USDA Deregulates Two Lines of Genetically Engineered Corn From Monsanto, Syngenta
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said last week it will allow farmers to plant two new strains of genetically modified (GMO) corn, one created by Monsanto and the other by Syngenta, without government oversight. The new strains are tolerant of the weed killers dicamba and glufosinate.
The decision is likely to lead to ever-greater use of these and other pesticides to grow genetically engineered crops, giving consumers yet another reason to want food products containing GMO ingredients to be labeled accordingly.
Like earlier GMO crops that were modified to be herbicide-tolerant, the new GMO corn is designed to survive being blanketed with toxic chemicals that kill weeds and other plant life on the field.
Reuters reported that Monsanto created the new corn strain in response to growing competition facing its signature Roundup herbicide from generic alternatives to glyphosate, Roundup’s key ingredient. But perhaps more notably, Monsanto wants to diversify its herbicide portfolio because more and more weeds have evolved into so-called superweeds that can withstand glyphosate.
This news is the latest illustration of the chemical treadmill created by genetically modified crops. Once one herbicide stops working, manufacturers come up with a new set of chemicals.
We don’t always know the health effects of the increased use of these herbicides, especially in combination with other environmental contaminants, but we do know that the massive expansion of GMO crops has led to an explosion in herbicide use, specifically glyphosate, by U.S. farms.
American consumers, however, have no way to know whether the food they’re eating was produced with GMOs and thus likely to have been doused with chemicals that have been linked to cancer and other diseases.
Now that USDA has abdicated responsibility for regulating where and how much of this new GMO corn will be planted, it is more critical than ever that Congress pass a mandatory GMO-labeling law to give consumers the information that 9 out of every 10 Americans want.
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With restaurants and supermarkets becoming less viable options during the pandemic, there has been a growth in demand and supply of local food. Baker County Tourism Travel Baker County / Flickr
By Robin Scher
Beyond the questions surrounding the availability, effectiveness and safety of a vaccine, the COVID-19 pandemic has led us to question where our food is coming from and whether we will have enough.
<p><br/></p>
<p>According to a United Nations World Food Program (WFP) <a href="https://www.wfp.org/news/covid-19-will-double-number-people-facing-food-crises-unless-swift-action-taken" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">report</a>, COVID-19 might have left up to 265 million people with acute food shortages in 2020. The combined effect of the pandemic as well as the emerging global recession "could, without large-scale coordinated action, disrupt the functioning of food systems," which would "result in consequences for health and nutrition of a severity and scale unseen for more than half a century," states another UN <a href="https://unsdg.un.org/resources/policy-brief-impact-covid-19-food-security-and-nutrition" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">report</a>.</p>
<p>In the United States, "food insecurity has doubled overall, and tripled among households with children" due to the pandemic, states a <a href="https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/documents/reports/ipr-rapid-research-reports-pulse-hh-data-10-june-2020.pdf#link=%7B%22role%22:%22standard%22,%22href%22:%22https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/documents/reports/ipr-rapid-research-reports-pulse-hh-data-10-june-2020.pdf%22,%22target%22:%22%22,%22absolute%22:%22%22,%22linkText%22:%22June%20report%22%7D" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">June 2020 report</a> by the Institute for Policy Research (IPR) at Northwestern University, which relied on data provided by the <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/household-pulse-survey.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey</a>. In a recent <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/staggering-need-covid-19-has-led-to-rising-levels-in-food-insecurity-across-the-u-s/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">interview</a> with CBS News, IPR Director Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach warned that these statistics would likely "continue to hold," with the numbers indicating particularly dramatic rises in food insecurity among Black and Latinx families. Indeed, families of color are being disproportionately impacted. According to an analysis of new Census data by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/economy/struggling-families-and-economy-need-robust-bipartisan-covid-relief-agreement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">22 percent of Black and 21 percent of Latinx respondents reported not having enough to eat</a>, compared to just 9 percent of white people.</p>
<p>Globally, the effects of COVID-19 on food security are equally, if not more, severe. According to a CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-famines-united-nations-warning/" target="_blank">report</a>, WFP Director David Beasley <a href="https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-chief-warns-hunger-pandemic-covid-19-spreads-statement-un-security-council" target="_blank">told</a> the UN Security Council in April 2020 that the world is on "the brink of a hunger pandemic." He added, "In a worst-case scenario, we could be looking at famine in about three dozen countries, and in fact, in 10 of these countries we already have more than one million people per country who are on the verge of starvation."</p><p>"The number of chronically hungry people increased by an estimated 130 million last year, to more than 800 million — about eight times the total number of COVID-19 cases to date," <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/prevent-next-food-crisis-now" target="_blank">wrote</a> Mark Lowcock, the under-secretary-general and emergency relief coordinator at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and Axel van Trotsenburg, managing director of operations at the World Bank. "Countries affected by conflict and climate change are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity. Empty stomachs can stunt whole generations."</p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) <a href="https://www.usda.gov/oce/energy-and-environment/food-security" target="_blank">warns</a> that climate change "is likely to diminish continued progress on global food security through production disruptions that lead to local availability limitations and price increases, interrupted transport conduits, and diminished food safety." The same might be said about the pandemic, which has made it abundantly clear: climate resilience, food security and global health are closely intertwined.</p><p>In terms of food security, another major concern is the pandemic-related school closures that have occurred across the globe, with UNICEF reporting that more than <a href="https://data.unicef.org/covid-19-and-children/" target="_blank">1.6 billion children and young people</a> have been affected. Schools provide a food lifeline for children; for so many, that is where they get their only nutritious meal of the day. In January, the UNICEF Office of Research — Innocenti, and WFP released a new <a href="https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/nutrition-crisis-looms-more-39-billion-school-meals-missed-start-pandemic-unicef-and" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">report</a> that found that more than 39 billion in-school meals have been missed worldwide since the pandemic began, with 370 million children worldwide having missed 40 percent of in-school meals.</p>
<p>In early 2020, when COVID-19 was still a looming specter rather than the deadly virus we're more familiar with today, the threat of food insecurity was a practical problem. Scenes of shoppers descending on aisles to stock up on supplies were a common sight. As <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/18/business/supermarkets-rationing-coronavirus/index.html" target="_blank">CNN reported</a> in March 2020, supermarkets around the world rationed food and other products such as toilet paper and cleaning supplies, in an effort to curb stockpiling.</p><p>In Vermont, for instance, a steady increase in food insecurity since the start of the pandemic has correlated to employment levels, according to a <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/uvmnews/news/uvm-survey-food-insecurity-vermont-rose-33-during-pandemic" target="_blank">survey</a> conducted by the University of Vermont between March and April 2020. Approximately 45 percent of respondents "had lost their jobs, been furloughed or had their hours reduced during the pandemic," and a further two-thirds of survey participants who recorded scarcity of food in their households "had experienced job losses or work disruptions since the outbreak of the pandemic," according to the survey. Vermont is just one example; the impact has been felt across the U.S. During the week before Thanksgiving in 2020, the Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/nov/25/us-hunger-surges-spiraling-pandemic?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a> that 5.6 million U.S. households "struggled to put enough food on the table," while referring to the analysis of the Census data by CBPP.</p>
<p>As the pandemic continues to upend lives across the world, it has impacted the entire food supply chain. With factory and supermarket workers being <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31200-9/fulltext" target="_blank">highly susceptible</a> to COVID-19, there's been a concomitant <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2020/05/28/another-look-availability-and-prices-food-amid-covid-19-pandemic" target="_blank">decline</a> in food production and a rise in prices. As Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), <a href="https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2020/04/what-if-coronavirus-strikes-tens-thousands-food-and-farm-workers-same-time" target="_blank">reported</a>, farmers in the U.S. were already facing labor shortages prior to the pandemic, and with tightened immigration as well as the heightened risk and poor compensation associated with these jobs, "food processors and farm labor contractors may struggle to find other workers willing to risk their lives to work in meat plants, packing sheds or produce fields."</p><p>The pandemic has exposed the weakness of the industrialized global food system, which depends on long, complex transportation chains and cross-border travel. "[T]he monstrous and unsustainable food industry known as <a href="https://psmag.com/social-justice/big-ag-monopolies-have-stifled-small-farmers-2020-democrats-want-to-break-them-up" target="_blank">Big Ag</a>... relies on the horrendous <a href="https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-database/2018/01/18/improving-working-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">treatment</a> of laborers, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-destroying-food.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wasteful allocation of resources</a>, worldwide <a href="https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/factory-farming-is-killing-the-environment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">environmental devastation</a> — and in a pinch, can quickly devolve into near-collapse of the entire system, as evidenced by the delays, shortages and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/coronavirus/food-supply-chain" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pressure</a> during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pandemic-of-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deepening hunger crisis</a> in America," April M. Short, a fellow at the Independent Media Institute, recently <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/02/04/covid-19-has-exposed-the-fragility-of-our-food-system--heres-how-we-can-localize-it_partner/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote</a> in Salon. "Among the many necessary systemic changes 2020 has illuminated is the need to majorly restructure the way we cultivate and access food in our communities."</p>
<p>It didn't take the pandemic to reveal the inefficiency and injustice of our food system: Globally, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/20/health/global-food-waste-higher/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a third of all food is wasted</a>, while nearly <a href="https://gho.unocha.org/global-trends/hunger-rising-covid-19-will-make-it-worse" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">690 million people were undernourished in 2019</a> — almost 60 million more people than in 2014. But the pandemic has underscored the matter: According to <a href="https://gho.unocha.org/global-trends/hunger-rising-covid-19-will-make-it-worse" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OCHA</a>, "the number of acutely food insecure people could increase to 270 million due to COVID-19, representing an 82 percent increase compared to the number of acutely food insecure people pre-COVID-19."<br></p><p>And the disruption of transportation has shown that the long distances it normally takes for food to get from one place to another can be a serious liability during a crisis. "[F]ood banks are under tremendous pressure to meet the skyrocketing demand," said a CNN article quoting from a letter Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, Feeding America CEO, and Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/13/business/farmers-food-supply-food-banks-donations-trnd/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote</a> to then-Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in April 2020. "At the same time, however, we are seeing literally tons of agricultural goods being discarded because of the shutdown of so much of the economy."</p>
<p>Consumer demand has shifted from eating out at restaurants and food services away from home, and food supply chain operations have had to be retooled. And that impact has been felt within the transportation sector. Forbes <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jennysplitter/2020/03/18/covid-19-and-truck-driver-shortage-may-threaten-food-supply-chain/?sh=5495ccbd523e" target="_blank">reported</a> that Andrew Novakovic, an agricultural economist at Cornell University, "points to a number of weak spots in the food transportation system that could be aggravated by the increased demand for food." A shortage of truck drivers is one potential weak spot, says Novakovic. Although he concedes there is debate on this matter, Novakovic maintains that "[t]rucking companies are finding it much harder to recruit [those] long haul drivers." China, which was the first country to be hit by the virus, offers insight into the prolonged impact of the pandemic on transportation and food systems. The lockdown in the Hubei province of China, which is home to 66 million people, led to a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-coronavirus-will-delay-agricultural-export-surges-promised-in-trade-deal-with-china-132227" target="_blank">shortage</a> in delivery of animal feed as well as refrigerated containers full of imported vegetables, fruit and frozen meat in February 2020, according to an article in The Conversation.</p>
<p>In addition to shifting consumer demand, the pandemic has also made us take a closer look at where our food comes from and how it impacts not only the lives of food workers but also the lives of animals trapped in the food system. According to a <a href="https://www.aspca.org/news/survey-says-covid-19-crisis-drives-americans-desire-reform-animal-agriculture" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new public opinion survey</a> conducted by Lake Research Partners and commissioned by the animal rights group American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, "[t]he vast majority (89 percent) of Americans are concerned about industrial animal agriculture, citing animal welfare, worker safety or public health risks as a concern." The survey also found that "85 percent of farmers and their families support a complete ban on new industrial animal agriculture facilities — almost twice the level of support expressed by the general public." This finding shows key support for the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3221/text" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Farm System Reform Act</a>, legislation that was introduced in 2019 by Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey that, among other reforms, seeks to put a <a href="https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-unveils-bill-to-reform-farm-system" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">moratorium on new or expanding factory farms</a>.</p>
<p>Food insecurity has long been a pressing issue, particularly for developing countries. However, as Mir Ashrafun Nahar, a research associate at the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling, <a href="https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/views/fallout-of-covid-19-on-food-security-1603117667" target="_blank">explained</a> in a Financial Express article, "the COVID-19 pandemic has made it more acute." In response, Nahar argues for a policy-based approach that includes "subsidy based transportation systems for agriculture" to support supply chains, as well as policies aimed at cutting down on agricultural production costs in order to help farmers recover from the effects of the pandemic.</p><p>With the pandemic still affecting food supply, though, there are a number of logical measures for reducing the impact of the virus and maximizing output. "First, OSHA [the Occupational Safety and Health Administration] and the USDA must be directed to issue emergency standards that require employers to provide personal protective equipment, enough space to work without spreading the virus, and housing and transportation options that will reduce the spread of the virus," <a href="https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2020/04/what-if-coronavirus-strikes-tens-thousands-food-and-farm-workers-same-time" target="_blank">wrote</a> Faber.</p>
<p>Proposed in April 2020, Faber's suggestions, unfortunately, remained <a href="https://www.ewg.org/testimony-official-correspondence/covid-19-bill-fails-protect-workers-and-hungry-families" target="_blank">unaddressed</a> under the Trump administration. Faber's relief measures further include the expansion of USDA programs to purchase surplus commodities to offset supply chain disruption; redirecting food that might be destroyed toward food banks; and increasing the standard SNAP benefit (food stamps) by 15 percent. And, echoing Nahar, Faber also proposes adopting policies that will help to alleviate financial burdens faced by farmers and food suppliers, as well as offering subsidy support.</p><p>The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental economic group with 37 member countries, said that the pandemic "has laid bare pre-existing gaps in social protection systems" in a <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y2jp7zk9" target="_blank">report</a> published in June 2020. "While the impacts of COVID-19 are still unfolding, experience so far shows the importance of an open and predictable international trade environment to ensure food can move to where it is needed," the OECD report states. "The biggest risk for food security is not with food availability but with consumers' access to food: safety nets are essential to avoid an increase in hunger and food insecurity."</p>
<p>Another problem is the lack of media coverage about the food insecurity being witnessed around the world, particularly during the COVID-19 era. As the Economist recently <a href="https://espresso.economist.com/6d94f9a8ea3ab919370c4bbd22ce9956" target="_blank">pointed out</a>, journalists in 2020 "wrote more than 50,000 articles about the canceled Eurovision song contest, but only around 2,000 about drought and hunger in Zambia."</p><p>Fortunately, beyond the failings of a state-led response to the pandemic, some positives have emerged at a community level. With restaurants and supermarkets becoming less viable options, there has been a growth in demand and supply of local food. According to <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coronavirus-small-local-farms-food_n_5e86332cc5b6d302366ccdcc" target="_blank">HuffPost</a><em>,</em> farmers have seen "a massive rise in demand for local produce." The result of this trend is that consumers who are able to access local food are changing their behavior toward procurement and consumption of food permanently.</p>
<p>Things are changing on a federal level, too. In a recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/26/dining/usda-food-policy-biden.html" target="_blank">article</a> about how the U.S. food system could be transformed during the Biden administration, New York Times food correspondent Kim Severson noted that "[h]unger relief is a pressing issue" for Tom Vilsack, who has been <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/23/politics/tom-vilsack-confirmed-agriculture-secretary/index.html" target="_blank">confirmed</a> by the Senate to become the agriculture secretary in Biden's Cabinet, a job the former Iowa governor also held under the Obama administration. However, while Severson notes that Vilsack has his <a href="https://secure.everyaction.com/9xZA4zPWO0m7iAvPbf4H4A2" target="_blank">critics</a>, President Biden has already made changes at the top, signing an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/22/fact-sheet-president-bidens-new-executive-actions-deliver-economic-relief-for-american-families-and-businesses-amid-the-covid-19-crises/" target="_blank">executive order</a> meant to deliver relief to families and businesses amid the COVID-19 crisis, including "expanding and extending federal nutrition assistance programs" to "[a]ddress the growing hunger crisis facing 29 million Americans." His proposal to Congress includes a $3 billion package to "help women, infants and children get the food they need" and "access to nutritious food for millions of children missing meals due to school closures."</p><p>For meaningful reform to the food system to occur, change is going to have to happen at every level: from federal, state and local governments, to Big Ag, small farmers and everyday consumers. With the future looking ever more uncertain due to the climate crisis — one of President Biden's top priorities — adapting to new ways of producing and transporting food will be key to our survival.</p>
<p>Robin Scher is a writer based in South Africa. He is a graduate of the Cultural Reporting and Criticism program at New York University. Find him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/robscherhimself" target="_blank">@RobScherHimself</a>.<br/></p><p><em>T</em><em>his article first appeared on </em><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/pandemic-may-have-left-265-million-people-with-acute-food-shortages-in-2020" target="_blank"><em>Truthout</em></a><em> and was produced in partnership with </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Earth | Food | Life</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Tearing through the crowded streets of Philadelphia, an electric car and a gas-powered car sought to win a heated race. One that mimicked how cars are actually used. The cars had to stop at stoplights, wait for pedestrians to cross the street, and swerve in and out of the hundreds of horse-drawn buggies. That's right, horse-drawn buggies. Because this race took place in 1908. It wanted to settle once and for all which car was the superior urban vehicle. Although the gas-powered car was more powerful, the electric car was more versatile. As the cars passed over the finish line, the defeat was stunning. The 1908 Studebaker electric car won by 10 minutes. If in 1908, the electric car was clearly the better form of transportation, why don't we drive them now? Today, I'm going to answer that question by diving into the history of electric cars and what I discovered may surprise you.
<p>In 1881, at a blistering pace of 9 mph, inventor Gustave Trouvé introduced the streets of Paris, and ultimately, the world to the quiet hum of the electric carriage. For the wealthy socialites of Paris, and their counterparts in New York, the horseless carriage was a must have, and electric motors were the superior choice. "By 1900, there were 4,192 vehicles on the streets in the U.S. Steam cars accounted for 1,681 of these; 1,575 were electric, and 936 had internal-combustion engines."* If you just wanted to get around town, the electric carriage was a better option — that is, if you were rich enough to afford one. Unlike internal combustion engines, electric vehicles were easy to turn on, accelerate, brake, there was no exhaust, and didn't have something exploding under your seat. Oh, and you also didn't have to crank the engine every time you stopped, which is part of the reason why that electric Studebaker won the Philadelphia race so handily. As a result of this ease of use, electric cars were looking like big business in the early 1900s, especially for the industry giant Electric Vehicle Company. At the time, the Electric Vehicle Company was the biggest car manufacturer in the country, and they used a model that seems revolutionary now, but makes sense back then. Instead of selling their cars, they rented them to people for the day or for multiple days. Each night the renter could return the car to a central garage and the Electric Vehicle Company would charge and service the vehicle, a model very similar to how stables worked at the time. But despite the electric car's success, its golden age was about to end. </p>
<p>To find out what happened, watch the video above!</p><p><em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNXvxXpDJXp-mZu3pFMzYHQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Our Changing Climate</a> is an environmental YouTube channel that explores the intersections of social, political, climatic, and food-based issues. The channel dives into topics like zero waste and nuclear energy in order to understand how to effectively tackle climate change and environmental destruction.</em></p><p><em><em>To receive all the latest videos produced by Charlie subscribe to his YouTube channel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNXvxXpDJXp-mZu3pFMzYHQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.</em></em></p><p><em><em></em>*</em><em>Rudi Volti Cars and Culture: The Life Story of a Technology (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006</em></p>
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A technician inspects a bitcoin mining operation at Bitfarms in Saint Hyacinthe, Quebec on March 19, 2018. LARS HAGBERG / AFP via Getty Images
As bitcoin's fortunes and prominence rise, so do concerns about its environmental impact.
<p>The process of mining the cryptocurrency is enormously energy intensive, so much so that it consumes more electricity in a year than Argentina or the Ukraine, according to the latest data from the <a href="https://cbeci.org/cbeci/comparisons" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index</a>. Its energy hunger even led to a warning from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last week, as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/22/yellen-sounds-warning-about-extremely-inefficient-bitcoin.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNBC reported</a>.</p><p>"It's an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions," Yellen said, "and the amount of energy that's consumed in processing those transactions is staggering."</p>
<p>Bitcoin's value rose past $50,000 two weeks ago, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/16/investing/bitcoin-50000-price-record/index.html" target="_blank">CNN Business reported at the time</a>. It was in part buoyed by the success of Elon Musk, whose electric car company <a href="http://tesla/" target="_blank">Tesla</a> made more than $900 million after buying $1.5 billion of the currency, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56215787" target="_blank">BBC News reported</a>. Its value has subsided somewhat since then, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/27/bitcoin-mining-electricity-use-environmental-impact?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR32SsssuI2vJel6JIv35Rynz8rUuwDOjKG06vMdBGDQA0LuFQ389eE9B_g#Echobox=1614421164" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>. But Musk's endorsement raised a concern: How did his support of the currency meld with Tesla's <a href="https://www.tesla.com/about#:~:text=Tesla's%20mission%20is%20to%20accelerate%20the%20world's%20transition%20to%20sustainable%20energy.&text=Today%2C%20Tesla%20builds%20not%20only,energy%20generation%20and%20storage%20products." target="_blank">goal</a> of moving the world towards a "zero-emission future?"</p><p>The question is larger than Musk, of course. Bitcoin mining is energy intensive by design. There are only 21 million bitcoins that can be mined, a process that involves solving complex math problems on a computer to release new coins. When bitcoin first started in 2009, it was possible to mine for bitcoin on a normal computer. However, the currency is designed so that the fewer bitcoins left to be released, the more complicated the problems become. Now that 18.5 million bitcoins have been mined, an average computer cannot handle the calculations.</p>
<p>As the price rises, more people are motivated to get in on the action.</p><p>"They want to get that revenue," University of Chicago economics professor Gina Pieters told BBC News, "and that's what's going to encourage them to introduce more and more powerful machines in order to guess this random number, and therefore you will see an increase in energy consumption."</p><p>Pieters is part of the University of Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), which runs the bitcoin electricity use index. CCAF <a href="https://cbeci.org/" target="_blank">calculates</a> that bitcoin now uses 129.22 terawatt hours of electricity a year, according to its most recent update.</p>
<p>This doesn't necessarily mean that mining bitcoin is increasing <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/greenhouse-gas-emissions" target="_self">greenhouse gas emissions</a>. Bitcoin proponents say that the mining can be powered using <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/renewable-energy" target="_self">renewable energy</a> sources, according to The Guardian. However, the mining process does motivate miners to seek out cheap energy sources.</p><p>"The more machines a miner operates, the more likely he is to find the solution to the puzzle," the CCAF <a href="https://cbeci.org/faq/" target="_blank">explained</a>. "However, more machines also means that more electricity is needed to run and cool the equipment, which in turn results in higher costs for the miner in question. Miners are thus always searching for abundant electricity sources at the lowest possible price."</p><p>Seeking the cheapest electricity source may mean <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a> in many places, The Guardian pointed out. More bitcoin is mined in China than in any other country, and about two-thirds of its electricity still comes from coal.</p>
<p>The CCAF said it does not yet have the data to determine the cryptocurrency's carbon footprint, since this would require accurate assessments of the energy mix behind mining. However, it pointed out that even if all bitcoin mining was powered by coal, an unlikely scenario, it would still only account for 0.17 percent of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions. That doesn't mean bitcoin's growth isn't a concern for the attempts to combat the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, however.</p><p>"There are valid concerns that Bitcoin's growing electricity consumption may pose a threat to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in the future," the index wrote.</p><p>That threat increases the more bitcoin gains in popularity. Bitcoin expert and Digiconomist founder Alex de Vries told BBC News what would happen if bitcoin were adapted as a global reserve currency.</p><p>"[T]he Bitcoin price will probably be in the millions, and those miners will have more money than the entire [US] Federal budget to spend on electricity. We'd have to double our global energy production," he said. "For Bitcoin."</p>
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OR-93 traveled hundreds of miles from Oregon to California. Austin Smith Jr. / Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs / California Department of Fish and Wildlife
An Oregon-born wolf named OR-93 has sparked conservation hopes with a historic journey into California.
<p>A young male, OR-93 traveled hundreds of miles from an area southeast of Mount Hood, Oregon, to California's central Sierra Nevada mountain range, the <a href="https://cdfgnews.wordpress.com/2021/02/25/dispersing-gray-wolf-travels-from-oregon-to-the-central-sierra-nevada/" target="_blank">California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) announced Friday</a>. The agency said he traveled farther south into California than any previous collared wolf. His trek is also the longest tracked journey of any gray wolf during the last century, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/27/oregon-wolf-journey-california-wolves" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>.</p><p>"OR-93's historic trek so far south into California's central Sierra Nevada is thrilling news for wolf recovery throughout the West – and underscores that species recovery is not isolated to separate states; what happens in the Northwest greatly affects the success of wolves in other states, and vice versa," California Program Director at Defenders of Wildlife Pamela Flick said in a statement emailed to EcoWatch.</p><p>OR-93 hails from Oregon's White River pack, according to the CDFW. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs fitted him with a tracking collar in June 2020 within his home territory. At some point he left the area, likely in search of new territory and a mate. He reached California's Modoc County by the beginning of February; by the end of the month, he had traveled to Alpine County, between trans-Sierra State Highways 4 and 108. He then passed into Mono County. This put him just east of Yosemite National Park and marks the first time a wolf has been known to approach the park in more than 100 years, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/travel-national-parks-california-animals-parks-143167309e434e3b26702550f9c4b1c3" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a>.</p><p>The wolf is the 16th one to travel into California, and most have hailed from Oregon. However, this journey is notable from a conservation standpoint for two reasons. For starters, OR-93 is the first wolf from the White River pack to enter the state, which is important for the population's diversity.</p>
<p>"As the first known member of the White River Pack from western Oregon to disperse into California, OR-93 also importantly brings the potential for increased genetic diversity to our state," Flick said. "We look forward to watching the journey of California's newest wolf, and we will continue to welcome gray wolves back to their historical home in the Golden State."</p><p>OR-93's epic journey also places him in a habitat with enormous potential for wolves.</p><p>"We're thrilled to learn this wolf is exploring deep into the Sierra Nevada, since scientists have said all along this is great wolf habitat," Amaroq Weiss, senior West Coast wolf advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), said in an email to EcoWatch. "He's another beacon of hope, showing that wolves can return here and flourish as long as they remain legally protected."</p><p>California's wolves were eradicated in the early 20th century following a concerted campaign by the livestock industry. The first wolf to return to the state in 2011 included another Oregon wolf, named OR-7. There are now fewer than a dozen wolves living in California, including the Lassen pack, which has produced pups every year between 2017 and 2020, according to CDFW. Another pair of wolves has also been spotted in Siskiyou County, and scientists think they will produce pups this spring.</p>
<p>While the Trump administration <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/gray-wolves-endangered-trump-2649746799.html" target="_self">removed federal Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves</a>, they remain listed as an <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered species</a> within California. CDFW Spokeswoman Jordan Traverso told the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Oregon-wolf-has-traveled-deeper-into-California-15984246.php" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a> that OR-93's incredible journey proved the protections were working.</p><p>"We have a burgeoning population," she told the Chronicle. "It's exciting."</p><p>However, not everyone shares her excitement. The presence of wolves in the state has concerned ranchers.</p><p>"There are diverse constituencies with varying viewpoints — we do our best to walk that tight rope," Traverso told the San Francisco Chronicle.</p><p>There have been some wobbles on that walk. The seven-member Shasta pack, the first wolf pack to be discovered in California in almost 100 years, disappeared months after being found in 2015, the CBD said. The disappearance followed the pack's implication in two livestock casualties, and there are concerns they may have been poached.</p><p>Defenders of Wildlife called for more strategies to reduce livestock and wolf conflicts as wolves' California presence increases. Meanwhile, OR-93's success in the state will likely depend on more personal matters.</p><p>"Given the time of year, we assume OR-93 has traveled such a long way in search of a mate," CBD's Weiss said. "I hope he can find one."</p>
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A plume of exhaust extends from the Mitchell Power Station, a coal-fired power plant built along the Monongahela River, 20 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, on Sept. 24, 2013 in New Eagle, Pennsylvania. The plant, owned by FirstEnergy, was retired the following month. Jeff Swensen / Getty Images
By David Drake and Jeffrey York
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.
The Big Idea
People often point to plunging natural gas prices as the reason U.S. coal-fired power plants have been shutting down at a faster pace in recent years. However, new research shows two other forces had a much larger effect: federal regulation and a well-funded activist campaign that launched in 2011 with the goal of ending coal power.
<p>We studied the retirement of U.S. coal-fired units from January 2008 to September 2016 and compared the effects of various market factors, regulations and activism on their early closure. In all, 348 coal-fired units either retired or switched to natural gas during that time.</p><p>Among the many pressures on coal power that we reviewed, a federal regulation implemented in 2015 had the biggest overall effect. The <a href="https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/2017/09/cross-state-air-pollution-rule-and-section-126-petitions/" target="_blank">Cross State Air Pollution Rule</a> requires states to reduce soot and smog pollution that blows across state lines, including from power plants. We estimate that it was responsible for reducing the expected production life of the coal power units that it affected by a total of 1,170 years.</p>
<p>Looking at coal units individually, however, we found that the <a href="https://coal.sierraclub.org/" target="_blank">Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign</a>, backed by <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2020/09/bloomberg-philanthropies-and-sierra-clubs-beyond-coal-campaign-reaches" target="_blank">over $174 million</a> to date from Bloomberg Philanthropies, had the most impact per targeted plant.</p><p>The campaign works by generating public pressure on utilities and state and local politicians to close down coal-fired units, often through targeted lawsuits. When the Beyond Coal campaign targeted a coal-fired unit, we found that the unit's life expectancy, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12618-3" target="_blank">normally 50-60 years</a>, was reduced by an average of just over two years.</p><p>The Cross State Air Pollution Rule was the second-biggest factor per individual plant, though it affected more plants. It reduced the expected life span of each coal-fired generating unit that it affected by an estimated average of about 21 months.</p><p>We were surprised to find that neither low natural gas prices nor the adoption of renewable energy significantly reduced the life of coal units. Both have been widely touted by politicians and business leaders as the market-based drivers of coal plant retirement.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcwMzM1Mi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTE0NDY2OH0.YivSnJf8zxVGrZ-tqR5DKJBuXIvMU0sK9mvoE0zOnlE/img.png?width=980" id="5a990" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f93a313d8569c2cebd38ce041d696230" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1308" data-height="924" />
<p>However, while adoption of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/">renewable energy</a> alone did not reduce coal units' life spans, the average use of each source of renewable energy in an area did have a significant impact. Coal units operating in regions with high average renewable energy use retired an average of 15 months earlier.</p><p>It is important to note that a large number of coal plants were already nearing the end of their lifecycles during this period. But through statistical modeling, we were able to isolate the impact of each of these interventions on accelerating the retirement of a given unit.</p>
<h3>Why It Matters</h3><p>A rapid transition away from carbon-intensive energy sources such as coal is essential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet. Burning coal releases <a href="https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=73&t=11" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">nearly twice as much carbon dioxide</a> per unit of energy produced as natural gas does, and the natural gas contribution to global warming is significant.</p><p>From 2011 through 2018, coal-fired generating capacity in the U.S. contracted by 23%. We estimate that the emissions impact of the accelerated retirements we studied was equivalent to taking <a href="https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">38 million typical passenger cars off the road</a>.</p><p>The common narrative has been that <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2021/02/08/biden-coal-energy-industry-policy-renewables-natural-gas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">market forces and economics have driven the demise of coal</a>. However, our research suggests that a continued focus on federal policy is a more effective route for reducing emissions.</p><p>The Biden administration has already <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/president-biden-takes-office/2021/01/27/960941799/biden-to-pause-oil-and-gas-leasing-on-public-lands-and-waters" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">halted new leases</a> for coal, oil and gas extraction on federal lands. And its climate task force – which includes the Cabinet-level department and agency heads – <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/02/11/readout-of-the-first-national-climate-task-force-meeting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">met in</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/climate/biden-climate-change.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">February</a> to start coordinating <a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-plans-to-fight-climate-change-in-a-way-no-u-s-president-has-done-before-152419" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">government-wide</a> climate change solutions. Those likely will include new regulations and could include a price on carbon.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcwMzM2Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjAzMTEwNn0.vvLRY5Hd-ZUC7v9FF7TAv4ea0jv2hS8gqJUzh15KJcM/img.png?width=980" id="a304a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9c74d6048af72ea038d4d550ca9f736b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1288" data-height="676" />
<h3>What's Next</h3><p>Our current work sheds light on where responsibility lies for the acceleration of coal-fired power unit retirements through late 2016.</p><p>Next, we are interested in expanding on our findings about differences between renewable energy use and initial adoption. Understanding how to increase use of renewable sources, while creating new businesses and jobs, is a critical research agenda for addressing climate change.</p>
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<em>David Drake is an assistant professor of strategy, entrepreneurship and operations management at the University of Colorado Boulder.<br/>
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<em>Jeffrey York is an associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Boulder.</em>
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<em>Disclosure statement: </em><em>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em>
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<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-really-driving-coal-powers-demise-153868" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
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