Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

Environment Tag

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 10, 2016 2 Comments
I attended two fascinating lectures at a local biosafety conference this week. The first talk addressed "The Zika Virus Invasion" and the second revealed a potential new weapon to control the spread of the pathogen that has been linked to birth defects and neurological disorders. The Scripps Research Institute's Biosafety Officer, Dr. Laurence Cagnon, focused on entirely on the Zika Virus in her intriguing talk. The expert on virology and microbiology discussed the history of Zika research and reviewed recommendations for working with infected samples and mosquitoes safely. "We are still limited about what we actually know about Zika," said Cagnon. "The recommendations are to treat Zika as guilty until proven innocent". Cagnon noted that before the outbreak in Brazil was widely reported, along with the associated microcephaly birth defects, only 171 professional articles mentioned the Zika Virus. In comparison, thousands were available on other well-known mosquito-borne diseases (including several I have covered here, including dengue fever, chikungunya, and Ebola).

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 05, 2016 28 Comments
Dave Bry is the author of Public Apology: In Which a Man Grapples With a Lifetime of Regret, One Incident at a Time. I suspect he is going to have one more regret to add to his list: Writing a column in The Guardian asking if its immoral to have children... because "Climate Change."
...For while the world is a wonderful place, one we humans have made nicer for ourselves with wonderful inventions like books and record players, penicillin and pizza, it’s also a really awful place, one we’ve ravaged with deforestation and smog, nuclear weapons and mountains of pizza delivery boxes and other garbage. The awfulness seems to be getting worse, especially now that climate change has sped up – sea level rise that was supposed to take centuries has recently been projected as taking just decades. This complicates the already difficult decision of whether to have a kid.... Was I complicit in the damage? I remember every extra paper towel I’ve ever unspooled from the roll, and think about a tree falling in the Amazon, and then think about my son growing up in a gray, dying world – walking towards Kansas on potholed highways. Maybe while trying to protect his own son, like the father in The Road. Will he decide to have a kid? I have foisted upon him a decision even more difficult than my own. It’s all very depressing.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 04, 2016 4 Comments
The last time we checked on Flint, we learned that the regional Environmental Protection Agency team indicated the city was "not worth going out on a limb for." Perhaps not, but the city now is facing over 50 lawsuits because the EPA decided it didn't need to take any action upon learning about the elevated lead levels in the municipal water supply.
More than 50 lawsuits have been filed since January, accusing the city of being complicit in the water crisis for not doing enough during the 18 months in which Flint was getting its drinking water from the polluted Flint River. That move was a decision made by the state, and it turned out to be a terrible one. The river's highly corrosive water wasn't treated properly by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and the water corroded lead service lines, which then caused lead to seep into the drinking water and poison families.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 19, 2016 9 Comments
Happy Human Achievement Hour! The good folks at the Competitive Enterprise Institute organize the hour-long event each year.
What is Human Achievement Hour? Human Achievement Hour is CEI's annual celebration of human progress! During this hour, people around the world pay tribute to human innovations that allows us to live better, fuller lives, and defend our basic human right to use energy to improve the quality of life of all people.
  • Human Achievement Hour is the counter argument to the World Wide Fund for Nature's Earth Hour, where participants symbolically renounce the environmental impacts of modern technology by turning off their lights for an hour.
  • Symbolically or not, Earth Hour does little to protect the environment and is a misguided effort that completely ignores how modern technology allows societies to develop new and more sustainable practices, helping people around the world be more eco-friendly and better conserve our natural resources.
  • Instead of looking to the “dark ages,” like Earth Hour, Human Achievement Hour promotes the idea that we should be looking to technology and innovation to help solve environmental challenges and problems.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 06, 2016 14 Comments
Our first report on the Flint Water Crisis noted that research teams initially studied the obviously contaminated tap water of Flint resident LeeAnne Walters, whose 4-year old son had been diagnosed with lead poisoning. Walters is now filing a lawsuit against government officials and corporate entities, whose bureaucratic bungling and lack of response led to the crisis.
The Flint mother who told federal lawmakers her house was "ground zero" for lead-contaminated water has filed a lawsuit against those she says are responsible for poisoning her children. The lawsuit, filed Thursday, March 3, in Genesee Circuit Court by LeeAnne Walters, names multiple corporate entities and three current and former government employees for their role in the city's water crisis.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 26, 2016 16 Comments
Less than a year ago, climate scientists were heralding the "Godzilla El Niño," which would generate historic rainfalls that could help alleviate California's mega-drought. Climate reality has failed to confirm climate theory, as the term "dud" is now being used to describe the weather pattern.
Is this El Niño a dud? Sacramento is in the peak of its rainy season, but there is no substantial rain in the forecast for the next two weeks. The Sierra snowpack has fallen below normal levels for this time of year. The state’s three largest reservoirs remain far below capacity.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 24, 2016 7 Comments
The last time we checked on the bureaucracy-caused disaster of the Flint Water Crisis, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder offered to testify before Congress about events leading to the lead-contaminated residential water. Of course, since he is a Republican, Snyder has been a convenient target of Democratic Party kabuki theater.
U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who is the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote in a letter to Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, that Snyder has "completely ignored" Cummings' and U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence's request for documents related to the Flint sent Jan. 29. "As I have stated many times, I believe the committee must obtain information from all levels of government — local, state and federal — in order to conduct a responsible and complete investigation," wrote Cummings, who is part of a delegation of congressional Democrats visiting Flint on Monday with U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township.

Posted by Katy Grimes on February 18, 2016 12 Comments
California truck and business owners initiated a lawsuit against the California Air Resources Board because of exploding trucks and roadside fires, due to the CARB’s mandatory, faulty diesel particulate filters, they say. Ironically, the filters even fail at cleaning the air. The Alliance for California Business, a voluntary group whose purpose is to protect and promote business interests throughout California, says Diesel Particulate Filters have started more than 31 fires in the last two years, including several in areas of the state parched by the drought. The Diesel Particulate Filters are the result of environmental regulations created by the California Air Resources Board, and were based on a deeply flawed study led by a researcher accused of faking his Ph.D. credential. The CARB was aware of employee Hien Tran and his phony Ph.D. credentials and flawed research, yet instead, rushed head-on to meet its self-imposed schedule in creating the diesel regulations on truckers.

Trucking Companies Devastated

Bud Caldwell, Alliance for California Business president and owner of 11 trucks, says the truck fires are started below the truck’s engine compartment. The primary issue is whether properly maintained Diesel Particulate Filters can become clogged when the filter system fails to regenerate and burn larger diesel particulates into ultrafine particulate ash, Caldwell says.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 14, 2016 12 Comments
We noted that the water crisis in Flint, Michigan was 40-years in the making and the situation was worsened by complete bureaucratic failure. However, unlike Hillary Clinton and her emails, the electronic correspondence from regulators and government officials associated with the decision that resulted in Flint residents consuming water with elevated lead concentrations has been released. It is not a pretty picture. One set from the EPA's local regulators indicate that the bureaucrats were prepared to let the situation continued unchecked for several months before proceeding to take any mitigating action.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 18, 2016 35 Comments
The Environmental Protection Agency has found itself at the center of another environmental crisis. The epicenter of this particular disaster is Flint, Michigan. It's drinking water has been contaminated with elevated levels of lead, a fact known to several regulatory agencies for many months. Tragically, instead of protecting people, these officials opted to wring their hands and kick the can down the bureaucratic road.

Posted by edgeofthesandbox on January 07, 2016 19 Comments
In late December last year East Bay Area regulated utility EBMUD released a list of "water guzzlers", a naming and shaming strategy the utility adopted in response to the drought that hit the state during the last couple of years. The local media had a ball with the release, publishing names of offenders and aerial pictures of their property.  Names of celebrity "water guzzlers" graced the headlines.  Although they obviously tried their best, Bay Area journos are yet to perfect the art of naming and shaming. In the Soviet Union such a list would be accompanied by an expose of how it was really the water criminal Kristi Yamaguchi, not as previously thought Tonya Harding, who plotted to break Nancy Kerrigan's leg.  Seriously, though, one must feel powerless to engage in this kind of behavior. A few days later I drove to Los Angeles and was relieved to see that somebody in California has a different approach to water crisis.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 30, 2015 13 Comments
The goal of one of the most ponderous pieces of legislation ever to be generated in the Golden State, the Global Warming Solutions Act, was to substantially reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Any gains that could be claimed, albeit questionably, from enforcement of this economy-crushing rule have essentially been wiped out by a massive leak of methane. The steady, significant release from an underground gas pipe in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles began in October.
...Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has called the leak an "environmental disaster," and the Los Angeles Unified School District shuttered two area schools for the rest of the year. Politicians and environmentalists in California are particularly sensitive to the toll the leak may take on the environment, especially after Gov. Jerry Brown doubled down earlier this year on the state's efforts to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 25, 2015 24 Comments
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul feels the nation is less safe today than ever before in recent memory. His concerns were validated by the most recent vapid statements from our Commander-in-Chief.  Speaking alongside French President François Hollande at a joint news conference, President Obama stated that next week’s climate change summit in Paris would be a “powerful rebuke” to terrorists.
“Next week, I will be joining President Hollande and world leaders in Paris for the global climate conference,” Obama said during his prepared remarks, which focused mostly on the efforts to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). “What a powerful rebuke to the terrorists it will be, when the world stands as one and shows that we will not be deterred from building a better future for our children,” he added.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 23, 2015 27 Comments
A report detailing the cause of the Animas River environmental disaster, which resulted in the release of millions of gallons of heavy-metal containing wastewater into a scenic Colorado river, blames the EPA for the incident....contrary to an internal review conducted by the agency itself.
The Environmental Protection Agency botched the clean-up effort at the Gold King Mine by rushing to complete the job instead of taking precautions that would have prevented the disastrous toxic spill into the Animas River. A 132-page report released Thursday by the Interior Department and Bureau of Reclamation found that the Aug. 5 accident was not “inevitable,” as the EPA’s own internal review had concluded, but could have been avoided if the agency had followed engineering practices used at other inactive mines. ...According to the report, the agency committed a pivotal error by failing to gauge the level of wastewater behind the collapsed rock and soil at the mine, which could have been done by using a drill rig to “bore into the mine from above and directly determine the level of the mine pool prior to excavating backfill at the portal.”

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 21, 2015 19 Comments
Chinese hackers and Islamic terrorists are real global threats, but some congressmen are targeting climate change deniers instead! Two representatives assert that ExxonMobil lied about climate change data in the same way cigarette companies hid the real hazards associated with smoking, and they are now threatening a federal investigation.
The two members of Congress wrote to Loretta Lynch, the attorney general, on Wednesday, saying they were concerned by the results of two separate investigations by Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times, which found that ExxonMobil scientists confirmed fossil fuels were causing climate change decades ago, but publicly embarked on a campaign of denial. “ExxonMobil’s apparent behavior is similar to cigarette companies that repeatedly denied harm from tobacco and spread uncertainty and misinformation to the public,” Ted Lieu and Mark DeSaulnier, both Democratic members of Congress from California, wrote. “We ask that the DoJ similarly investigate Exxon for organizing a sustained deception campaign disputing climate science and failing to disclose truthful information to investors and the public.”

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 30, 2015 27 Comments
I recently reported that EPA regulations that were poised to go into effect at the end of last week, broadening the scope of the agency's power under the "Waters of the United States" Act. A federal judge has blocked its implementation hours before it was due to take effect:
Yesterday, a federal district court in North Dakota granted a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of a new Environmental Protection Agency rule defining “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act. This rule is important because many of the CWA’s regulatory prohibitions, including the prohibition on developing wetlands without a federal permit, apply only in “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). The Supreme Court rebuked the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers for applying an unduly expansive WOTUS definition (see SWANCC v. U.S. Army Corps and Rapanos v. United States), and this rule is an effort to reassert and clarify the scope of federal regulatory jurisdiction under the CWA.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 15, 2015 21 Comments
While the EPA is dealing with the fallout from the Animas River spill that it created, China is responding to a chemical catastrophe of its own:
Fires shot plumes of black smoke into the sky Saturday at the site of a chemical warehouse in Tianjin, China, where explosions earlier this week killed at least 105 people. But officials denied news reports that an evacuation order had been issued for everyone within 1.8 miles (3 kilometers), with Tianjin government spokesman Gong Jiansheng calling the reports "false information." The Beijing News, citing Armed Police, had reported the evacuation order. CNN has reported that at least one disaster recovery shelter is located within the reported evacuation zone. However, photographs made it appear that vehicles in a parking lot had caught fire rather than new explosions having taken place at the warehouse, as the Xinhua news agency had reported.
The Chinese have ordered an evacuation radius of nearly 2 miles due to the presence of numerous toxic chemicals and irritating vapors. Drone footage of the port area where the detonation took place is now available, and the extent of the damage is breathtaking.
Accessibility by WAH