people the language and the education that they need to play a more active role in their community.</p>
<p><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/taralohan/" target="_blank"><em>Tara Lohan </em></a><em>is deputy editor of The Revelator and has worked for more than a decade as a digital editor and environmental journalist focused on the intersections of energy, water and climate. Her work has been published by The Nation, American Prospect, High Country News, Grist, Pacific Standard and others. She is the editor of two books on the global water crisis.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/disaster-climate-montano/" target="_blank">The Revelator.</a></em></p>
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Doug Emhoff, U.S. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Jill Biden and President-elect Joe Biden wave as they arrive on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol for the inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021 in Washington, DC. Joe Raedle / Getty Images
By John R. Platt
The period of the 45th presidency will go down as dark days for the United States — not just for the violent insurgency and impeachment that capped off Donald Trump's four years in office, but for every regressive action that came before.
<p>It's been said that Trump was the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-worst-president-environment-2645034831.html" target="_self">worst environmental president in history</a>, and that's easy to see from his administration's record. They rolled back decades of environmental progress by slashing protective regulations, strangled the agencies tasked with enforcing the regulations that remained, pushed corporate agendas damaging to wildlife, human health and the climate, and stoked the flames of right-wing extremists — including people whose radical agendas often attack public-land protections or climate science.</p><p>That barely covers it all, of course. It would take an entire book — a whole library — to fully convey the environmental damage done under Trump.</p>
<p>And now it's up to a new administration — and the work of a lot of people on top of it — to undo the damage and hopefully make up for four lost years of potential progress.</p><p>President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, together with the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, have a tough task ahead of them.</p><p>Make that many tough tasks. They'll need to rebuild the ranks of government workforces while reinforcing the trust in government and the trust in America on the world stage. They'll need to pass and restore regulations that don't just return us to the status quo but radically improve on it — taking the world forward at a time when the effects of climate change and the extinction crisis continue to worsen. 2020 tied for the <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08012021/2020-earth-hottest-year-temperatures/" target="_blank">hottest year on record</a>, and Trump <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/trump-has-listed-the-fewest-endangered-species-of-any-p-1845854952" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">added fewer species</a> to the Endangered Species Act than any other president while <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/08/12/750479370/trump-administration-makes-major-changes-to-protections-for-endangered-species" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">slashing protections</a> for those already on the list. They'll need to address environmental justice at a time when white supremacy is at its most vocal point in decades and firmly entrenched in some areas of government. They'll need to resist the usual corporate influence that could slow things down along the way.</p>
<p>And they'll need to do it all while helping the country stabilize and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and Trump's botched response to the crisis, not to mention the continued threat from seditious domestic terrorists.</p><p>That's a lot on one plate, but they're already off to a good start. Biden and Harris ran on a strong climate platform and have assembled an experienced climate team. Neither the platform nor the team is perfect — progressives think they can do much better — but they're light years ahead of anything we saw under the previous administration.</p><p>And of course, now that the Democrats have won the Senate, Biden's cabinet picks are more likely to be confirmed and the country will no longer face the obstruction ever-present under the majority leadership of Mitch McConnell.</p>
<p>But at the same time, Republicans have risen to power in cities and state legislatures around the country, and many of them are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/us/politics/trump-republicans.html" target="_blank">still fueled by MAGA Trumpism</a> and unhinged conspiracy theories. The right-wing media, meanwhile, continue to shape and mold millions with their unique brand of misinformation and discord. Both trends will present a barrier to progress at every level.</p><p>So what's the agenda for moving forward under the Biden-Harris administration? Below, you'll find a series of articles and expert commentaries from <em>The Revelator</em>'s archives addressing key steps the incoming team can take to restore the EPA, protect key species, address the COVID-19 pandemic in a just and climate-focused manner, and more.</p><p>We'll continue to add to these roadmaps as the administration gets its footing, and we invite any insiders and experts to <a href="https://therevelator.org/contact#write-for-us" target="_blank">contribute their own voices</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://therevelator.org/reform-blm-biden/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reform the Bureau of Land Management: Biden Must Succeed Where Obama Failed</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/climate-new-deal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">For a Path Forward on Climate, Let's Learn From the Original New Deal</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/gray-wolf-biden-administration/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gray Wolf Recovery and Survival Require Immediate Action by the Biden Administration</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/restoring-epa-biden/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biden Can Restore the EPA, But It Will Require Steadfast Effort</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/biden-restore-rollbacks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">How Biden Can Do More Than Just Restore Trump's Environmental Rollbacks</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/biden-climate-plan-trent/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biden-Harris Climate Plan: 'Not Trump' Is Not Enough</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/biden-leadership-wildlife-crime/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biden Must Take a Leadership Role Against Wildlife Crime</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/multisolving-covid-recovery/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Multisolving Our Way to COVID-19 Economic Recovery</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/biden-climate-farber/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biden Can Leverage Larger Trends to Make Climate Progress</a></p><p><em>And here's a report from our parent organization, the Center for Biological Diversity:</em></p><p><a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/report-50-critical-environmental-reforms-president-biden-can-enact-without-congress-2020-12-03/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">50 Critical Environmental Reforms President Biden Can Enact Without Congress</a></p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/rebuilding-years/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A seagull flies in front of the Rampion offshore wind farm in the United Kingdom. Neil / CC BY 2.0
By Tara Lohan
A key part of the United States' clean energy transition has started to take shape, but you may need to squint to see it. About 2,000 wind turbines could be built far offshore, in federal waters off the Atlantic Coast, in the next 10 years. And more are expected.
<p>East Coast states from Maine to North Carolina are working to procure nearly <a href="https://www.oedigital.com/news/483741-2020-has-been-a-big-year-for-us-offshore-wind" target="_blank">30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035</a> — a huge leap from the five turbines currently generating 30 megawatts in Rhode Island waters. If a regulatory backlog of projects awaiting approval from the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is finally unstuck — <a href="https://therevelator.org/offshore-wind-growth/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">as experts hope will happen this year</a> — the buildout of offshore wind will arrive during a crucial decade for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.</p><p>Spinning turbine blades on the watery horizon may be a welcome sight in the fight against climate change, but they still come with potential threats to marine wildlife. Many environmental groups believe the challenges aren't insurmountable if scientific study can help inform regulatory action and if we can learn — and adapt our practices — as we go.</p><p>"We believe that offshore wind can absolutely be developed in an environmentally responsible manner," says Francine Kershaw, a staff scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "But that has to be incorporated throughout the whole process — from site assessment through development, construction and operations."</p>
Threats to Birds
<p>One of the gravest threats facing birds is climate change, according to Audubon, which found that rising temperatures threaten <a href="https://www.audubon.org/2019climateissue" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">nearly two-thirds of North America's bird species</a>. That's why the impending development of offshore wind is a good thing, says Shilo Felton, a field manager in the organization's Clean Energy Initiative, but it also comes with dangers to birds that need to be better studied and mitigated.</p><p>The most obvious risk comes from birds colliding with spinning turbine blades. But offshore wind developments can also displace birds from foraging or roost sites, as well as migratory pathways.</p><p>Along the Atlantic Coast four imperiled species are of top concern to conservationists: the endangered piping plover, red knot, roseate tern and black-capped petrel, which is being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act.</p><p>"Those four species are of utmost importance to make sure that we understand the impacts," says Felton. "But beyond that there are many species that are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act that could potentially see more impacts from offshore wind."</p><p>Northern gannets, for example, are at risk not just for collision but <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308703197_Possible_impacts_of_offshore_wind_farms_on_seabirds_a_pilot_study_in_Northern_Gannets_in_the_southern_North_Sea" target="_blank">habitat displacement</a>.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQ3NDc0My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MzA3NTkwM30.L3sUMX9PbRxFqSnNPKWfQSB33NNak0zZ6x9gdLCZPJM/img.jpg?width=980" id="31fc5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e1429caf713cfa9e6b78cc218d884453" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="799" data-height="533" />
A northern gannet flying along Cape May, N.J. Ann Marie Morrison / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
<p>"There's <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320716303196" target="_blank">some evidence</a> that they just won't use areas where turbines are, but that also excludes them from key foraging areas," says Felton. Researchers are still studying what this may mean for the birds. But a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141113620305304" target="_blank">study</a> published in December 2020 conducted at Bass Rock, Scotland — home to the world's largest northern gannet colony — found that wind developments could reduce their growth rate, though not enough to cause a population decline.</p><p>Other birds, such as great cormorants and European shags, are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320716303196" target="_blank">attracted to wind developments</a> and use the infrastructure to rest while opening up new foraging areas farther from shore.</p><p>"There's plenty of potential for a bird to use a wind farm and still to avoid the turbines themselves," says Felton.</p><p>Birds like pelicans, however, are less versatile in their movements and are at particular risk of collision because of their flight pattern, she says.</p><p>But how disruptive or dangerous offshore turbines will be along the East Coast isn't yet known.</p><p>Federal and state agencies, along with nongovernmental organizations, says Felton, have done good research to try to better understand those potential impacts. "But these are all theoretical, because we don't have a lot of offshore wind yet in the United States."</p>Threats to Ocean Life
<p>Birds aren't the only wildlife of concern. More development in ocean waters could affect a litany of marine species, some of which are already facing other pressures from overfishing, pollution, habitat destruction and climate change.</p><p>Scientists have found that marine mammals like whales and dolphins could be disturbed by the jarring sounds of construction, especially if pile driving is used to hammer the steel turbine platform into the seafloor.</p><p>The noises, though short-lived, could impede communication between animals, divert them from migration routes or cause them to seek less suitable areas for feeding or breeding. Research from Europe found that harbor porpoises, seals and dolphins may avoid development areas during construction. In most, but <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/7/4/045101" target="_blank">not all cases</a>, the animals were believed to have returned to the area following construction.</p><p>The biggest concern for conservation groups in the United States is the critically endangered North American right whale. There are fewer than 400 remaining, and the species' habitat overlaps with a number of planned wind development areas along the East Coast.</p><p>"Offshore wind is in no way the cause of the challenges the whales face, but it's going to be another pressure point," says John Rogers, senior energy analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists.</p><p>Researchers aren't sure how right whales will respond to the noise from pile driving.</p><p>"But we are concerned, based on what we know about how whales react to other noise sources, that they may avoid [wind development] areas," says Kershaw.</p><p>And if that displacement causes them to miss out on important food resources, it could be dangerous for a species already on the brink.</p><p>There are a few other potential threats, too.</p><p>Ships associated with the development — more plentiful during construction — also pose a danger. In the past few years cargo ships, fishing boats and other vessels have caused half of all deaths of North Atlantic right whales.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQ3NDg5MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1ODIyNzI3MX0.PzGzo5LJmV9E00augQhHgO5eMTxkVqRBYGZrzkrxP78/img.jpg?width=980" id="f44b2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5fcb375b72d14dd0cf745ecc7fb4494a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="799" data-height="533" />
A juvenile right whale breaches against the backdrop of a ship near the St. Johns River entrance. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission / NOAA Research Permit #775-1600-10
<p>And after construction, the noise from the spinning turbines will be present in the water at low decibels. "We don't quite know how the great whales will react to those sounds," says Jeremy Firestone, the director of the Center for Research in Wind at the University of Delaware.</p><p>Other marine mammals may also perceive the noise, but at low decibels it's unlikely to be an impediment, <a href="http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v309/p279-295/" target="_blank">research has found</a>.</p><p>And it's possible that wind development could help some ocean life. Turbine foundations can attract fish and invertebrates for whom hard substrates create habitat complexity — known as the "reef effect," according to researchers from the University of Rhode Island's <a href="https://dosits.org/animals/effects-of-sound/anthropogenic-sources/wind-turbine/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Discovery of Sound in the Sea</a> program. Exclusion of commercial fishing nearby may also help shelter fish and protect marine mammals from entanglements in fishing gear.</p>Ensuring Safe Development
<p>Despite the potential dangers, researchers have gathered a few best practices to help diminish and possibly eliminate some risks.</p><p>When it comes to ship strikes, the easiest thing is to slow boats down, mandating a speed of <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/vessel-speed-limits-sought-protect-endangered-north-atlantic-right-whales-2020-08-06/" target="_blank">10 knots</a> in wind development areas, and using visual and acoustic monitoring for whales.</p><p>Adjusting operations to reduce boat trips between the shore and the wind development will also help. A new series of service operating vessels can allow maintenance staff to spent multiple days onsite, says Kershaw, cutting down on boat traffic.</p><p>For construction noise concerns, developers can avoid pile driving during times of the year when whales are present. And, depending on the marine environment, developers could use "quiet foundations" that don't require pile driving. These include gravity-based or suction caisson platforms.</p><p>Floating turbines are also used in deep water, where they're effectively anchored in place — although that poses its own potential danger. "We have concerns that marine debris could potentially become entangled around the mooring cables of the floating arrays and pose a secondarily entanglement risk to some species," says Felton, who thinks more research should be conducted before those become operational in U.S. waters — a process that's already underway in Maine, where a <a href="https://composites.umaine.edu/2020/08/05/diamond-offshore-wind-rwe-renewables-join-the-university-of-maine-to-lead-development-of-maine-floating-offshore-wind-demonstration-project/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">demonstration project is being built</a>.</p><p>If loud noises are unavoidable during construction, noise-reducing technologies such as bubble curtains can help dampen the sound. And scheduling adjacent projects to conduct similar work at the same time could limit the duration of disturbances.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQ3NDkwMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3NDIwMTMwNX0.EzMWtZyoKz02dkfoC7ZYvs51VS4JwnUZzeaby4WBs5w/img.jpg?width=980" id="fa370" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5f32770cc89291d00aed7de6d0204760" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="755" data-height="552" />
The foundation installation of the off shore wind farm Sandbank using a bubble curtain. Vattenfall / Ulrich Wirrwa / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
<p>Once turbines become operational, reducing the amount of light on wind platforms or using flashing lights could help deter some seabirds, NRDC <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/harnessing-wind-advance-wind-power-offshore-ib.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">researchers reported</a>. And scientists are exploring using ultrasonic noises and ultraviolet lighting to keep bats away. "Feathering," or shutting down the turbine blades during key migration times, could also help prevent fatalities.</p><p>"We need to make sure that offshore wind is the best steward it can be of the marine ecosystem, because we want and expect it to be a significant part of the clean energy picture in some parts of the country," says Rogers. "We also have to recognize that we're going to learn by doing, and that some of these things we're going to figure out best once we have more turbines in the water."</p><p>That's why environmental groups say it's important to establish baseline information on species before projects begin, and then require developers to conduct monitoring during construction and for years after projects are operational.</p><p>Employing an "adaptive management framework" will ensure that developers can adjust their management practices as they go when new information becomes available, and that those best practices are incorporated into the requirements for future projects.</p>Putting Research Into Action
<p>Advancing these conversations at the federal level during the Trump administration, though, has been slow going.</p><p>"We didn't really have any productive discussions with the administration in the last four years," says Kershaw.</p><p>And when it comes to birds, Felton says the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's recently completed "draft cumulative environmental impact statement" covering offshore wind developments had a lot of good environmental research, but little focus on birds.</p><p>"Part of that comes from the current administration's interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act," she says.</p><p>President Trump has been hostile to both wind energy <em>and</em> birds, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/climate/trump-migratory-bird-protections.html" target="_blank">and finished gutting the Migratory Bird Treaty Act</a> in his administration's the final days, removing penalties for companies whose operations kill migratory birds.</p><p>There's hope that the Biden administration will take a different approach. But where the federal government has been lacking lately, Kershaw says, they've seen states step up.</p><p>New York, for example, has established an <a href="https://www.nyetwg.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Environmental Technical Working Group</a> composed of stakeholders to advise on environmentally responsible development of offshore wind.</p><p>The group is led by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, but it isn't limited to the Empire State. It's regional in focus and includes representatives from wind developers with leases between Massachusetts and North Carolina; state agencies from Massachusetts to Virginia; federal agencies; and science-based environmental NGOs.</p><p>New York's latest solicitation for clean energy projects includes up to 2,500 megawatts of offshore wind and <a href="https://www.nyetwg.com/announcements" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">requires developers</a> to contribute at least $10,000 per megawatt for regional monitoring of fisheries and other wildlife.</p><p>Environmental groups have also worked directly with developers, including an agreement with Vineyard Wind — an 800-megawatt project off the Massachusetts coast that could be the first utility-scale wind development in federal waters — to help protect North Atlantic right whales.</p><p>The agreement includes no pile driving from Jan. 1 to April 30, ceasing activities at other times when whales are visually or acoustically identified in the area, speed restrictions on vessels, and the use of noise reduction technology, such as a bubble curtain during pile driving.</p><p>"The developers signed the agreement with us, and then they incorporated, most, if not all of those measures into the federal permitting documents," says Kershaw. "The developers really did a lot of bottom up work to make sure that they were being very protective of right whales."</p><p>Environmental groups are in talks with other developers on agreements too, but Felton wants to see best practices being mandated at the federal level.</p><p>"It's the sort of a role that should be being played by the federal government, and without that it makes the permitting and regulation process less stable and less transparent," she says." And that in turn slows down the build out of projects, which is also bad for birds because it doesn't help us address and mitigate for climate change."</p><p>Kershaw agrees there's a lot more work to be done, especially at the federal level, but thinks we're moving in the right direction.</p><p>"I think the work that's been done so far in the United States has really laid the groundwork for advancing this in the right way and in a way that's protective of species and the environment," she says. "At the same time, it's important that offshore wind does advance quickly. We really need it to help us combat the worst effects of climate change."</p><p><em><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/taralohan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tara Lohan</a> is deputy editor of The Revelator and has worked for more than a decade as a digital editor and environmental journalist focused on the intersections of energy, water and climate. Her work has been published by The Nation, American Prospect, High Country News, Grist, Pacific Standard and others. She is the editor of two books on the global water crisis.</em></p><p><em style="">Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/offshore-wind-wildlife" target="_blank" style="">The Revelator</a>. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
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