Author Archives: Paige Bennett

Collecting Fog Could Help Provide Water in Arid Cities, Study Says

Posted on by February 21, 2025

Researchers have determined multiple ways that harvested fog could help meet water demand in arid cities, particularly those within the driest area on Earth, the Atacama Desert. From providing drinking water to irrigating landscapes to supporting hydroponic gardening, the new research shows promise in fog-harvesting technology.

In the study published in Frontiers in Environmental Science, scientists investigated the potential of fog collection in Alto Hospicio, Chile, an area threatened by water scarcity. The region receives less than 0.19 inches, or 5 millimeters, of rain per year, the BBC reported. Further, the Alto Hospicio region relies on underground aquifers for drinking water, and those aquifers have not been replenished in 10,000 to 17,000 years.

While fog harvesting for water has been considered previously, the study authors noted that this method is typically considered for rural areas. However, the scientists found that fog harvesting could also supplement the water supply in larger urban areas.

“This research represents a notable shift in the perception of fog water use — from a rural, rather small-scale solution to a practical water resource for cities,” Virginia Carter Gamberini, co-author of the study and assistant professor at Universidad Mayor, said in a statement. “Our findings demonstrate that fog can serve as a complementary urban water supply in drylands where climate change exacerbates water shortages.”

Fog harvesting in Chile's Atacama Desert shows potential as a supplementary urban water source, collecting up to 10 liters per square meter daily, aiding water-scarce regions with sustainable solutions.

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— Science X / Phys.org (@sciencex.bsky.social) February 20, 2025 at 12:32 AM

Researchers used Standard Fog Collectors (SFC), originally described in a 1994 study, to capture fog and measure the water harvested from it. The SFC is a mesh device suspended between two posts and attached to a metal channel with a coating to protect from corrosion. The metal channel then funnels that water into storage tanks with rain gauges that could measure the amount of water harvested from the fog every 10 minutes.

The team conducted their observations from October 2023 to October 2024 and coupled the results with modeling to further determine the fog collection potential.

They found that they could harvest an average of about 0.2 to 4.9 liters of water from fog per square meter per day within a total area spanning 100 square kilometers. During peak fog times of the year, the SFCs collected up to 10 liters of water per square meter each day. In December, fog water collection was zero.

They found that early mornings, between midnight and 9 a.m., yielded the most fog, with about 140 milliliters per square meter collected every 10 minutes.

“By showcasing its potential in Alto Hospicio, one of Chile’s most stigmatized yet rapidly urbanizing cities, this study lays the groundwork for broader adoption in other water-scarce urban areas,” said Nathalie Verbrugghe, co-author of the paper and a researcher at Université libre de Bruxelles.

These insights allowed the researchers to explore potential use cases for this water, especially if governments place the SFCs in areas with higher fog potential. The authors determined that about 17,000 square meters of mesh would be necessary to meet 300,000 liters of water demand. While this option wouldn’t be a sole solution to water scarcity, the authors emphasized it could offer an additional source of water to help meet demand.

In addition to providing potable water to households, the authors found that this collected water would be useful for irrigating farms and hydroponic gardens because it typically doesn’t require much treatment. With an average collection of 2.5 liters of water per square meter each day, this water could yield about 15 to 20 kilograms of hydroponically grown vegetables per day in Alto Hospicio, according to the study.

However, the authors wrote that the fog water quality will be dependent on air quality, so testing will be important in evaluating the potability of the harvested water. Further, cities would need to invest in infrastructure to collect, store and distribute the collected water.

“We hope to encourage policymakers to integrate this renewable source into national water strategies,” Carter said. “This could enhance urban resilience to climate change and rapid urbanization while improving access to clean water.”

The post Collecting Fog Could Help Provide Water in Arid Cities, Study Says appeared first on EcoWatch.

Metal Pollution Reduction Linked to Increased Biodiversity in English Rivers, Study Finds

Posted on by February 20, 2025

It stands to reason that if you reduce the amount of pollution in an environment, the organisms there will thrive. Now, a study confirms that is happening in rivers in England. According to the research, reducing the amount of metal pollutants like zinc and copper in English rivers led to an increase in the aquatic biodiversity of macroinvertebrates.

As coal and heavy industry have declined, related river pollution also cleared up, allowing more invertebrates to thrive, the study published in Environmental Science & Technology found.

A team led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) analyzed over 65,000 observations 1,457 sites from 1989 to 2018 found in the UK Environmental Agency’s data.

In their findings, reduction in metal pollutants had the biggest impact on invertebrate biodiversity, although other pollution reduction, such as sewage, also impacted the variety of invertebrate species. According to the findings, zinc levels below 14 micrograms per liter and copper levels below 3.3 micrograms per liter led to the biggest improvements in species richness.

The authors estimated that metal pollutants and sewage may have declined for multiple reasons, including reduced coal dependence, which would lead to a decline in acid rain that contribute to metal pollution in waterways. Some of the ammonia, organic matter, and other pollutant declines could also be attributed to the 1991 European Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive and improved agricultural practices, according to the study.

With strong evidence that zinc & copper concentrations have the biggest influence on invertebrate species richness, efforts to increase freshwater biodiversity are unlikely to bear fruit without further reductions in these metals, lead author Prof Andrew Johnson said 🔗 www.ceh.ac.uk/press/biodiv…

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— UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) (@ukceh.bsky.social) February 18, 2025 at 8:09 AM

“There is a widespread desire by the public to improve water quality and biodiversity in our rivers but the problem for policymakers is what steps would be most likely to achieve results,” Andrew Johnson, lead author of the study and environmental research scientist at UKCEH, said in a statement. “Our study provides strong evidence that concentrations of zinc and copper have the biggest influence on invertebrate species richness, so future attempts to increase freshwater biodiversity are unlikely to bear fruit without further reductions in these metals.”

The study determined that while river biodiversity improved in the 1980s and 1990s with reduced metal pollution, the species richness has mostly plateaued since 2000, and the authors cited other research that has shown similar trends across North America and Europe.

The authors wrote that more research is needed to determine what urban land cover pollutants most impact biodiversity of invertebrates, and that runoff from urban areas could still contribute to higher levels of zinc and carbon pollution that may not be detected in routine river sampling. Further, the study found that higher levels of metal pollution continue to exist downstream from former mines.

These factors will need to be considered for environmental protection efforts, as the UK’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has set a target to reduce the length of rivers impacted by metal pollutants from mines by half by 2038.

“The way priority chemicals are currently identified for action, ensuring aquatic wildlife may be better protected, could be described as ‘top-down,’” the authors concluded in the study.

“Here, we used a ‘bottom-up’ approach, relying on a statistical analysis of large wildlife and stressor field data sets (consistent monitoring by regulatory agencies being critical to this approach) to identify factors that are most closely associated with biodiversity. We suggest that this approach has considerable merit and at the very least can act as a sense check on the traditional approach.”

The post Metal Pollution Reduction Linked to Increased Biodiversity in English Rivers, Study Finds appeared first on EcoWatch.

Used Coffee Grounds and Mushroom Spores Can Be 3D Printed Into a Compostable Plastic Alternative, Researchers Say

Posted on by February 19, 2025

In a new study, researchers have made a promising discovery: a compostable material that can serve as an alternative to plastic. The material is made from a combination of used coffee grounds and spores from Reishi mushrooms that are made into a paste, then 3D printed.

The idea started when Danli Luo, corresponding author of the study and doctoral student of human-centered design and engineering at University of Washington, noticed the amount of coffee grounds that accumulated from making espresso at home.

Luo, along with co-author Junchao Yang and senior author Nadya Peek, explored how coffee grounds could serve as an ideal growing base for the strong mycelial network that precedes mushroom growth. The team set out to explore a way to use up the spent coffee grounds and make them into a strong, lightweight material that would be a more sustainable alternative to plastic.

First, they turned the coffee grounds into a Mycofluid paste by combining them with the spores of Reishi mushrooms, brown rice flower, water and xanthan gum to act as a binder. This created a promising material that would work with a 3D printer. 

From there, Luo developed a bespoke printer head to print the paste into more intricate and complex designs that could mimic the versatility of plastic without a need for molds. The researchers made multiple objects using the design, including shipping packing materials that could be a substitute for plastic foam (or Styrofoam), a vase, a small statue and a miniature coffin.

“We’re especially interested in creating systems for people like small businesses owners producing small-batch products — for example, small, delicate glassware that needs resilient packaging to ship,” Luo said. “So we’ve been working on new material recipes that can replace things like Styrofoam with something more sustainable and that can be easily customized for small-scale production.”

After printing, the team kept the objects moist and in a sealed plastic tub for 10 days to allow the mushroom spores to develop into a mycelial skin. Then, they removed the objects and dried them to prevent mushroom development. The team published their method in the journal 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing.

From the upper left to bottom right: the 3D printer creates a design; three printed pieces of a vase; the partially set vase pieces are put together; the mycelium grows on the coffee paste; the vase grows together; the finished vase holds flowers and water. Luo et al./3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing

According to the authors, their method costs $1,700 for hardware for the experiment, and the 3D printer could hold up one liter of paste at a time. By comparison, they noted that other similar solutions cost more than $7,000. However, they did note that the Mycofluid paste was dependent on uniform coffee grounds, which would limit scaling ability.

Moving forward, the researchers behind the coffee-and-mushroom material also hope to explore other food waste materials that could be developed into paste for 3D printing that may have better scaling opportunity.

“We’re interested in expanding this to other bio-derived materials, such as other forms of food waste,” Luo said. “We want to broadly support this kind of flexible development, not just to provide one solution to this major problem of plastic waste.”

More and more scientists are looking into ways to make use of the estimated 60 million tons of spent coffee grounds that are wasted globally each year. For instance, New Atlas reported that RMIT University researchers found a way to incorporate spent coffee grounds into concrete to make the concrete up to 30% stronger. 

Other coffee waste, such as the husks, have also been valuable to a Colombian company called Woodpecker, which has used coffee husks combined with recycled plastic to build low-cost, prefabricated buildings.

The post Used Coffee Grounds and Mushroom Spores Can Be 3D Printed Into a Compostable Plastic Alternative, Researchers Say appeared first on EcoWatch.

Peatland and Mangrove Preservation Could Reduce Land-Use Emissions in Southeast Asia by Half, Study Says

Posted on by February 18, 2025

Scientists have found that preservation and restoration for peat swamp forests and mangroves could help lower land-use emissions in Southeast Asia by about 54%. Because the region contributes to about one-third of global land-use carbon emissions, the reduction could also have a big impact globally, with a potential 16% reduction in land-use emissions worldwide.

Peatlands and mangroves account for around 5.4% of land area in Southeast Asia, but they have huge carbon sequestration properties, according to the scientists, who published their findings in the journal Nature Communications. As National University of Singapore (NUS) reported, peatlands and mangroves can sequester around 90% of carbon in the soil. The natural peatland and mangrove ecosystems also promote biodiversity.

Further, the scientists noted that Southeast Asia is home to a significant portion of the world’s tropical peatlands and mangroves, with Brunei, Cambodia, Timor Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam accounting for 33% of global mangroves and 39% of global tropical peatlands.

Half of land use carbon emissions in Southeast Asia can be mitigated through peat swamp forest and mangrove conservation and restoration www.nature.com/articles/s41…

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— Ian Hall (@ianhall.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 6:40 AM

But with land-use changes, these ecosystems are under threat and risk emitting carbon rather than storing it. According to the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, some of the biggest threats to mangroves include coastal development and pollution. As the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported, peatland threats include drainage, burning, agriculture and mining.

“If we conserved and restored the carbon-dense peatlands and mangroves in Southeast Asia, we could mitigate approximately 770 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2e) annually, or nearly double Malaysia’s national greenhouse gas emissions in 2023,” Massimo Lupascu, senior author of the study and associate professor of geography at NUS, said in a statement.

As Mongabay News reported, restoring the peatlands and mangroves that are currently degraded — which includes around 5.34 million hectares (13.4 million acres) drained peatlands and 2.64 million hectares (6.52 million acres) otherwise degraded peatlands — could reduce emissions by around 94 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year alone.

Conservation of remaining peatlands should be a major focus. As NUS reported, it is difficult to recover sequestered carbon once the natural peatlands or mangroves have been disturbed by human activities. While restoration will still be important, conserving the remaining ecosystems is critical to reducing land-use emissions.

“These ecosystems pack a climate mitigation punch far beyond their size, offering one of the most scalable and impactful natural solutions to combat the planet’s climate crisis,” said Sigit Sasmito, first author of the study and a researcher at TropWATER at James Cook University.

In addition to prioritizing peatland and mangrove restoration and conservation, the study authors pointed out that these carbon-sequestering ecosystems could also provide economic value, such as through carbon credits, to outweigh the potential economic benefits of land-use changes.

“Wetland soils may have little agronomic value, as it is generally not well-suited for traditional farming or crop cultivation, but they are unmatched in their ability to store and preserve carbon,” Pierre Taillardat, co-author of the study and a principal investigator at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore’s Wetland Carbon Lab, said in a statement. “If carbon were valued like other critical commodities, such as being traded on the carbon credits market, it could unlock vast opportunities for conservation and restoration projects. This will enable local communities to lead carbon management efforts with a win-win scenario where livelihoods and sustainable ecosystems thrive together.”

It will be important for countries to act quickly on peatland and mangrove preservation and restoration efforts. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) recently reported that around 500,000 hectares of peatlands are destroyed each year, with East and Southeast Asia particularly affected. Degraded peatlands contribute to around 4% of all global anthropogenic carbon emissions.

The post Peatland and Mangrove Preservation Could Reduce Land-Use Emissions in Southeast Asia by Half, Study Says appeared first on EcoWatch.

Peatland and Mangrove Preservation Could Reduce Land-Use Emissions in Southeast Asia by Half, Study Says

Posted on by February 18, 2025

Scientists have found that preservation and restoration for peat swamp forests and mangroves could help lower land-use emissions in Southeast Asia by about 54%. Because the region contributes to about one-third of global land-use carbon emissions, the reduction could also have a big impact globally, with a potential 16% reduction in land-use emissions worldwide.

Peatlands and mangroves account for around 5.4% of land area in Southeast Asia, but they have huge carbon sequestration properties, according to the scientists, who published their findings in the journal Nature Communications. As National University of Singapore (NUS) reported, peatlands and mangroves can sequester around 90% of carbon in the soil. The natural peatland and mangrove ecosystems also promote biodiversity.

Further, the scientists noted that Southeast Asia is home to a significant portion of the world’s tropical peatlands and mangroves, with Brunei, Cambodia, Timor Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam accounting for 33% of global mangroves and 39% of global tropical peatlands.

Half of land use carbon emissions in Southeast Asia can be mitigated through peat swamp forest and mangrove conservation and restoration www.nature.com/articles/s41…

[image or embed]

— Ian Hall (@ianhall.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 6:40 AM

But with land-use changes, these ecosystems are under threat and risk emitting carbon rather than storing it. According to the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, some of the biggest threats to mangroves include coastal development and pollution. As the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported, peatland threats include drainage, burning, agriculture and mining.

“If we conserved and restored the carbon-dense peatlands and mangroves in Southeast Asia, we could mitigate approximately 770 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2e) annually, or nearly double Malaysia’s national greenhouse gas emissions in 2023,” Massimo Lupascu, senior author of the study and associate professor of geography at NUS, said in a statement.

As Mongabay News reported, restoring the peatlands and mangroves that are currently degraded — which includes around 5.34 million hectares (13.4 million acres) drained peatlands and 2.64 million hectares (6.52 million acres) otherwise degraded peatlands — could reduce emissions by around 94 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year alone.

Conservation of remaining peatlands should be a major focus. As NUS reported, it is difficult to recover sequestered carbon once the natural peatlands or mangroves have been disturbed by human activities. While restoration will still be important, conserving the remaining ecosystems is critical to reducing land-use emissions.

“These ecosystems pack a climate mitigation punch far beyond their size, offering one of the most scalable and impactful natural solutions to combat the planet’s climate crisis,” said Sigit Sasmito, first author of the study and a researcher at TropWATER at James Cook University.

In addition to prioritizing peatland and mangrove restoration and conservation, the study authors pointed out that these carbon-sequestering ecosystems could also provide economic value, such as through carbon credits, to outweigh the potential economic benefits of land-use changes.

“Wetland soils may have little agronomic value, as it is generally not well-suited for traditional farming or crop cultivation, but they are unmatched in their ability to store and preserve carbon,” Pierre Taillardat, co-author of the study and a principal investigator at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore’s Wetland Carbon Lab, said in a statement. “If carbon were valued like other critical commodities, such as being traded on the carbon credits market, it could unlock vast opportunities for conservation and restoration projects. This will enable local communities to lead carbon management efforts with a win-win scenario where livelihoods and sustainable ecosystems thrive together.”

It will be important for countries to act quickly on peatland and mangrove preservation and restoration efforts. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) recently reported that around 500,000 hectares of peatlands are destroyed each year, with East and Southeast Asia particularly affected. Degraded peatlands contribute to around 4% of all global anthropogenic carbon emissions.

The post Peatland and Mangrove Preservation Could Reduce Land-Use Emissions in Southeast Asia by Half, Study Says appeared first on EcoWatch.

Renewable Energy Is a Less Costly, More Efficient Climate Solution Than Carbon Capture, Study Finds

Posted on by February 17, 2025

The benefits of investing in clean energy, including solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower, make renewables a more cost-effective option compared to carbon capture technology, according to a new study.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, examined two scenarios across 149 countries through 2050: one in which the countries transition 100% of their business-as-usual energies into renewables, or wind-water-solar (WWS) sources, and another scenario in which policies invest in carbon capture (CC) and synthetic direct air carbon capture (SDACC). 

In the second scenario, the energy mix would still include fossil fuels and renewables, the same as the current combination of energy sources. Both scenarios accounted for the same improvements in energy efficiency, Clean Technica reported. The study authors compared the energy costs, public health impacts and changes in emissions of each scenario.

#RenewableEnergy vs. #CarbonCapture "If you spend $1 on carbon capture instead of on wind, water, and solar, you are increasing CO2, air pollution, energy requirements, energy costs, pipelines, and total social costs" @mzjacobson techxplore.com/news/2025-02…

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— Silicon Valley North – Citizens Climate Lobby (@cclsvn.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 12:58 PM

In the carbon capture scenario, countries would accrue $60 trillion to $80 trillion per year in social costs, or the costs related to energy, health and climate that are created with each additional ton of carbon dioxide emissions. Even if all carbon was captured and stored, this scenario would see a rise in non-carbon dioxide emissions, increased air pollution, higher energy needs and higher infrastructure costs.

By comparison, the WWS scenario accounted for a decrease in energy demand by about 54.4%, a decrease in annual energy costs of around 59.6% and a decline in annual social costs of 91.8%, the study found.

“If you spend $1 on carbon capture instead of on wind, water, and solar, you are increasing CO2, air pollution, energy requirements, energy costs, pipelines, and total social costs,” lead study author Mark Jacobson, lead author of the study and a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, said in a statement. 

New Study: Carbon Capture Is A Waste Of Money, & Counterproductive cleantechnica.com/2025/02/15/n… @cleantechnica.bsky.social

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— Mark Z. Jacobson (@mzjacobson.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 2:09 AM

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which was not involved in the study, carbon capture is a technology that captures and stores carbon dioxide, typically from major polluting sites like power plants or industrial facilities. While carbon capture could help reduce emissions from heavily polluting sites, IEA noted that even with increasing deployment of carbon capture globally, the numbers remain far below what is necessary to reach net-zero emissions.

This new study takes the implementation of carbon capture to an extreme and finds even with nearly perfect carbon capture rates, the costs of investing in carbon capture over renewables would still be less beneficial than focusing on clean energy sources over fossil fuel dependence.

“It’s always an opportunity cost to use clean, renewable energy for direct air capture instead of replacing a fossil-fuel CO2 source, just like it’s an opportunity cost to use it for AI or bitcoin mining,” Jacobson said. “You’re preventing renewables from replacing fossil fuel sources because you’re creating more demand for those renewables.”

Further, investing in renewables rather than relying on fossil fuels coupled with carbon capture would lead to improved health outcomes, the study determined. As Stanford University reported, the WWS scenario would avoid 5 million deaths annually and hundreds of millions of other illnesses related to air pollution.

According to the authors, policies should stop promoting CC and SDACC and instead emphasize clean energy solutions.

“The only way to eliminate all air-pollutant and climate-warming gases and particles from energy is to eliminate combustion,” the authors wrote.

The post Renewable Energy Is a Less Costly, More Efficient Climate Solution Than Carbon Capture, Study Finds appeared first on EcoWatch.

Pennsylvania Governor Sues Trump Administration Over Frozen IRA Funds

Posted on by February 14, 2025

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced a lawsuit on Thursday against President Donald Trump’s administration for freezing funding made available through the Inflation Reduction Act.

As Utility Dive reported, Trump ordered a freeze to IRA funds in an executive order made his first day in office. According to the governor’s office, Pennsylvania state agencies have not been able to access the Solar for All funds or other IRA funding, despite a federal judge ruling on Monday that the current administration must comply with a previous order that blocked the IRA funding freeze, CBS News reported. This means the judge had ruled that the administration cannot currently freeze funds from the IRA, although CBS News reported that multiple states have claimed that they continue to be denied access to the funds.

Shapiro argues that the state has not been able to access $1.2 billion of federal funding, and another $900 million in funding to the state has been slated for “undefined review by federal agencies” before the state can access these funds.

Gov. Josh Shapiro on Thursday sued President Donald Trump’s administration over its alleged failure to disburse more than $2 billion in federal funds to Pennsylvania, despite a federal court ordering the Trump administration to restore the funding. 🔗 inquirer.com/news/pennsyl…

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— Philadelphia Inquirer (@inquirer.com) February 13, 2025 at 12:27 PM

“The federal government has entered into a contract with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, promising to provide billions of dollars in Congressionally-approved funding that we have committed to serious needs — like protecting public health, cutting energy costs, providing safe, clean drinking water, and creating jobs in rural communities,” Shapiro shared in a press release. “With this funding freeze, the Trump Administration is breaking that contract — and it’s my job as Governor to protect Pennsylvania’s interests.”

Shapiro noted that he had been working with Pennsylvania’s Congressional delegation for weeks to regain access to the funding to no avail.

“While multiple federal judges have ordered the Trump Administration to unfreeze this funding, access has not been restored, leaving my Administration with no choice but to pursue legal action to protect the interests of the Commonwealth and its residents,” Shapiro stated.

As the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) reported, Pennsylvania was awarded $156,120,000 last year for solar installations, battery storage and energy upgrades for low-income and underserved communities in the state. In total, the state’s Solar for All program was slated to add solar installations for 14,000 households within a five-year timeframe.

Additionally, the state argued that it has been restricted from accessing grant funding for projects, such as $800 million for clean water infrastructure, $400 million for an emissions mitigation program for manufacturing and industrial companies, and additional millions of dollars earmarked for a program that brings reliable electricity to rural communities, the lawsuit stated.

NEW: 14 states sued Musk, DOGE and Trump to stop the agency’s alleged unconstitutional abuse of power. They argue Musk, who bypassed the appointment process, exceeds the authority of an unconfirmed official, violating the U.S. Constitution.

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— Democracy Docket (@democracydocket.com) February 14, 2025 at 1:15 PM

As Utility Dive reported, funds are also being withheld for a project that plugs and remediates former oil and gas well sites. 

While there are two lawsuits in progress on behalf of 22 states and private organizations against the IRA funding freeze, Shapiro is the first governor to sue over the frozen IRA funding.

“For communities throughout Pennsylvania, the Solar for All program helps lower utility bills and encourages clean, reliable energy systems that protect our environment and public health,”  Robert Routh, Pennsylvania policy director at NRDC, said in a statement. “By interrupting Solar for All funding, the Trump administration is stalling important infrastructure projects and putting Pennsylvania’s move toward a cleaner, more affordable energy economy on the line.” 

Many other states have also been impacted by the freeze to IRA and Solar for All funding. According to the NRDC, the Solar for All program consists of $7 billion toward clean and locally produced energy projects. In total, the project could bring solar energy to 900,000 low-income households and save households $350 million in energy bills.

“The administration’s EO has left local officials and grant program managers uncertain about the legality of its directives,” Routh said. “While solar energy developers and advocates wait for clarity, the funding freeze leaves upcoming projects in turmoil.”

The post Pennsylvania Governor Sues Trump Administration Over Frozen IRA Funds appeared first on EcoWatch.

U.S. Wildfire Suppressants Revealed as Major Sources of Toxic Metal Pollution

Posted on by February 13, 2025

Some wildfire suppressants in the U.S. contain levels of toxic metals up to 2,880 times the regulator limits set for drinking water, according to a recently published study. Further, researchers found that wildfire suppressants may have contributed to around 850,000 pounds of toxic metal pollution in the western U.S. from 2009 to 2021.

When toxic metal pollution shows up in the environment after wildfires, it has previously been estimated that the pollution could be linked to human activities like mining in nearby urban areas or from ash deposition.

The US federal government and chemical makers have long concealed the contents of pink wildfire suppressants – the substances are rife with cadmium, arsenic, chromium and other toxic heavy metals.

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— Guardian US (@us.theguardian.com) February 13, 2025 at 3:14 PM

But two different sources led researchers from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Southern California to investigate potential toxic metals in wildfire suppressants. According to the study, the Washington Department of Ecology issued multiple citations to a USFS air tanker base in 2016 for exceeding the amount of metal concentrations allowed in waste discharge. The researchers also found an internal document for tanker bases from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that explained that a particular retardant contains ammonia, cadmium and chromium.

The study authors also credit LAist reporter Jacob Margolis, who had reached out to corresponding author Daniel McCurry back in 2019 to inquire about potential contamination by fire suppressants.

According to the authors, any wildfire suppressants, which include fire retardants, water enhancers and foams, have to be approved by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) before use. But the manufacturers can retain up to 20% of formulations as trade secrets or proprietary information, while products for public use do not need to disclose any percentage of their formulations.

In response to these findings and inquiries, the researchers purchased fire suppressant products and used mass spectrometry to quantify the amounts of vanadium, chromium, manganese, copper, arsenic, cadmium, antimony, barium, thallium and lead in the products and compared the amounts they found with data on suppressant application rates to calculate about how many heavy metals have been released by these products in the western U.S. over a 10-year timeframe.

In total, they found that at least eight heavy metals in the fires suppressants were at concentrations higher than the maximum level for drinking water set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The authors published their research in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters.

They also found that one particular product, Phos-Chek LC-95 W, had the greatest amounts of most of the heavy metals tested, although this specific product is not used by Cal Fire, LAist reported.

“I think what surprised me most was the array of metals we found,” lead author Marella Schammel said in a statement. “Some of them make sense as they’re used as corrosion inhibitors (chromium and cadmium) or are known contaminants in phosphate ores (arsenic, among others) used in the active ingredient of the retardant. But others, like vanadium — which there’s a ton of in Phos-Chek — were definitely unexpected.”

Based on their research, the authors estimated that from 2009 to 2021, about 380,000 kilograms or 1 million pounds of heavy metals had been dropped into the environment in the western U.S.

However, USFS and Cal Fire noted that they do work to avoid dropping any fire suppressants near waterways during wildfires to minimize environmental impact.

“We recognize that fire retardant is generally safe in the quantities that are applied to any given area. For sensitive areas like waterways and endangered species habitat, we restrict the use of fire retardant,” Linnea Edmeier, public information officer with Cal Fire, told LAist. “While Cal Fire prioritizes safety and environmental protection, we also recognize the critical role of fire retardants in firefighting.”

Phos-Chek fire retardant covers the road and nearby properties after being dropped by aircraft to slow wildfires spreading in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California on Jan. 11, 2025. Jason Ryan / NurPhoto via Getty Images

With the recent fires in Los Angeles, the authors raised concerns over the amounts of fire suppressant used in residential areas.

“Are the hazardous waste thresholds the appropriate bar for these to clear, or, if they’re being used in a massive scale in populated neighborhoods, do we need to get stricter on permissible concentrations of toxic compounds?” McCurry said, as reported by The Guardian.

McCurry also said that to fully differentiate between the potential sources of toxic metal contamination in the environment, studies would need to investigate the levels of contamination before and after a wildfire.

“As rates of aerial fire retardant application have grown, likely so too have loadings of toxic metals released into the environment from their use, a trend which may intensify if wildfire frequency and intensity continues to increase,” the authors concluded. “Further work should determine the environmental fate of metals released by aerial fire suppression (i.e., determine whether they remain in the soil column, permeate into groundwater, or enter nearby surface waters via runoff), and estimate the extent to which they contribute to human and ecological health risk.”

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17 Clean Energy Projects Announced for Former Coal Sites in Appalachia

Posted on by February 12, 2025

A collaboration between The Nature Conservancy (TNC), TNC’s Cumberland Forest Limited Partnership, Sun Tribe Development and ENGIE aims to transform 17 former coal mining sites throughout Appalachia into clean energy projects.

In total, the projects include 14 solar energy projects with 49 megawatts of energy generation and three battery storage projects with 320 megawatts of expected storage. Together, the projects span 360 acres formerly occupied by coal mines.

TNC intends to use these projects to benefit the “3Cs” — climate, conservation and communities. 3Cs is a framework that TNC applies to projects to determine and measure their benefits. In the case of the newly announced projects, the transformed clean energy sites are slated to provide an increase in local tax revenue and construction jobs, TNC announced.

The project leaders anticipate that the solar and battery projects will power the equivalent of 6,638 homes per year in Appalachia, with projects slated for sites in Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky.

“Locating solar and battery storage on former mine lands makes perfect sense to us,” Danny Van Clief, CEO of Sun Tribe Development, said in a statement. “These sites and the communities they rest within have powered our country for more than a century — all we have to do is reimagine them for today’s energy technology.” 

According to the announcement, some of the projects plan to incorporate Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) incentives to lower costs. However, the IRA, which former President Joe Biden signed in 2022, is currently facing freezes and changes under the new administration. 

President Donald Trump froze IRA funds by executive order shortly after taking office, but the move was blocked by a court order. Still, states have said they are being denied funding, and a federal judge has since ordered the administration to comply with the block to the IRA funding freeze, CBS News reported.

The risks to federal funding have already affected other clean energy and tech projects around the country. Projects to replace diesel-fueled school buses for electric, remove lead paint, weatherize homes for improved efficiency, plug abandoned oil wells, and improve resiliency to wildfires and flooding have all been affected by the freeze and threat to pull IRA funding, NPR reported. 

“I think what sometimes gets lost in the story about Appalachia is that there is actually a tremendous amount of local energy and innovation, because people love the place, and they stay here because they love it,” Dana Kuhnline, senior program director at ReImagine Appalachia, told NPR. “And so you have a lot of folks with the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding who really had that first chance in a generation to start to kind of really do some big, big things. They tried to dream big and do a big economic improvement for their local community, and ended up in this really impossible situation.”

It is not clear whether the progress of the projects is dependent on the IRA incentives, and some projects may not be affected at all by the risks to this funding. 

However, TNC addresses the potential threats to climate policy on its website, stating, “We also jump into defense mode when it appears that conservation and climate policies are going to be scaled back. We do so, in part, by sharing stories about farmers, fishermen, forest landowners and the many other people who benefit from government policies. Wins at all levels of government are meaningful. What is most important between now and the end of the decade is to keep the momentum going by continuing to help create, implement and defend policies that make conservation and climate action possible.”

The newly announced projects add to eight previously announced clean energy projects by TNC, Sun Tribe and Dominion Energy. These projects will be developed around the Cumberland Forest. The first project is a solar plant in Virginia that will begin construction by 2026. This project alone could generate $800,000 in tax revenue for the local community in addition to providing clean solar power and cleaning up a former coal mine site. The other solar energy projects are expected to be completed by 2029, TNC reported.

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Successful Land Restoration Results Would Require Less Than 0.27% of Global Annual GDP, Study Finds

Posted on by February 11, 2025

Fulfilling current land restoration pledges in 115 countries would require only a small amount of the global annual GDP, a recent analysis has found. Successful implementation would require about 0.04% to 0.27% of global annual GDP, totaling about $311 billion to $2.1 trillion.

The researchers analyzed costs of 243 land restoration projects happening globally and found that the median cost ranged from $185 per hectare to $3,012 per hectare, with an overall median cost of $1,691 per hectare. Lower-cost opportunities include forest management for $185 per hectare, passive regeneration ($513 per hectare), grazing management ($631 per hectare) and assisted natural regeneration ($804 per hectare).

“Passive regeneration is basically just fencing off an area and leaving it alone,” Dewy Verhoeven, lead author of the study and Ph.D. candidate at Wageningen University & Research, told Mongabay News. “Those costs are very low, maybe you have to install a fence and that’s it. But the opportunity costs are very large because you cannot use the land anymore.”

Projects with the highest median costs include agroforestry ($2,390 per hectare), cross-slope barriers ($2,562 per hectare), irrigation ($2,886 per hectare) and silvopasture ($3,012 per hectare), which integrates trees and pasture for grazing livestock on the same land.

In total, land degradation projects would add up to about 0.38% to 2.65% of global GDP for one year; however, the authors noted that spreading the cost out over a decade would lower the annual cost to just 0.04% to 0.27% of global GDP. The authors published these findings in the journal Land Degradation & Development.

While the total percentage is small, an even distribution of costs or distributing costs by project location would place a higher burden on lower income countries. The report authors found that most projects are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa as well as South and Southeast Asia, with sub-Saharan Africa accounting for almost half of all global land restoration pledges.

“From a global perspective, it’s very efficient to do a lot of restoration in lower income countries, because that’s where it’s relatively cheap. But they need help,” Verhoeven told Mongabay News.

The report recommended financing frameworks for more equitable distribution of costs, including establishing Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), tapping the private sector and incorporating public financial support.

“Furthermore, it is essential to gain more insight in who bears the cost of landscape restoration. A better assessment of the costs and benefits from different actor perspectives (farmers, governments, private investors), including opportunity costs, is key in the design of new financing mechanisms to ensure their participation in landscape restoration practices,” the authors wrote in the study.

Land degradation is increasing rapidly. According to a report by Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the amount of land degradation is increasing by about 1 million square kilometers per year, an area roughly the size of Egypt.

There are major economic incentives to invest in land restoration. UNCCD reported that for each dollar invested in land restoration, there are economic returns between $7 and $30. 

As the authors of the recent land degradation study concluded, land restoration also improves ecosystem health and furthers progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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