Scientists Combine AI With Biology to Create Xenobots, the World's First 'Living Robots'
By Simon Coghlan and Kobi Leins
A remarkable combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and biology has produced the world's first "living robots."
This week, a research team of roboticists and scientists published their recipe for making a new lifeform called xenobots from stem cells. The term "xeno" comes from the frog cells (Xenopus laevis) used to make them.
One of the researchers described the creation as "neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal," but a "new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism."
Xenobots are less than 1mm long and made of 500-1000 living cells. They have various simple shapes, including some with squat "legs." They can propel themselves in linear or circular directions, join together to act collectively, and move small objects. Using their own cellular energy, they can live up to 10 days.
While these "reconfigurable biomachines" could vastly improve human, animal and environmental health, they raise legal and ethical concerns.
Strange New 'Creature'
To make xenobots, the research team used a supercomputer to test thousands of random designs of simple living things that could perform certain tasks.
The computer was programmed with an AI "evolutionary algorithm" to predict which organisms would likely display useful tasks, such as moving towards a target.
After the selection of the most promising designs, the scientists attempted to replicate the virtual models with frog skin or heart cells, which were manually joined using microsurgery tools. The heart cells in these bespoke assemblies contract and relax, giving the organisms motion.
The creation of xenobots is groundbreaking.
Despite being described as "programmable living robots," they are actually completely organic and made of living tissue. The term "robot" has been used because xenobots can be configured into different forms and shapes, and "programmed" to target certain objects – which they then unwittingly seek.
They can also repair themselves after being damaged.
Possible Applications
Xenobots may have great value.
Some speculate they could be used to clean our polluted oceans by collecting microplastics.
Similarly, they may be used to enter confined or dangerous areas to scavenge toxins or radioactive materials.
Xenobots designed with carefully shaped "pouches" might be able to carry drugs into human bodies.
Future versions may be built from a patient's own cells to repair tissue or target cancers. Being biodegradable, xenobots would have an edge on technologies made of plastic or metal.
Further development of biological "robots" could accelerate our understanding of living and robotic systems. Life is incredibly complex, so manipulating living things could reveal some of life's mysteries — and improve our use of AI.
Legal and Ethical Questions
Conversely, xenobots raise legal and ethical concerns. In the same way they could help target cancers, they could also be used to hijack life functions for malevolent purposes.
Some argue artificially making living things is unnatural, hubristic or involves "playing God."
A more compelling concern is that of unintended or malicious use, as we have seen with technologies in fields including nuclear physics, chemistry, biology and AI.
For instance, xenobots might be used for hostile biological purposes prohibited under international law.
More advanced future xenobots, especially ones that live longer and reproduce, could potentially "malfunction" and go rogue, and out-compete other species.
For complex tasks, xenobots may need sensory and nervous systems, possibly resulting in their sentience. A sentient programmed organism would raise additional ethical questions. Last year, the revival of a disembodied pig brain elicited concerns about different species' suffering.
Managing Risks
The xenobot's creators have rightly acknowledged the need for discussion around the ethics of their creation.
The 2018 scandal over using CRISPR (which allows the introduction of genes into an organism) may provide an instructive lesson here. While the experiment's goal was to reduce the susceptibility of twin baby girls to HIV-AIDS, associated risks caused ethical dismay. The scientist in question is in prison.
When CRISPR became widely available, some experts called for a moratorium on heritable genome editing. Others argued the benefits outweighed the risks.
While each new technology should be considered impartially and based on its merits, giving life to xenobots raises certain significant questions:
- Should xenobots have biological kill-switches in case they go rogue?
- Who should decide who can access and control them?
- What if "homemade" xenobots become possible? Should there be a moratorium until regulatory frameworks are established? How much regulation is required?
Lessons learned in the past from advances in other areas of science could help manage future risks, while reaping the possible benefits.
Long Road Here, Long Road Ahead
The creation of xenobots had various biological and robotic precedents. Genetic engineering has created genetically modified mice that become fluorescent in UV light.
Designer microbes can produce drugs and food ingredients that may eventually replace animal agriculture.
In 2012, scientists created an artificial jellyfish called a "medusoid" from rat cells.
Robotics is also flourishing.
Nanobots can monitor people's blood sugar levels and may eventually be able to clear clogged arteries.
Robots can incorporate living matter, which we witnessed when engineers and biologists created a sting-ray robot powered by light-activated cells.
In the coming years, we are sure to see more creations like xenobots that evoke both wonder and due concern. And when we do, it is important we remain both open-minded and critical.
Simon Coghlan is a senior research fellow in digital ethics at the School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne.
Kobi Leins is a senior research fellow in digital ethics at the University of Melbourne.
Disclosure statement: 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.
Reposted with permission from The Conversation.
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The sun shines over the Southern Ocean in Antarctica. Rebecca Yale / Moment / Getty Images Plus
Atmospheric researchers have pinpointed the spot on Earth with the cleanest air. It's not in the midst of a remote jungle, nor on a deserted tropical island. Instead, the cleanest air in the world is in the air above the frigid Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica, as CNN reported.
<p>Air pollution is a global public health problem that claims 7 million lives every year, stunts the growth of children, and increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and pulmonary disorders. So, if you're seeking the cleanest air in the world, you will need to pack a very warm coat.</p><p>The Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica has the air that shows the smallest concentration of particles caused by human pollution. The first of its kind study of the bioaerosol composition of the Southern Ocean was conducted by researchers from Colorado State University, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/02/world/cleanest-air-intl-scli-scn-climate/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p>
<p>The study, which described the air as "truly pristine," was published Monday in the journal of the <em><a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/05/28/2000134117" target="_blank">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a></em>.</p><p>The researchers noted that the air that forms the lower clouds in the area was free from any particles produced by man-made activity or dust from other continents.</p>
<p>The study sampling of the air was taken from a research ship that sailed from Tasmania to within 24 miles of the Antarctic ice edge to conduct "bacterial profiling" from air filter samples. The scientists were surprised to find that the air was so clear there was barely any bacterial DNA to profile, according to <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/antarctica-scientists-reveal-location-of-worlds-cleanest-air-11999692#:~:text=Experts%20say%20Antarctica%20appears%20isolated,other%20continents%20to%20the%20north.&text=The%20world's%20cleanest%20air%20is,pristine%22%20and%20unaffected%20by%20pollution." target="_blank">Sky News</a>.</p><p>"We were able to use the bacteria in the air over the Southern Ocean (SO) as a diagnostic tool to infer key properties of the lower atmosphere," said Thomas Hill, a researcher in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Colorado State University and a coauthor on the study, in a university <a href="https://engr.source.colostate.edu/csu-atmospheric-scientists-identify-cleanest-air-on-earth-in-first-of-its-kind-study/" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p>
<p>Hill went on to explain how the airborne bacteria is a diagnostic tool to infer the properties of the lower atmosphere.</p><p>"For example, that the aerosols controlling the properties of SO clouds are strongly linked to ocean biological processes, and that Antarctica appears to be isolated from southward dispersal of microorganisms and nutrient deposition from southern continents. Overall, it suggests that the SO is one of very few places on Earth that has been minimally affected by anthropogenic activities," he added.</p>
<p>The scientists analyzed the structure of the airborne microbes, which are dispersed by the wind and travel thousands of miles. The researchers looked at the microbes' DNA, tracked their sources, and analyzed wind trajectories to see where they came from. The microbes they analyzed around Antarctica were from the ocean as opposed to from an airborne pollutant like coal emissions, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/02/world/cleanest-air-intl-scli-scn-climate/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p><p>According to the university <a href="https://engr.source.colostate.edu/csu-atmospheric-scientists-identify-cleanest-air-on-earth-in-first-of-its-kind-study/" target="_blank">statement</a>, the bacterial composition of the microbes also was differentiated into broad latitudinal zones, which suggested that aerosols from distant land masses and human activities, such as pollution or soil emissions driven by land use change, were not traveling south into Antarctic air.</p>
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Brazil burnt, logged and bulldozed a third of the area lost, with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia placing second and third. Brasil2 / Getty Images
Satellite data collated for the World Resources Institute (WRI) showed primal rainforest was lost across 38,000 square kilometers (14,500 square miles) globally — ruining habitats and releasing carbon once locked in wood into the atmosphere.
<p><br/></p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/rainforest-losses-stubbornly-unabated/a-53658340?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle.</a></em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2646150833#/" target="_self"></a></p>
<p>The count by the University of Maryland means that 2019 was the third most devastating year for primary forests — comprising old-growth trees and highly diverse wildlife — since scientists began such surveys two decades ago.</p><p>Brazil burnt, logged and bulldozed a third of the area lost, with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia placed second and a distant third, <a href="https://blog.globalforestwatch.org/data-and-research/global-tree-cover-loss-data-2019" target="_blank">concluded WRI experts from the Global Forest Watch (GFW) project</a>.</p><p>"Primary forest loss was 2.8% higher in 2019 than the year before and has remained stubbornly high for the last two decades despite efforts to halt deforestation," exclaimed the study's authors.</p><p>Brazil's losses preceded President Jair Bolsonaro's legislative moves to loosen rules that would otherwise protect regions from minerals extraction and agriculture.</p>
<p>"Hot spots" identified in satellite images, said the WRI, had corresponded with reports of land-grabs inside the Trincheira/Bacaja indigenous reserve of Brazil's Para state.</p><p>Deforestation across the Amazon was nearing a threshold, calculated another in March, that once crossed would see it morph into arid savannah within 50 years.</p><p>Indonesia was "one of the few bright spots in the global data," wrote WRI fellow Frances Seymour and colleagues, referring to a 5% loss decline since 2018.</p><p>Tougher enforcement and bans on new oil-palm concessions, had all helped, said Arief Wijaya, expert at World Resources Institute Indonesia.</p>
Bolivia Has 80% Higher Loss
<p>In its Global Forest Watch report, the WRI highlighted Bolivia, saying its removal of primary forest and surrounding woodlands — to produce soy and range cattle in 2019 — had been 80% higher than any of its previous years on record.</p><p>"Its highly biodiverse Chiquitano Dry Forest was particularly affected, with reports that nearly 12% of it burned," said the study.</p><p>Other countries with severe losses had been Peru, Malaysia and Colombia, followed by Laos, Mexico and Cambodia — from 1,620 square kilometers and 800 square kilometers in primal forest lost.</p><p><strong>Indigenous Rights Protect Forests Too</strong></p><p>WRI's Seymour said a "mounting body of evidence" suggested that legal recognition of indigenous land rights "provides greater forest protection:</p><p>"We know that deforestation is lower in indigenous territories," Seymour said.</p><p>Global Forest Watch (GFW) project manager Mikaela Weisse said, if left undisturbed, areas stripped of virgin rainforest would "take decades or even centuries" to get back to their original state.</p><p>Those virgin rainforests destroyed comprised but a third of all tree cover (119,000 million hectares, including plantations) lost across the global tropics in 2019, said the study. </p><p>Its authors again warned that slashing forests had major implications for global goals to curb climate change. </p><p>"At least 1.8 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions are associated with 2019 primary forest loss, equivalent to the annual emissions of 400 million cars," said the authors. </p><p>Trees are estimated to absorb about a third of all planet-warming emissions from fossil-fuel combustion, including petrol and diesel-powered vehicles.</p>
Pandemic Weakens Enforcement
<p>The current Covid-19 pandemic had changed dynamics, said Weisse, weakening enforcement of forest-protection laws and leaving rural families desperate to feed themselves back home after losing jobs in cities.</p><p>In April, scientists grouped within the Global Carbon Project estimated that coronavirus-induced economic slowdowns would trim carbon dioxide emissions by more than 5% year-on-year.</p><p>It was "something not seen since the end of World War Two," said project chair Rob Jackson, professor of Earth system science at Stanford University, California.</p><p><span></span>But, recalling the aftermath of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, climate scientist Corinne Le Quéré at England's University of East Anglia, forecast in April that emissions were likely to rebound if structural changes were not instituted.</p>Glasgow's COP26 Postponed
<p>Last week, host Britain confirmed that UN climate talks due in Glasgow, known as COP26, had been postponed a year until between November 1 and 12 2021.</p><p>Experts involved in those long-running negotiations insist that global emissions must start dropping this year to avoid irreversible impacts, including polar melts, record hot weather, rogue storms, and ocean level rises.</p>From Your Site Articles
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People sit in circles to observe social distance in Domino Park amid the coronavirus pandemic on May 21, 2020 in New York City. New research says preventative measures such as social distancing and wearing face masks should not be relaxed as temperatures warm up. Alexi Rosenfeld / Getty Images
Researchers have found that warm temperatures in the U.S. this summer are unlikely to stop the coronavirus that causes the infectious disease COVID-19, according to a new study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Disease.
<p>The findings of the scientists refute <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/08/health/coronavirus-stays-warmer-weather/index.html" target="_blank">President Trump's claim</a> in March that "when it gets a little warmer [the virus] miraculously goes away." It also refutes his insistence in April, when he cited <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-says-coronavirus-could-be-thwarted-by-summer-heat-citing-dhs-study-2020-04-23" target="_blank">Department of Homeland Security data</a>, that summer heat will kill the virus, which led him to wonder about shining a UV light inside the body or injecting disinfectant into the bloodstream, both of which are extremely dangerous.</p>
<p>While the flu is seasonal, researchers who have tested the coronavirus in the lab found that the coronavirus is sensitive to heat and light, but those are at extremes. Summer temperatures may account for a slight decline in cases, but nothing that will allow us to return to normal or kill the virus, as <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-spread-warm-summer-weather-america-study-1507994" target="_blank">Newsweek</a> reported.</p><p>"There is an association between temperature and rate of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus which may result in modest decline in the community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 with warmer weather," the researchers wrote in their conclusion, according to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-spread-warm-summer-weather-america-study-1507994" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>. "This effect is modest, however, and is unlikely to slow down disease spread if containment measures are relaxed."</p>
<p>Higher humidity and warmer temperatures seem to make the virus less stable. In warmer temperatures, the small virus-bearing droplets sent into the air by a cough or sneeze are more likely to attract water vapor, become heavier and drop out of the air before infecting someone. The opposite happens during colder, drier conditions when the droplets are lighter and stay airborne for longer, as <a href="https://www.pix11.com/news/coronavirus/harvard-study-says-warm-weather-probably-wont-slow-covid-19-transmission" target="_blank">WPIX</a> in New York reported.</p>
<p>Co-author Dr. Shiv T. Sehra, assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement, according to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-spread-warm-summer-weather-america-study-1507994" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>: "While the rate of virus transmission may slow down as the maximum daily temperature rises to around 50 degrees [Farenheit], the effects of temperature rise beyond that don't seem to be significant.</p><p>"Based on our analysis, the modest association suggests that it is unlikely that disease transmission will slow dramatically in the summer months from the increase in temperature alone."</p><p>The team, led by Harvard researchers, says the findings are evidence we should not forego preventative measures such as social distancing and wearing face masks just because the temperature has warmed up, as the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8380465/Warmer-weather-NOT-stop-spread-virus-without-social-distancing.html" target="_blank">Daily Mail</a> reported.</p>
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Protesters gather to protest the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota by police, on May 27, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The glaring numbers that show how disproportionately racial minorities have been affected by the coronavirus and by police brutality go hand-in-hand. The two are byproducts of systemic racism that has kept people of color marginalized and contributed to a public health crisis, according to three prominent medical organizations — the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association and American College of Physicians, as CNN reported.
<p>"Racism is a public health issue," the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote on Twitter. "The AAP condemns violence, especially when perpetrated by authorities, and calls for a deep examination of how to improve the role of policing. Systemic violence requires systemic response."</p><p>The tweet linked to the <a href="https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/144/2/e20191765" target="_blank">organization's 2019 statement</a> on the impact of racism on child and adolescent health.</p>
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<p>"The same broad-sweeping structural racism that enables police brutality against black Americans is also responsible for higher mortality among black Americans with COVID-19," said Maimuna Majumder, a Harvard epidemiologist working on the COVID-19 response, to <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/6/1/21276828/pandemic-protests-police-public-health-black-lives-matter" target="_blank">Vox</a>.</p><p>"One in every 1,000 black men and boys can expect to be killed by police in this country," she said "To me, this clearly illustrates why police brutality is a public health problem; anything that causes mortality at such a scale is a public health problem."</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.apha.org/news-and-media/news-releases/apha-news-releases/2020/racism-is-a-public-health-crisis" target="_blank">statement</a>, the American Public Health Association (APHA) also drew attention to the health challenges that systemic and institutional racism cause. "Racism attacks people's physical and mental health. And racism is an ongoing public health crisis that needs our attention now," said the APHA. The group went on to say discrimination can be seen in all aspects of life, including housing, education, the criminal justice system, and employment and it has been amplified during this pandemic as communities of color face inequities "in everything, from a greater burden of COVID-19 cases to less access to testing, treatment, and care."</p>
<p>Last week, the American Medical Association's (AMA) president and board chair teamed up to issue a joint <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/police-brutality-must-stop" target="_blank">statement</a> that "police brutality must stop," as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/racism-public-health-issue-police-brutality-wellness-bn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>"AMA policy recognizes that physical or verbal violence between law enforcement officers and the public, particularly among Black and Brown communities where these incidents are more prevalent and pervasive, is a critical determinant of health and supports research into the public health consequences of these violent interactions," the <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/police-brutality-must-stop" target="_blank">statement</a> said.</p><p>"Recognizing that many who serve in law enforcement are committed to justice, the violence inflicted by police in news headlines today must be understood in relation to larger social and economic arrangements that put individuals and populations in harm's way leading to premature illness and death," they wrote, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/racism-public-health-issue-police-brutality-wellness-bn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. "Police violence is a striking reflection of our American legacy of racism — a system that assigns value and structures opportunity while unfairly advantaging some and disadvantaging others based on their skin color."</p>
<p>The statement also cited studies that people of color can suffer mental health consequences and feelings of trauma just by knowing that unarmed black men were victims of police brutality. "Racism as a driver of health inequity is also particularly evident in <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31130-9/fulltext" target="_blank">findings from a 2018 study showing that law enforcement-involved deaths</a> of unarmed black individuals were associated with adverse mental health among Black American adults — a spillover effect on the population, regardless of whether the individual affected had a personal relationship with the victim or the incident was experienced vicariously," the AMA <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/police-brutality-must-stop" target="_blank">statement</a> said.</p><p>"The trauma of violence in a person's life course is associated with chronic stress, higher rates of comorbidities and lower life expectancy, all of which bear extensive care and economic burden on our healthcare system while sapping the strength of affected families and communities," the <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/police-brutality-must-stop" target="_blank">statement</a> continued, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/racism-public-health-issue-police-brutality-wellness-bn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p>
<p>In a similar vein, the American College of Physicians (ACP) released a <a href="https://www.acponline.org/acp-newsroom/internists-gravely-concerned-about-discrimination-and-violence-by-public-authorities-and-others" target="_blank">statement</a> on Friday that its members are terribly concerned about "discriminatory enforcement and violence."<br></p><p>"ACP has long held that hate crimes, prejudice, discrimination, harassment and violence against any person based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, or country of origin is a public health issue," wrote Dr. Heather Gantzer, chair of the board of regents for the American College of Physicians, in the <a href="https://www.acponline.org/acp-newsroom/internists-gravely-concerned-about-discrimination-and-violence-by-public-authorities-and-others" target="_blank">statement</a>, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/racism-public-health-issue-police-brutality-wellness-bn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. "The issue of how to ensure that policing does not result in discriminatory enforcement and violence is a multifaceted and complex one."</p>
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In a series of major wins for climate campaigners, New York regulators and Cuomo have repeatedly blocked construction of the $1 billion Williams Pipeline. Michael Brochstein / SOPA Images / LightRocket / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
With the nation focused on the coronavirus pandemic and protests against U.S. police brutality that have sprung up across the globe, the Trump administration continues to quietly attack federal policies that protect public health and the environment to limit the legal burdens faced by planet-wrecking fossil fuel companies.
<p>The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-issues-final-rule-helps-ensure-us-energy-security-and-limits-misuse-clean-water-0" target="_blank">announced</a> a<a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2020-06/documents/pre-publication_version_of_the_clean_water_act_section_401_certification_rule.pdf" target="_blank"> final rule</a> about the Clean Water Act Section 401 certification process for energy infrastructure projects. The rule, first <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/09/egregious-handout-corporate-polluters-trump-epa-moves-accelerate-pipeline-approvals" target="_blank">proposed</a> in August 2019, sets a one-year deadline for permitting decisions and restricts the scope of what state and tribal officials can consider.</p><p>"Donald Trump and his administration are nothing if not vindictive, spiteful, and capricious," Food & Water Action executive director Wenonah Hauter <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/16/major-victory-climate-campaigners-ny-gov-cuomo-rejects-dangerous-williams-pipeline" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement Tuesday. "This new rule from the EPA, which seeks to undermine a bedrock environmental law and hamstring the rights of states to protect communities from water contamination and climate change, is just the latest example."</p><p>The Trump administration has completed 66 rollbacks of climate and environmental policies and is pursuing 34 more, which brings the first term total so far to 100, according to a<em> New York Times</em> analysis <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html?mtrref=www.google.com&assetType=PAYWALL" target="_blank">updated</a> on May 20. The greatest number of completed and in progress rollbacks relate to air pollution and emissions; 11 are about water.</p><p>Critics slammed the president and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/04/13/senate-confirms-coal-lobbyist-2-epa-trump-moves-slash-clean-air-rules" target="_blank">a former coal lobbyist</a>, for curbing states' power to protect residents and the planet by rejecting dirty energy projects—and for making yet another assault on national environmental safeguards in the midst of multiple global crises.</p>
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<p>The administration's new rule, Hauter declared, "is a direct response to repeated actions by concerned local communities and responsible state officials in New York and elsewhere to reject dangerous fossil fuel projects that have no business being built where they're not wanted."</p><p>"Like so much of what Trump is pursuing now, this is a targeted strike against environmental justice and racial justice," she said. "It's a fact that people of color and low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by the air pollution, water contamination, and climate chaos produced by fossil fuel projects."</p><p>"As we're seeing so clearly now across society," Hauter added, "this president and this administration are at war with justice and well-being—particularly for the communities that lack these fundamentals the most."</p><p>Wheeler <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-issues-final-rule-helps-ensure-us-energy-security-and-limits-misuse-clean-water-0" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement Monday that new rule comes in response to an April 2019 <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-promoting-energy-infrastructure-economic-growth/" target="_blank">executive order</a> from Trump, and is intended to "curb abuses of the Clean Water Act that have held our nation's energy infrastructure projects hostage, and to put in place clear guidelines that finally give these projects a path forward."</p>
<p>Wheeler also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/climate/trump-clean-water-pipelines.html" target="_blank">reportedly</a> took aim at New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, calling the governor's rejection of the Constitution Pipeline "probably the worst environmental decision by an elected official last year." The canceled pipeline <a href="https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2020/02/25/constitution-pipeline-project-ends-as-builder-cites-diminished-return-on-investment/" target="_blank">would have </a>brought fracked gas from Pennsylvania to the New York's Southern Tier.</p><p>In a series of major wins for climate campaigners, New York regulators and Cuomo have also <a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2020/05/15/governor-cuomo-rejects-the-williams-pipeline-cleanenergywillwin/" target="_blank">repeatedly</a> <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/16/major-victory-climate-campaigners-ny-gov-cuomo-rejects-dangerous-williams-pipeline" target="_blank">blocked</a> construction of the $1 billion Williams Pipeline. Citing a longtime EPA employee, <em>HuffPost</em> <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/epa-pipeline-water-quality-limiting-states_n_5ed506aec5b617333aa0b93d" target="_blank">explained</a> how the new rule could impact state deliberations over projects including that one:</p><blockquote>Pipelines―like the Williams Pipeline, which aimed to carry gas from the fracking fields of western Pennsylvania to homes in New York City and beyond―"might cross 20, 30, 40 streams, and each stream requires permits," said Mark Ryan, who specialized in Clean Water Act enforcement and permitting during his 24 years as the former EPA regional counsel for the Seattle area.<br><br>"With these very, very complex permits like with pipelines, the states will say, 'OK, we want more information... but we don't want to deny certification, but you have to withdraw the permit application,'" he said. "This new rule says states can't do that."<br></blockquote><blockquote>That means states must either grant or deny permits within 12 months or the EPA will deem the state permit waived. This incentivizes pipeline companies to withhold information states would need to fully assess a projects' impacts on water "to try to force the state to certify the permit," Ryan said.<br></blockquote><p>Ryan told the <em>Times</em> the rule is "a pretty significant retreat from what they were doing the last 40 years" and could be "very vulnerable" to a legal challenge considering past rulings, including a 1994 U.S. Supreme Court decision. As he put it: "The EPA will have a very hard time convincing the Supreme Court that its current interpretation of the Clean Water Act is correct."</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1267802127273005056" id="twitter-embed-1267802127273005056" lazy-loadable="true" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1267802127273005056&created_ts=1591102556.0&screen_name=EnvProtectioNet&text=.%40epa%E2%80%99s+rule+change+is+a+blatant+attack+on+states%E2%80%99+rights+and+flies+in+the+face+of+decades+of+Supreme+Court+rulings%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2Fk42d4AgTL5&id=1267802127273005056&name=Environmental+Protection+Network" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="a0d99172630e2eaea81fb529e2c93c87"></iframe><p>Hauter vowed that Food & Water Action "will be pursuing all avenues available—legal, electoral, and otherwise—to ensure that states have the right to reject fossil fuels as they see fit, and support vulnerable communities everywhere seeking to protect themselves from this malicious administration."</p>
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Photo credit: Black Birders Week seeks to highlight the experiences of Black scientists and nature lovers. Chad Springer / Image Source / Getty Images
A video of an incident in Central Park last Monday, in which a white woman named Amy Cooper called the cops on African American birder Christian Cooper after he asked her to put her dog on a leash, went viral last week, raising awareness of the racism Black people face for simply trying to enjoy nature.
<p>In response, a group of more than 30 Black <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scientists%5C" target="_self">scientists</a> and nature lovers decided to launch the first-ever Black Birders Week, a social media event intended to raise awareness of African American participation in outdoor activities and the challenges they face, <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/black-birders-week-promotes-diversity-and-takes-racism-outdoors" target="_blank">Audubon Magazine reported</a>.</p><p>"For far too long, Black people in the United States have been shown that outdoor exploration activities are not for us," Corina Newsome, who studies seaside sparrows at Georgia Southern University, said in a video announcing the week. "Whether it be the way the media chooses to present who is the 'outdoorsy' type, or the racism Black people experience when we do explore the outdoors, as we saw recently in Central Park. Well, we've decided to change that narrative."</p>
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<p>The week kicked off Sunday, May 31 under the banner of <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/BlackAFinSTEM" target="_blank">BlackAFinSTEM</a>. Newsome told Audubon Magazine that the week and the newly organized group of scientists had three goals: to change the national image of who belongs outdoors, to educate the birding community about the racism faced by its Black members and to encourage diversity in outdoor studies and hobbies.</p><p>"Diversity is important for the robustness of any community trying to do anything," Newsome said.</p><p>While the week was initially organized in response to what happened to Christian Cooper, it has coincided with a week of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/protestors-publich-health-coronavirus-covid-19-testing-2646141562.html" target="_self">nationwide protests</a> following the racist murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breyonna Taylor, George Floyd and many others, something the organizers acknowledged.</p><p>"Many of us work in the outdoors, in urban areas and wilderness. It could've easily been anyone of us. We want our peers to not only recognize our existence but our experiences being Black. The history books set a precedent for civil unrest in the face of injustice," the group tweeted Sunday. "We want it to be clear that we stand with the protesters fighting against police brutality even as we organize a protest specific to being #BlackinNature."</p>
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<p>At the same time, the week offers a chance to celebrate the contributions that Black scientists and conservationists are already making to their fields, offering a respite from images of pain and violence, as co-founder and University of Georgia natural resources graduate student Sheridan Alford told <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/north-race-and-racism-blackbirdersweek-takes-on-systemic-racism-by-celebrating-diversity" target="_blank">High Country News</a>.</p><p>"[W]e think that it's very important to highlight the work that people are actually doing and kind of drive that conversation to, yes, look at us, and please acknowledge the hardship we go through — but as you acknowledge those hardships, also look at what we've been doing in our research, or what we've been doing in our communities to better the climate as a whole. So I think this week kind of fell exactly where it needed to, as far as time frame," she said.</p><p>There are virtual events <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/hood_naturalist/status/1266387168785846272" target="_blank">scheduled</a> for every day of the week except Wednesday. It began Sunday with a call to Black researchers and birders to share pictures of themselves in the field using the hashtag #BlackInNature.</p>
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<p>On Monday, participants were invited to share pictures or facts related to birds under the hashtag #PostABird. Tuesday saw a Twitter live chat called #AskABlackBirder. On Thursday, there will be a livestream discussion of #BirdingWhileBlack from 7 to 8:30 p.m. EST. And Friday wraps up with a day devoted to #BlackWomenWhoBird.</p><p>Non-Black birders are encouraged to participate by retweeting posts and learning from the livestream, according to Audubon.</p><p>"We are not excluding anyone," Alford told High Country News. "The whole purpose is to highlight and showcase Black birders, and anybody can do that."</p>
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Nationwide states struggle to recruit, hire and train game wardens. Jason Erickson / Getty Images
By Jodi Helmer
In Georgia there are just 213 game wardens to enforce state fish and wildlife laws, investigate violations, assist with conservation efforts and collect data on wildlife and ecological changes across 16,000 miles of rivers and 37 million acres of public and private lands. Statewide 46 counties have no designated game warden at all. The shortage could lead to wildlife crimes going undetected.
<p>"The more officers we have in the field, the more contact those officers have with the public, the more violations we'll find," says Major Mike England, a game warden with the Law Enforcement Division of the <a href="https://gadnr.org/" target="_blank">Georgia Department of Natural Resources</a>. "The locals in the counties without game wardens are very vocal about it; it's like living in a town with no police department."</p><p>Georgia is not an anomaly. Nationwide states struggle to recruit, hire and train game wardens. These law-enforcement officers — also known as conservation officers, forest rangers, gamekeepers or wildlife troopers — are on the frontlines of conservation, but significant staffing shortages, especially in rural communities, put wildlife and the environment at risk.</p><p>It's not just an issue in the United States. A 2018 United Nations <a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/publication/state-knowledge-crimes-have-serious-impacts-environment" target="_blank">report</a> noted a worldwide increase in environmental crimes and cited a "lack of capacity in the enforcement chain" as one of the major gaps in ability to respond.</p><p>And the current COVID-19 pandemic could exacerbate the problem.</p>
The Environment Pays the Price
<p>Environmental crimes like poaching, overfishing and illegal dumping threaten healthy ecosystems, and without adequate patrols can lead to declining wildlife populations, disease spread, increases in invasive species, erosion and contaminated waterways.</p><p>"People who want to cheat resources know which [ranger] stations are vacant and know that the odds of seeing a warden in the field are rare because regular patrols aren't happening," explains Larry Bonde, chairman of the <a href="https://dnr.wi.gov/about/wcc/" target="_blank">Wisconsin Conservation Congress</a>, a group of elected delegates who advise the state department of natural resources. "It's not just fish and game violations; if no one is visiting sensitive sites…there are a lot of things that get overlooked that could be spotted by [a game warden] patrolling the area."</p><p>In California, for example, game wardens with the Department of Fish and Wildlife are often the first to spot illegal cannabis cultivation sites — called trespass grows — where growers raze paths through national forests to access secluded sites, divert significant amounts of water to irrigate cannabis plants, and apply massive amounts of pesticides to keep wildlife from gnawing on the crops. Too few game wardens in the field could lead to massive environmental degradation before trespass grows are spotted.</p><p>Even when issues are spotted, Rick Langley, wildlife program manager for the <a href="https://www.azgfd.com/" target="_blank">Arizona Game and Fish Department</a> and president of the <a href="https://www.naweoa.org/" target="_blank">North American Wildlife Enforcement Officers Association</a>, believes that having too few game wardens in the field could have a negative impact on investigations and enforcement.</p><p>"[Game wardens] work really hard to fill in the gaps to protect natural resources," he says. "In areas with less officer presence or where officers are spread thin to cover vacant districts, it has the potential to leave investigations incomplete or not responded to or followed up on as thoroughly as they would have been if you had one officer assigned to the area."</p><p>Bonde agrees, adding, "If the station is vacant and there's a complaint, it won't be ignored, but it certainly isn't going to get the amount of attention it would if it had been a full-time posted station."</p><p>But filling vacant stations isn't always easy.</p><p>Several factors, including shrinking conservation budgets, declining numbers of qualified applicants, long hours, low wages and rural locations have all contributed to the dearth of game wardens working in the field.</p><p>Those who want to pursue careers in the field often fail to make it past initial screenings. In 2019 the Georgia Department of Natural Resources hired just 10 game wardens from a pool of 350 applicants. England notes that most of the applicants failed their physical fitness exam or polygraph test, removing them from consideration. The <a href="https://dnr.wi.gov/" target="_blank">Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources</a> graduated a class of 12 game wardens from a pool of more than 400 applicants.</p><p>"There has been a longstanding concern about the number of vacancies," notes Bonde. "[With too few officers in the field] it's not even possible for proper enforcement to occur."</p>
COVID Challenges
<p>These existing challenges are poised to get worse. The COVID-19 global health pandemic has triggered major budget cuts, further threatening funding for environmental conservation and could result in additional cuts to conservation districts that are already cash-strapped and understaffed.</p><p>"For agencies that receive funding [through state taxes and revenues], the repercussions from reduced tourism and businesses closing could have a very serious effect," says Langley. "We're hearing rumors about budget cuts and, in many areas, budget is one of the main reasons these positions go unfilled."</p><p>In 2019 the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources had 21 open positions across its 155 patrol areas; the number decreased (from 27 vacancies in 2019) but the state is facing a <a href="https://mn.gov/mmb-stat/budget/may-interim-budget-projection-slides.pdf" target="_blank">projected $2.42 billion budget deficit</a> as a result of the pandemic, which could threaten funding for the department.</p><p>In Montana the wardens working for Fish, Wildlife & Parks wrote 2,194 citations in 2018 compared to 4,027 a decade earlier. Game wardens suspect that there are not fewer wildlife crimes, just fewer officers to catch perpetrators. That number could drop again. The state, anticipating "significant revenue shortfalls" due to the pandemic, led legislators to request reducing state spending; the department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks could feel the sting.</p><p>To complicate matters, stay-at-home orders have led people to spend more time outdoors, hiking in national forests and boating and fishing on lakes. States like Vermont, North Dakota, Minnesota and New York have reported significant increases in the number of fishing licenses being issued, which means more anglers to monitor and too few game wardens to ensure no one is violating catch limits.</p>Targeting Solutions
<p>The seriousness of the issue has led some states to implement strategies to increase the number of game wardens in the field and provide additional support to keep them in their roles.</p><p>In fiscal year 2018-2019, the Minnesota legislature allocated an additional $2.8 million to help the Department of Natural Resources recruit, hire and train additional game wardens to help fill 28 vacant positions. The Arizona Fish and Game Department, which has 16 vacancies across its 80 conservation districts, ramped up recruitment efforts too, adding three classes to the law enforcement academy in 2020 (up from just one in previous years). It also hired an advisor to educate students graduating from Arizona State University and the University of Arizona about conservation careers.</p><p>Most departments also have ranger "tip lines" where the public can report violations. In addition to the hotlines, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources also installed 400 cameras across the state to help catch wildlife violations.</p><p>"Instead of a game warden sitting out at night for eight hours to watch for hunters spotlighting deer [an illegal practice that involves using a flashlight or headlights to locate wildlife while hunting after hours], we use cameras," England explains. "If we have problems with people dumping trash, sneaking in certain areas and fishing after hours or illegal hunting, we can hide one of these cameras and it sends the game warden a picture or a video of what's going on."</p><p>While Bonde supports the use of high-tech tools and hotlines to report potential conservation violations to help protect wildlife and the environment, he believes additional funding to get more game wardens in the field is essential, adding, "Without proper enforcement, there will always be people who cheat our natural resources."</p>
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