 #BILLYPENNGRAM OF THE DAYBlue heron under highway (photo by @barbhmphilly) One of four local bird murals by V.U.R.T. Creative beneath the Whitaker Bridge in Philadelphia’s Tacony Creek Park. Want to see your photo here? Tag #billypenngram on Instagram |
Bird Beauty Under Bridge Read More »
By David Abel Boston Globe Staff
BARNSTABLE — Fifteen years ago, when Sandra Bolton and her husband bought their three-bedroom Cape overlooking the serene waters of Shubael Pond, their view was like “heaven on Earth,” she said. Few summer days passed when they didn’t take a dip.
But in recent years they began to notice a guacamole-colored scum marring the previously clear waters. Last summer, just as temperatures were increasing and the pond beckoned, local officials banned swimming there after finding toxic algae blooms that can be harmful if ingested, inhaled, or touched.
Earlier this month, they did the same after dead fish were seen floating on a new layer of slime.
“It was like paradise, and then it turned into a nightmare,” said Bolton, 79, a retired elementary school teacher who last year resorted to buying a blow-up pool for her grandchildren. “It’s getting worse.”
Shubael Pond is one of 996 small lakes on Cape Cod, freshwater jewels that offer an alternative to the increasingly shark-infested saltwater on the coast. The remnants of melted glaciers from the Ice Age, the mostly shallow kettle ponds are again being transformed by climate change, a blow to those drawn to their secluded beauty.
Scientists have found that the ponds are warming rapidly, sapping their oxygen, making them more turbid, and altering their distinct ecosystems, which include wildlife ranging from microbes to bullfrogs.
The warming temperatures, combined with increased development and more powerful storms that wash fertilizers, wastewater, and other damaging nutrients into the ponds, have created ideal breeding grounds for cyanobacteria, the toxic ingredients of algae blooms that can multiply in dangerous amounts in very short periods.
“The bacteria like warm, calm places, without a lot of water or wind velocity, and these little lakes are their perfect breeding grounds,” said Charles Culbertson, a microbial ecologist with the US Geological Survey’s New England Water Science Center.
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As temperatures rise, a ‘nightmare’ of toxic algae plagues the hidden gems of Cape Cod Read More »
The country’s latest calamity illustrates a striking inequity of our time: The people least responsible for climate change are among those most hurt by its consequences.
By Somini Sengupta and Julfikar Ali Manik New York Times
Torrential rains have submerged at least a quarter of Bangladesh, washing away the few things that count as assets for some of the world’s poorest people — their goats and chickens, houses of mud and tin, sacks of rice stored for the lean season.
It is the latest calamity to strike the delta nation of 165 million people. Only two months ago, a cyclone pummeled the country’s southwest. Along the coast, a rising sea has swallowed entire villages. And while it’s too soon to ascertain what role climate change has played in these latest floods, Bangladesh is already witnessing a pattern of more severe and more frequent river flooding than in the past along the mighty Brahmaputra River, scientists say, and that is projected to worsen in the years ahead as climate change intensifies the rains.
“The suffering will go up,” said Sajedul Hasan, the humanitarian director of BRAC, an international development organization based in Bangladesh that is distributing food, cash and liquid soap to displaced people.
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This is one of the most striking inequities of the modern era. Those who are least responsible for polluting Earth’s atmosphere are among those most hurt by its consequences. The average American is responsible for 33 times more planet-warming carbon dioxide than the average Bangladeshi.
This chasm has bedeviled diplomacy for a generation, and it is once again in stark relief as the coronavirus pandemic upends the global economy and threatens to push the world’s most vulnerable people deeper into ruin.
An estimated 24 to 37 percent of the country’s landmass is submerged, according to government estimates and satellite data By Tuesday, according to the most recent figures available, nearly a million homes were inundated and 4.7 million people were affected. At least 54 have died, most of them children.
The current floods, which are a result of intense rains upstream on the Brahmaputra, could last through the middle of August. Until then, Taijul Islam, a 30-year-old sharecropper whose house has washed away, will have to camp out in a makeshift bamboo shelter on slightly higher ground. At least he was able to salvage the tin sheet that was once the roof of his house. Without it, he said, his extended family of nine would be exposed to the elements.
Mr. Islam’s predicament is multiplied by the millions among those on the front lines of climate change. Vanuatu is literally sinking into the Pacific. Pastoralists in the Horn of Africa are being pushed to the edge of survival by back-to-back droughts. In the megacity of Mumbai, the rains come in terrifying cloudbursts.
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A Quarter of Bangladesh Is Flooded. Millions Have Lost Everything. Read More »
The New Jersey Assembly on Thursday unanimously approved (74-0) legislation to allow certain farms to hold special events on their property, including weddings, lifetime milestone celebrations and cultural or social events.
Currently, preserved farmland is only allowed to be used for agricultural reasons. The legislation (A2773), sponsored by Republican Ron Dancer (R-Ocean) and Democrats Vince Mazzeo (D-Atlantic), Eric Houghtaling (D-Monmouth), Joann Downey (D-Monmouth) and Carol Murphy (D-Burlington), would create a three-year pilot program in Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem Counties to allow an owner of preserved farmland host special events.
Farms considered “residentially-exposed,” defined as being on a residential road, or which have event space located within 200 feet of a residential road, would be permitted to have seven events per year. Other farms would be allowed 14 events annually.
The sponsors said the legislation would support New Jersey agriculture by providing owners of preserved farmland with an added way to make money while marketing their agricultural products.
The bill now moves to the state Senate for consideration.
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By Shawn Soper Ocean City (Md) Dispatch
OCEAN CITY — Independent stakeholders in one of two offshore wind projects appear to have little concern with the significantly larger turbines selected, according to briefs filed with the Maryland Public Service Commission following a hearing last month.
In June, the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) held an evidentiary hearing on the proposed change in wind turbine size for Orsted’s Skipjack project off the coast of Ocean City. The evidentiary hearing was called when Skipjack announced its intention to switch from the previously proposed eight-megawatt turbines to the much larger 12-megawatt turbine, now believed to be the largest commercial wind turbine available.
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When Skipjack moved to the 12-megawatt turbine, the Town of Ocean City urged the PSC to hold an evidentiary hearing on the proposed turbine change. After a well-attended public hearing in Ocean City in January, the PSC agreed to hold the evidentiary hearing and it took place virtually in early June.
Last week, several weeks after that evidentiary hearing, the interested and participating parties filed post-hearing briefs with the PSC outlining their positions on the issues at hand. Naturally, the Town of Ocean City and Skipjack stuck to their long-held positions, but perhaps the most interesting conclusions came in the briefs filed by neutral third parties. For example, in its brief filed last week, the staff of the PSC agreed with Skipjack’s contention moving to the larger turbines will result in fewer turbines moved further out in the approved Wind Energy Area (WEA).
“The decision to increase the size of the wind turbines from eight megawatts to 12 megawatts will reduce the number of wind turbines needed for the 120-megawatt project from 15 to 12 or fewer turbines,” the brief reads. “By reducing the number of turbines, the distance from the Maryland shoreline to the nearest turbine could be increased from 19.5 miles to 22.7 miles.”
In its brief, the PSC concluded despite the proposed change in turbine height, the Skipjack project still met the standards laid out in the state’s legislation approved seven years ago.
“The increase in wind turbine size thus is not only consistent with the Maryland Offshore Wind Energy Act of 2013, but it would also reduce the impact upon the environment and should reduce total costs of the project to Maryland ratepayers,” the brief reads.
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Booker, Harris and Duckworth sponsor Senate version of bill introduced in the House in February
BY RACHEL FRAZIN The Hill
A group of Democratic senators on Thursday introduced companion legislation to the House’s “Environmental Justice for All” bill aimed at addressing environmental inequalities faced by low-income and nonwhite communities.
The legislation, unveiled by Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris (Calif.), Cory Booker (N.J.) and Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), would require the government to consider the cumulative effects of certain permitting decisions, meaning they would have to consider how a new permit would interact with existing sources of nearby pollution.
It would also prohibit discrimination based on disparate impacts, reinforce parts of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that require community input, and support workers whose communities are transitioning away from fossil fuel-dependent economies.
“Confronting generations of systemic racism to achieve true justice will require us to recognize the role environmental racism has played and redress that by investing in long-term, sustainable environmental justice solutions to center and empower communities that have for far too long been excluded,” Harris said in a statement.
The House version of the bill was introduced in February. The companion bill’s introduction was first reported by Grist.
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Environmental Justice bill introduced by Senate Democrats Read More »
