Category: Environment,

‘You Just Don’t Touch That Tap Water Unless Absolutely Necessary’

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

Americans across the country, from Maynard’s home in rural Appalachia to urban areas like Flint, Mich., or Compton, Calif., are facing a lack of clean, reliable drinking water. At the heart of the problem is a water system in crisis: aging, crumbling infrastructure and a lack of funds to pay for upgrading it.

On top of that, about 50 percent of water utilities — serving about 12 percent of the population — are privately owned. This complicated mix of public and private ownership often confounds efforts to mandate improvements or levy penalties, even if customers complain of poor water quality or mismanagement.

Drinking water is delivered nationally via 1 million miles of pipes, many of which were laid in the early to mid-20th century, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. Those pipes are now nearing the end of their life spans.

A 2017 report by the group gave America’s water systems a near-failing grade, citing an estimated 240,000 water line breaks a year nationwide.

…Leaks in the pipes that carry water throughout the county result in substantial losses of treated water — nearly 65 percent in 2016. And those leaks create a vacuum, sucking in untreated water from the ground that’s subsequently delivered to people’s homes.

That’s especially worrisome given the region’s history of mining and industrial activities. In October 2000, a giant coal sludge spill dumped more than 300 million gallons of toxic waste — including heavy metals like arsenic and mercury — into Martin County’s river system, which is also its main source for drinking water. Thick black sludge ran downstream for dozens of miles, spilling over onto lawns and roads.

‘You Just Don’t Touch That Tap Water Unless Absolutely Necessary’ : NPR

Sigh…

Ocean Cleanup steams out to sea in plastic pollution quest

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Pacific Basin,Leave a comment

The hope is that the vessel, the first of a planned fleet or 60 or more, can strain out the millions of pounds of plastic trash that collects in slow-moving ocean whirlpools called gyres, which can be hundreds of miles across. 

…Currents and waves push trash into the machine’s center to collect it. Floating particles are captured by the net while the push of water against the net propels fish and other marine life under and beyond. 

…The system is fitted with solar-powered lights and anti-collision systems to keep any stray ships from running into it, along with cameras, sensors and satellites that allow it to communicate with its creators.

…If all goes well, it will be towed out to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch nearly 1,400 miles off the West Coast, about halfway between California and Hawaii. A support vessel will fish out the collected plastic every few weeks, according to the Associated Press. The waste will then be transported to dry land for recycling.

Ocean Cleanup steams out to sea in plastic pollution quest

Yes, we need to reduce the plastic we use but unless that mythical day, this seems like a logical step in the right direction.

Climate Change Likely Iced Neanderthals Out Of Existence

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

Some paleoarchaeologists have hypothesized it’s possible they simply couldn’t reproduce fast enough to keep up with the modern humans moving into Europe around that time. Others suggest modern humans slaughtered any bands of Neanderthal they came across or infected them with novel diseases. And some suggest that an environmental catastrophe, like a volcanic eruption in Europe, killed off many plants and animals.

…Researchers propose a new hypothesis this week that suggests our bipedal brethren weren’t equipped to stand a cold spell that accompanied two long periods of extended climate change that took place around the time the species began its decline, Malcolm Ritter at the Associated Press reports.

…Not everyone is convinced by the research. Israel Hershkovitz, a physical anthropologist at Tel Aviv University, tells David that Neanderthals went through a lot of cold snaps before the ones 45,000 years ago and weathered them fine, so it doesn’t make sense that this one event would impact them so heavily. He also questions whether the climate record from caves in Romania can accurately represent all of Europe, saying there is evidence that other parts of the continent had a mild climate in the same period.

However, the researchers point out that the cold spells didn’t just impact Neanderthals. They continued to ice out modern humans after the Neanderthals disappeared; each time one culture of ancient humans disappeared in the face of a changing climate, another culture replaced them when the world warmed up again.

Climate Change Likely Iced Neanderthals Out Of Existence | Smart News | Smithsonian

hmmm

Cost of New E.P.A. Coal Rules: Up to 1,400 More Deaths a Year – The New York Times

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

The Trump administration on Tuesday made public the details of its new pollution rules governing coal-burning power plants, and the fine print includes an acknowledgment that the plan would increase carbon emissions and lead to up to 1,400 premature deaths annually.

…The new proposal …would also let states relax pollution rules for power plants that need upgrades, keeping them active longer.

…Compared to the Obama-era plan, the analysis says, “implementing the proposed rule is expected to increase emissions of carbon dioxide and the level of emissions of certain pollutants in the atmosphere that adversely affect human health.”

…The [Obama era] Clean Power Plan aimed to curb planet-warming greenhouse gases by steering the energy sector away from coal and toward cleaner energy sources like wind and solar. According to its calculations, the decreased coal burning also would reduce other pollutants like sulfur dioxide, which poses respiratory risk, and nitrogen oxides that create ozone, which, in the form of smog, can damage lung tissue.

Mr. Obama’s E.P.A. also estimated that, by 2030, the Clean Power Plan would result in 180,000 fewer missed school days per year by children because of ozone-related illnesses. Asthma instances would also drop significantly, according to the analysis.

By contrast, the Trump administration analysis finds that own its plan would see 48,000 new cases of exacerbated asthma and at least 21,000 new missed days of school annually by 2030 because those pollutants would increase in the atmosphere rather than decrease.

Cost of New E.P.A. Coal Rules: Up to 1,400 More Deaths a Year – The New York Times

hmmm

Despite rain, nearly half of New Hampshire is abnormally dry

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Granite State,Leave a comment

According to the latest drought map, 48 percent of New Hampshire is abnormally dry, meaning there’s a fine line between being in the clear and a drought.

“We’re predicted to get more rain all the way through August, without getting dry hot conditions, which the big issue there is people using a lot of water when it’s dry and hot,” said Stacey Herbold, of the NH Drought Management Team.

Despite rain, nearly half of New Hampshire is abnormally dry

hmmm

Europe’s scorching heatwave has revealed a mysterious henge

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

The henge is thought to date from the late Neolithic period, up to possibly the Bronze Age, from about 3,000 BCE. Anthony Murphy, a journalist and researcher responsible for Mythical Ireland, a blog about Ireland’s ancient megalithic sites, is responsible for the new find, which is being hailed as a completely new and very significant discovery by archaeologists.

…The new site is part of a cluster of henges and passage tombs in the Boyne Valley – working with with LiDAR scanning, Davis has roughly doubled the number of known monuments since 2010.

The landscape is known for passage tombs (like Newgrange, or Dowth, where a tomb has just been discovered) which were built from about 3,600 until 3,100 BCE during the middle Neolithic period.

The henge would have been made out of timber with two concentric circles, which would possibly have been ‘linteled’ with horizontal supports as well. “This is a time period where they’re building particularly in timber and earth, as opposed to stone which went before,” Davis says.

…Although there are discernible entries and exits, you could in theory enter the structure at any point. “It makes it much more like a symbolic enclosure, rather than a real enclosure.”

This all points to the idea that the structure was used for ritual ceremonies that involved feasting, gathering and trading together. There is, Davis explains, lots of evidence of feasting on animals at Durrington Walls within the Stonehenge landscape in England, and these sorts of sites are sometimes referred to as passing enclosures – places people congregate at during the changing of the seasons.

“The discovery means we have the highest concentration of late neolithic henges anywhere in the world,” Murphy says. He believes there may be some astronomical alignment to unearth – at nearby Dowth Hall, alignment towards the summer solstice sunrise has been discerned.

Europe’s scorching heatwave has revealed a mysterious henge | WIRED UK

Very cool!

Climate Change Is Erasing Human History

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

We’re standing on the bank of Ukkuqsi, a site that Jensen, Utqiaġvik’s resident archaeologist, has been monitoring since 1994, ever since the frozen body of a girl who died eight hundred years ago emerged from the bluffs. Iñupiat people have lived in and around Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow) for more than a thousand years. Their history has accumulated in the ground beneath their feet, preserved in the same permafrost soils that underlie most of Alaska’s North Slope.

…On top of the erosion, a warmer atmosphere is causing Alaska’s permafrost to thaw. As that happens, exquisitely preserved remains—clothing, sod houses, scraps of food, human bodies—are starting to rot.

…It’s a story that’s playing out across the entire world, from mountaintop glaciers to Caribbean islands. Over the last several decades, archaeologists have watched in alarm as history and heritage are erased by rising seas, melting ice, and worsening storms. Researchers liken the vanishing remains to books containing priceless knowledge about past cultures, past ecosystems, and past climates.

…Jensen shows me artifacts from Walakpa, a major coastal archaeological site about fifteen miles southwest of Utqiaġvik that’s likely been occupied on and off for over 3,000 years. The site, which contains an extensive record of Birnik and Thule Eskimo cultures, started to erode about five years back. The oldest, deepest layers, which sit right along the coastline, are going fast.

…Hillerdal estimates that the entire site has about a decade left. But the areas she is actively excavating, which are close to the erosion edge, “can disappear this winter,” she says. There’s a lot to lose.

“The preservation is extraordinary,” Hillerdal tells me. “We have grass ropes, basketry, pretty much an amazing sample of Yu’pik pre contact life from this time period. The number of museum quality pieces is in the thousands.”

…But it remains to be seen who would fund a global effort to survey and excavate vanishing sites—or even a fraction of them. In the U.S., the National Park Service has taken on a leadership role, both in terms of planning for climate change impacts on cultural heritage sites, and funding researchers who want to study threatened sites that reside within parks. But NPS funds are limited.

Climate Change Is Erasing Human History

sigh…

Popular plant linked to Lyme disease is now banned in Maine

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

Because of its invasive nature, starting this year, Japanese barberry cannot be sold in Maine.

Fish said it’s preventing native plants from growing and doesn’t provide the food or habitat wildlife needs.

…Studies suggest Japanese barberry may be fueling the spread of Lyme disease.

“They’re definitely a tick magnet . They’re very much a tick magnet and they not only are a tick magnet; they’re a mouse magnet and mice is where Lyme disease is reservoired,” Fish said.

Popular plant linked to Lyme disease is now banned in Maine | WGME

hmm

Plastic Use and Banning Straws

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

The truth is that straws are just the tip of the trash heap when it comes to plastic waste.

…In 2015, plastic consumption worldwide totaled 300 million metric tonnes. That essentially means that for each one of the world’s 7.6 billion humans, we’re making 88 pounds of plastic a year. The packaging industry is still growing, according to Euromonitor, with flexible plastics leading the pack.

…People in the US now spend more money eating out than eating in — often with food coming in plastic or throw-away containers.

It’s not just food. Most plastic turns to trash after a single use. If you think you’re doing Mother Earth a solid by slinging your used plastics into the recycling, think again. More than 79% of all plastic waste ends up in landfills, or gets stuck in the natural world , regardless of which sorting bin you put it in. Another 12% gets burned up in incinerators, adding to particulate matter to the atmosphere. Only a remaining 9% is actually recycled, according to a 2017 report published in Science Advances.

…Some straws drift out to sea, becoming just one more piece of the 79 thousand-ton colossal floating iceberg of trash called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Scientists who’ve studied the patch, a trash heap wider than two whole Texases that bobs somewhere between Hawaii and California, have discovered it’s essentially a watery pit of litter and illegal dumps that’s trapped in the ocean currents, and it is basically all plastic. A 2018 report based on aerial and water surveys of the patch found that “more than 99.9%” of it is plastic, and it’s not just straws in there. Plastic objects identified in the patch included containers, bottles, lids, bottle caps, packaging straps, ropes, and fishing nets.

…What it really comes down to is living with less plastic, and changing old behaviors. Other countries are aggressively regulating plastics already. Morocco, once a land laden with fields full of drifting plastic bags, banned the production, sale, and import of plastic bags completely in 2016 . Rwanda was one of the first places in the world to ban plastic bags , in 2008, and in the US, both California and Hawaii followed suit, while other states (like Michigan) rose up against the idea of ever weaning themselves off plastics and banned bans. India says all single-use plastic will be banned there by 2022. In England, Queen Elizabeth now insists that no plastic straws or bottles appear on the royal estates.

Why plastic straws are being banned by cities, businesses – Business Insider

hmmm

Trump Accuses California Of Causing Wildfires By ‘Diverting’ Water To Pacific

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

Trump finally weighed in on the tragedy, …blaming California for the blazes because it “diverts” water to the Pacific Ocean.

He also blamed the state’s “bad environmental laws” — the most protective in the nation — and trees. He called for a “tree clear to stop fire spreading.”

He failed to express condolences to the families of the victims, thank firefighters, or offer comfort to Californians afraid for their lives, homes and communities.

…It’s unclear what the president meant by water “diverted” into the Pacific. California allocates water among residents, agricultural and industrial use, and for wetlands and wildlife, including water mandated to protect endangered species. But state waters eventually drain into the ocean. As one tweeter responded: “Water running into the Pacific Ocean is called a river.” And firefighters haven’t complained of a lack of water for battling the blazes.

…The scientific consensus is that fires are becoming more common because of climate change, which Trump once called a Chinese “hoax.”

Trump Accuses California Of Causing Wildfires By ‘Diverting’ Water To Pacific | HuffPost

sigh…