Author Archives: Cristen Hemingway Jaynes

England’s Largest Onshore Wind Farm to Move Forward

Posted on by November 6, 2024

Plans for England’s largest onshore wind farm will be submitted this week, in the first progress since the country’s Labour government removed the de facto ban Conservatives put in place nine years ago, reported The Guardian.

Independent renewable energy developer Cubico Sustainable Investments has submitted plans to build 21 wind turbines beside the Scout Moor wind farm to the north of Manchester.

“Our proposal for Scout Moor II reflects our strong confidence in the UK renewables sector and Britain’s potential to become a global clean energy powerhouse. We’re encouraged by the Government’s vision to accelerate the build out of renewable energy infrastructure across the country, and we are committed to delivering projects that decarbonise our power system, enhance energy security, and benefit local communities,” said CEO of Cubico David Swindin, in a press release from the company.

The 100-megawatt wind farm could be up and running by 2030, generating enough clean power for more than 100,000 homes and providing roughly 10 percent of the domestic energy needs for Greater Manchester.

Scout Moor II would bring an estimated $260.7 million in investment, as well as hundreds of jobs over the project’s lifetime.

The proposed wind farm would help the British government meet its goal of doubling its onshore wind capacity by 2030. The government also has a target of tripling solar capacity and quadrupling offshore wind capacity on its journey to creating a net zero electricity grid, The Guardian reported.

Plans to develop the Scout Moor site were postponed nearly a decade ago following backlash against England’s onshore wind farms, which prompted the government to instigate planning rules that effectively prevented new developments.

Swindin said plans had been in the works for new projects “for about four years in anticipation of the rules changing,” reported The Guardian.

“It was obvious that there was going to be pressure to change the rules, even for the Conservatives. And for some time it seemed likely that Labour would come to power. So we have been eagerly waiting for the moment that we can press the button,” Swindin added.

Project development manager Peter Rowe said the site’s close proximity to Greater Manchester and high wind speeds make it “one of the most ideal locations for a windfarm.”

Along with the new wind development, Cubico is proposing a Moorland Restoration and Management Plan, along with a Community Wealth Fund, to promote biodiversity and support local initiatives across the region, the press release said.

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“Clearly we will be going into a public consultation [with the local community] very sensitively. The site itself has been used in the past for mining and quarrying, and the area has been at the heart of Britain’s industrial story. So what we’re putting forward is a modern reinterpretation of how the moors and uplands have been used historically,” Rowe said, as The Guardian reported.

If approved, Scout Moor II would be the fifth largest producer of onshore wind power in the United Kingdom. The rest are located in Scotland.

“We’re excited about the opportunity for Scout Moor II to play a key role in helping the UK achieve its net zero ambitions and enhance the North West’s position as a national hub for clean energy generation. As we progress, we’re looking forward to engaging with local communities and ensuring their participation helps shape a project that leaves positive social, economic and environmental benefits for all,” said James Pinney, Cubico’s head of Northern Europe, in the press release.

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Canada Announces Plan to Slash Oil and Gas Emissions 35% by 2030

Posted on by November 5, 2024

The Canadian government has issued a draft of new regulations for greenhouse gas emissions produced by oil and gas. The rules would limit Canada’s emissions to 35 percent below 2019 levels by 2030.

Most fossil fuels coming from Canada are produced in the oil sands of Alberta, with the United States as the largest importer.

“We’re asking the oil and gas sector to invest their record profits into pollution cutting projects,” Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s minister of environment and climate change, told a news conference, as The New York Times reported. “Every sector must do its part. Oil and gas companies are no exception.”

Guilbeault said profits from the oil and gas sector reached roughly $48 billion in 2022, reported Reuters.

“We’ve worked carefully to develop what is technically feasible for the sector, to keep industry accountable to their own promise to be carbon neutral by 2050,” Guilbeault said, as Reuters reported.

The cap-and-trade system created by the regulations is designed to recognize companies that perform better, while incentivizing higher polluters to invest in cleaner production, a press release from the Canadian government said.

“Canadians and their communities bear the brunt and pay the costs from increased extreme weather events due to climate change — costs that are reflected in the price of groceries, insurance, and local taxes. They understand that all sectors must do their fair share to decrease pollution and address climate change,” the press release said.

The oil and gas sector is the largest contributor to Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, making up 31 percent in 2022, according to the newest National Inventory Report.

“The oil and gas greenhouse gas pollution cap would regulate upstream oil and gas facilities, including offshore facilities, and would also apply to liquefied natural gas production facilities. These subsectors represent the majority of emissions from the oil and gas sector, with the upstream subsector representing about 85 percent of sector emissions in 2022,” the press release said.

Canada is the fourth-largest oil producer in the world, as well as the fifth-largest gas producer. As oil and gas demand peaks and starts to decline, the highest demand will be for fuels that are extracted while producing the lowest levels of pollution.

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“The proposed regulations put a limit on pollution, not production, and have been informed by extensive engagement with industry, Indigenous groups, provinces and territories, and other stakeholders,” the press release said. “The climate decisions we make today will help contribute directly to a cleaner, safer environment and good jobs for future generations.”

Government consultations on the final regulations — which will be published next year — are ongoing.

“Every sector of the economy in Canada should be doing its fair share when it comes to limiting our country’s greenhouse gas pollution, and that includes the oil and gas sector. We are asking oil and gas companies who have made record profits in recent years to reinvest some of that money into technology that will reduce pollution in the oil and gas sector and create jobs for Canadian workers and businesses. The science is clear — greenhouse gas pollution must be reduced significantly and urgently to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change,” Guilbeault said in the press release.

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U.S. Senators Urge EPA to Ban Pesticide Linked to Parkinson’s

Posted on by November 5, 2024

In an open letter, seven United States senators are asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to do what dozens of countries have already done and ban the toxic weedkiller paraquat, which has been associated with Parkinson’s disease and other serious health risks.

The October 31 letter addressed to EPA Administrator Michael Regan followed similar correspondence sent to the EPA by 47 Members of Congress earlier in the month, also calling for a ban on the controversial herbicide.

“Paraquat is a highly toxic pesticide whose continued use cannot be justified given its harms to farmworkers and rural communities. We write to urge the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban the use of paraquat in the United States,” the senators wrote in the letter.

In their letter, the lawmakers said some studies had found paraquat use to be associated with a 64 percent higher likelihood of developing Parkinson’s, thyroid cancer, non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and other thyroid problems, reported The Guardian.

“I hope the EPA will follow the science and ban paraquat,” said the letter’s organizer, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, as The Guardian reported.

According to the EPA, there is not a “clear link” between exposure to paraquat and Parkinson’s.

However, the EPA said it would review additional studies and issue a final report on the matter by mid-January of next year.

“For 60 years, paraquat has been helping fuel the rise of Parkinson’s disease,” said Ray Dorsey, a University of Rochester professor of neurology, as reported by The Guardian. “The evidence from human, laboratory and apparently even the company’s own research is overwhelming. When paraquat is banned, more lives will be spared the consequences of Parkinson’s.”

Syngenta, the Chinese manufacturer of paraquat products, has said that “a causal connection between paraquat and Parkinson’s disease” has not been established by a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

However, internal documents by the company revealed by The Guardian demonstrate that Syngenta had been aware for many years of scientific evidence of paraquat affecting the brain in similar ways to those that cause Parkinson’s, and had secretly tried to influence scientific research in order to counteract evidence of harm by the product.

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Thousands of paraquat users in the U.S. who also suffer from Parkinson’s brought a lawsuit against Syngenta, alleging that the company had a responsibility to warn them of the potential of developing the disease, but that it instead attempted to conceal evidence of risk.

“Paraquat has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, thyroid cancer, and other health harms such as kidney, liver, and respiratory damage, and reproductive harm, including neurodevelopmental impact on developing fetuses. In rural areas, exposure to paraquat and other pesticides during pregnancy can increase the risk of leukemia,” the senators said in the letter. “Citing these and other risks, more than 70 countries have banned the use of paraquat, including China, Brazil, the European Union, and Turkey… We urge you to protect the health of farmworkers and rural residents by banning paraquat.”

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COP16 Ends Without Consensus on Financing for Nature Conservation

Posted on by November 4, 2024

The COP16 biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia, ended in disappointment this weekend, with countries failing to determine how to raise $200 billion a year in funding for conservation by 2030, reported Reuters.

Originally intended as a check-in on countries’ progress with meeting the goals of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), COP16 went into overtime Saturday as nations scrambled to reach a consensus while delegates dwindled along with hopes for a decisive conclusion.

“I am both saddened and enraged by the non-outcome of COP16,” said Shilps Gautam, carbon removal financing firm Opna’s chief executive, as Reuters reported. “The wild thing about the nature financing discussions is that the numbers discussed are already a pittance.”

Rich countries seemed to hit a wall when it came to global nature conservation funding, with discussions shifting toward talks of bridging the gap with private money.

The funds are intended to finance actions that promote and support nature, such as sustainable agriculture and ensuring wildlife reserves are thriving.

Human activities like urban development, agriculture and mining are increasingly destroying nature’s balance and pushing our planet to its limits. As the burning of fossil fuels causes the planet to warm at an unprecedented rate, weather patterns and the world’s water cycle become steadily more unbalanced, leading to catastrophic extreme weather events, drought and wildfires.

The two-week biodiversity summit was scheduled to wrap up on Friday, but by roll call Saturday, there were no longer enough delegates present for the quorum required to pass an agreement. The conference ended with suspension of the meeting and an air of unfinished business.

“This COP was meant to be a status check on countries’ progress toward saving nature, and all indicators on that status are blinking red,” said Crystal Davis, global director of the food, land and water program at the World Resources Institute, as reported by Euronews. “The primary concern is that countries are not on track to protect 30 per cent of the world’s land and water by 2030. Without conserving the most critical ecosystems, the consequences for all countries will be immense.”

COP16 did have some successes, including a worldwide tax on companies that profit from genetic data derived from nature, as well as the establishment of a representative body for Indigenous Peoples at the conference.

“The outcome of COP16 represents a mixed bag. We saw real progress on important issues like benefit sharing related to digital sequence information, health and biodiversity, mainstreaming biodiversity into infrastructure and other sectors, and enabling the increased participation of Indigenous peoples and local communities. But the lack of progress on finance will hold back efforts to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030,” said Ginette Hemley, WWF-US’ senior vice president for wildlife, in a press release from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

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The non-consensus on how to fund the essential goals of the GBF leaves Earth’s biodiversity hanging in the balance.

“[W]e’re now veering dangerously off track,” said Kirsten Schuijt, director general of WWF International, as Euronews reported. “This outcome jeopardises the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Nobody should be okay with this – because it will impact us all.”

At COP16, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called upon nations to make substantial new contributions to the GBF Fund, but the response was lackluster, reported Reuters. Countries pledged $163 million to the fund during the conference, bringing the total to approximately $400 million — far short of the goal of $30 billion by 2030.

“Despite the hard-won breakthrough on creating a fund for profits from nature’s genetic information and ongoing rhetoric about the urgency of scaling up finance for nature, there has not been significant headway made on how we will finance nature recovery, nor clarity on how we monitor progress at a global level. Two years on, the vast majority of nature targets agreed in Montreal regrettably currently still feel like unfunded words on paper,” said Catherine Weller, Fauna & Flora director of global policy, as The Guardian reported.

Countries will meet next week at the United Nations COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, which will also focus on funding — in that case, rich countries contributing funds to help poorer nations cope with the financial costs of the climate crisis.

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‘Encouraging’ Report Finds Europe’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Fell by 8% Last Year

Posted on by November 1, 2024

Greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union fell by eight percent last year — to 37 percent below 1990 levels — according to a new report, Trends and projections in Europe 2024, by the European Environment Agency (EEA).

The massive reduction in pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels in 2023 was aided by the ramping up of renewables like solar and wind, as well as the shutting down of coal-fired power plants.

“The impact of climate change is accelerating,” said Executive Director of the EEA Leena Ylä-Mononen, as The Guardian reported. “This leaves us no choice but to strengthen our resilience to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

The European Commission called the reduction “very encouraging,” saying it “reinforced confidence” in the bloc’s ability to meet its goal of slashing emissions by 55 percent by 2030.

“The EU Climate Law sets ambitious targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions — a net 55% reduction below 1990 levels by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050, to deliver European commitments under the international Paris Agreement. This target includes net removals from the so-called land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector as well as emissions from international aviation and maritime transport activities regulated under EU law. The European Commission has also recommended a 90% net reduction target for 2040,” a press release from EEA said.

The EEA report found that current EU policies are predicted to lower emissions by 43 percent below 1990 levels by the end of the decade, The Guardian reported. Additional measures that have yet to be implemented would bring the total reduction to 49 percent — leaving a six percentage point gap.

“Updates to national energy and climate plans — where several Member States have yet to submit their revised plans — offer an opportunity to implement additional measures to bridge the gap towards the target. An initial European Commission estimate of the plans submitted so far confirm[s] an increased collective ambition level and a reduction of the gap,” EEA said in the press release.

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The average European’s emissions were slightly higher than the worldwide average of 6.59 tonnes of greenhouse gases last year at 7.26 tonnes, according to the report.

The energy sector saw the largest reduction due to the rapid deployment of renewables, which sped up the move away from fossil fuels.

Emissions from the industrial sector were down six percent, as some factories slashed production and others became more efficient. The building sector was found to have achieved similar progress.

Some sectors did not see such success, with emissions from the transport sector falling by just one percent in 2023 and agricultural emissions down two percent.

“This year’s Trends and Projections Report calls for comprehensive action across all sectors to achieve our shared goal of balancing greenhouse gas emissions and carbon removals within the next two and a half decades,” Ylä-Mononen said in the press release.

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Puerto Rico’s New Marine Reserve Will Protect More Than 14 Endangered Species

Posted on by November 1, 2024

After 16 years of efforts by grassroots organizations, local Puerto Rico communities are celebrating the establishment of the country’s new marine protected area (MPA), Jardines Submarinos de Vega Baja y Manatí.

The new marine reserve on Puerto Rico’s north coast will protect 77 square miles of marine biodiversity, a press release from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said. The project was a collaboration between local communities and authorities and environmental organizations.

A map of Puerto Rico’s new marine reserve protected area. Wildlife Conservation Society

More than 14 endangered species live amongst the reserve’s mangroves and seagrass beds, including the Greater Caribbean Manatee. Beneath its blue-green waters is one of the largest Elkhorn coral colonies in the Caribbean, as well as a variety of other coral species and endangered and threatened marine life, a press release from the Surfrider Foundation said.

An endangered manatee in Puerto Rico. Darryl Stansbury / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region

“This is a victory for the people,” said Ricardo Laureano, leading member of nonprofit Vegabajeños Impulsando Desarrollo Ambiental Sustentable (VIDAS), in the WCS press release. “These ecosystems nourish us and sustain our quality of life. It took 16 years of hard work, starting in 2007, to get here. Over the years, we rallied neighbors, knocked on doors, and engaged local and national leaders to highlight the critical need to protect this Reserve.”

A local ecotourism industry and small-scale fisheries flourish in the area, and local communities have hope that the formal co-management of the Jardines sanctuary as an MPA will safeguard its waters as a thriving source of income and food for generations to come.

A coalition of local groups led by VIDAS — including Sociedad de Ambiente Marino, Surfrider Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Sea Grant and Para la Naturaleza — brought the Jardines conservation movement to fruition, with the support of WCS and other international partners.

“The Jardines MPA represents a critical point of connectivity within the greater Caribbean. Since 2018, WCS has joined forces with the Caribbean Biological Corridor (CBC) – an intergovernmental platform that brings together the countries of the Greater Antilles – to advance and scale up marine conservation in the region. As part of this initiative, WCS supported local partners in Puerto Rico that worked with VIDAS to strengthen the Jardines MPA proposal and bring it across the finish line,” WCS said. “As the coalition looks ahead, securing funding and scientific support for designing a participatory management process is crucial. A formal legal framework, co-management agreements with local agencies, and a recurring budget will be essential for the project’s longevity.”

The next step for the Jardines MPA will be developing a co-management strategy.

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“Our dream is for Jardines to be co-managed by the people who know it best — the local communities,” Mariela Declet-Perez, leader of Descendants United for Nature, Adaptation, and Sustainability, said in the WCS press release. “We aim to create co-management agreements that balance sustainable resource use, conservation, research, and eco-tourism. This will take time, but we are committed to supporting VIDAS and our local partners to ensure long-term success.”

Community leaders hope the success of the MPA inspires others to conserve their natural wonders.

“To other coastal communities around the world, our message is clear: never stop fighting for your ecosystems,” Laureano said.

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Spain Flooding Death Toll Climbs to 158 as Severe Weather Continues

Posted on by October 31, 2024

At least 158 people have died in the “deadliest episode of flooding in Spain’s modern history,” reported The Guardian.

Many more are still missing.

The storm that started on Tuesday in southern and eastern Spain brought a year’s worth of rainfall in hours, CNN reported.

In the hardest-hit Valencia region, where most of the deaths occurred, roads and entire towns were flooded when rivers overflowed, leaving thousands without water or power.

“My father is going to be 100 years old now and he doesn’t remember a flood like that. It was terrifying to be here,” José Platero, a 69-year-old resident of Utiel — one of the towns in Valencia that was most affected by the severe flooding — told CNN. “We found him looking for personal belongings near his home.”

Spain’s army has been called in to help clear wreckage and distribute aid, reported BBC News.

“The government informs me that tomorrow at 8 in the morning a first wave will join to work during the day,” the Valencian president wrote on X, as BBC News reported.

As the region recovers, more extreme rainfall is in the forecast. Spain’s meteorological service issued new severe storm warnings on Thursday, reported The Independent.

Valencia’s government said trains had been suspended, along with other public services such as public libraries, schools and museums, CNN reported.

On Avenida del Milagro in Utiel, residents were helping each other clear the muddy water out of their homes.

“I started by putting towels on the door so that the water wouldn’t get in. But suddenly the garage door burst open,” Carmen, a local resident, told CNN. “The scene was terrifying, as the mixture of water and mud began to occupy the kitchen with so much force, it knocked down the refrigerator.”

The floodwaters also hit the cities and surrounding areas of Malaga and Murica.

In the La Torre neighborhood of Valencia, the water was chest-high.

“In half an hour, we lost almost everything,” one survivor told CNN.

Local residents voiced their frustrations to reporters and on social media for not receiving government alert warnings until the deadly flooding had already begun.

“Those people wouldn’t have died if they had been warned in time,” Laura Villaescusa, manager of a local Valencia supermarket, told Reuters.

According to residents in several towns, mobile phone alerts were not sent until 8 p.m. Tuesday, which was several hours after Aemet, the national weather service, had issued a heavy rain red alert warning of a potential eight inches in a less than 12-hour period.

“It is appalling to see so many people dying in floods in Europe, when yet again weather forecasters had predicted extreme rainfall and issued warnings. The tragedy of people dying in cars and being swept away in streets is entirely avoidable if people can be kept away from rising flood water,” Hannah Cloke, a University of Reading hydrology professor, told CNN. “This suggests the system for alerting people to the dangers of floods in Valencia has failed.”

The Spanish government has decreed three official days of mourning, beginning on Thursday. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the government would do everything it could to help victims of the calamitous flooding.

The torrential rains were likely caused by a pool of cool air high up in the atmosphere referred to as “gota fría,” or cold drop, by meteorologists in Spain.

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Determining the exact part climate change played in the disastrous flooding will take more analysis by scientists, but it has been established that human-caused global heating makes extreme rainfall events more intense and more likely to happen. Warmer air also has the potential to hold more moisture, which can then be unleashed in the form of severe downpours.

“We can’t say anything on the fly,” said senior state meteorologist Ernesto Rodríguez Camino, who is a member of the Spanish Meteorological Association, as reported by CNN. “[I]n the context of climate change, these types of intense and exceptional rare rainfall events are going to become more frequent and more intense and, therefore, destructive.”

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COP16: Countries Launch Coalition With Goal of ‘Making Peace With Nature’

Posted on by October 30, 2024

At the United Nations COP16 biodiversity talks on Tuesday, Colombia launched an international coalition with the goal of “making peace with nature.”

Leaders at the summit warned of rapid environmental destruction posing a risk to the survival of humanity, reported Reuters.

“Justice, equity and inclusion will be foundational to the [2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)]’s success. So, it is long past time for the leadership and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples to take front and centre. In the same vein, COP16 must operationalize the mechanism and fund for fair and equitable benefit-sharing from Digital Sequencing Information of genetic resources. That is how the GBF can ensure that those who profit from biodiversity give back to nature, to countries and to communities that steward our natural heritage,” a press release from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said.

The task of the meeting of 196 countries in Cali, Colombia, is to strategize on how to stop nature’s decline by 2030, as climate change, habitat loss and other human activities drive the destruction of ecosystems and biodiversity around the world.

Countries from four continents are represented in the coalition — including Mexico, Uganda, Chile and Sweden — but none from the Asia-Pacific region, Reuters reported.

Nations that join the coalition agree to principles that work to change humans’ relationship with the environment to one that is in harmony with nature. The restructured relationship would include putting money toward sustainable development and conservation, with the mobilization of society toward the protection of the natural world.

“We are beginning the era of human extinction. I do not think I am exaggerating,” said President of Colombia Gustavo Petro at the start of a meeting between six presidents and 100-plus government ministers at COP16 on Tuesday.

Petro emphasized that the planet can’t wait for saving nature to be profitable, and that life is more valuable than money.

“Nature is life. And yet we are waging war against it. A war where there can be no winner,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, as reported by Reuters. “This is what an existential crisis looks like.”

COP16 could be a conservation turning point, leaders at the summit said, as it looks to implement 23 targets for halting nature loss by the end of the decade, as summarized in the GBF. These include marshaling $200 billion each year for conservation while conserving 30 percent of Earth’s land, water and seas.

“Today we can change,” President of Ecuador Daniel Noboa said, as Reuters reported. “I want to believe we can change and the world is not going to end.”

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Countries were far from agreeing on how best to move forward on items on the far-reaching agenda, and were at an impasse as to increasing financing. Some nations announced millions in new pledges to a global biodiversity fund, but the capital was far less than what is necessary.

“Through the generous support from donors to the [Global Environment Facility (GEF)], UNEP is proud to act as implementing agency supporting countries with the implementation of just under $600 million in GEF biodiversity resources,” the press release said. “Healthy biodiversity is a prerequisite for truly equitable and sustainable development. So, I urge all stakeholders to make this COP the moment the GBF takes wing and sets humanity on course of making peace with nature.”

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‘The Climate Crisis Is a Health Crisis’: Escalating Climate Impacts Threaten Health Worldwide

Posted on by October 30, 2024

Human-driven climate change is causing temperatures to rise to dangerous new heights, while worsening drought and impeding food security, according to the ninth Lancet Countdown report.

The report by health experts and doctors warned that people all over the world are facing unparalleled health threats because of the climate crisis.

“This year’s stocktake of the imminent health threats of climate inaction reveals the most concerning findings yet,” said Dr. Marina Romanello, executive director of the University College London-led Lancet Countdown, as The Guardian reported. “Once again, last year broke climate change records with extreme heatwaves, deadly weather events, and devastating wildfires affecting people around the world. No individual or economy on the planet is immune [to] the health threats of climate change.”

The report found that extreme droughts of one month or more in 2023 affected 48 percent of the land on Earth, with people having to cope with 50 added days of dangerous temperatures because of global heating.

Last year, extreme temperatures and drought led to 151 million more people having to face moderate to severe food insecurity — in comparison with 1981 to 2010 — causing health risks like malnutrition.

The elderly are particularly vulnerable to the rising temperatures, with heat-related deaths for those over 65 last year 167 percent higher than in the 1990s, reported Reuters. The report said that, without climate change, they would have predicted that number to increase by 65 percent.

“Year on year, the deaths directly associated with climate change are increasing,” Romanello said, as Reuters reported. “But heat is also affecting not just the mortality and increasing deaths, but also increasing the diseases and the pathologies associated with heat exposure.”

In 2023, extreme rainfall affected approximately 60 percent of lands globally, causing floods and increasing the risk of infectious disease and water contamination.

The authors of the study encouraged leaders at next month’s United Nations COP29 climate summit to direct climate financing toward public health.

Last year’s high temperatures also caused people to lose an unprecedented six percent more hours of sleep than the average from 1986 to 2005, reported The Guardian. Poor sleep can lead to negative effects on mental and physical health.

The hotter, drier weather also meant more sand and dust storms, leading to a 31 percent jump in people being exposed to dangerous concentrations of particulate matter.

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Despite these statistics, the authors of the study pointed out that “governments and companies continue to invest in fossil fuels, resulting in all-time high greenhouse gas emissions and staggering tree loss, reducing the survival chances of people all around the globe.”

Carbon emissions reached a record high in 2023, with fossil fuels making up 80.3 percent of total global energy, up 1.1 percent from 2022.

“Record-high emissions are posing record-breaking threats to our health. We must cure the sickness of climate inaction – by slashing emissions, protecting people from climate extremes, and ending our fossil fuel addiction – to create a fairer, safer and healthier future for all,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres, as The Guardian reported.

The study was a collaboration between academic institutions, experts and United Nations agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO).

“The climate crisis is a health crisis. As the planet heats up, the frequency and intensity of climate-related disasters increase, leaving no region untouched,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as reported by The Guardian.

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Biden-Harris Admin Pledges $3 Billion to Electrify and Clean Up U.S. Ports

Posted on by October 29, 2024

President Joe Biden traveled to the Port of Baltimore on Tuesday to announce a $3 billion package to improve and electrify climate-friendly infrastructure and equipment at ports in the United States.

The investment will support approximately 40,000 union jobs while reducing pollution and combating the climate crisis, a press release from the White House said. It includes $147 million to support more than 2,000 jobs at the Maryland Port Administration and to purchase and install zero-emissions port equipment, power improvements and charging infrastructure.

“Our ports are the backbone of our economy – critical hubs that support our supply chain, drive commerce, create jobs and connect us all,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan said, as The Guardian reported. “But we cannot overlook the challenges faced by the communities that live and work near these ports. Too often, these communities face serious air quality challenges due to diesel pollution from trucks, ships and other port machinery.”

The EPA Clean Ports grants are funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and will be awarded to 55 selectees in 27 states and territories.

The Clean Ports program is expected to boost demand for electric cargo handling equipment made in America by at least six times during the length of the program.

The program will improve port air quality across the country with the installation of clean ferry and freight technologies and infrastructure that will eliminate over three million metric tons of pollution in the first decade of implementation — equal to the energy used by 391,220 homes for a year.

The investment will also fund the purchase of hydrogen-powered and battery-electric equipment, including 1,000 drayage trucks, 1,500 cargo handling equipment units, 20 vessels and 10 locomotives, as well as onshore power systems for the ships, solar power generation and fueling and charging infrastructure for hydrogen and battery-electric vehicles.

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The program advances the Justice40 Initiative and is in line with the goal of the Biden-Harris Administration for zero-emissions freight.

“What an incredible moment this is,” said Vernice Miller-Travis, an environmental justice advocate, as reported by The Guardian. “This is real money. And… these kinds of investments… can really make transformation in local conditions and local operations and in people’s lives.”

The last time President Biden was in Baltimore was just after the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s tragic collapse on April 26, which killed six construction workers and shut down ship traffic coming into and out of the port. President Biden committed to the bridge’s quick reconstruction, with the collaboration of the Maryland Department of Transportation.

The Biden-Harris Administration is also committed to holding the DALI cargo ship owners accountable for the disaster.

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