Owners urged to protect public safety as climate change threatens bigger floods
By Jon Hurdle. NJ Spotlight
New Jersey is providing $45 million in new low-interest loans to repair and upgrade dams to ensure their safety and help them cope with increased flooding caused by climate change.
Department of Environmental Protection is making $40 million available through a state program on dam restoration, and another $5 million through the Inland Waters Loan Program which funds flood-mitigation projects such as dredging and stream restoration.
DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette said the new funding is part of the state’s plan to become more resilient to the effects of climate change.
“This funding will enable private and municipal dam owners to undertake environmental infrastructure projects that provide more spillway capacity that is critical to public safety, especially as rainfall events continue to become more severe due to our changing climate,” he said in a statement Monday.
The Crescent Grade north of the Sierra Nevada town of Greenville, where Highway 89 was green with pines, firs, and cedars before the Dixie fire charred the area. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
By Elvia Limón, Laura Blasey, and Amy Hubbard, LA Times
A burn scar in Northern California offers an unsettling glimpse into what forests across the Sierra Nevada could become. Bare tree carcasses are strewn across the dun-colored hills. Rock outcroppings jut out like bones.
Two massive wildfires have torn through here over the last 15 years. It’s a pattern that threatens to repeat across California’s most extensive and iconic mountain range as wildfires have increased in both size and severity over the last two decades.
About 1.5 million acres of the Sierra Nevada burned last fire season. That surpassed 2020. A study by researchers at UC Irvine and UC Davis found that solely considering rising summer temperatures, the acreage burned will increase by up to 92% by the 2040s.
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Blazes across Europe have been reported amid high temperatures and strong winds (Picture: Metro.co.uk)
Wildfires are raging across Europe, where a heatwave has intensified drought conditions.
By Alys Davies & Malu Cursino, BBC News
Though temperatures have cooled in France and the UK, firefighters are still tackling blazes in Greece, Spain, and Italy.
The fires in France’s badly hit southwest have started to be brought under control.
And as the heatwave moves north-east, low water levels are hampering transport on rivers in Germany.
Heatwaves have become more frequent, more intense, and last longer because of human-induced climate change. The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.
More than 1,000 deaths have been linked to the extremely high temperatures in Portugal while in Spain it is at least 500.
In Greece, firefighters were tackling a blaze on Mount Penteli, to the north-east of the capital Athens.
In the nearby town of Pallini, state electricity workers were scrambling to remove burnt pylons, the BBC’s Kostas Koukoumakas reports.
Takis Panagopoulos, 87, woke up at 03:00 (00:00 GMT) to a red sky. “The fire surrounded the house and I managed to leave the area by car,” he said.
Mr Panagopoulos, who was for many years an amateur actor, said his house could be rebuilt but his collection of more than 1,200 theatre books had been turned to ashes.
Firefighting helicopters were dropping water, one after the other. Winds in excess of 80km/h (49mph) have made it harder to contain the fire.
Firefighters across Europe have faced scorching temperatures amid a surge in wildfires GETTY IMAGE
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Customers report Walgreen employees have refused to sell them birth control methods because of their personal objections. Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
It’s a question people are asking, calling for a Walgreens boycott after a series of customer stories emerged on social media making claims about troubling barriers to health care and the way personal information is used by the pharmacy chain.
Over the last few weeks, people have said they were denied birth control pills and condoms at Walgreens. Another customer said she was sent a box of baby formula after buying a pregnancy test at the store.
As Walgreens outlined in a tweet that has been resurfaced during the current conversation, the pharmacy chain allows pharmacists to refuse to fill a prescription if they have “a moral objection.” But they are supposed to ask another pharmacist to help the customer fill the prescription instead.
The provision for pharmacy sales covers birth control, emergency contraceptives, and anything an employee may find objectionable.
Earlier this month, a 20-year-old customer named Abigail Martin shared her experience at Walgreens on TikTok.
When she tried to fill the birth control prescription she had been taking for six years, she ran into an unexpected obstacle. Despite having multiple refills left, she got a text from Walgreens saying she had none remaining. After getting nowhere on the phone, she went to the store. ‘
Martin said that a Walgreens employee who was wearing two crosses looked her up and down, then told her the prescription could not be filled and that she’d have to contact her provider.
“I said ‘You won’t refill it or you can’t refill it?’” Martin said.
The employee again said to call her provider. After Martin called the doctor’s office, she was told she had four refills and they didn’t know why the pharmacy wasn’t filling the prescription. The office got in touch with Walgreens. Meanwhile, Martin got a text saying her prescription was delayed, followed by another saying it was … out of stock.
Researchers say a two-blade, downward rotor could be more resistant to hurricane-force winds, while using materials that are lighter and more affordable
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From the New Jersey Economic Development Authority
An artist’s rendering of the New Jersey Wind Port
TRENTON – The New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s Board (NJEDA) has approved the purchase of a 109.4-acre property which will enable the planned expansion of the NJ Wind Port in Lower Alloways Creek, Salem County. The approval took place during last week’s Board meeting.
The New Jersey Wind Port is a first-in-the-nation infrastructure investment that will provide a location for essential staging, assembly, and manufacturing activities related to offshore wind projects on the East Coast. At full build-out, the Wind Port has the potential to create up to 1,500 manufacturing, assembly, and operations jobs and drive billions of dollars in economic growth back into the New Jersey economy.
Phase 1 of the Wind Port broke ground in September 2021 with marshaling activities due to commence in early 2024. The purchase of the 109.4-acre property from NDEV LLC, a subsidiary of PSEG Power, will enable Phase 2 of the project as proposed, expanding the Port’s total footprint to over 220 acres and enabling it to support the marshaling of two wind projects concurrently as well as up to three co-located manufacturing facilities.
“Today’s approval is another major step forward for the New Jersey Wind Port and for delivering on Governor Murphy’s goal of making New Jersey the engine room of the U.S offshore wind supply chain,” said NJEDA Chief Executive Officer Tim Sullivan. “The ability to marshal two projects at once, with additional space for component manufacturing, will turbocharge job creation, opportunities for small businesses, and all forms of ancillary economic activity both locally and across the state.”
Sullivan added that expanded marshalling capacity will also help to alleviate the current shortfall in fit-for-purpose port capacity across the region, helping states up and down the U.S east coast to deliver on their wind targets on time and cost-effectively.
The 109.4-acre property is set directly north of the property the NJEDA is leasing from PSEG Nuclear to develop Phase 1 of the NJ Wind Port. It is currently permitted as a confined disposal facility (CDF), with the permitting process to enable the Port’s expansion due to commence shortly. The purchase from NDEV LLC was for a negotiated price of $24.25 million.
The State of New Jersey is committed to constructing the New Jersey Wind Port using union labor and requires developers and contractors to pay the prevailing wage. The State is also committed to setting a new standard for the inclusion of women- and minority-owned businesses during the construction of the New Jersey Wind Port. The NJEDA has established a requirement that at least 25 percent of subcontractors for the port construction are small businesses and at least 15 percent are women-, minority-, or veteran-owned. The project also includes worker diversity goals of 18 percent people of color and 6.9 percent women.
NJEDA expects to commence tenant selection for parcels of the property in the coming months.
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Firefighters across Europe have faced scorching temperatures amid a surge in wildfires
