Climate Change News - March 5, 2018 | Newsletter

New research projects a bleak future for king penguins, due to the effects of climate change on their food supply. Image courtesy of Liam Quinn via flickr.com.

Federal Judge Orders Trump Administration to Enforce Methane Emission Controls

On March 1, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ordered the Trump administration to cease its suspension of rules that require oil and natural gas producers on federal and tribal lands to take preventative measures against rogue methane leaks. Judge William Orrick granted New Mexico and California’s bid for a preliminary injunction against the repeal of the rules, which had taken effect in January 2017. The case was combined with a similar suit filed by a coalition of 17 tribal and environmental groups. Orrick reasoned that the Bureau of Land Management had not provided substantial evidence for justifying the rules’ repeal. Orrick stated, “[The plaintiffs] have shown irreparable injury caused by the waste of publicly owned natural gas, increased air pollution and associated health impacts, and exacerbated climate impacts.” This marks the third federal court to rule in favor of preserving the rules. Oil and gas industry representatives and the states of Texas and North Dakota had joined the administration in pursuing the repeal.

For more information see:

Reuters, SFgate

Lessons Learned from Historic Wildfire Season Fail to Move California Officials

Despite experiencing California’s worst wildfire season on record, the state’s policymakers are poised to maintain the same types of policies that put homeowners at risk to begin with. Local officials continue to issue permits for displaced residents and construction firms to rebuild without updating building and zoning codes to reflect the elevated risk of fire caused by the region’s warmer and drier conditions. State officials have proposed protecting residents of fire-prone areas from insurance premium hikes, an expense that would inevitebly be passed on to homeowners in other parts of California. In another example, California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spent a record $700 million on fire supression from July to January last season, but Gov. Jerry Brown suspended a fee levied on residents of fire-prone areas meant to offset those costs. Critics note that these perverse incentives not only encourage risky behavior by residents, but also continue to erode taxpayer-funded emergency response resources and put first responders in dangerous situations.

For more information see:

Bloomberg

Hurricane Debris Adds to U.S. Virgin Islands’ History of Environmental Strife

During the 4.5 months since Hurricane Maria struck the U.S. Virgin Islands, the U.S. Army Corps and local contractors have gathered more than 61,000 truckloads of debris in their effort to clean up the three major islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. The consequence of this work has been mountains of waste appearing at local landfills, to the point that they have become part of the visible landscape on the scenic islands. Gov. Kenneth Mapp has requested the Army Corps remove the debris from the islands, fearing they pose a fire hazard. Residents fear burning the waste would present threats to public health and the environment. The cleanup effort is already projected to cost $275 million. The U.S. territory has a history of environmental incidents being inflicted upon it. Hess constructed one of the world’s largest oil refineries in St. Croix in the 1960s, but residents suffered from a string of issues. Complaints over the lax environmental standards there led to the facility closing in 2012.

For more information see:

Washington Post

As a Water Shortage Worsens, Inequality in Cape Town becomes More Apparent

In a few months Cape Town’s primary water supply could run dry. The drought that has hit the South African city is proving to be a challenge for all citizens, but some are more affected than others. The water crisis seems to be widening the divide between rich and poor. The wealthy have been spending on several countermeasures, such as buying enormous quantities of bottled water, hiring companies to dig wells, and purchasing desalination machines. Many of the city’s impoverished residents are left to consider cutting back on food to buy water at inflated prices. Giulio Boccaletti, of the Nature Conservancy, said, “Inequity plays out in water very obviously, and what we’re seeing in Cape Town risks becoming an example of that.” Residents in informal settlements around and within Cape Town, just a few kilometers from the expensive villas of the richer neighborhoods, are the most affected. The government has announced that these informal settlements will be prioritized in the emergency water distribution plan.

For more information see:

Washington Post

A Rebuilt New Orleans Braces for Future Storms

Despite installing some of the strongest environmental protections of any American city since Hurrican Katrina, New Orleans may still not possess enough defenses to spare itself from future disasters. The city’s storm damage risk reduction system is only graded as strong enough to protect against storms that would cause a “100-year” flood, or one that has a one percent chance of occurring in any given year. However, as the effects of climate change advance, the odds of a major flood increase and the system becomes less effective. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, stated, ”What we should have done is build to a 10,000-year flood standard, which is what the Netherlands built to, and we didn't, and that was for the country a monetary decision.” A Dutch study even suggested that New Orleans needs a “5,000-year” storm protection system. The 100-year standard is what the federal government currently uses to assess eligiblility for flood insurance in a flood zone, which in turn influenced the protection systems selected.

For more information see:

Times-Picayune

Texas’ Housing Recovery Experiment Yields Unsatisfactory Results

Due to concerns about a projected shortfall of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) housing recovery aid, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the state’s General Land Office (GLO) instead started a short-term housing program for victims of Hurricane Harvey. Initially touted as a novel way to respond to a major natural disaster, the program has failed to meet expectations six months later. More than 890,000 families applied for disaster aid during the first three months after the hurricane, but fewer than 900 families have received support from the GLO. The GLO also did not reach the 33,000 families seeking short-term housing before they were forced to make arrangements through other means, of which many are feared to be in substandard buildings. GLO staff had to navigate a sea of contracts and arcane FEMA procedures, greatly slowing the effort. Critics observed that best practices developed after previous events, such as having disaster response partnerships and contracts in place before a storm hits, have not been followed. Many problems have frustrated local officials, including a lack of data on victims and confusion over the aid application process.

For more information see:

Texas Tribune

Montana Wildfires Shed Light on Long-Term Health Effects of Smoke Exposure

Last summer, Montana had several major wildfires, resulting in the worst season for wildfire smoke on record. The number of people visiting emergency rooms due to respiratory problems more than doubled in some Montana communities, from 163 in 2016 to 378 in 2017, suggesting that the more exposure a person has to polluted air, the worse it is for their health. The healthy limit on air pollution is an average daily concentration of 35 micrograms per cubic meter of polluted air, but this summer it reached over 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter of polluted air at times. Scientists don’t know what the long-term effects of prolonged smoke exposure are, but this summer’s events may provide some answers, as scientists track the health of Seeley Lake residents. Chris Migliaccio with the University of Montana’s School of Pharmacy suspects scientists may observe an increase in respiratory infections due to people being exposed to greater amounts of fine particulates present in wildfire smoke.

For more information see:

NPR

Report: Sea Level Rise Threatening U.S. Military Sites

On February 26, the Center for Climate and Security released a report indicating that U.S. military sites are facing an accelerating threat from sea level rise and extreme weather events. More than 200 domestic military facilities have been flooded by storm surges recently, versus 30 such incidents in 2008. The report also describes the extensive consequences of sea level rise, including loss of life, infrastructure, and electricity, in addition to damage to critical equipment and communications capabilities. Installations damaged by extreme weather events abroad could become limited in their ability to assist other nations in the region, such as delivering humanitarian aid following a major storm. The total value of the Department of Defense’s global installations exceeds a trillion dollars. To address climate change, the report recommends identifying operational and infrastructure vulnerabilities, integrating climate change into planning, accounting for potentially catastrophic scenarios, and collaborating with local communities and international partners. The report was discussed in detail during the 2018 Climate and National Security Forum, held in conjunction with EESI.

For more information see:

InsideClimate News, Briefing

Arctic Temperatures Surge to 50 Degrees Fahrenheit Above Average

Scientists are alarmed over a bizarre stretch of above-freezing temperatures in the Arctic during what should be some of the coldest weeks of the year there. On February 25, temperatures at the North Pole were more than 50 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal. While the North Pole reading was generated from satellite and other temperature data, a weather station at Greenland’s northernmost point recorded an air temperature of 43 degrees F. Giant gaps in Arctic sea ice formations indicate that the ice formation has stagnated more than month ahead of schedule, contributing to a record-low winter sea ice extent for the region. Researcher Zachary Labe of the University of California-Irvine said, “There are other cases in the reanalysis record with greater than 20 degree Celsius departures. However, it does appear this particular event featured one of the largest departures on record.” Meanwhile, Western Europe has been slammed with record-breaking cold, though meteorologists say its still difficult to tell how closely the two events may be related.

For more information see:

Atlantic

Climate Change Poses Serious Threat to King Penguin Species

A new study appearing in Nature Climate Change has found that the majority of the planet’s king penguin population could come under threat by 2100. The problem lies in the penguins’ primary source of food moving away from the species’ current breeding grounds. This food source, a band of nutrient-rich water called the Antarctic Polar Front, provides more than 80 percent of the king penguins’ nutrition. The research forecasts the band will shift closer to the South Pole, increasing the distance between the penguins’ ice-free island habitat and their food supply. Emiliano Trucchi, a researcher with the University of Ferrara, said it was “surprising … to find such a massive change is going to happen in such a short time frame.” Trucchi added that a massive relocation (about 1 million penguins) could have unexplored and unpredictable impacts on their and other species’ survival. The predictions were based on a range of greenhouse gas emission scenarios, the most severe of which estimates the relocation or disappearnce of 70 percent of the king penguin breeding pairs.

For more information:

NPR