Earthjustice
But last December, the Obama administration proposed a 5-year offshore oil drilling plan that would not only allow more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but also would expand drilling in the pristine and remote waters of the Arctic Ocean. These waters are home to threatened polar bears, endangered bowhead whales, walrus, seals, birds that range through every state in the union, and fish. Despite the biological richness of the ocean, much basic scientific data about the region, like what is important habitat for species like bowhead whales, walrus, birds, and fish, is lacking or outdated.
The Arctic Ocean and Native communities that rely on its bounty would be devastated by an oil spill. Conditions in the Arctic Ocean could make oil spill clean-up nearly impossible. Twenty-foot swells, persistent frozen sea conditions, hurricane force winds, and darkness for months of the year would be just some of the obstacles faced in cleaning up oil spilled in the Arctic Ocean. The region is also remote—1,000 miles from the nearest Coast Guard station, without a road system or deep-water ports.
A 5-year plan that allows oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean, even though there is no proven technology to clean up oil spilled in these waters, ignores the important lessons of the BP oil spill. The Obama administration should reconsider its plan to drill for oil in these waters. Take a moment to voice your support for protecting America’s Arctic Ocean from destructive oil development. Your comments matter, and the officials in Washington, D.C. need to be reminded that Americans don’t want risky oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean.
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Flowers like bladderwort have changed their UV pigment levels in response to the climate crisis. Jean and Fred / CC BY 2.0
As human activity transforms the atmosphere, flowers are changing their colors.
<p>A study published in <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)31267-7?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982220312677%3Fshowall%3Dtrue" target="_blank">Current Biology this month</a> found that the ultraviolet (UV) pigmentation of certain flowers had changed in response to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> and the depletion of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ozone" target="_self">ozone</a> layer. While this isn't something that would be visible to the human eye, flowers rely on their UV patterns to attract <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pollinators" target="_self">pollinators</a>. If those patterns change, it could seriously impact the ability of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plants" target="_self">plants</a> to reproduce.</p><p>"This has implications for plant reproduction of both native wildflowers and domesticated crop species that have UV floral patterning like canola and sunflowers," study coauthor and Clemson University scientist Matthew Koski told the <a href="https://newsstand.clemson.edu/mediarelations/researcher-travels-world-to-measure-how-climate-change-is-altering-the-color-of-flowers/" target="_blank">Clemson Newsstand</a>. "Altered UV floral coloration has the potential to disrupt pollination services."</p>
<p>To achieve his results, Koski traveled to Europe, Australia and North America and collected plant specimens dating from the 1940s to 2017. All in all, he and his team looked at 1,238 specimens to see how and if their UV pigmentation had responded to changes in UV exposure and temperature.</p><p>Overall, they found that UV pigmentation increased by two percent each year. This makes sense because flowers use UV pigment to protect their pollen from UV radiation, <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/flowers-are-changing-their-colors-adapt-climate-change#:~:text=Now%2C%20research%20suggests%20that%20over,UV)%20pigments%20in%20their%20petals" target="_blank">Science explained</a>. In an earlier study, Koski had found that flowers living in areas with more UV exposure, such as higher altitudes, had more UV pigment. This finding matched the researchers' prediction that flowers would evolve to make more pigment as ozone levels declined and UV radiation exposure increased.</p><p>However, the flowers' responses to both ozone and temperature changes were heavily influenced by whether the flowers had exposed pollen or not, Science explained.</p>
<p><strong>Flowers With Exposed Pollen:</strong> For these saucer-shaped flowers, like buttercups, UV pigmentation went up when ozone declined and went down when ozone rose.</p><p><strong>Flowers with Concealed Pollen:</strong> For these flowers, such as bladderwort, UV pigment levels were determined by temperature, not radiation exposure. If temperature went up, pigment levels fell, even if ozone levels also declined.</p><p>This is because concealing pollen in petals can protect it from UV exposure but also expose it to additional heat, Harvard plant biologist Charles Davis, who was not involved with the study, told Science. When temperatures rise, the extra protection risks overheating the pollen. Reducing UV pigment also reduces the amount of solar radiation the petals absorb and can therefore help keep pollen cool.</p><p>Pigment changes could impact plants' ability to attract pollinators because pollinators are attracted by a "bull's-eye" pattern that contrasts high and low UV pigment, Koski explained. Altering pigment levels could also alter the effectiveness of this pattern.</p><p>Koski told the Clemson Newsstand he hopes to continue his research, in part by investigating further how changes in flower pigmentation will impact their ability to attract pollinators. He also hopes to determine if changes to ozone and temperature alter flowers' visible hues.</p>
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A factory in Newark, N.J. emits smoke in the shadow of NYC on January 18, 2018. Kena Betancur / VIEWpress / Corbis / Getty Images
By Sharon Zhang
Back in March, when the pandemic had just planted its roots in the U.S., President Donald Trump directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to do something devastating: The agency was to indefinitely and cruelly suspend environmental rule enforcement. The EPA complied, and for just under half a year, it provided over 3,000 waivers that granted facilities clemency from state-level environmental rule compliance.
<p>These rule suspensions ended last month, but they almost undoubtedly caused an <a href="https://grist.org/justice/the-epa-cut-back-enforcement-during-covid-these-researchers-are-assessing-the-damage/" target="_blank">increase in pollution rates</a>, as one preliminary study <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3633446" target="_blank">already found</a>. What's worse is that we'll likely never know the full extent of the damage, as the agency also suspended rules for self-monitoring (and even before the pandemic <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-epa-is-unleashing-the-pollution-that-makes-us-vulnerable-to-covid-19/" target="_blank">monitoring was already limited</a>). Analysts at the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative found that, in March and April, industrial polluters <a href="https://envirodatagov.org/more-permission-to-pollute-the-decline-of-epa-enforcement-and-industry-compliance-during-covid/" target="_blank">conducted 40 percent fewer tests</a> compared to the same time in 2019, according to self-reported data.</p><p>In a country where pollution impacts are <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/03/11/702348935/study-finds-racial-gap-between-who-causes-air-pollution-and-who-breathes-it" target="_blank">disproportionately impactful</a>, the suspension of pollution rules in the middle of a respiratory illness outbreak is unconscionable — <a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/covid-pm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">several studies</a> have found that higher pollution exposure can lead to <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/abaf86/pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">higher rates of death</a> due to COVID-19.</p><p>But, given the stark differences between racial groups when it comes to pollution exposure and effects, the temporary policy is downright racist. A 2018 study from the EPA itself found that, respectively, Black and Latinx communities were <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/the-trump-administration-finds-that-environmental-racism-is-real/554315/" target="_blank">exposed to 1.5 and 1.2 times</a> more particulate matter, a pollutant that can cause damage to the respiratory system, than white communities. Another study published in the <em>New England Journal of Medicine</em> in 2017 found that Black people were <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1702747" target="_blank">three times more likely</a> to die from exposure to particulate matter than the overall population.</p><p>Under Trump, federal climate policy has only become less and less stringent — The <em>New York Times </em>has documented <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html" target="_blank">100 environmental rollbacks</a> thus far. Such rollbacks are bad news for everyone, but they're especially harmful for Black and minority communities, which have <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/03/11/702348935/study-finds-racial-gap-between-who-causes-air-pollution-and-who-breathes-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">borne the brunt</a> of pollution for decades.</p><p>The fact that Black and brown people suffer most under environmental degradation is not news. But the dilemmas remain in the environmental justice community as they have for many years: How do we lessen the climate burden on Black and oppressed communities? How can we achieve equitable and drastic emissions reductions and transform our entire economy before the window of opportunity to prevent irreversible climate change closes?</p>
<p>For decades, one of the only legal tools available to an environmental justice advocate was the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, was written in the late 1960s in response to historical disasters like oil spills and injustices like the destruction of poor neighborhoods to build highways. Over the years, NEPA has been an extraordinary useful framework for communities to lessen or prevent environmental impacts of federal projects — in 2018, <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-latest-attack-on-the-environment-may-be-his-most-alarming-yet/" target="_blank">a judge cited NEPA</a> when they blocked the Trump administration's attempt to fast-track the Keystone XL pipeline.<br></p><p>While NEPA has helped <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/resources/never-eliminate-public-advice-nepa-success-stories" target="_blank">countless communities</a> in protecting against potentially harmful impacts, however, it also has major limitations. Though NEPA forces agencies to consider the potential impacts of a project, it doesn't require stopping or even mitigating those impacts. This is partially what has allowed polluters to choke out disproportionately Black communities like Louisiana's "<a href="https://truthout.org/articles/petrochemical-giants-are-slowly-killing-black-louisiana-communities/" target="_blank">Cancer Alley</a>" and New York City's "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/04/new-york-south-bronx-minorities-pollution-inequity#:~:text=The%20park%20is%20a%20little,pollution%20levels%20in%20the%20US." target="_blank">Asthma Alley</a>" in the past decades. Early this year, the Trump administration radically <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-latest-attack-on-the-environment-may-be-his-most-alarming-yet/" target="_blank">rewrote NEPA</a> so that it would give more power to polluters, limiting public input on projects and eliminating the consideration of cumulative impacts.</p><p>"A big challenge is the way that NEPA intersects with other racist policies like redlining and things that existed prior to NEPA," says <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/person/hardin-sally/" target="_blank">Sally Hardin</a>, who formerly worked on the council that oversees NEPA and is the interim director on energy and environment at the Center for American Progress (CAP). While NEPA is a tool that communities can use to challenge projects such as the construction of a new oil refinery, the process requires time and resources that many can't afford; poor neighborhoods that can't afford to hire lawyers to review legalese or where citizens don't have time to show up to public hearings are more likely to find themselves with a new refinery than a wealthy neighborhood.</p><p>When communities do have the time and resources to oppose a project, though, states will find a different way to get around them. <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-louisiana-lawmakers-stop-residents-efforts-to-fight-big-oil-and-gas" target="_blank">Legislators in Louisiana</a>, for instance, who often receive financial incentives from oil and gas companies and chemical manufacturers, have attempted to outlaw protests against these projects.</p><p>So, while environmental advocates can use NEPA as a tool to further justice, entrenched racial and class disparities in the U.S. will be extremely difficult to undo, no matter the policy or politician. To <a href="https://www.weact.org/person/peggy-shepard/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Peggy Shepard</a>, the executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, the problem presents itself before NEPA can even come into the equation. Part of the issue, Shepard says, lies in permitting.</p>
<p>"You could have numbers of facilities emitting air toxins, numbers of facilities impacting water quality, facilities impacting soil contamination, a number of waste transfer facilities all in one community," says Shepard. "And because you're only permitting [pollution type by pollution type], you would say, 'Well, we've got one waste transfer station and it's okay, it's in compliance.' But what does it do when you've got water contamination, soil contamination, air quality, toxins? What's that soup?"</p><p>Yet another issue lies in unequal enforcement of certain laws, especially along financial lines — a 2009 study found that agencies <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/29738988" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">did not enforce crucial pollution laws</a> in poor counties as much as richer counties.</p><p>And, in some ways, unequal enforcement can be built into the laws themselves. For instance, as Climate and Energy Policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/about/people/rachel-cleetus" target="_blank">Rachel Cleetus</a> raises, the Army Corps determines and allocates resources for defensive measures for such events as flooding using a cost-benefit analysis. That analysis benefits richer communities because the market value of the property being lost is higher.</p>
<p>"There are lots of ways in which you can have neutral-sounding laws, but if you don't get out some of these underlying things and specifically target resources to set them right in some way, you're gonna end up with skewed outcomes," says Cleetus.</p><p>In Congress, some legislators are working to solve some of these problems at a federal level. Last month, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) introduced the Climate Equity Act, which would introduce the Office of Climate and Environmental Justice Accountability within the Office of Management and Budget and require relevant agencies to appoint a director of environmental justice. It would also require environmental legislation to come with an "<a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/510920-harris-aoc-push-climate-equity-bill-with-green-new-deal-roots" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">equity score</a>" that rates the impact of the legislation on frontline and poor communities.</p><p>"The difficulty [with the equity score] comes in defining who those communities should be and how (and that definition should ABSOLUTELY be created by, and with, the impacted communities themselves)," says Hardin in an email to <em>Truthout</em>. The Climate Equity Act was crafted from advice from environmental justice coalitions, and though the bill likely won't pass soon, coalitions and communities most impacted must have a say in the process.</p>
<p>Though there are many hurdles to yet to clear, environmental justice movements have been making big moves across the country in the past few years. Initiatives like the <a href="https://ajustclimate.org/" target="_blank">Equitable and Just National Climate Platform</a> and the <a href="https://grist.org/justice/an-effort-to-bring-environmental-justice-for-all-goes-virtual/" target="_blank">Environmental Justice for All Act</a> have gained momentum among Democrats; and local groups are getting the attention of politicians to address some of the largest hurdles — permitting, unfair lawmaking and gaining grassroots political power.</p><p>Last week, Gov. Phil Murphy (D-New Jersey) signed an environmental justice law unlike any other in the country: Despite <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2020/08/27/new-jersey-legislature-sends-groundbreaking-environmental-justice-bill-to-governors-desk-1313030" target="_blank">powerful industry opposition</a> that stalled the bill for years, the new state law will <em>require</em> permits for projects like power plants and landfills to be rejected if they are to be cited in an already overburdened neighborhood. Other states require agencies to merely <em>consider</em> cumulative impacts in the permitting process with no mandate to act on that consideration — formerly, NEPA required all government-funded projects to consider cumulative impacts, but the Trump administration, in its <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-latest-attack-on-the-environment-may-be-his-most-alarming-yet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">gutting of NEPA</a> this year, rolled that rule back.</p><p>The bill was passed due to the tireless work of grassroots activists and environmental justice groups — Ironbound Community Corporation, New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance and <a href="https://www.cleanwateraction.org/releases/new-jersey-sets-national-precedent-environmental-justice-bill-signing-today" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Clean Water Action</a> — who fought <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2020/08/27/new-jersey-legislature-sends-groundbreaking-environmental-justice-bill-to-governors-desk-1313030" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">chemical and waste industry lobbyists</a> and <a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/environment/2019/11/07/phil-murphy-preaches-environmental-justice-nj-but-his-actions-say-different-ford-ringwood-keegan/4124093002/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Murphy's administration</a> to push the bill through.</p>
<p>Grassroots and activist groups <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31082020/candidate-profile-joe-biden-climate-change-election-2020" target="_blank">have helped</a> Joe Biden better his climate platform, too, as he unveiled a new plan in July — his <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31082020/candidate-profile-joe-biden-climate-change-election-2020" target="_blank">environmental justice plan</a> is surprisingly good for candidate whose climate plan as a whole got an "F" from the Sunrise Movement last year. The plan includes creating and elevating climate justice divisions in the federal government and the White House, mandate pollution monitoring in frontline communities — which is currently <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-epa-is-unleashing-the-pollution-that-makes-us-vulnerable-to-covid-19/" target="_blank">notoriously terrible</a> — and spend 40 percent of the overall investments in the climate plan on disadvantaged communities.</p><p>Several of the initiatives outlined in Biden's plan are extensions of what the Obama administration already got started — expanding the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen" target="_blank">EPA's EJSCREEN tool</a> that identifies environmental justice hotspots, for instance. This is progress that should have been made years ago — and progress that could have been made under a different administration.</p><p>But Trump has reversed much of the progress on climate that the country has made not only since the Obama administration, but also from <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-latest-attack-on-the-environment-may-be-his-most-alarming-yet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">decades ago</a> — including outright eliminating funding for environmental justice at the EPA. From here, as the climate crisis rages on, progress will be ever more vital to make. And, despite Biden's progress in climate over the course of the election, climate activists <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/joe-biden-pays-lip-service-to-climate-but-has-fallen-short-on-action/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">have their work cut out for them</a> – no matter who's in office come January.</p>
<p><em>This story originally appeared in <a href="https://truthout.org/" target="_blank">Truthout </a></em><em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>
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A meteoroid skims the earth's atmosphere on Sept. 22, 2020. European Space Agency
A rare celestial event was caught on camera last week when a meteoroid "bounced" off Earth's atmosphere and veered back into space.
<p>The "Earthgrazer" was filmed early Sept. 22 over Northern Germany and the Netherlands, the <a href="https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2020/09/Lucky_meteoroid_skims_Earth_s_atmosphere" target="_blank">European Space Agency (ESA) reported</a>. It reached as low as 91 kilometers (approximately 56.4 miles), which is below the average satellite. At this point, most space rocks enter the atmosphere and turn into meteors, which we see as shooting stars. They usually disintegrate before they reach the ground, though sometimes pieces land as meteorites.</p><p>"This lucky visitor, however, didn't get low enough to completely burn up and managed to escape again, only grazing the edges of our planet's protective gassy shield," the ESA explained.</p>
<div id="a566f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="95190b9c195f4d975a5f058cfa4d0588"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1308553949255999489" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">(1/2) An earthgrazer above N Germany and the Netherlands was observed by 8 #globalmeteornetwork cameras on Sept 22,… https://t.co/zEe8QERBdQ</div> — Denis Vida (@Denis Vida)<a href="https://twitter.com/meteordoc/statuses/1308553949255999489">1600818547.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Meteoroids are bits of comet or asteroid that become detached from their parent bodies. While meteors streak across the sky thousands of times a year, Earthgrazing meteoroids only nick our atmosphere a few times annually. To bounce off the atmosphere, they need to approach it at a shallow angle and briefly enter it before shooting off again, <a href="https://www.universetoday.com/148041/video-shows-a-meteoroid-skipping-off-earths-atmosphere/" target="_blank">Universe Today explained</a>. The motion is similar to a rock skipping off a lake.</p><p>The rare event was caught on camera by the <a href="https://globalmeteornetwork.org/" target="_blank">Global Meteor Network</a> (GMN), which seeks to assemble a network of video cameras to observe meteors.</p><p>"The network is basically a decentralised scientific instrument, made up of amateur astronomers and citizen scientists around the planet each with their own camera systems," GMN founder and Western University in Ontario postdoc Denis Vida told the ESA. "We make all data such as meteoroid trajectories and orbits available to the public and scientific community, with the goal of observing rare meteor shower outbursts and increasing the number of observed meteorite falls and helping to understand delivery mechanisms of meteorites to Earth."</p>
<p>The Earthgrazing meteoroid wasn't just a visual event, however. It also made some noise, according to the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.</p><p>"The<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/infrasound?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1311063436571414528%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.embedly.com%2Fwidgets%2Fmedia.html%3Ftype%3Dtext2Fhtmlkey%3D3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935schema%3Dtwitterurl%3Dhttps3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fjdassink%2Fstatus%2F1311063436571414528image%3D&src=hashtag_click" target="_blank"> #infrasound</a> stations of<a href="https://twitter.com/KNMI?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1311063436571414528%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.embedly.com%2Fwidgets%2Fmedia.html%3Ftype%3Dtext2Fhtmlkey%3D3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935schema%3Dtwitterurl%3Dhttps3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fjdassink%2Fstatus%2F1311063436571414528image%3D" target="_blank"> @KNMI</a> also detected low-frequency inaudible sound from this event all over the Netherlands," institute geophysicist Jelle Assink tweeted. "It took the sound wave 5 minutes to reach the Earth surface."</p>
<div id="c5017" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b750aa0a84f2b0376868e61d11edccb6"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1311063436571414528" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">@esaoperations The #infrasound stations of @KNMI also detected low-frequency inaudible sound from this event all ov… https://t.co/otY46p5a2A</div> — Jelle Assink (@Jelle Assink)<a href="https://twitter.com/jdassink/statuses/1311063436571414528">1601416856.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>While tens of thousands of meteorites have been found on Earth, only around 40 have been traced back to specific asteroids, Universe Today explained. Vida managed to trace the Earthgrazer back to a Jupiter-family orbit, but could not find its asteroid of origin.</p>
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A captive elephant is seen at Howletts Wild Animal Park in Littlebourne, England. Suvodeb Banerjee / Flickr / CC by 2.0
By Bob Jacobs
Hanako, a female Asian elephant, lived in a tiny concrete enclosure at Japan's Inokashira Park Zoo for more than 60 years, often in chains, with no stimulation. In the wild, elephants live in herds, with close family ties. Hanako was solitary for the last decade of her life.
<p><a href="https://whalesanctuaryproject.org/whales/kiska-alone-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kiska</a>, a young female orca, was captured in 1978 off the Iceland coast and taken to Marineland Canada, an aquarium and amusement park. Orcas are social animals that live in family <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/o/orca/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pods</a> with up to 40 members, but Kiska has lived alone in a small tank since 2011. Each of her five calves died. To combat stress and boredom, she swims in slow, endless circles and has gnawed her teeth to the pulp on her concrete pool.</p><p>Unfortunately, these are common conditions for many large, captive mammals in the "entertainment" industry. In decades of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KvCW9T0AAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">studying the brains of humans, African elephants, humpback whales and other large mammals</a>, I've noted the organ's great sensitivity to the environment, including serious impacts on its structure and function from living in captivity.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ1MDQyMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxODMyODUwM30.AyeRUJ4H_QH0GLX-ypQsC_HoJk5DAf9DcYP44Go6GzE/img.jpg?width=980" id="72ff6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="efdca2380444b7629ae0f338889fd1b6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Hanako, an Asian elephant kept at Japan's Inokashira Park Zoo; and Kiska, an orca that lives at Marineland Canada. One image depicts Kiska's damaged teeth. Elephants in Japan (left image), Ontario Captive Animal Watch (right image), CC BY-ND
Affecting Health and Altering Behavior
<p>It is easy to observe the overall health and psychological consequences of life in captivity for these animals. Many captive elephants suffer from arthritis, obesity or skin problems. Both <a href="https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o2620.1826-36" target="_blank">elephants</a> and orcas often have severe dental problems. Captive orcas are plagued by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2019.05.005" target="_blank">pneumonia, kidney disease, gastrointestinal illnesses and infections</a>.</p><p>Many animals <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.09.010" target="_blank">try to cope</a> with captivity by adopting abnormal behaviors. Some develop "<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2017.05.003" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stereotypies</a>," which are repetitive, purposeless habits such as constantly bobbing their heads, swaying incessantly or chewing on the bars of their cages. Others, especially big cats, pace their enclosures. Elephants rub or break their tusks.</p>Changing Brain Structure
<p>Neuroscientific research indicates that living in an impoverished, stressful captive environment <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2019.05.005" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">physically damages the brain</a>. These changes have been documented in many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.903270108" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">species</a>, including rodents, rabbits, cats and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2001.0917" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">humans</a>.</p><p>Although researchers have directly studied some animal brains, most of what we know comes from observing animal behavior, analyzing stress hormone levels in the blood and applying knowledge gained from a half-century of neuroscience research. Laboratory research also suggests that mammals in a zoo or aquarium have compromised brain function.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ1MDQzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MjM0MzI1MH0.fp2ujwrgKdMD09Y4jRTH8cUUCyxtcAmp0M30n4LzHIU/img.jpg?width=980" id="7cb37" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4c195010067513dfa086c5a0dba564bc" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
This illustration shows differences in the brain's cerebral cortex in animals held in impoverished (captive) and enriched (natural) environments. Impoverishment results in thinning of the cortex, a decreased blood supply, less support for neurons and decreased connectivity among neurons. Arnold B. Scheibel, CC BY-ND
<p>Subsisting in confined, barren quarters that lack intellectual stimulation or appropriate social contact seems to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1590/S0001-37652001000200006" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">thin the cerebral cortex</a> – the part of the brain involved in voluntary movement and higher cognitive function, including memory, planning and decision-making.</p><p>There are other consequences. Capillaries shrink, depriving the brain of the oxygen-rich blood it needs to survive. Neurons become smaller, and their dendrites – the branches that form connections with other neurons – become less complex, impairing communication within the brain. As a result, the cortical neurons in captive animals <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.901230110" target="_blank">process information less efficiently</a> than those living in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.420020208" target="_blank">enriched, more natural environments</a>.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ1MDQzOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwOTY3ODY3NX0.LMeqPwRQnd-zr0FF0JcAEVZ9FC0gAy9uzrnb_aXK99o/img.jpg?width=980" id="2bc51" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d34c18b3323cc4c9f41bbe18d8b5aaf1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
An actual cortical neuron in a wild African elephant living in its natural habitat compared with a hypothesized cortical neuron from a captive elephant. Bob Jacobs, CC BY-ND
<p>Brain health is also affected by living in small quarters that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3233/BPL-160040" target="_blank">don't allow for needed exercise</a>. Physical activity increases the flow of blood to the brain, which requires large amounts of oxygen. Exercise increases the production of new connections and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw2622" target="_blank">enhances cognitive abilities</a>.</p><p>In their native habits these animals must move to survive, covering great distances to forage or find a mate. Elephants typically travel anywhere from <a href="https://www.elephantsforafrica.org/elephant-facts/#:%7E:text=How%20far%20do%20elephants%20walk,km%20on%20a%20daily%20basis." target="_blank">15 to 120 miles per day</a>. In a zoo, they average <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150331" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">three miles daily</a>, often walking back and forth in small enclosures. One free orca studied in Canada swam <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-010-0958-x" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">up to 156 miles a day</a>; meanwhile, an average orca tank is about 10,000 times smaller than its <a href="https://www.cascadiaresearch.org/projects/killer-whales/using-dtags-study-acoustics-and-behavior-southern" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">natural home range</a>.</p>Disrupting Brain Chemistry and Killing Cells
<p>Living in enclosures that restrict or prevent normal behavior creates chronic frustration and boredom. In the wild, an animal's stress-response system helps it escape from danger. But captivity traps animals with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1215502109" target="_blank">almost no control</a> over their environment.</p><p>These situations foster <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000033" target="_blank">learned helplessness</a>, negatively impacting the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/6391686" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hippocampus</a>, which handles memory functions, and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2011.02.024" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">amygdala</a>, which processes emotions. Prolonged stress <a href="https://doi.org/10.3109/10253899609001092" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">elevates stress hormones</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.10-09-02897.1990" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">damages or even kills neurons</a> in both brain regions. It also disrupts the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.03.021" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">delicate balance of serotonin</a>, a neurotransmitter that stabilizes mood, among other functions.</p><p>In humans, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2001.0917" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deprivation</a> can trigger <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00367" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">psychiatric issues</a>, including depression, anxiety, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00367" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mood disorders</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1073858409333072" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">post-traumatic stress disorder</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-010-0288-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Elephants</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0050139" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">orcas</a> and other animals with large brains are likely to react in similar ways to life in a severely stressful environment.</p>Damaged Wiring
<p>Captivity can damage the brain's complex circuitry, including the basal ganglia. This group of neurons communicates with the cerebral cortex along two networks: a direct pathway that enhances movement and behavior, and an indirect pathway that inhibits them.</p><p>The repetitive, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2014.05.057" target="_blank">stereotypic behaviors</a> that many animals adopt in captivity are caused by an imbalance of two neurotransmitters, dopamine and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.02.004" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">serotonin</a>. This impairs the indirect pathway's ability to modulate movement, a condition documented in species from chickens, cows, sheep and horses to primates and big cats.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ1MDQ0NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NTk4ODQ5MH0.y-zYv_gEQ-pgdSyytSGEq5Jq3uYWqYR24kKHuEhl7Qo/img.jpg?width=980" id="cf7b3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="03ebc3885a895e0d497ec39dde96d295" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The cerebral cortex, hippocampus and amygdala are physically altered by captivity, along with brain circuitry that involves the basal ganglia. Bob Jacobs, CC BY-ND
<p>Evolution has constructed animal brains to be exquisitely responsive to their environment. Those reactions can affect neural function by <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/311787/behave-by-robert-m-sapolsky/" target="_blank">turning different genes on or off</a>. Living in inappropriate or abusive circumstance alters biochemical processes: It disrupts the synthesis of proteins that build connections between brain cells and the neurotransmitters that facilitate communication among them.</p><p>There is strong evidence that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0577-11.2011" target="_blank">enrichment</a>, social contact and appropriate space in more natural habitats are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-1090.2003.tb02071.x" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">necessary</a> for long-lived animals with large brains such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152490" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">elephants</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13880292.2017.1309858" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cetaceans</a>. Better conditions <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5543669/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reduce disturbing sterotypical behaviors</a>, improve connections in the brain, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/cdd.2009.193" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">trigger neurochemical changes</a> that enhance learning and memory.</p>The Captivity Question
<p>Some people defend keeping animals in captivity, arguing that it helps conserve endangered species or offers educational benefits for <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.574.3479&rep=rep1&type=pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">visitors to zoos and aquariums</a>. These justifications are questionable, particularly for <a href="https://animalstudiesrepository.org/acwp_zoae/8/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">large mammals</a>. As my own research and work by many other scientists shows, caging large mammals and putting them on display is undeniably cruel from a neural perspective. It causes brain damage.</p><p>Public perceptions of captivity are slowly changing, as shown by the reaction to the documentary <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfish_(film)" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"Blackfish</a>." For animals that cannot be free, there are well-designed sanctuaries. Several already exist for elephants and other large mammals in <a href="https://www.elephants.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tennessee</a>, <a href="https://globalelephants.org/overview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brazil</a> and Northern <a href="http://www.pawsweb.org/about_our_sanctuaries.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">California</a>. Others are being developed for large <a href="https://whalesanctuaryproject.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cetaceans</a>.</p><p>Perhaps it is not too late for Kiska.</p>
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Reintroducing wolves is on the ballot in Colorado. Gunner Ries / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0
By Tara Lohan
Maybe we can blame COVID-19 for making it hard to hit the streets and gather signatures to get initiatives on state ballots. But this year there are markedly fewer environmental issues up for vote than in 2018.
While the number of initiatives may be down, there's no less at stake. Voters will still have to make decisions about wildlife, renewable energy, oil companies and future elections.
Here's the rundown of what's happening where.
Return of an Apex Predator
<p>Wolves are on the ballot in Colorado. <a href="https://leg.colorado.gov/ballots/reintroduction-and-management-gray-wolves" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Proposition 114</a> would require the state's Parks and Wildlife Commission to create a plan by 2023 for the reintroduction and management of gray wolves (<em>Canis lupus</em>) in areas west of the continental divide.</p><p>Gray wolves once roamed across the western United States but were mostly eradicated by the 1930s. Slowly efforts are being made to bring them back. The reintroduction of gray wolves to Yellowstone National Park in 1996 has been hailed as a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/25/yellowstone-wolf-project-25th-anniversary" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rewilding success</a>.</p><p>"The argument is that by putting back in wolves — an apex predator that has evolved alongside their prey species — we're putting things back into ecological balance," University of Colorado Boulder ecology professor Joanna Lambert <a href="https://therevelator.org/wolf-reintroduction-colorado/" target="_blank">told <em>The Revelator</em></a> in a February interview about the science behind wolf reintroductions.</p><p>The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Colorado Farm Bureau are two of the top donors to the opposition groups.</p><p>The measure does include compensation for losses of livestock caused by gray wolves.</p><p>"What we're all hoping for is a landscape where we can coexist with the species that were originally here, but also acknowledging that humans need to make a living and that the costs of this initiative will be felt by some folks more than others," Lambert said.</p>Confusion Over Clean Energy
<p>In Nevada voters will take a second swing at a constitutional amendment to require that electric utilities source 50% of their electricity from renewables by 2030. Voters passed the same measure, <a href="https://www.nvsos.gov/sos/home/showdocument?id=8826" target="_blank">Question 6</a>, in 2018, but state law requires that constitutional amendments be passed in two consecutive even-numbered election years.</p><p>More clean energy for the state may seem good. But there's concern that enshrining 50% renewables by 2030 in the state's constitution isn't that ambitious and it will make it harder to continue the push for 100% renewables in the future. To do that would be another constitutional amendment that would again take four years and two consecutive ballot wins to move the needle.</p><p>Also, the state is already on its way to the same renewable goal.</p><p>A legislative effort to achieve 50% renewables by 2030 — but with a slightly different timeline for the increments to get there — was signed into law in April 2019 by Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak. Renewable advocates hope the state will do even better than that benchmark, but passing Question 6 would make it harder.</p>Paying a Fair Share
<p>If California's <a href="https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/qualified-ballot-measures/" target="_blank">Proposition 15</a> passes, commercial and industrial properties will need to start paying taxes based on their current market value, instead of paying based on the purchase price from decades prior (which stems from Proposition 13 passed back in 1978). The initiative would exempt agricultural land, small businesses, renters and homeowners.</p><p>Reassessing the worth of large commercial properties could bring in between $7.5 billion and $12 billion a year that would go toward supporting local governments, school districts and community colleges.</p><p>Most of the <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_15,_Tax_on_Commercial_and_Industrial_Properties_for_Education_and_Local_Government_Funding_Initiative_(2020)" target="_blank">opposition</a> has come from big business and anti-taxation groups.</p><p>The California Teachers Association Issues PAC is the biggest supporter of the effort, but a number of <a href="https://www.yes15.org/endorsers-environment" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">environmental groups</a> have also endorsed the measure, which would likely see oil companies and other big industrial polluters having to kick in more money.</p><p>"The oil industry has used Prop. 13 loopholes to evade tens of millions of dollars in property taxes," <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/victoria-rome/nrdc-announces-support-californias-proposition-15" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote Victoria Lome</a>, California legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Companies like Chevron, Exxon, Phillips 66, Shell and Tosco are paying taxes based on assessments taken prior to 2000. Prop. 15 would end this hidden subsidy to dirty energy."</p><p>Oil companies could stand to lose in Alaska, too. Voters there will weigh in on <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Alaska_Ballot_Measure_1,_North_Slope_Oil_Production_Tax_Increase_Initiative_(2020)" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ballot Measure 1</a>, which would increase taxes on big oil producers (those that have produced more than 400 million barrels overall or 40,000 barrels a day in the past year) operating in three established oil fields in the North Slope.</p>Taking the Wind Out of the Sails of the Electoral College
<p>Colorado's <a href="https://leg.colorado.gov/ballots/adopt-agreement-elect-us-president-national-popular-vote" target="_blank">Proposition 113</a> isn't about environmental issues directly but could cause big shifts in how presidential elections are run and what states and issues are considered important.</p><p>The initiative would add Colorado to the <a href="https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation" target="_blank">National Popular Vote Interstate Compact</a>. That effort is aimed at ensuring the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote wins the election. It doesn't eliminate the Electoral College, but it saps its power.</p><p>The compact needs states representing at least 270 Electoral College votes to go into effect. It's currently at 196.</p><p>If Colorado's proposition is passed, and if the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact eventually gets enough votes to go into effect, then Colorado's nine electoral votes would go to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote, not to the one who gets the most votes in Colorado.</p>From Your Site Articles
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