Month: August 2018

Study: Injection wells can induce earthquakes miles away from the well

This article discusses a study that shows that fracking injection wells can induce earthquakes miles away from the well. Study finds injecting fluid into sedimentary rock can produce bigger, more distant earthquakes than injecting into the underlying basement rock. A study of earthquakes induced by injecting fluids deep underground has revealed surprising patterns, suggesting that current recommendations for hydraulic fracturing, wastewater disposal, and geothermal wells may need to be revised.

Journal Reference: Thomas H. W. Goebel, Emily E. Brodsky. The spatial footprint of injection wells in a global compilation of induced earthquake sequences. Science, 2018; 361 (6405): 899 DOI: 10.1126/science.aat5449

Court quashes Trudeau’s approval of Trans Mountain pipeline

This article discusses a victory in environmentalists efforts to stop a Canadian pipeline.

The Federal Court of Appeal has quashed the federal government’s approval of the troubled Trans Mountain expansion project, after concluding that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet made its decision without considering all evidence and failing in its legal duty to consult First Nations.

The decision, announced Aug. 30, is the first major court defeat for the project, requiring the government to ask the federal energy regulator or its successor to redo a federal environmental evaluation and correct a “critical” mistake it made to ignore the consequences of increased oil tanker traffic off the coast of British Columbia.

Rising CO2 will leave crops—and millions of humans—less healthy

This article discusses how rising CO2 levels will affect food production. Scientists say certain staple foods such as rice and wheat will deliver less nutrition in 2050. Women, children and poor people will suffer most.

Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will render some major crops less nutritious and leave hundreds of millions of people protein and zinc deficient over the next three decades, according to a new study.

Elevated levels of CO2 in the atmosphere decrease levels of protein, iron and zinc in some crops, such as rice—but not all, lead author of the new study, Matt Smith, a research fellow at Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health, told EHN. Corn and sorghum, for example, are not as affected, he said. The study was published today in Nature Climate Change.

“The research is not yet conclusive but the prevailing idea is that for some plants higher CO2 encourages faster plant growth, and the plant then tends to incorporate more carbohydrates, and fewer micronutrients,” he said.

Scientists estimate nutrient and mineral concentrations are as much as 17 percent lower in affected crops grown under high CO2 concentrations (550 parts per million) compared to current CO2 levels of about 400 ppm.

Study: Air pollution causes ‘huge’ reduction in intelligence

This article discusses how air pollution causes ‘huge’ reduction in intelligence, study reveals. The impact of high levels of toxic air ‘is equivalent to having lost a year of education’.

Air pollution causes a “huge” reduction in intelligence, according to new research, indicating that the damage to society of toxic air is far deeper than the well-known impacts on physical health.

The research was conducted in China but is relevant across the world, with 95% of the global population breathing unsafe air. It found that high pollution levels led to significant drops in test scores in language and arithmetic, with the average impact equivalent to having lost a year of the person’s education.

“Polluted air can cause everyone to reduce their level of education by one year, which is huge,” said Xi Chen at Yale School of Public Health in the US, a member of the research team. “But we know the effect is worse for the elderly, especially those over 64, and for men, and for those with low education. If we calculate [the loss] for those, it may be a few years of education.”

Trump’s Dirty Power Plan is much worse for kids’ health than for climate change

This article discusses Trump’s Dirty Power Plan – it is much worse for kids’ health than for climate change. Some of the reporting of the climate impacts of the Dirty Power Plan has been inaccurate.

Last October, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that the agency would repeal the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. But because the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that carbon dioxide is an air pollutant and the Obama EPA correctly concluded that it poses a threat to public welfare via climate change, the EPA is legally obligated to do something to address that threat. That meant they needed a replacement plan.

Last week, the Trump EPA unveiled that plan and inaccurately named it the ‘Affordable Clean Energy Rule.’ The rule basically just extends the life of some dirty coal power plants and encourages them to run a bit more efficiently. The rule’s costs in worsening public health far exceed its monetary benefits. It would more accurately be named the ‘Expensive Dirty Power Plan.’

But there’s a silver lining – coal plants are already shutting down so quickly because they can’t compete with cheaper, cleaner alternatives that it turns out we don’t even need the Clean Power Plan to meet Obama’s targets.

New York Attorney General: Exxon Climate Fraud Investigation Nearing End

This article discusses the court case against Exxon for lying to its investors about climate change. At a hearing to force the oil giant to turn over more records, the attorney general’s office said it had found ‘smoking guns’ suggesting Exxon misled investors.

A New York state judge ordered ExxonMobil on Wednesday to quickly turn over some of the documents sought by the state attorney general’s office, which is investigating whether the oil giant misled investors about the risks posed by climate change.

But Justice Barry R. Ostrager allowed the company to withhold one batch of the financial records, saying Exxon could instead respond to questions from the attorney general’s investigators about their contents.

Exxon agreed to turn over other records that it had provided to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which earlier this month ended its own investigation into the company’s climate accounting practices without taking action.

Climate change: local efforts won’t be enough to undo Trump’s inaction, study says

This article discusses the problems we will face because of Trump’s intransigence on climate change. The onus still falls on national governments to cut emissions to stave off worst impacts of climate change, Yale researchers say.

Individual cities, regions and businesses across the globe are banding together determinedly to confront climate change – but their emissions reductions are relatively small and don’t fully compensate for a recalcitrant US under the Trump administration, a new study has found.

A cavalcade of city mayors, regional government representatives and business executives from around the world will convene in San Francisco next month for a major summit touting the role of action beyond national governments to stave off the worst impacts of climate change.

But the greenhouse gas cuts offered up by these entities are relatively modest, , placing the onus on nations to raise their ambitions even as the US, the world’s second largest emitter, looks to exit the landmark Paris climate agreement.

Study: Crop losses to pests will soar as climate warms

This article discusses the problems climate change will have on food production. Rising temperatures make insects eat and breed more, leading to food losses growing world population cannot afford, say scientists.

Rising global temperatures mean pests will devour far more of the world’s crops, according to the first global analysis of the subject, even if climate change is restricted to the international target of 2C.

Increasing heat boosts both the number and appetite of insects, and researchers project they will destroy almost 50% more wheat than they do today with a 2C rise, and 30% more maize. Rice, the third key staple, is less affected as it is grown in the tropics, which are already near the optimal temperature for insects – although bugs will still eat 20% more.

Rising heat stress on crops is already expected to cut cereal yields by about 10% for 2C of warming, but the new research indicates rising pest damage will cause at least another 4-8% to be lost. With 800 million people chronically hungry today and the global population rising towards 10bn, increasing pest destruction will worsen food security.

The research, published in the journal Science, started with well-established knowledge about how rising temperature affects insects. “Warmer temperatures increase insect metabolic rates exponentially [and] increase the reproductive rates,” said Deutsch. “You have more insects, and they’re eating more.” The team then added data on today’s pest losses and used a range of climate change models to estimate future losses – all showed significant damage.

Miami Will Be Underwater Soon. Its Drinking Water Could Go First

This article discusses how imperiled the City of Miami is because of sea level rise and global warming. Miami Will Be Underwater Soon. Its Drinking Water Could Go First.

Miami-Dade is built on the Biscayne Aquifer, 4,000 square miles of unusually shallow and porous limestone whose tiny air pockets are filled with rainwater and rivers running from the swamp to the ocean. The aquifer and the infrastructure that draws from it, cleans its water, and keeps it from overrunning the city combine to form a giant but fragile machine. Without this abundant source of fresh water, made cheap by its proximity to the surface, this hot, remote city could become uninhabitable.

Climate change is slowly pulling that machine apart. Barring a stupendous reversal in greenhouse gas emissions, the rising Atlantic will cover much of Miami by the end of this century. The economic effects will be devastating: Zillow Inc. estimates that six feet of sea-level rise would put a quarter of Miami’s homes underwater, rendering $200 billion of real estate worthless. But global warming poses a more immediate danger: The permeability that makes the aquifer so easily accessible also makes it vulnerable. “It’s very easy to contaminate our aquifer,” says Rachel Silverstein, executive director of Miami Waterkeeper, a local environmental protection group. And the consequences could be sweeping. “Drinking water supply is always an existential question.”

The Global Rightward Shift on Climate Change

This article discusses how President Trump may be leading the rich, English-speaking world to scale back environmental policies.

Every country except the United States supports the Paris Agreement on climate change. But no major developed country is on track to meet its Paris climate goals, according to the Climate Action Tracker, an independent analysis produced by three European research organizations. Even Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom—where right-wing governments have made combating climate change a national priority—seem likely to miss their goals.