Tag: environment

Trump seeks weaker protections, as 1 million species face extinction

A new UN report says the 1 million plants and animals identified, could be extinct within decades, amid a ‘mass extinction event’

Humans have pushed about 1 million varieties of plants and animals to the brink of extinction, according to a new United Nations report that arrives as congressional Republicans and the Trump administration try to diminish endangered species protections in the United States.

Many of the species identified in the report could be extinct within decades, the report says, amid a “mass extinction event” caused by humans putting more flora and fauna on the edge of eradication than ever before in their history. By transforming land and waterways, exploiting organisms, polluting, shifting species’ habitats and fueling climate change, humanity has eroded nature dramatically since the Industrial Revolution, according to the authors.

The report, written by 145 researchers from 50 countries in the last three years, is the most thorough piece of research to date on the collapse of biodiversity on Earth, which is unfolding at an “unprecedented rate,” and the repercussions of human actions.

View the complete May 6 article by Benjamin J. Hulac on The Roll Call website here.

Trump signs executive orders seeking to speed up oil and gas projects

President Trump signed on April 10 two executive orders to prevent states from blocking the construction of oil and gas pipelines. (The Washington Post)

CROSBY, Tex. — President Trump signed a pair of executive orders on Wednesday seeking to make it easier for firms to build oil and gas pipelines and harder for state agencies to intervene, a move that drew immediate backlash from some state officials and environmental activists.

“Too often, badly needed energy infrastructure is being held back by special-interest groups, entrenched bureaucracies and radical activists,” Trump said during a visit to a union training center for operating engineers 25 miles outside of Houston. “The two executive orders that I’ll be signing in just a moment will fix this, dramatically accelerating energy infrastructure approvals.”

The executive action seeks to rein in states’ power by changing the implementation instructions, known as guidance, that are issued by federal agencies, according to one of the orders.

View the complete April 10 article by Toluse Olorunnipa and Steven Mufson on The Washington Post website here.

Climate change is the overlooked driver of Central American migration Living on Earth

As people from Guatemala and Honduras continue to seek sanctuary in the US for a variety of reasons, including violence and poverty, another factor driving their migration has gotten much less attention: climate disruption.

Many members of the migrant “caravans” that made headlines during the 2018 US midterm elections are fleeing a massive drought that has lasted for five years.

The drought has hit harder in some places than in others, says John Sutter, senior investigative reporter for CNN, who went to rural Honduras to report on climate change and immigration. In the area of Central America known as the “dry corridor,” for example, drought is not uncommon. But, Sutter says, some of the climate scientists he spoke with say they are seeing unprecedented effects.

View the complete February 6 article by Adam Wernick on the PRI website here.

Interior Nominee Intervened to Block Report on Endangered Species

WASHINGTON — After years of effort, scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service had a moment of celebration as they wrapped up a comprehensive analysis of the threat that three widely used pesticides present to hundreds of endangered species, like the kit fox and the seaside sparrow.

“Woohoo!” Patrice Ashfield, then a branch chief at Fish and Wildlife Service headquarters, wrote to her colleagues in August 2017.

Their analysis found that two of the pesticides, malathion and chlorpyrifos, were so toxic that they “jeopardize the continued existence” of more than 1,200 endangered birds, fish and other animals and plants, a conclusion that could lead to tighter restrictions on use of the chemicals.

View the complete March 26 article by Eric Lipton on The New York Times website here.

Ignoring historic floods, EPA’s Wheeler says climate impacts are ’50 to 75 years out’

Meanwhile, Nebraska, Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe are all underwater.

In his first televised interview since being confirmed as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Andrew Wheeler said, “most of the threats from climate change are 50 to 75 years out.” However, major scientific reports, coupled with the rise in catastrophic fires, floods, and heatwaves around the world, contradict this statement.

In fact, the very first line of the government’s own National Climate Assessment states, “The impacts of climate change are already being felt in communities across the country.”

It’s unclear to what extent Wheeler has read the assessment; during his confirmation hearing in January, he told lawmakers he was still waiting for additional briefings. He has also made similar statements in the past, stating climate change “is not the greatest crisis.”

View the complete March 20 article by Kyla Mandel on the ThinkProgress website here.

GOP Denial Of Science Is A Danger To Every Living Thing

A week ago, a series of tornadoes ripped through eastern Alabama and western Georgia, leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake. A rural area of Lee County, Alabama — the county that is home to my alma mater, Auburn University — caught the brunt of the killer storms, which left 23 people there dead. Mobile homes were blown apart; brick houses were flattened; cars and trucks were wrapped around trees.

Tornadoes such as this brutal one — nearly a mile wide and bringing winds that had the force of a Category 5 hurricane — don’t strike only on the flat plains of Kansas and Oklahoma. Parts of Alabama, too, have long been a part of “Dixie alley,” where tornadoes are common. As a native of the southern part of the state, I remember them from my childhood.

But over the last 20 or so years, climate scientists say, tornadoes have increased in frequency and severity, in Alabama and elsewhere. Columbia University professor Michael K. Tippett has published research indicating that tornadoes have become more common since the 1970s. “The frequency of tornado outbreaks (clusters of tornadoes) and the number of extremely powerful tornado events have been increasing over nearly the past half-century in the United States,” he and fellow researchers wrote in Science in 2016.

View the complete March 9 article by Cynthia Tucker on the National Memo website here.

These toxins last ‘forever.’ But the EPA is going slow

Andrew Wheeler, acting administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency, prepares to testify before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in August. Credit: Bill Clark, CQ Roll Call file photo

PFAS were used for decades to make cookware, microwave popcorn bags, carpeting, rainwear and shoes

When two officials from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality showed up at Sandy Wynn-Stelt’s Belmont, Michigan, house in July of 2017 asking to test her private water well, she didn’t anticipate trouble.

So she was stunned when they discovered incredibly high levels of a class of chemicals that are raising serious pollution and health concerns as communities around the country discover their water is contaminated with them.

The compounds, known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, were used for decades in manufacturing products such as cookware, microwave popcorn bags, carpeting, rainwear and shoes, as well as polishes, cleaning products and fire retardants because they make surfaces resistant to heat, water and staining.

View the complete February 19 article by Jacob Holzman on The Roll Call website here.

EPA Wants To Free Uranium Miners To Pollute Western Groundwater

Industry Says Current, Tougher Pollution Rules Are ‘Impossible to Meet’

Our nation’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is dominated by Trump appointees, is asking for suggestions about regulating a type of uranium mining after EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler, who once lobbied for a uranium miner, junked more stringent mining rules.

Mining uranium could pollute groundwater our western states might later need during droughts. The way to mine uranium most used today, in situ uranium recovery, pumps an oxygen-enriched solution into the ground to dissolve uranium deposits. More chemicals are used to remove the liquid uranium.

Mining companies are supposed to repair damage from uranium mining, but Thomas Borch, an environmental chemistry professor at Colorado State University, led a study that found uranium levels in water at a Wyoming well were more than 70 times higher after mining.

View the complete February 7 article by Sarah Okeson on the DC Report website here.

Coal industry fought black lung tax as disease rates rose

An overview of a coal prep plant outside the city of Welch in rural West Virginia on May 19, 2017, in Welch, West Virginia. Credit: Spencer Platt, Getty Images

Coal companies and industry groups lobbied against extending a tax program that provides a lifeline for sufferers and their families

While cases of black lung disease among miners were on the rise last year, coal companies and industry groups lobbied lawmakers against extending a tax program that provides a lifeline for sufferers and their families.

Mandatory disclosures show the coal lobby spent some of its influence money on discussions with lawmakers regarding the Black Lung Excise Tax and the trust fund that helps pay for the health and living benefits of sick coal workers whose employers have gone bankrupt, and their beneficiaries.

Industry efforts appear to have paid off as Congress did not act by Dec. 31 to extend the higher excise tax on coal companies, the primary source of money for the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, which was established in 1977.

View the complete January 25 article by Elvina Nawaguna on The Roll Call website here.

Final Farm Bill Rejects GOP Attempts to Dismantle Nutrition Programs

Thanks to Senator Debbie Stabenow’s (D-MI) and Rep. Collin Peterson’s (MN-07) leadership, lawmakers passed a final Farm Bill that invests in rural communities, provides needed certainty to farmers and producers, creates new opportunities for beginning and underserved farmers, and gives struggling families access to healthy foods. Democratic leaders in the House and Senate worked across the aisle to negotiate a final bill that includes critical support for farmers, rural communities, and working families and rejects conservative proposals like cutting access to food stamps after Republicans held up the bill for months to make these poison-pill demands.
The final Farm Bill protects food stamps, rejecting Republican efforts to cut access to nutrition assistance.
Politico: “The deal is a win for Democrats, who unanimously opposed the House plan to impose stricter work requirements on millions of participants in SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. SNAP helps nearly 40 million low-income Americans buy groceries and accounts for more than 75 percent of the farm bill’s total price tag.”
CNBC: “The massive bill left out the controversial stricter work requirements sought by House Republicans for people getting food stamps, or participants in the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Democrats opposed adding the tougher work requirements that would have cut or reduced benefits for more than 2 million people.”

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