The first dead elephants were discovered in May 2020. By July of that year, over 350 of the endangered animals had been found strewn lifeless across a remote region of Botswana.
Global concern rose rapidly as veterinarians at the scenes eliminated the usual suspects. There were no signs of starvation, infections, or naturally occurring anthrax, and the giant mammals’ tusks were still intact, ruling out poaching. Some of the elephants were found face down, suggesting a sudden collapse.
That left one prime suspect, toxic cyanobacteria – also known as blue-green algae – which now, four years later, a new study led by King’s College London supports.
Geographer Davide Lomeo and colleagues’ analysis of satellite data reveals toxic algal blooms had exploded in water sources near the Okavango Delta during the same time period, all but certainly poisoning the African bush elephants (Loxodonta africana).
“We identified 20 waterholes near fresh carcasses that experienced increased algal bloom events in 2020 compared to the previous three years combined. These waterholes also exhibited the highest average algal biomass of the period 2015 – 2023,” explains Lomeo.
The researchers examined the spatial relationship between 3,389 waterholes in the Okavango Delta, and the locations of the dead elephants.
“Algal blooms are routinely monitored by satellite, but this data isn’t often used to investigate mass mortality events,” says Lomeo.
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U.S. EPAadministrator nominee Lee Zeldin acknowledged industry concerns about how recent PFAS regulations could impact business operations during his first confirmation hearing this week.
Zeldin, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for the top EPA role, appeared before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday. He noted that pollution from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances was a threat to the environment and said he would work within the EPA’s authority to help those affected by such pollution.
Zeldin was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2023, and the Republican nominee for governor of New York in 2022. During his time in office, he voted in favor of several bills related to regulatingPFAS.
During the three-hour hearing, Zeldin fielded questions about ongoing pollution in U.S. waterways, including from plastic, as well as how he would handle overall agency spending, including from previous Inflation Reduction Act funding.
If confirmed, Zeldin said he would work with longtime EPA staff and with Republicans and Democrats to quickly get up to speed on numerous pressing environmental and health issues, especially as they impact the U.S. economy. He underscored his belief in the “rule of law” and said he would prioritize compliance.
“The EPA must also be better stewards of tax dollars, honor cooperative federalism and be transparent and accountable to Congress and the public,” Zeldin said in his opening statement.
He added that many Americans voted for Trump due to concerns about economic mobility and stretched family budgets.
“We can, and we must, protect our precious environment without suffocating the economy,” he said. “A big part of this will require building private sector collaboration to promote common sense, smart regulation that will allow American innovation to continue to lead the world.”
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In a memo that has not been previously reported, chief told city fire commissioners that L.A. relied almost entirely on overburdened “hand crews” from other jurisdictions to handle its brush fire emergencies.
Two years before wildfires incinerated swaths of Los Angeles, the city’s Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley identified “one significant area of weakness” in her department’s ability to contain wildfires. L.A. had no specialized wildland unit to respond to daily brush fires and scrape vegetation, dig ditches and do the other labor to ensure blazes did not spread or rekindle, she wrote on Jan. 5, 2023, asking for $7 million to assemble its own squad.
In a memo that has not been previously reported, she told city fire commissioners that L.A. relied almost entirely on overburdened “hand crews” from other jurisdictions to bring such muscle to its brush fire emergencies. Hand crews, the most elite of which are sometimes called “hotshots,” fight wildfires with chain saws, axes and shovels, setting containment lines and then sticking around to meticulously monitor smoldering fires, feeling by hand for heat and digging out live spots to make sure fires don’t relight.
The city staffed its own team — made up of unpaid, mostly teenage volunteers — only on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school. Crowley warned the commission that there would inevitably come a day when L.A. would need the important grunt work of a “hand crew” and one would not be available, which could “mean the difference in containment or out of control spread.”
Two years before wildfires incinerated swaths of Los Angeles, the city’s Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley identified “one significant area of weakness” in her department’s ability to contain wildfires. L.A. had no specialized wildland unit to respond to daily brush fires and scrape vegetation, dig ditches and do the other labor to ensure blazes did not spread or rekindle, she wrote on Jan. 5, 2023, asking for $7 million to assemble its own squad.
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WASHINGTON —The Supreme Court on Monday turned away appeals filed by various oil companies trying to shut down a lawsuit in Hawaii that seeks to hold them accountable for climate change.
The decision means that the municipality of Honolulu can move forward with a closely watched lawsuit against companies, including Sunoco and Shell, that raises claims under Hawaii state law.
The companies argue that climate change is inherently an issue of federal law that should not be addressed by state courts. Other companies that were sued include ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP.
The Hawaii Supreme Court ruled in October 2023 that the case could move forward, focusing on allegedly deceptive marketing and public statements made by the oil companies rather than the physical impacts of climate change.
The state court concluded that the lawsuit was not displaced by federal law because it “does not seek to regulate emissions and does not seek damages for interstate emissions.”
The Biden administration had urged the Supreme Court not to take up the cases.
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Jan 16, 2025 – A Manhattan judge has dismissed New York City’s lawsuit seeking to hold oil and gas companies accountable for misleading statements about the environmental benefits of their products.
The ruling issued by Justice Anar Rathod Patel on Tuesday amounts to yet another legal defeat in a nationwide effort by local and state governments to sue large polluters. In 2019, state Attorney General Letitia James’ office lost a case alleging ExxonMobil had misled shareholders about the cost of climate change to its business. In November, James’ office lost a lawsuit that sought to hold PepsiCo liable for litter accumulating on the banks of the Buffalo River.
The new ruling came in a case initiated by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration. It centered on ExxonMobil, BP and Shell’s alleged “greenwashing” of the gasoline they sell by minimizing its harm to the environment. But Patel wrote in his ruling that there was a fundamental flaw to the city’s arguments about the harm caused by the alleged misleading statements about climate change.
“The city cannot have it both ways by, on one hand, asserting that consumers are aware of and commercially sensitive to the fact that fossil fuels cause climate change, and, on the other hand, that the same consumers are being duped by defendants’ failure to disclose that their fossil fuel products emit greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change,” Patel wrote.
Over the past year, large oil companies received favorable rulings on similar claims in Delaware and Maryland. About 30 climate cases are still pending in state courts, including in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
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From the United States Environmental Protection Agency
NEW YORK (January 16, 2025) – After carefully considering public comment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finalized its third periodic review of the cleanup of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the Upper Hudson River. The EPA looked at all the project data for water, fish and sediment collected between 2016-2021, and the fish data from 2022. The EPA’s review concludes that the levels of PCBs in water and fish are going down overall, but more fish data is needed. The agency needs at least eight years of data after dredging to draw science-based conclusions about the rate of recovery in the fish. The eighth year of fish data was collected in 2024. The results of that sampling will be available in 2025. The EPA will release an addendum to the report when enough fish data is available, as soon as this year but no later than 2027.
The EPA released the draft version of its review in early July 2024 for public comment. The 120-day public comment period ended on November 7.
Some commenters asked the EPA to conclude that the cleanup is not protective of people’s health and the environment. However, the EPA is not making a decision about protectiveness at this time. The EPA addendum will include a protectiveness determination.
“In issuing this final report today, we want to express how much EPA appreciates hearing from Hudson River communities for the past few months,” said EPA Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia. “While the science tells us that we can’t make a final determination yet about how well the cleanup is working, we will make a determination as soon as we can. Many of the comments we received talked about people’s personal connection to the river and reflect the passion that so many people have for this iconic river and this will drive our effort to continue to clean up and protect the Hudson River.”
The EPA prepared a separate document that responds to the variety of comments received.
As the EPA continues to collect and evaluate data, it is also enhancing the monitoring program to get a better understanding of the river’s recovery. This includes a series of special studies that will be looking more closely at water, fish and sediment in specific areas of the river. Several of these studies are already underway.
Fish consumption restrictions and advisories will continue to be necessary to protect people’s health. The primary risk to people at the site is from eating fish they catch that contains unsafe levels of PCBs. The cleanup plan that the EPA selected in 2002 for the Upper Hudson River called for dredging followed by an extended period of natural recovery – a gradual period of improvement in water, fish and sediment that the EPA projected would occur over a more than 50-year timeframe.
The fishing restrictions in the Upper Hudson River will need to remain in place until PCB levels in fish are reduced and New York State determines that changes can be made. In the Lower Hudson River, the general population can eat some types of fish that they catch, based on the New York State advice. However, anyone who can get pregnant and children under 15 should not eat any fish or crabs from the Hudson River. The EPA is working closely with the New York State Department of Health to support their education and outreach program to inform area newcomers and others who may be looking to the river as a food source.
The EPA is also committed to ensuring that General Electric Company (GE) remains accountable for the PCBs that came from its former manufacturing plants in Hudson Falls and Fort Edward and is actively working throughout the Upper and Lower Hudson River to study and address PCBs. An extensive floodplain study is underway in the Upper Hudson River to evaluate PCB contamination in soil in shoreline areas along a 43-mile stretch of river between Hudson Falls and Troy, New York. The EPA is also overseeing the deconstruction of the Powerhouse and Allen Mill in Hudson Falls, New York – two structures located adjacent to the former GE Hudson Falls plant. Under the latest agreement with GE, the EPA began an investigation in the Lower Hudson River in 2023 which includes extensive fish, water and sediment sampling between Troy and the Battery in New York City.
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