Category: Environment,

‘Moment of reckoning’: US cities burn recyclables after China bans imports

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

Until recently, China had been taking about 40% of US paper, plastics and other recyclables. 

…Since January 2018, China hasn’t accepted two dozen different recycling materials, such as plastic and mixed paper, unless they meet strict rules around contamination. The imported recycling has to be clean and unmixed – a standard too hard to meet for most American cities.

…The conscientious citizens of Philadelphia continue to put their pizza boxes, plastic bottles, yoghurt containers and other items into recycling bins.

But in the past three months, half of these recyclables have been loaded on to trucks, taken to a hulking incineration facility and burned, according to the city’s government.

…. Nearly four in 10 children in the city have asthma, while the rate of ovarian cancer is 64% higher than the rest of Pennsylvania and lung cancer rates are 24% higher, according to state health statistics.

…The industry that remains emits a cocktail of soot and chemicals upon a population of 34,000 residents, 70% of them black. There’s a waste water treatment plant, a nearby Kimberly-Clark paper mill and a medical waste facility. And then there’s Covanta’s incinerator, one of the largest of its kind in the US.

…The burning of trash releases a host of pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides and particulate matter, which are tiny fragments of debris that, once inhaled, cause an array of health problems.

…A host of studies have identified possible links between air pollution and ovarian and breast cancers, which are unusually prevalent in Chester. A 1995 report by the EPA found that air pollution from local industry provides a “large component of the cancer and non-cancer risk to the citizens of Chester”.

“There are higher than normal rates of heart disease, stroke and asthma in Chester, which are all endpoints for poor air.” 

…It’s a situation being replicated across the US as cities struggle to adapt to a recent ban by China on the import of items intended for reuse.

The loss of this overseas dumping ground means that plastics, paper and glass set aside for recycling by Americans is being stuffed into domestic landfills or is simply burned in vast volumes. This new reality risks an increase of plumes of toxic pollution that threaten the largely black and Latino communities who live near heavy industry and dumping sites in the US.

…Just 9% of plastic is recycled in the US, with campaigns to push up recycling rates obscuring broader concerns about the environmental impact of mass consumption, whether derived from recycled materials or not.

…The country generates more than 250m tons of waste a year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with about a third of this recycled and composted.

‘Moment of reckoning’: US cities burn recyclables after China bans imports | Cities | The Guardian

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Whites Contribute More To Air Pollution — Minorities Bear The Burden

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Infrastructure and Transportation,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Scientists and policymakers have long known that black and Hispanic Americans tend to live in neighborhoods with more pollution of all kinds, than white Americans. …A driver of unequal health outcomes across the U.S.

…The researchers found that air pollution is disproportionately caused by white Americans’ consumption of goods and services, but disproportionately inhaled by black and Hispanic Americans.

…The most relevant air pollutant metric for human health is “particulate matter 2.5” or PM2.5. It represents the largest environmental health risk factor in the United States with higher levels linked to more cardiovascular problems, respiratory illness, diabetes and even birth defects. PM2.5 pollution is mostly caused by human activities, like burning fossil fuels or agriculture.

…The researchers generated maps of where different emitters, like agriculture or construction, caused PM2.5 pollution. Coal plants produced pockets of pollution in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, while agricultural emissions were concentrated in the Midwest and California’s central valley. “We then tied in census data to understand where different racial-ethnic groups live to understand exposure patterns,” says Hill.

…After accounting for population size differences, whites experience about 17 percent less air pollution than they produce, through consumption, while blacks and Hispanics bear 56 and 63 percent more air pollution, respectively, than they cause by their consumption, according to the study.

“These patterns didn’t seem to be driven by different kinds of consumption,” says Tessum, “but different overall levels.” In other words, whites were just consuming disproportionately more of the same kinds of goods and services resulting in air pollution than minority communities.

…PM2.5 exposure by all groups has fallen by about 50 percent from 2002 to 2015, driven in part by regulation and population movement away from polluted areas. But the inequity remains mostly unchanged.

Whites Contribute More To Air Pollution — Minorities Bear The Burden : Shots – Health News : NPR

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Deep sea creatures in the Mariana Trench eat plastic and introduce it into the food chain, study finds

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Amphipods had plastic fibers and particles in their digestive systems, known as the hindgut. The deeper the trench, the more fibers they found.

…Sixty-six percent of the plastic they found was blue fibers. Black, red, and purple fragments were also present, along with blue and pink fragments.

No trench was fiber-free, and more than 80 percent of the amphipods contained them. When tested, the fibers were the same used in textiles, and the study suggests they entered the ocean after leaching from washing machines.

…Amphipods are becoming a vector to transport plastic particles into the food web.

“The amphipods they are finding fibers in are prey for larger fish and those larger fish are prey for even larger predators,” she says. …“And that puts these fibers into the food web. We are finding larger organisms with intestines lined with microfibers. They found a baleen whale that had been beached and when they cut it open, the intestines were lined with these smaller particles.

Deep sea creatures in the Mariana Trench eat plastic, study finds

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A Crusade In The Philippines Takes On The Big Brands Behind Plastic Waste

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment

With a growing economy and a swelling middle class, people are consuming at a torrid pace — electronic devices, packaged foods, fancy toiletries — goods either made of plastic or wrapped in it.

… In many places, informal cadres of waste pickers collect what they can sell to recyclers. But much of the plastic cannot be recycled. So no one collects it, and it drifts. Everywhere.

…The same problem besets them all — it’s not just too much plastic but it’s the stuff that can’t be recycled. There’s nowhere to put it, except in landfills, which are few, and from which plastic eventually migrates, by wind or water.

…Crispian Lao, who used to be in the plastics industry and [now, in a somewhat Orwellian twist,] is now head of the Philippine Alliance for Recycling and Materials Sustainability. The group represents …companies like Unilever, Coca-Cola, Nestlé and others that make and package consumer goods.

Lao praises the sachets for [being easily identifiable] in a market where counterfeit goods are common. “There’s also the health issue,” he says: Sachets don’t pose health risks to the consumers in places where water to wash reusable containers might be contaminated. [The peanut gallery imagines this is the argument against a system where the consumer could bring their own packaging for the goods they are buying? Because corporate savior?]

…[Research] showed that the biggest sources of plastic waste washing into the oceans are in Southeast and South Asia.

Fingers were pointed.

…People in the Philippines were angry — among them, Grate. It was blaming the victim, not the manufacturers.

…Talk of future recycling still puts the burden of cleanup on the consumer. “The problem,” Grate says, “is that most companies … feel their responsibility ends the moment they sell it. That’s one of the biggest injustices here.”

…As for the pledge [to sell all products in recyclable packaging by] 2025, no one knows how companies will do it and how much it will cost to set up a huge recycling system across the islands of the Philippines.

…The plan was to challenge companies. Says Hernandez: “If we cannot recycle it or compost this material, then you should not be producing them in the first place.”

…Grate and other local activists in the Philippines proposed a novel action, something no one had done before: brand audits.

These environmental groups did regular beach cleanups, which helped bring attention to the problem even if the beaches were covered with trash again a few months later. But now they wanted to compile a list of the brand logos emblazoned on the plastic trash and publicize them for all to see.

A Crusade In The Philippines Takes On The Big Brands Behind Plastic Waste : Goats and Soda : NPR

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It Sounds Crazy, But Fukushima, Chernobyl, And Three Mile Island Show Why Nuclear Is Inherently Safe

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

It Sounds Crazy, But Fukushima, Chernobyl, And Three Mile Island Show Why Nuclear Is Inherently Safe

Ta fuck it does… Who pitched this story? The Nuclear power plant lobby?

Psssst, double-speaking dipshits: “Not as bad as we thought,” does not, in any way, equal, “inherently safe.”

For fuck’s sake….

National Butterfly Center to file restraining order on border wall

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Local Interest,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Customs and Border Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers have awarded Galveston-based SLSCO a $145 million contract to build the first six miles of a border-levee wall system along the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

This includes about 200 acres of land that sits on the center’s property south of a levee, about two miles inland from the Rio Grande River. 

The land was set aside for the protection of a remnant of native habitat, endangered species such as the ocelot, and the graves of Native American people.

…The center has filed lawsuits to stop construction of the wall. Additional lawsuits filed by the Center for Biological Diversity challenged the waivers granted by the Supreme Court.

These cases are still working their way through the federal court system.

National Butterfly Center to file restraining order on border wall

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Ocean Cleanup Of Plastic Pollution In The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Breaks

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Pacific Basin,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

But as Slat, now 24, recently discovered with the beta tester for his design, plastic occasionally drifts out of its U-shaped funnel. The other issue with the beta tester, called System 001, is that last week, a 60-feet-long end section broke off.

…”In principle, I think we are relatively close to getting it working,” Slat said in an interview Saturday with NPR’s Michel Martin. “It’s just that sometimes the plastic is also escaping again. Likely what we have to do is we have to speed up the system so that it constantly moves faster than the plastic.”

For the material failure, Slat said his team will probably try to locally reinforce the system to combat the problem of material fatigue.

“If you have a paper clip and you move that back and forward many times, essentially the material gets weaker,” he said. “That’s likely what has happened with material of the cleanup system.”

…He estimates that about 8 million metric tons of plastic go into the ocean each year — roughly the equivalent of one dump truck full of plastic every minute.

Ocean Cleanup Of Plastic Pollution In The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Breaks : NPR

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Republicans are the real threat to hamburgers, not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

One of the most common Republican attack lines since the Green New Deal resolution was introduced last month is that Democrats, namely Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), “want to take away your hamburgers.”

…But the truth is, the real threat to hamburgers — and to food supplies in general — is Republican inaction on climate change.

Republicans are the real threat to hamburgers, not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – ThinkProgress

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Plastic Mardi Gras Beads Could Soon Be A Thing Of The Past

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Media and Culture,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

His discovery — that algae processed in a centrifuge could form a biodegradable, plastic-like material — was actually a mistake. A lab student tasked with processing algae samples in a centrifuge and then placing them in a freezer forgot to freeze the algae one night.

…Kato’s algae-based beads break down naturally over one to two years, while plastic beads can last for dozens or hundreds. Two years is a sweet spot in terms of shelf life, he said, because “you don’t want to have beads that melt on your hands or in the rain.” The lifespan of these beads may change, depending on what kind of chemicals he uses to add colors that can match the allure of bright conventional Mardi Gras beads. He said he’s still figuring out this aspect of production.

Plastic Mardi Gras Beads Could Soon Be A Thing Of The Past | HuffPost

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Camp Fire: PG&E says it’s ‘probable’ its equipment will be found to have caused blaze

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

As a result of the blaze, which claimed at least 86 lives and destroyed 14,000 homes, the company said it recorded a $10.5 billion charge ahead of anticipated claims.

…The utility previously said it anticipated being found responsible for damages from the Camp Fire and other California wildfires. The expectation of huge losses led to the company filing for bankruptcy last month.

…Subsequent inspections of this transmission line identified equipment that should have been repaired or replaced, the company said.

Camp Fire: PG&E says it’s ‘probable’ its equipment will be found to have caused blaze – CNN

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Ford investigating possible problems with fuel economy, emissions tests

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Ford Motor Co said on Thursday it had hired outside experts to investigate its vehicle fuel economy and testing procedures after employees raised concerns, and did not know whether it would have to correct data given to regulators or consumers.

UPDATE 1-Ford investigating possible problems with fuel economy, emissions tests

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Attacking plastic waste and single-use, throwaway culture

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

The reality is that much of the plastic tossed into bins ends up in landfills, or it gets shipped overseas to countries that lack infrastructure to deal with it properly.

…Plastic was never recycled at a high level, and it’s even worse since 2018, when China closed its doors to imported mixed plastic waste. U.S. recyclers have shifted exports to countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, but those countries lack the capacity to handle the volume we’re sending, which has brought them new environmental problems.

Moreover, despite our willingness to move plastic waste around the world, only about 9% of the plastic ever made has actually been recycled. We just keep making more of the stuff. If your bathtub was overflowing, you wouldn’t immediately reach for a mop — you’d first turn off the tap. That’s what we need to do with single-use plastics.

…It’s not that there isn’t still a role for recycling in efforts to reduce trash. Cans, bottles, paper and cardboard are highly recyclable.

But we need to be more realistic about the kinds of plastic that can be effectively collected, processed and then reused. Single-stream recycling, which co-mingles different materials for collection, is convenient, but it leads to increased contamination and thus lower quality recyclables.

Even with increased investment in sorting, recycling will never be able keep up with all of the new types of plastics on the market or the ever-increasing flow of plastic waste.

Berkeley isn’t just attacking plastic waste, it’s rejecting our entire throwaway culture – Los Angeles Times

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Sonar Can Literally Scare Whales to Death, Study Finds

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Military,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Between 2002 and 2014, six mass strandings took place in Greece, the Canary Islands and Almería in southeastern Spain, but the dead whales did not appear to be malnourished or sick. However, they displayed “abundant gas bubbles” throughout their veins, blood clots in multiple organs and microscopic hemorrhages “of varying severity” in body tissues.

Beached whales may have experienced “a fight or flight response” that overrode a key diving adaptation: the lowering of heart rate, which reduces oxygen consumption and prevents nitrogen accumulation. The result was hemorrhages and “massive bubble formation in their tissues,” de Quirós explained.

These symptoms of decompression sickness likely afflicted the whales after they were spooked by sonic blasts, according to the study.

Sonar Can Literally Scare Whales to Death, Study Finds

Jeezus…

European slaughter of Native Americans changed the climate, study says

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Science and Stuff,, The Americas,Leave a comment

European settlers killed 56 million indigenous people over about 100 years in South, Central and North America, causing large swaths of farmland to be abandoned and reforested, researchers at University College London, or UCL, estimate. The increase in trees and vegetation across an area the size of France resulted in a massive decrease in carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, according to the study.

Carbon levels changed enough to cool the Earth by 1610, researchers found. 

…”The ice cores showed that there was a larger dip in CO2 (than usual) in 1610, which was caused by the land and not the oceans,” said Alexander Koch, lead author of the study.

A small shift in temperatures — about a 10th of a degree in the 17th century — led to colder winters, frosty summers and failing harvests, Koch said.

European slaughter of Native Americans changed the climate, study says – CNN

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The north magnetic pole just changed. Here’s what that means.

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Magnetic north’s routine plod has shifted into high gear, sending it galloping across the Northern Hemisphere—and no one can entirely explain why.

The changes have been so large that scientists began working on an emergency update for the World Magnetic Model, the mathematical system that lays the foundations for navigation, from cell phones and ships to commercial airlines.

…“Things are acting very strangely at high latitude,” says Livermore, who notes that this increase seemed to coincide with a strengthening jet in the planet’s liquid outer core. Though the events could be linked, it’s not yet possible to say for sure.

… The north magnetic pole seems to be controlled by two patches of magnetic field, he explains, one under northern Canada and one under Siberia. Historically, the one under northern Canada seems to have been stronger, keeping the magnetic pole in its clutches. But recently, that seems to have changed.

“The Siberian patch looks like it’s winning the battle,” he says. “It’s sort of pulling the magnetic field all the way across to its side of the geographic pole.”

…This may be a result of a jet within the core smearing and thus weakening the magnetic field under Canada, he says. The jet’s increase in speed seems to have coincided with the last few decades of the magnetic pole zipping north.

The north magnetic pole just changed. Here’s what that means.

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A controversial bill aimed to block protests like Standing Rock is back in the Wyoming Legislature | Local News | trib.com

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Environment,, Local Interest,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

After a veto by then-Gov. Matt Mead at the close of the 2018 budget session, legislation that would create criminal charges for impeding fossil fuel facilities and pipelines during protests is back in the Wyoming Legislature.

Similar in scope to bills introduced in statehouses across the country following the Dakota Access pipeline protests, Rep. Lloyd Larsen’s Crimes Against Critical Infrastructure bill was written with numerous fixes to address questions raised last year.

However, critics told lawmakers at a packed committee hearing Monday that the bill would still restrict people’s lawful right to protest.

A controversial bill aimed to block protests like Standing Rock is back in the Wyoming Legislature | Local News | trib.com

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The End Of Plastic Cutlery, Plates And Straws: EU Market Says Goodbye To Single-Use Plastic Products

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Europe,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

The aim of the directive, which is part of the European Plastics Strategy, is to protect the environment and reduce marine litter by avoiding the emission of 3.4 million tonnes of CO2. However, it should be noted the importance of the economic benefits that the new regulation will bring: the directive may avoid environmental damages which would cost the equivalent of €22 billion ($24.9 billion) by 2030 and save consumers a projected €6.5 billion ($7.38 billion). 

…The measures discussed are closely related to the latest estimates on marine litter, according to the European Commission, plastics make up 85% of beach litter, which is causing catastrophic consequences on the environment. The organization WWF has already pointed out the dramatic effects that the excessive use of plastics, poor management of waste and mass tourism are having in the Mediterranean Sea, the most visited sea in Europe.

…The new rules aim to stop the use of throwaway plastic products and packaging for which alternatives exist and is focused on the most frequently found items polluting European seas: plastic cutlery (forks, knives, spoons, and chopsticks), plastic plates, plastic straws, cotton bud sticks made of plastic, beverage and food containers made of expanded polystyrene (such as fast food and takeaway boxes), and products made from oxo-degradable plastic, which contributes to microplastic pollution.  According to the European Commission, together these products constitute 70% of all marine litter items.

…The global production of plastics has not stopped to increase since 1960. According to the European Commission, in 2015 the global production reached 322 million tonnes and it is expected to double over the next 20 years. In Europe, around 25.8 million tonnes of plastic waste is generated every year and less than 30% of such waste is collected for recycling. 

The End Of Plastic Cutlery, Plates And Straws: EU Market Says Goodbye To Single-Use Plastic Products

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Berkeley City Council unanimously passes disposable foodware and litter ordinance

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Local Interest,Leave a comment

The ordinance’s lead author City Councilmember Sophie Hahn said in a statement, “Single-use disposable foodware is a local and global problem, one with enormous financial and environmental costs.”

….”Most of the single-use plastic foodware has no value in today’s recycling markets. With China’s ban on importing plastic scrap, cities are actually paying to get rid of it.”

Bourque said, “We cannot recycle our way out of the disposable foodware problem. We have to focus on reduction.”

Upstream Policy Director Miriam Gordon said, “Our throw-away culture is leading to a proliferation of plastics in our food, air, and drinking water, which threatens human health and all ocean life. Disposable food packaging is the biggest contributor to the problem.”

Berkeley City Council unanimously passes disposable foodware and litter ordinance | abc7news.com

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