Rapidly falling insect populations, said Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, “will make it even more difficult than today to get enough food for the human population of the planet, to get good health and freshwater for everybody.”

Grasshopper. Photo: PublicDomainPictures.net

A leading scientist warned Tuesday that the rapid decline of insects around the world poses an existential threat to humanity and action must be taken to rescue them “while we still have time.”

Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and one of the world’s top entomologists, said in an interview with The Guardian that the importance of insects to the planet should spur humans to take immediate action against one of the major causes of insect decline—the climate crisis.

“Insects are the glue in nature,” said Sverdrup-Thygeson. “We should save insects, if not for their sake, then for our own sake.”

Falling insect populations around the world is cause for serious alarm, Sverdrup-Thygeson said, given the enormous impact these tiny creatures have on the global ecosystem.

“I have read pretty much every study in English and I haven’t seen a single one where entomologists don’t believe the main message that a lot of insect species are definitely declining,” said Sverdrup-Thygeson. “When you throw all the pesticides and climate change on top of that, it is not very cool to be an insect today.”

If this decline continues unabated, Sverdrup-Thygeson warned, soon “it will not be fun to be a human on this planet either.”

“[I]t will make it even more difficult than today to get enough food for the human population of the planet, to get good health and freshwater for everybody,” said Sverdrup-Thygeson. “That should be a huge motivation for doing something while we still have time.”

“You can pull out some threads,” she added, “but at some stage the whole fabric unravels and then we will really see the consequences.”

This 2010 Earth Day video is just as relevant in 2017.
Happy Earth Day.

Before the Flood will appear in theaters in NYC and LA starting October 21, and air globally on the National Geographic Channel starting October 30.

Leonardo DiCaprio, President Barack Obama and Texas Tech University climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe discuss climate change, prior to a premier screening of “Before the Flood”.

Louisiana’s devastating rainfall was the state’s second “1,000-year” flood this year

Louisiana flood, August 2016 – Photo: Common Dreams flickr/cc

Parts of Louisiana’s disastrous, ongoing flooding has been upgraded by meteorologists to once-in-1,000-years rainfall, with other areas classified as 500-year and 100-year events, nola.com reported Monday, as scientists warn that such storms are growing more and more frequent as the planet heats up.

“On Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is set to classify the Louisiana disaster as the eighth flood considered to be a once-in-every-500-years event to have taken place in the U.S. in little over 12 months,” the Guardian reports:

Since May of last year, dozens of people have been killed and thousands of homes have been swamped with water in extreme events in Oklahoma, Texas, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Maryland. NOAA considers these floods extreme because, based on historical rainfall records, they should be expected to occur only once every 500 years.

The Louisiana flooding has been so exceptional that some places in the state experienced storm conditions considered once-every-1,000-year events. Close to 2ft of rain fell over a 48-hour period in parts of southern Louisiana, causing residents to scramble to safety from flooded homes and cars.

And nola.com reported that the flooding “was triggered by a complicated, slow-moving low-pressure weather system that dumped as much as two feet of rain on parts of East Baton Rouge, Livingston and St. Helena parishes in 48 hours.”

“The record two-day rainfall in those areas had a 0.1 percent chance of occurring in any year, the equivalent of a ‘1,000-year rain,’ according to the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center, based at the Slidell office of the National Weather Service,” the local outlet wrote.

The ongoing flooding is the second “1,000-year” rain to strike the state this year. Noted environmentalist Bill McKibben tweeted about such disasters’ rapidly increasing frequency:

The flooding has caused the death of eight people and affected 40,000 homes and businesses, according to the Associated Press.

The floods have indeed been devastating, with many last-minute evacuations forcing residents to leave their houses with nothing. And although both the federal and state governments have now declared states of emergency, in many areas people have been forced to take search-and-rescue efforts into their own hands, the Guardian writes:

The scale of the flooding was beyond the reach of any government agency, though. So from the bayous and swamps emerged something locals are calling the “Cajun navy.” Thousands of hunters and fishermen from throughout the region arrived in boats and organized themselves into search-and-rescue parties.

Brittany Cuccia, a college student from Thibodeaux, joined one 10-boat fleet Monday as it moved from house to underwater house. “I’d say we’ve pulled out 50 people at least,” she said.

Residents who needed help were stuck in homes with no power, she said. They had no way to call for help, and so they retreated higher and higher into their homes, praying for rescue.

And with even some coffins being uprooted and photographed eerily floating down residential streets, at least one local described the disaster as “worse than Hurricane Katrina.”

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China’s plans to curb Beijing’s health-damaging air pollution by focusing on restricting emissions from power plants and vehicles may have limited impact if household use of coal and other dirty fuels is not also curtailed, according to a new study.

Beijing’s Forbidden City on a smoggy day. Photo: WikiCommons

“You cannot have a clean outdoor environment if a large percentage of the population is burning dirty fuels in households several times a day,” said Kirk Smith, a professor with UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health who co-led the study with Tong Zhu of Peking University and Denise Mauzerall of Princeton University. “The smoke may start indoors, but soon leaves the house and becomes a significant part of regional air pollution.”

Beijing’s polluted air came to international attention before the 2008 summer Olympics. Today, the average daily concentration of the smallest particulates — those that can lodge deeply in the lungs and trigger chronic and acute respiratory illness, heart disease and lung cancer — is more than six times what the World Health Organization regards as safe. Levels of other major pollutants, such as ozone, also rank high..

China developed a five-year plan to reduce emissions, but the researchers concluded that focusing too narrowly on controlling emissions of pollutants just within Beijing and its suburbs, without also reducing emissions from the entire region, including widespread surrounding rural areas, may limit the potential effectiveness of pollution-control efforts.

Their study will be published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

The modeling study is the first to incorporate local and regional datasets on air emissions and to combine these with modeling of weather impacts and atmospheric chemistry in the region to come up with estimates of impacts of household emissions during winter months, when heating demands are greatest.

“We show that due to uncontrolled and inefficient combustion of solid fuels in household devices, emission reductions from the residential sector may have greater air-quality benefits in the North China Plain, including Beijing, than reductions from other sectors,” the researchers wrote. Household uses include cooking and heating.

The researchers used the Weather Research and Forecasting Model with Chemistry, a model developed in the United States and used by researchers worldwide, to generate atmospheric simulations using real data from China. They focused on Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei provinces, where more than 100 million people live.

They then made estimates of the relative contributions of emissions sources using data from 2010, and also modeled emissions reductions scenarios to derive estimates for reduction levels of small particulates over the region that would result from different mitigation efforts.

The researchers concluded that eliminating household emissions in Beijing alone would reduce levels of small particulate pollution in the air over Beijing in winter by about 22 percent, but that eliminating household emissions in all three provinces surrounding Beijing would nearly double the reduction in particulate levels in the city itself.

In other words, Beijing does not have its fate entirely in its own hands, according to Smith, and the results highlight the importance of regional efforts to reduce urban air pollution.

“On a smaller scale, here in the Bay Area, air-quality control is not only focused on San Francisco and Oakland, but also coordinated across nine Bay Area counties through a regional governing body,” Smith said. “One might think that, because China has a powerful central government, it would be easy to coordinate regional governing bodies to fight pollution, but that is not necessarily the case.”

The researchers did not attempt to evaluate how climate change might be affected by Chinese efforts to reduce household burning of biomass fuel by supplying natural gas. China has begun building plants to convert coal to “synthetic natural gas,” which burns cleaner, but results in more carbon dioxide emissions than direct burning of coal.

Nor did the researchers try to gauge the health benefits of reducing household emissions. However, a Global Burden of Disease study found that direct household exposure to air pollution from solid fuels was responsible for 800,000 premature deaths in China in 2013, about equal to the number of premature deaths from outdoor particulate pollution, Smith said. The work by Smith and colleagues indicates that a significant portion of the ill-health from outdoor pollution in China should also be attributed to household fuels.

The research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation Committee of China, the European Seventh Framework Programme Project PURGE (Public Health Impacts in Urban Environments of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions Strategies) and the Collaborative Innovation Center for Regional Environmental Quality.

On the heels of clean fuel milestones in Germany and Portugal , a new report finds that the renewable energy industry employed over 8.1 million people worldwide in 2015.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) annual review, that figure marks a 5% increase from the previous year. China led the pack, accounting for 3.5 million jobs. Brazil and U.S. ranked second and third, respectively, for the highest number of renewable energy jobs.

The solar photovoltaic (PV) sector shot up 11% and accounted for biggest number of jobs at 2.8 million globally.

In the U.S. alone, solar grew nearly 22%.  That’s “12 times faster than job creation in the US economy­—surpassing jobs in oil and gas,” the report states. The other country seeing growth in solar was Japan, which notched a 28% increase in solar PV employment in 2014.

Wind saw “a record year” in employment, the report states. Wind energy employment in the U.S. grew 21%; worldwide it grew 5%. At the same time, oil and gas extraction jobs fell by 18 percent in the U.S.

“This increase is being driven by declining renewable energy technology costs and enabling policy frameworks,” stated IRENA Director-General Adnan Z. Amin. “We expect this trend to continue as the business case for renewables strengthens and as countries move to achieve their climate targets agreed in Paris,” he added, referring to the UN climate deal sealed at the end of 2015.

Mark Kenber, CEO of The Climate Group, an organization that advocates for reining in carbon emissions, added, “A clean revolution is key to growth, investment, jobs, health, security: there is no high-carbon prosperous future.”

The new review follows a separate brief released (pdf) by IRENA on “the true costs of of fossil fuels,” which found that doubling the global share of renewables by 2030 would save not only $4.2 trillion annually but also as many as 4 million lives.

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Today is Earth Day — the last one I’ll celebrate as President. Looking back over the past seven years, I’m hopeful that the work we’ve done will allow my daughters and all of our children to inherit a cleaner, healthier, and safer planet. But I know there is still work to do.

That’s why, today, the United States will join about 170 other countries in signing the Paris Agreement, a historic deal to reduce carbon emissions across the globe.

When Secretary of State John Kerry stands with other countries to support this agreement, we’ll advance a plan that prioritizes the health of our planet and our people. And we’ll come within striking distance of enacting the Paris Agreement years earlier than anyone expected.

This is important because the impact of climate change is real. Last summer, I visited Alaska and stood at the foot of a disappearing glacier. I saw how the rising sea is eating away at shorelines and swallowing small towns. I saw how changes in temperature mean permafrost is thawing and the tundra is burning. So we’ve got to do something about it before it’s too late.

As the world’s second-largest source of climate pollution, America has a responsibility to act. The stakes are enormous — our planet, our children, our future. That’s true not just here in America, but all over the world. No one is immune.

That’s why, when I ran for this office, I promised I’d work with anyone — across the aisle or on the other side of the planet — to combat this threat. It’s why we brought together scientists, entrepreneurs, businesses, and religious organizations to tackle this challenge together. It’s why we set the first-ever national fuel efficiency standards for trucks and set new standards for cars. It’s why we made the biggest investment in clean energy in U.S. history. It’s why we put forward a plan to limit carbon pollution from existing power plants. And it’s why in Paris, we rallied countries all over the world to establish a long-term framework to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions — the first time so many countries had committed to ambitious, nationally determined climate targets.

Now, we’re building on that momentum. When all is said and done, today will be the largest one-day signing event in the history of the UN.

Thanks to this agreement, we can be more confident that we’ll leave our children a planet worthy of their promise.

That’s what this is all about. And that’s why today, America is leading the fight against climate change.

President Barack Obama

The human impact on our global climate has now been traced back as far as the 1930’s

If you’re wondering if the Feds have suddenly become animal advocates, the answer is no. The agency is simply responding to a wealth of research findings showing that animal abuse is often a precursor to further acts of violence toward humans.

John Thompson, deputy executive director of the National Sheriffs’ Association, has been instrumental in moving this theory forward. In an interview with NPR he said, “It’s data that gives police chiefs and sheriffs valuable information to help them set up the way they police their community, The research is very clear, and it’s been there for a long time. Law enforcement just hasn’t got it yet.”

“Look back at the Son of Sam and [Jeffrey] Dahmer and Ted Bundy in Florida,” he continued, “if you look at serial killers, the majority of them abused animals prior to turning on humans and one even admitted, “I did it to see how the animal would die before I killed a human.”

Thompson compared the slow pace of law enforcement’s recognition of the ominous implications of animal abuse to its slow response in acknowledging the complexities of domestic abuse. It was not until the early 70s, he said, that laws were changed to reflect a deeper understanding of the dynamics of domestic violence, specifically the way in which they constrain women from fleeing their tormentors

Of course, not every animal abuser grows up to be a serial killer. Sometimes they become President of the United States. In 2000, one of George W. Bush’s childhood friends famously told Nicholas Krystal in the New York Times that he and the young Bush used to entertain themselves by sticking firecrackers into frogs to “watch them blow up.” Bush eventually put aside such childish things. However he did continue to hunt animals for sport – particularly the exotic species stocked on Texas hunting ranches.

Casual violence toward animals by youngsters has long been excused as a prank, a boys-will-be-boys rite-of-passage. It is also characterized, more convincingly, as an extension of a broader cultural bias that normalizes and elevates animal abuse into something akin to an honorable social tradition.

Following his arrest for running a dog-fighting ring, NFL superstar quarterback Michael Vick talked of seeing his first dogfight at the age of 8. Rather than a cruel aberration particular to him, he seemed to be saying, the bloodlust that animates the so-called sport was an extension of the violence that surrounded him and his 10 siblings in the housing projects where he grew up.

The pervasiveness of dog fighting in Vick’s world also helps to explain the carelessness with which he oversaw his sideline – even as it expanded into three states and became a cash machine for him and his partners. In fact, his Bad Newz Kennels was probably one of the worst kept secrets in his community – and even among fellow teammates.

Vick’s crimes were exposed in July 2007, when he and his partners were arrested and charged with operating an interstate dog-fighting ring. Fifty-one pit bulls – all showing signs of abuse – were seized by authorities at his Virginia compound. After failing a polygraph test, Vick admitted to hanging and drowning dogs that didn’t show the proper fighting spirit.

In a plea bargain arrangement, Vick was spared prosecution for animal abuse by copping to violating the provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) – and in so doing cut his sentence in half. He served an 18-month stint in the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas.

Arguments pro and con persist as to whether Vick should have been allowed to return to the NFL after his release. Team owners however, had no such misgivings. Nor were they intimidated by the bleeding-hearts who threatened boycotts and picketing.

For his part, Vick sought redemption in the court of public opinion by becoming a vocal, if unlikely, advocate for the Humane Society. Ultimately, a combination of power and remorse returned him to the warped respectability of the gridiron’s warrior class.

If the FBI succeeds in its latest mission, future offenders – including hustlers who operate dog-fighting events in every major American city – might not be so lucky.

At this rate, plastics production will account for 20 percent of total oil consumption and 15 percent of the global annual carbon budget by 2050.

A plastic-strewn beach on the Midway Atoll. Photo: Kris Krüg/cc/flickr

The weight of plastic waste clogging the world’s oceans threatens to exceed all fish by 2050 if the world’s seemingly insatiable appetite for the material continues at the current explosive rate, warned a new report presented on Tuesday.

In fact, according to the study by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation along with the World Economic Forum, “plastics production has surged over the past 50 years, from 15 million tonnes in 1964 to 311 million tonnes in 2014, and is expected to double again over the next 20 years.”

The study—The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics (pdf)—introduced at the opening day of the WEF’s annual summit in Davos, Switzerland is the first of its kind to comprehensively assess global plastic packaging flows. The report makes an economic case for what it calls the “New Plastics Economy,” described as “a new approach based on creating effective after-use pathways for plastics; drastically reducing leakage of plastics into natural systems, in particular oceans; and decoupling plastics from fossil feedstocks.”

Among the findings, which are based on interviews with over 180 experts and on analysis of over 200 reports, the study estimates that roughly 8 million tonnes of plastics leak into the ocean each year—”which is equivalent to dumping the contents of one garbage truck into the ocean every minute.” This amount is expected to double by 2030.

“In a business-as-usual scenario, the ocean is expected to contain 1 tonne of plastic for every 3 tonnes of fish by 2025, and by 2050, more plastics than fish (by weight),” the report continues.

What’s more, the report estimates that only 14 percent of plastic packaging is collected for recycling and even less for plastics in general. After sorting, only 5 percent is ultimately retained for subsequent use, which is far below global recycling rates for paper (58 percent) and iron and steel (70–90 percent).

Further, the report examines the carbon impact of plastics production, given that over 90 percent are derived from “virgin fossil feedstocks.” Plastics production represents roughly 6 percent of global oil consumption and “If the current strong growth of plastics usage continues as expected, the plastics sector will account for 20% of total oil consumption and 15% of the global annual carbon budget by 2050.”

The report argues that single-use plastics, and plastic packaging specifically, represents a net loss for the economy, as its limited value is outweighed by these negative impacts. It states:

After a short first-use cycle, 95% of plastic packaging material value, or USD 80–120 billion annually, is lost to the economy. A staggering 32% of plastic packaging escapes collection systems, generating significant economic costs by reducing the productivity of vital natural systems such as the ocean and clogging urban infrastructure. The cost of such after-use externalities for plastic packaging, plus the cost associated with greenhouse gas emissions from its production, is conservatively estimated at USD 40 billion annually – exceeding the plastic packaging industry’s profit pool.

“Linear models of production and consumption are increasingly challenged by the context within which they operate, and this is particularly true for high-volume, low-value materials such as plastic packaging,” said Ellen MacArthur, an accomplished British yachtswoman turned foundation chair.

The researchers conclude that in order to get closer to the goal of a “circular economy”—where “consumption happens only in effective bio-cycles; elsewhere use replaces consumption”—both the public and private sector must work towards the goal of creating plastics that can be both recycled and composted.

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