Month: October 2018

Studies: Microplastics found in human stools for the first time

This article discusses microplastics found in human stools for the first time. Study suggests the tiny particles may be widespread in the human food chain.

Microplastics have been found in human stools for the first time, according to a study suggesting the tiny particles may be widespread in the human food chain.

The small study examined eight participants from Europe, Japan and Russia. All of their stool samples were found to contain microplastic particles.

Up to nine different plastics were found out of 10 varieties tested for, in particles of sizes ranging from 50 to 500 micrometres. Polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate were the plastics most commonly found.

Previous studies on fish have also found plastics in the gut. Microplastics have been found in tap water around the world, in the oceans and in flying insects. A recent investigation in Italy also found microplastics present in soft drinks. In birds, the ingestion of plastic has been found to remodel the tiny fingerlike projections inside the small intestine, disrupt iron absorption and add to stress on the liver.

Scientists still know little about the effects of microplastics once they enter the human body, though many studies have already found them present in foods such as fish that people are likely to eat. The UK government has launched a study of health impacts.

Feds are ‘trying to silence’ the kids suing the Trump administration over global warming

This article discusses how the Feds are ‘trying to silence’ the kids suing the Trump administration over global warming.

The “climate kids” were back on the steps of a federal courthouse in Oregon on Monday. But their case against the United States government, alleging violations of their constitutional rights to a safe and livable atmosphere in the face of runaway global warming, has dragged on for so long without a trial that some of them aren’t exactly kids anymore.

When the case was filed on their behalf in August 2015, Levi Draheim, the youngest plaintiff, was 8. Now he’s 11. He’s had to grow up considerably in those three years.
“I am a kid, and so I’m very impatient — and I’m impatient for a very good reason,” Levi said at a courthouse rally on Monday, his shock of sun-bleached hair barely peeking above a wooden podium. He spoke from a jotted list of notes, not from a script. “I live on a barrier island, and I have seen the sea level rise maps. I have personally had to evacuate my home because of hurricanes. I have seen fish kills on my beach, and I have seen changing weather — more and more hot days. That’s why it’s so important to move forward with this trial.”

How Fossil Fuels and Climate Change Are Altering the Global Forest

This article discusses How Fossil Fuels and Climate Change Are Altering the Global Forest. Second in a series about the work of famed botanist Diana Beresford-Kroeger.

The world’s most ancient trees are failing.

And their demise is telling us something about the dramatic impact of climate change on the natural world, says famed botanist Diana Beresford-Kroeger.

The tree expert, who is also a medical biochemist, is clearly concerned, if not shaken.

“It appears that the ancient forests are more vulnerable,” she says. “They have been around for more than 1,000 years and something is happening to them.”

Study: Climate change is ‘escalator to extinction’ for mountain birds

This article discusses how Climate change is pushing mountain birds to extinction.

Researchers have long predicted many creatures will seek to escape a warmer world by moving towards higher ground.

However, those living at the highest levels cannot go any higher, and have been forecast to decline.

This study found that eight bird species that once lived near a Peruvian mountain peak have now disappeared.

The study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

As price of climate change climbs, consider how much we could save

This article discusses how the price of climate change is going up, and how much we could save if we worked on stopping it. Costs in dollars, to the environment and to living things could fall if we reduce emissions and adapt quicker.

Flooding, tornadoes, droughts, wildfires: the evidence of climate change is not just mounting, it’s barreling down on us – inexorable as a landslide. The cost of U.S. weather and climate disasters last year hit an all-time record of $306.2 billion, a figure higher than the combined annual budgets of New York and all the New England states.

Going back as far as the 1980s, our country had an annual average of six “billion-dollar weather events” (where damages exceed $1 billion) until the last five years. From 2013 through 2017, that annual average rose to 11.6 events. Disasters are not just getting more numerous; they’re growing costlier. Rebuilding from Hurricane Florence flooding, Moody’s estimates, could run $50 billion, with costs of Hurricane Michael still to be tallied.

Economic losses don’t begin to account for the full ecological devastation wrought by multiplying disasters. Satellites recorded the inky plume of pollution – extending far off the coast of North Carolina – carrying animal waste and toxic chemicals into the marine ecosystem. Little is known about the long-term costs to fisheries or about the health effects of noxious runoff on drinking-water supplies, groundwater reserves and farm soils.

The wildfires raging out West, beyond aggravating air pollution and carbon emissions, also pose a grave hazard to aquatic health and water supplies.

5 ways climate change could alter life in SC after 2030

This article discusses 5 ways climate change could alter life in SC after 2030.

If carbon emissions are not radically cut by 2030, Charlestonians could see far stronger storms and the disappearance of shellfish habitat, according to a new broad-based review of climate change science.

The report, published this month by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, compared greenhouse gas-caused atmospheric warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) with 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) — the benchmark that has outlined large-scale agreements like the Paris Climate Accord.

They are: harsher hurricanes, dwindling oyster harvests, worse flooding, higher electric bills, and wealth transfer (loss of jobs).

How plants and animals are teaching scientists to fight climate change

This article discusses how plants and animals are teaching scientists to fight climate change. In the emerging field of biomimicry, scientists and inventors take inspiration from trees, whales and coral.

The immensity of a program to reforest large swaths of the Amazon is hard to conceive — it aims to plant millions of trees over a remote area of Brazil roughly the size of Pennsylvania. If that wasn’t a big enough challenge, there’s also the threat seedlings face from dry spells, non-native plants and the voracious leaf-cutter ant.

Enter a Brazilian industrial engineer and his partners, who think they have a solution. The team calls their invention Nucleario — a circular device that creates a safe oasis for a young tree, complete with mulchy ground cover, a water cistern to conserve rainfall and a wall to keep out invasive plants and creatures.

The invention was recently awarded a $100,000 prize in a worldwide design challenge, sponsored by the Biomimicry Institute, a Missoula, Montana-based nonprofit that supports scientists and inventors who find solutions to man-made problems with designs inspired by the natural world.

The Trump administration is reportedly following industry “scripts” in rolling back oil and gas drilling restrictions

This article discusses how the Trump administration is reportedly following industry “scripts” in rolling back oil and gas drilling restrictions. It’s loosening environmental regulations to auction off huge amounts of land for drilling.

The Trump administration has leased out three times more federally controlled oil and gas land for drilling in the last year than the Obama administration averaged annually during its second term, in part by following scripts for environmental protection rollbacks laid out by the oil and gas industry.

Eric Lipton and Hiroko Tabuchi at the New York Times reported over the weekend about the lengths the federal government under President Donald Trump has gone to in order to make drilling and fracking easier for oil and gas developers. It’s offering up thousands of drilling permits and parcels of land to companies such as Chesapeake Energy and Chevron. More than 12.8 million acres were offered during the last fiscal year ending in September, a huge jump from previous years.

Here’s how they’re doing it: Regulators are weakening protections for wildlife, air quality, and groundwater supplies, often by following what the Times describes as “detailed industry scripts” for rollbacks.

Spain wants to phase out coal plants without hurting miners

This article discusses how Spain wants to phase out coal plants without hurting miners. Under its new strategy, the country is ensuring that the over 1,000 miners who stand to be affected will be able to transition into new jobs in renewables and environmental restoration.

During the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump won over voters in coal country by claiming he would keep mines open, and retain coal as a prominent energy source in the U.S. His argument was an economic one: He knew that miners were worried about their jobs, and that many did not see a path forward should the mines close.

But closing mines does not have to mean a loss of work. Done thoughtfully, it could present an opportunity for new economic growth, and environmental renewal. That’s what Spain is looking to accomplish via its recent commitment to close nearly all of its coal mines by the end of this year. The Spanish government and unions that work with private coal mines just reached a deal that will bring €250 million ($285 million) in investments to mining regions in the form of early retirement funds for miners over age 48, and comprehensive retraining schemes and economic support for younger miners.

Big Oil is using brute financial force to kill 2 state sustainability initiatives

This article discusses how Big Oil is using brute financial force to kill 2 state sustainability initiatives. There is seemingly no limit to the fossil fuel money that will fight decarbonization.

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes it vividly clear that averting catastrophic climate change means rapidly reducing the use of fossil fuels, getting as close to zero as possible, as soon as practicably possible. The US needs to fully decarbonize by mid-century or shortly thereafter.

Big Oil, at least with its public face, has acknowledged that reality and is supporting a revenue-neutral carbon tax in the US (one that, not incidentally, would shelter the industry from legal threats based on climate change). It is attempting to act, or at least to be seen as acting, as a reasonable partner in the federal climate effort.

Down at the state level, where media pays less attention? Not so much.

Take what’s happening in Washington and Colorado. In those states, citizens who are tired of waiting for their elected officials to act are resorting to direct democracy: with ballot initiatives, up for votes on November 6, that would directly take on fossil fuels. (Washington’s would put a price on carbon emissions; Colorado’s would radically reduce oil and gas drilling.)