Monday, January 28th, 2019
LIZA GROSS, - Mother Jones
Stephan: Here is the latest on the bees. I find this story so deeply depressing because it suggests that Americans are just too stupid and greedy to get it.
While soybean farmers watched the drift-prone weed killer dicamba ravage millions of acres of crops over the last two years, Arkansas beekeeper Richard Coy noticed a parallel disaster unfolding among the weeds near those fields.
When Coy spotted the withering weeds, he realized why hives that produced 100 pounds of honey three summers ago now were managing barely half that: Dicamba probably had destroyed his bees’ food.
In October, the US Environmental Protection Agency extended its approval of the weed killer for use on genetically modified soybeans and cotton, mostly in the South and Midwest, for two more years. At the time, the EPA said: “We expect there will be no adverse impacts to bees or other pollinators.”
But scientists warned the EPA years ago that dicamba would drift off fields and kill weeds that are vital to honeybees. The consequences of the EPA’s decisions now are rippling through the food system.
Dicamba already has destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of non-genetically modified soybeans and specialty crops, such as tomatoes and wine grapes. And now it appears to be a major factor in large financial losses for beekeepers. Hive losses don’t affect just the nation’s honey supply: Honeybees pollinate more than $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts […]
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Sunday, January 27th, 2019
JOE ROMM, - Think Progress
Stephan: If you went to your doctor and they told you that you had fourth-stage colorectal cancer, would you pay attention to that and take action to survive? Well, this is the planetary equivalent of that same diagnosis.
BERLIN, GERMANY – JUNE 29: An activist prepares a balloon painted to look like planet Earth and decorated with orange hair and eyebrows in the likeness of U.S. President Donald Trump during a climate protest.
Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty
Two years in, the presidency of Donald Trump has been a possibly fatal disaster for our livable climate, a number of climate and clean energy experts told ThinkProgress.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, countless climate experts voiced their concern about Trump, who had infamously called climate change a “hoax” and said it was “created by and for the Chinese.” Trump promised to undo Obama-era environmental laws, bring back coal power, and withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate agreement, in which the world’s nations unanimously agreed to start ratcheting down carbon pollution.
For all these reasons, climatologist Michael Mann wrote in October 2016 that Trump was “a threat to the planet.”
Two years after taking office, Trump has followed through on many of his promises to gut environmental regulations, promote the production of fossil fuels, kill U.S. climate […]
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Sunday, January 27th, 2019
Stephan: If you got a fourth-stage colorectal diagnosis you could just shoot the doctor and her nurse with your NRA approved and legal concealed-carry weapon, tear up your lab reports and walk out of their office, telling no one. Wouldn't stop you from dying in six months, but you could keep it a secret for a few weeks. That's the Trump approach to the environment and climate change.
NEON operates this instrument-laden tower in Alaska, which gathers data on the surrounding taiga ecosystem.
Credit: Chris McKay, Batelle Memorial Inst.
An ecological observatory funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) is in turmoil after a top leader quit and its advisory board was dissolved.
On 4 January, the contractor that manages the US$434-million National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) dismissed two long-time project managers. NEON’s scientific director, Sharon Collinge, who says she was not consulted about the moves, resigned in protest on 8 January. Later that day, the contractor disbanded the organization’s scientific advisory board.
In an e-mail to the advisory board — seen by Nature — Battelle, the non-profit contractor in Columbus, Ohio, that runs NEON, said that its actions were driven by the “changing needs of the research community”.
NEON has almost finished constructing a web of more than 80 ecological observation sites across the United States, and is beginning to produce data for ecologists to analyse. “Given the maturation of the NEON project, it is appropriate to re-examine […]
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Sunday, January 27th, 2019
, - Reader Supported News/Climate Nexus
Stephan: Your ground water is being poisoned; your children are at risk. You are at risk? Boo hoo. In the world of Trump and the Republican Party, as proven by their own words and actions, money is much more important than your wellbeing, or the wellbeing of your kids.
Pollution from a factory. Credit: Reuters
Power plants across Texas are leaching toxins into groundwater, according to new research. A report released this week from the Environmental Integrity Project found that all of the state’s 16 coal-fired power plants are leaching contaminants from coal ash into the ground, and almost none of the plants are properly lining their pits to prevent leakage.
“We found contamination everywhere we looked, poisoning groundwater aquifers and recreational fishing spots across the state,” EIP attorney and report co-author Abel Russ told the Texas Tribune. “This confirms that dumping large volumes of toxic waste in poorly-lined pits is a terrible idea.”
As reported by the Texas Observer:
“While power plants’ propensity to foul nearby air is well-documented, the danger of coal ash dumping has seen much less play in the news media.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has loosened coal ash dumping rules, relaxing pollution thresholds for certain contaminants and allowing states to waive some groundwater monitoring requirements. […]
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Sunday, January 27th, 2019
CALLY CARSWELL, Contributing Editor - High Country News
Stephan: Trump and the Republicans have reduced regulatory oversight by a host of agencies that are supposed to protect us, and when the pollution gets so bad it can't be ignored they offer polluters sweetheart deals. Am I kidding? I am not. Here's the proof.
The coal-fired plant Scherer, a major polluter.
Credit: AP/Branden Camp
Under the Trump administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is more likely to give polluters a pass when they violate laws intended to keep the air healthy and water clean, according to recent reporting by the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI), a watchdog group.
By analyzing public data and interviewing past and current EPA employees, EDGI documented notable declines in agency law enforcement this year, particularly in EPA Region 8, which includes Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas and 27 Indigenous nations. According to an internal EPA report, by mid-year Region 8 had opened 53 percent fewer enforcement cases in 2018 than in 2017. And it concluded only 53 civil cases in 2018, less than half the number in any year since at least 2006. Nationally, EDGI found a 38 percent drop in the number of orders requiring polluters to comply with the law, and a 50 percent drop in the number of fines.
