The Pollution Thread

[China]

On 5/1/2023 at 2:27 PM, China said:

High Flyers 2023: How Ultra-Rich Private Jet Travel Costs the Rest of Us and Burns Up Our Planet

 

New research from the Institute for Policy Studies and Patriotic Millionaires reveals 10 stunning facts about the high-flying private jet industry.
 

• Private jets make up approximately 1 out of every 6 flights handled by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), but contribute just 2 percent of the taxes that make up the trust fund that primarily funds the FAA. Instead, the majority (roughly 70 percent) of the tax revenue that makes up the aviation trust fund is financed by passengers purchasing commercial air travel. 
• Private jets emit at least 10 times more pollutants than commercial planes per passenger. Unsurprisingly, approximately 1 percent of people are believed to be responsible for about half of all aviation carbon emissions. 
• The median net worth of a full and fractional private jet owner is $190 million and $140 million respectively. They represent 0.0008 percent of the global population. 
• The private jet sector set industry records with regards to transaction and dollar volume in 2021 and 2022. The size of the global fleet has increased 133 percent in the last two decades from 9,895 in 2000 to 23,133 in mid-2022. 
• A 10 percent and 5 percent transfer fee on pre-owned and new private aircraft would have raised $2.4 billion in 2021 and $2.6 billion in 2022. Elon Musk would pay an additional $3.94 million in taxes if our recommended transfer fee and jet fuel tax were implemented.
• Thousands of municipal airports in the US are funded by the public, but many primarily serve private and corporate jets. These airports may not offer scheduled passenger service, but they still offer airport runways subsidized by taxes.
• The largest player in the private jet lobby, the National Business Aviation Association, has spent an average $2.4 million each year since 2008 lobbying the federal government, primarily for tax giveaways.
• While sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) have a role to play in reducing aviation emissions, they should not be considered a panacea by the private jet industry. SAFs still release emissions, though less than traditional fuels, and they are currently expensive and rarely used.

Click on the link for the full article

 

Disney heiress arrested outside private luxury airport in New York: ‘This is the most obvious place to start’

 

Move over, Mulan, there’s a new Disney princess here to save the day — or at least to ruffle some feathers.

 

Abigail Disney, an heiress to the astronomical franchise fortune, is making headlines for her recent arrest in New York City.

Disney’s arrest occurred outside the East Hampton Airport while she was attending a protest against the use of private jets and their enormous environmental impact.

 

The protest included activists from several environmental groups, like Planet Over Profit, Sunrise Movement, and New York Communities for Change. Members of these groups, alongside Disney, formed a blockade at the airport, stopping the flow of traffic.

 

The East Hampton Airport was likely chosen as the location for the protest because it only serves private jets and charter planes, according to Fox News.

 

“These same rich people farting into the Hamptons on private jets are often the ones who make their money in industries that hugely accelerate the climate crisis,” Ogborn said at the protest, according to Fox News. “As long as the 1% continues to needlessly poison our air and heat our Earth, we will continue to escalate our actions against them.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

The Colorado Provides Drinking Water to 40 Million People. Do They Know What Utah Does to It Upstream?

 

From the water, the White River canyon was a scene worthy of Ansel Adams. Swallows darted in and out of mud houses packed on the underside of the soaring sandstone cliffs. A lone elk wandered the hillside, while sheep noshed along the water, tended by a man on a horse striking an iconic Western pose up on the ridge. But then, as we drifted peacefully around a bend, the stench of oil and other volatile organic compounds engulfed our little flotilla of rubber rafts in an invisible cloud of toxic gasses, blotting out the scent of sagebrush that had followed us down the river for the past two days. Eventually, the reason for the headache-inducing fumes came into view, and it wasn’t the sheep.

 

Gas lines draped over the cliffs and crosshatched the swallow nests, serving as the most visible indication that high on the plateau above us lay the state of Utah’s most productive oil and gas fields. There are currently more than 13,000 active oil and gas wells in Eastern Utah’s Uinta Basin. Local environmentalists have dubbed this sparsely populated desert region “Mordor,” after J.R.R. Tolkien’s industrial hellscape. Hemmed in by high mountain ranges on three sides, the basin is home to only about 50,000 people stretched over 9,300 square miles. Yet it suffers Beijing-level air quality that frequently violates the Clean Air Act. “The place is completely decimated,” says Taylor McKinnon, the southwest director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s one of the oil and gas sacrifice zones in the US.”

 

 

Last year, I went down the White River with photographer Russel Albert Daniels to take a closer look at what’s happening in the Uinta Basin, where dystopian industrial development overshadows its critical ecological role as the watershed of the endangered Colorado River. Some 40 million people depend on the Colorado for water. But the West’s most important river is predicted to shrink up to 30 percent or more by mid-century because of rising temperatures caused, in part, by the very fossil fuels extracted from its Utah watershed. And while scientists warn that the planet needs to stop burning these fuels in the next decade to prevent ecological catastrophe, Utah’s political leaders are actively pushing to quadruple oil and gas production in the basin. And they’re getting a lot of help from the Biden Administration.

 

The federal government plays an unusually outsized role in the Uinta Basin. That’s because more than 70 percent of the land there is public, including Dinosaur National Monument, which starts on its eastern border. Much of the basin encompasses the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, home of the Ute tribe and more than half of the region’s oil wells. It’s also the habitat of a host of federally protected wildlife—endangered cacti and ancient fish, and the threatened greater sage grouse, a squat bird famous for its elaborate mating dance whose numbers have declined 40 percent since 2002 because of oil and gas drilling.

 

After taking office, Biden issued an executive order halting new oil and gas leasing on public lands as part of his campaign pledge to combat climate change. But in April last year, the administration restarted leasing. Seven months later, the US Bureau of Land Management announced plans to auction off nearly 9,000 acres in the basin for new drilling this year.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

‘Forever chemicals' prompt new warning about eating fish from Minnesota stretch of Mississippi

 

State officials are recommending certain people avoid eating fish from two Twin Cities metro water bodies due to contamination from so-called “forever chemicals.”

 

The new recommendations apply to the Mississippi River from the Ford Dam in St. Paul to the Hastings dam, known as Pool 2, as well as Lake Rebecca near Hastings.

 

The Minnesota Department of Health advises children under age 15, people who are or could become pregnant and those who are or plan to breastfeed to avoid eating fish from those water bodies. That's because new data show a mixture of pollutants, including PFAS, in the fish.

 

Click on the link for the full article 

[China]

Purple vapor continues to billow out of Ecomaine waste management facility

 

For the second day in a row, mysterious purple vapor is once again billowing from the smoke stack at Ecomaine's waste management facility in Portland.

 

The purple vapor was spotted on Thursday and again on Friday.

 

 

Ecomaine and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection are investigating, but Ecomaine says they believe this was caused from burning trash that contained iodine.

 

The CDC says if it's inhaled or comes in contact with the eyes or skin, iodine vapor can be an irritant and may cause stomach pain. Long term exposure could lead to insomnia, inflammation of the eyes and nose, bronchitis, tremors, rapid heartbeat, diarrhea, and weight loss.

 

Ecomaine says employees first noticed the colorful vapor around 9:30 a.m. on Thursday. They soon stopped feeding trash into the burner and say within two and a half hours, they were back to normal operations.

 

Ecomaine said on Friday they believe it is still iodine and are taking steps to address it.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Microplastics used in food packaging are discovered in human HEARTS for first time

 

Microplastics used in food packaging and paint have been discovered in the human heart for the first time.

 

The particles, which are less than five millimeters long, are shed by single-use plastics such as bottles and food packaging, then released into the air, water and food around us. 

 

A team from the Beijing Anzhen Hospital in China collected heart tissue samples from 15 patients undergoing heart surgery, as well as blood samples taken before and after the operation.

 

Microplastics were found in all of the blood samples and the heart tissue. It is believed they were inhaled or ingested. In the blood, the plastics can latch onto the outer membrane of red blood cells and may impact their ability to transport oxygen.

 

They have also been linked to the development of cancer, heart disease and dementia, as well as fertility problems. Cells cannot break down plastic particles in the body, leading to significant inflammation.

 

It comes after a recent study found that the average person inhales a credit card's worth of micro-plastics every week.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Study: Fecal bacteria levels are having a field day at Texas beaches

 

Galveston residents know very well what to do when they see a dreaded orange flag flying over the lifeguard towers along the Seawall beaches: Swim at your own risk. Your health could easily be at stake.

 

Best to think twice about dipping any produce into the Gulf, too. (Hopefully you knew that by now.)

 

Green and yellow flags are OK, but orange means an environmental hazard, often an unsafe amount of bacteria in the water. Fecal contamination from sewage runoff is a leading cause of these elevated levels.

 

Now, just in time for Labor Day weekend, Houston CBS affiliate KHOU released a report Thursday night claiming more than 90 percent of Texas beaches — including every single one on Galveston Island — meets these unsavory criteria.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

'It's a toxic dump': Michigan has become dumping ground for US's most dangerous chemicals

 

As Emily McHugh and her family moved into a home on Ayres Street in Wayne County's Van Buren Township in Michigan about a decade ago, they knew they were moving close to a landfill. "We weren't in a situation where we could pick and choose over things like that," she said.

 

Until the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, told her in September, however, McHugh had no idea she lived within a quarter-mile of one of the largest hazardous waste landfills in the country, Wayne Disposal Inc., which is next door to the largest hazardous waste processing facility in North America, Michigan Disposal Inc.

 

Since 2019 through late June of this year, Wayne Disposal brought in 1.8 million tons of waste for landfilling; Michigan Disposal more than 1.2 million tons for processing. Wastes received include some of the most dangerous chemicals we know: dioxins; polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs; cyanide compounds; nonstick "forever chemical" PFAS compounds; arsenic; asbestos, and hundreds more.

 

Wayne Disposal is licensed to receive 722 different types of hazardous waste, compounds considered too potentially harmful to the public or the environment for disposal in a conventional landfill. It is one of only 12 landfills in the U.S. licensed to receive PCBs, and the only such facility in the Midwest.

 

Wayne County's role as a dumping ground for America's most dangerous substances was spotlighted in February, when hazardous waste from the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment being shipped to Michigan prompted a large outcry from the public, local officials and state and federal lawmakers. Government representatives demanded to know why locals were given no notice about the shipments in advance. Under pressure, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials stopped shipments of the Ohio train derailment wastes to Michigan.

 

But that Ohio train derailment material was just a drop in a very large, very toxic bucket compared with what Wayne Disposal and Michigan Disposal take in every day, with virtually no one paying attention.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Scientists find at least SIX toxins like arsenic and uranium in systems used by 95% of the US population

 

About 95 percent of the US population is drinking water from wells and community systems containing unsafe levels of toxic contaminants, a new study has revealed.

 

Scientists at the University of New Mexico identified at least six pollutants, primarily arsenic, nitrates, uranium and lead, linked to neurological and developmental problems.

 

Fracking fluids and PFAS were also detected in the drinking water that also flows to the homes of about 320 million Americans.

 

The six contaminants represent a small fraction of the thousands of chemical agents present in drinking water, the authors report. 

 

The team also warned that two or more contaminants could be present in a water source, 'presenting the possibility of synergistic effects,' the researchers said.

 

Arsenic

The team found arsenic is detectable in more than 50 percent of Community Water Systems (CWSs), with 2.6 percent exceeding the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL).

 

Arsenic has long been flowing through drinking water systems, but while the MCL is 0.010 micrograms/liter (µg/L), parts of the US have seen higher levels.

 

 

 

Nitrates

'Nitrate levels in water resources have increased worldwide from applications of inorganic fertilizer and animal manure in agricultural areas,' the study reads.

 

The team found that in 2019 about 5.6 million Americans were exposed to levels over the maximum limit. 

 

PFAS

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic chemical compounds used in cleaning products, certain fabrics, non-stick cookware and other items.

 

According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), over 98 percent of the US population has detectable levels of PFAS in their blood.

 

'The highest levels of PFAS in drinking water have been found close to industrial facilities where PFAS are manufactured or processed and sites with discharges of aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) at military bases, major airports, and other fire training areas,' according to the authors.

 

The study shared that up to 80 million Americans get water that is tainted with high concentrations of PFAs.

 

In 2023, the EPA estimated that from 70 to 94 million people in the US are exposed to six PFAS of concern in their drinking water at elevated levels.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[China]

New Study: 97% of children ages 3-17 have microplastic debris in their bodies

 

Microplastics are small plastic particles that come from the degradation of plastics, ubiquitous in nature and therefore affect both wildlife and humans[5]. The impact of microplastics on human health is a growing concern, and a study by the German Environmental Ministry and Robert Koch Institute found plastic byproducts in 97% of blood and urine samples from children[2]. Here are some of the implications of this study and what it means for our health.

 

Microplastics are small plastic particles that are less than 5mm in size. They come from the breakdown of larger plastic items, such as water bottles, bags, and packaging, and can also be found in personal care products like toothpaste and exfoliating scrubs[1]. Microplastics are everywhere, and they are not biodegradable, meaning they can persist in the environment for hundreds of years[5].

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

17 hours ago, China said:

Scientists find at least SIX toxins like arsenic and uranium in systems used by 95% of the US population

 

Arsenic

The team found arsenic is detectable in more than 50 percent of Community Water Systems (CWSs), with 2.6 percent exceeding the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL).

 

Arsenic has long been flowing through drinking water systems, but while the MCL is 0.010 micrograms/liter (µg/L), parts of the US have seen higher levels.

 

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Oh, and if you're wondering why there's so much arsenic, blame George W. Bush.  One of the first things he did after getting elected as president:

 

Bush Undoes Clinton Environmental Rules

 

March 21 -- The Bush administration is continuing to slowly chip away at the Clinton legacy, withdrawing new rules that sharply limit arsenic in drinking water.

 

The rules, proposed during President Clinton's final days in office, would lower by 80 percent the amount of poisonous arsenic allowed in public drinking water. But it also would have forced 3,000 communities — largely in mining communities in the West — to spend money to upgrade their water systems to protect against arsenic poisoning.

 

EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman is backing away from the regulation, saying she will seek more public comment and scientific review — a process that could take months. Arsenic is a cancer-causing byproduct of mining gold, copper and other metals, and occurs naturally in groundwater — particularly in heavily populated parts of Michigan.

 

But Dr. Michael Harbut, chief of environmental medicine at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Mich., calls the move a blatant disregard for human health.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[dfitzo53]

But I was told by oil companies that fracking fluids can't get into drinking water!

[China]

Toxic PFAS from US military bases polluting drinking water, report finds

 

Plumes of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” flowing from at least 245 US military bases are contaminating or threatening to pollute drinking water for nearby communities, and hundreds more are likely at risk across America, a new Department of Defense report finds.

 

The number of communities threatened by the military’s pollution is likely to increase as further more investigations are carried out. The defense department has only looked at about one-third of more than 700 facilities suspected of having contaminated the ground with PFAS.

 

While the report acknowledges the pollution, it does not clarify which drinking water sources are polluted, how high PFAS levels are in the polluted water systems, or provide information about the plumes’ locations.

 

The sheer number of bases and the lack of clarity is “shocking”, said Scott Faber, the vice-president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group non-profit, which tracks military PFAS pollution.

 

“A good neighbor would let you know that their use of PFAS was the reason your water was contaminated, and a bad neighbor would only tell you: ‘Hey, a plume is heading in your direction,’” Faber said.

 

The defense department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Poultry companies ask judge to dismiss ruling that they polluted an Oklahoma watershed

 

A group of poultry producers, including the world’s largest, have asked a federal judge to dismiss his ruling that they polluted an Oklahoma watershed.

 

Arkansas-based Tyson Foods, Minnesota-based Cargill Inc. and the others say in a motion filed Thursday that evidence in the case is now more than 13 years old.

 

“This case is constitutionally moot because the Court can no longer grant any effectual relief,” the companies argued in a filing with U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell in Tulsa.

 

The filing said Oklahoma conservation officials have noted a steady decline in pollution. It credited improved wastewater treatment plants, state laws requiring poultry-litter management plans and fewer poultry farms as a result of growing metropolitan areas in northwest Arkansas.

 

A group of poultry producers, including the world’s largest, have asked a federal judge to dismiss his ruling that they polluted an Oklahoma watershed.

 

Arkansas-based Tyson Foods, Minnesota-based Cargill Inc. and the others say in a motion filed Thursday that evidence in the case is now more than 13 years old.

 

“This case is constitutionally moot because the Court can no longer grant any effectual relief,” the companies argued in a filing with U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell in Tulsa.

 

The filing said Oklahoma conservation officials have noted a steady decline in pollution. It credited improved wastewater treatment plants, state laws requiring poultry-litter management plans and fewer poultry farms as a result of growing metropolitan areas in northwest Arkansas.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Texas produces twice as much methane as better regulated neighbor, study finds

 

Oil and gas production in Texas is spewing out double the rate of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, than in the more regulated state of New Mexico, new satellite data shared with the Guardian shows, prompting calls for tougher curbs of “super-emitter” sites that risk tipping the world into climate breakdown.

 

Satellite imaging of methane leaks across the Permian basin, a vast geological feature at the heart of the US oil and gas drilling industry, show that sites in Texas have emitted double the amount of the gas than in New Mexico, per unit of production, since 2019.

 

Methane is a potent planet-heating gas, around 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, and is routinely released via leaks or intentionally vented and burned, in a process called flaring, by fossil fuel companies when drilling for oil and gas. Scientists have warned of a “scary” surge in methane emissions in the past two decades, posing a major threat to efforts to contain dangerous global heating.

 

The new satellite data, gathered by Kayrros, a French climate technology company, shows that methane is being leaked at a far higher rate from sites in Texas compared with neighboring New Mexico. Despite increasing its own oil production in recent years, New Mexico has no site with repeated methane leaks, unlike in Texas, which Kayrros said is likely due to a 2021 state law aimed at curtailing methane emissions from industry.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Mexico's Acapulco hit by garbage pile-up after deadly hurricane

 

Residents of Acapulco stunned by a devastating hurricane are now battling with another blight trailing in the storm's wake: garbage piling up in streets, fanning concern about the spread of disease in the Mexican beach resort.

 

Hurricane Otis, which roared through Acapulco in the early hours of Oct. 25, was the most powerful storm on record to strike Mexico's Pacific coast, killing dozens of people and wrecking thousands of homes in the city of nearly 900,000.

 

Its 165 miles per hour (266 km per hour) winds caused major flooding, destroying furnishings, bedding and household appliances that were dumped outside homes alongside bags of rotting organic waste that have fed putrid smells in the city.

 

The government has sent in thousands of soldiers to help clean up Acapulco, but residents say rubbish has engulfed some areas so quickly that even traffic is being held up.

 

"They need to come and get the trash because there's too much of it," said Rosa Pacheco from the La Mira neighborhood in the west of the city, where some locals have had to remove rubbish from roads to allow cars to get through.

 

"There's almost no way through, because there's more and more trash every day," the 46-year-old homemaker added.

 

Mexico's Civil Protection authority did not reply to a request for comment, but the government said getting Acapulco cleared up is a top priority.

 

When questioned about the garbage this week, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said authorities are fumigating the city to prevent disease, and would deal with the problem.

"Everything is going to be cleaned up," he said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Up to 70 days of suspected illegal dumps of sewage in Windermere in 2022, analysis finds

 

Suspected illegal dumping of raw sewage into Windermere took place on up to 70 days in 2022, a year in which campaigners said the lake had its worst summer of harmful algal blooms, according to analysis of data released under environmental information rules.

 

Prof Peter Hammond, whose research first identified the scale of illegal raw sewage discharges from English water companies, has analysed detailed data on spills and treatment by United Utilities, which was released by the Environment Agency.

 

His analysis concluded that permit conditions at three United Utilities treatment works and one pumping station that feed into Windermere were breached on up to 70 days over the year.

Breaches of permits are illegal, according to the EA, which is involved in a criminal investigation into potentially illegal discharges from more than 2,000 water company treatment plants across England.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Busch Gardens sinkhole spills millions of gallons of wastewater, environmental agency says

 

A sinkhole opened at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in Florida draining millions of gallons of water from a wastewater treatment pond.

 

Employees at the theme park discovered the sinkhole, measuring 15 feet in diameter, early on Nov. 18, 2023, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection or DEP.

 

The sinkhole opened in the last of three ponds in the park's on-site wastewater treatment facility. Upon discovering the sinkhole in the last pond, the park closed off the water flow from the other ponds, but not before an estimated 2.5 million gallons of wastewater drained out through the sinkhole.

 

The final pond where the sinkhole was discovered stores water previously treated and cycles it through a disinfectant filter, the DEP said. Therefore, the water drained through the sinkhole was not raw sewage.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Railroad Commission claims ‘gas leak’ to hide produced water destruction

 

The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) obtained a no fly-zone over the area in Crane County where the ground is once again belching produced water to the surface.

 

As the Pecos Enterprise reported in December 2023, the trouble started in January 2022, when a 200-foot-high geyser of contaminated water containing salts, hydrocarbons and other toxins erupted from an abandoned oil well in Crane County.

 

Railroad Commission records indicate the well, owned by Chevron, was eventually controlled, and the flow of an estimated 40,000 barrels of toxic water per day was stopped. Then in December, about 400 yards from the CT-112 well, the ground split open for some 200-300 feet and toxic water began flowing out of the fracture.

 

 

Produced water is a byproduct of drilling for and producing oil and gas, and along with usually being highly saline, may also include chemicals used in the drilling and hydraulic fracturing process, and is usually poison to plant and animal life.

 

The most recent eruption was first reported on December 7, 2023, and the RRC immediately requested a no-fly zone from the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) after a drone pilot managed to take pictures of the site.

 

That original no-fly ruling expired Monday night, and before another flight restriction was put into place, a drone once again captured pictures of the site, cataloging the catastrophic nature of the leak.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

A tanker truck carrying 7,500 gallons of diesel exploded in Ohio, leaving 1 dead

 

A man is dead, several northeast Ohio roads are closed and diesel has poured into a river after a tanker truck lost control and exploded Saturday morning.

 

The driver of the truck was heading north on State Route 8 in Macedonia, about 18 miles north of Akron, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. As he attempted to merge on Interstate 271, he lost control and went over the side of a bridge, causing the truck to explode in a burst of flames when it crashed back on State Route 8, the sheriff’s office said.

 

“The nearby Brandywine Creek has been impacted with diesel from the crash,” Somerville said in an email Saturday. “The creek briefly caught fire initially after the accident, and Ohio EPA’s on-scene coordinator is reporting the fire is out.”

 

Somerville said the agency is installing containment measures in the creek to stop the diesel spread and will oversee abatement efforts.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

The EPA sets tougher national soot standards. These 10 Texas counties already exceed them.

 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday finalized a long-anticipated rule aimed at reducing the level of air pollution known as particulate matter — microscopic particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs and harm people’s health.

 

Reducing air pollution has been a prime focus of the Biden administration’s environmental agenda. The new rule tightens the amount of particulate matter, often referred to as soot, permitted in the air from 12 to 9 micrograms per cubic meter annually.

 

It’s the first change in the limits since 2012.

 

These particles, which are 30 times smaller than a single strand of hair, are emitted by sources like diesel engines, wildfires, dust from construction sites, and coal-fired power plants. Some scientists call particulate matter the deadliest form of air pollution because it can cause lung and throat irritation, respiratory inflammation, irregular heartbeat and aggravate asthma.

 

Children, the elderly, and pregnant people are most susceptible to harm from these emissions.

 

The EPA projects that the new standard will prevent up to 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost work days, yielding up to $46 billion in net health benefits in 2032.

 

“This final air quality standard will save lives and make all people healthier, especially within America’s most vulnerable and overburdened communities,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a press release.

 

Industry groups and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce immediately criticized the new rule, saying it will be time-consuming and difficult for states to implement and arguing that wildfires and other non-industrial sources are major soot generators that have contributed to many of the region’s elevated levels.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Supreme Court will hear challenge to EPA's 'good neighbor' rule that limits pollution

 

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in an important environmental case that centers on the obligation to be a "good neighbor."

 

Lawyers representing three states, companies and industry groups will ask the justices to block a federal rule that's intended to limit ozone air pollution. Experts said it's only the third time in more than 50 years that the court has scheduled arguments on an emergency application like this one.

 

At the heart of the dispute is the part of the Clean Air Act known as the "good neighbor" provision. It's designed to help protect people from severe health problems they face because of pollution that floats downwind from neighboring states.

 

"Air pollution doesn't respect state borders," said Harvard Law School professor Richard Lazarus.

 

States like Wisconsin, New York and Connecticut can struggle to meet federal standards and reduce harmful levels of ozone because of emissions from coal plant smokestacks, cement kilns and natural gas pipelines that drift across their borders.

 

"One of the primary reasons that Congress passed this law in 1970 was the one place you could not trust the states to do it on their own was when there was interstate air pollution," Lazarus said.

 

Vickie Patton, general counsel at the Environmental Defense Fund, said these bedrock protections can save lives.

 

"There are children, there are older adults, people who work outside in the summer and people who are afflicted by asthma who are at very, very serious risk, and this case is just about asking those upwind polluters to do their fair share," Patton said.

 

Three of those upwind states — Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia — alongside companies including Kinder Morgan Inc. and U.S. Steel Corp. want the Supreme Court to freeze the good neighbor rule while they pursue an appeal with a lower court in the D.C. Circuit.

 

Lawyers for the states and companies challenging the good neighbor rule declined to talk before the arguments. In court papers, they call the EPA rule a "disaster" and "a shell of itself."

 

That's because the plan originally applied to 23 states. But lower courts have hit pause in about half of them for a bunch of different reasons, in separate litigation.

 

These lawyers said states shouldn't have to shoulder the costs for what they say is an unlawful federal mandate, criticizing the EPA for taking a "top-down" approach to the rule.

 

But environmental advocates say many of the obligations in the new rule won't kick in until 2026, giving big polluters a couple of years to prepare. The rule is already in force and protecting people in a number of states, they add.

 

Lazarus, at Harvard Law School, said to win a pause at the Supreme Court, the states challenging the rule will have to meet what's typically a high bar by showing they're likely to win on the merits and they're suffering irreparable harm.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Microplastics found in every human placenta tested in study

 

Microplastics have been found in every human placenta tested in a study, leaving the researchers worried about the potential health impacts on developing foetuses.

 

The scientists analysed 62 placental tissue samples and found the most common plastic detected was polyethylene, which is used to make plastic bags and bottles. A second study revealed microplastics in all 17 human arteries tested and suggested the particles may be linked to clogging of the blood vessels.

 

Microplastics have also recently been discovered in human blood and breast milk, indicating widespread contamination of people’s bodies. The impact on health is as yet unknown but microplastics have been shown to cause damage to human cells in the laboratory. The particles could lodge in tissue and cause inflammation, as air pollution particles do, or chemicals in the plastics could cause harm.

 

Huge amounts of plastic waste are dumped in the environment and microplastics have polluted the entire planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. People are known to consume the tiny particles via food and water as well as breathing them in, and they have been found in the faeces of babies and adults.

 

Prof Matthew Campen, at the University of New Mexico, US, who led the research, said: “If we are seeing effects on placentas, then all mammalian life on this planet could be impacted. That’s not good.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

German greenhouse gas emissions dropped sharply last year

 

Germany's greenhouse gas emissions dropped by one-tenth last year as renewable energy grew in importance, the use of coal and gas diminished and economic pressures weighed on businesses and consumers, official data showed Friday.

 

Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, who is also the economy and climate minister, said Europe's biggest economy is on course to meet its target for 2030 of cutting emissions by 65%, compared with 1990.

 

Germany aims to cut its emissions to net zero by 2045 and is working to ramp up the use of solar and wind power and other renewable sources.

 

The country's environmental protection agency said that Germany emitted about 673 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2023, a decline of 76 million tons or 10.1%, compared with the previous year. It was the strongest decline since 1990.

 

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[China]

 

[China]

Lake Okeechobee water is heading to Florida’s coasts. What that means for red tide.

 

It didn’t take long for the aerial images to emerge.

 

Just days after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said El Niño rains meant it needed to release Lake Okeechobee water into Florida estuaries, clean water advocates took to the sky to document the damage.

 

The images show plumes of murky lake water clashing with normally clear and sparkling waters. On the east coast, aerial imagery earlier this month showed lake water flowing out of the St. Lucie inlet and colliding with the Atlantic Ocean. On the west coast, the water poured out of the Caloosahatchee River and collided with the Gulf of Mexico.

 

The short-term consequences of Lake Okeechobee discharges are already becoming clear: In the St. Lucie River, salinity levels have dropped, putting oysters and other marine life at risk. If high volumes of lake water continue into April, oyster and fish spawning in the Caloosahatchee could be harmed, environmental nonprofits worry.

 

But what about the long-term consequences? What could continued Lake Okeechobee discharges mean for red tide on Florida’s Gulf Coast?

 

The general consensus among the state’s leading red tide scientists is that red tides, formed from colonies of seawater algae species, aren’t caused by freshwater Lake Okeechobee discharges. But the nutrient-rich discharges may be making red tide blooms worse.

 

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