Beyond the Perfect Drought: California’s Real Water Crisis by Glen MacDonald:

Yale Environment 360 [feedly] The current drought afflicting California is indeed historic, but not because of the low precipitation totals. In fact, in terms of overall precipitation and spring snowpack, the past three years are not record-breakers, according to weather data for the past century. Similarly, paleoclimate studies show that the current drought is not exceptional given the natural variations in precipitation of the past seven centuries. Nor can it be confidently said that the current drought bears the unequivocal imprint of climate change

Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

The Lake Oroville reservoir in Northern California was at less than 25 percent capacity last month.

driven by increasing greenhouse gases, since the low precipitation is well within the bounds of natural variability.

All this being said, it is also clear that this drought is exceptional and should be seen as an historical turning point. Indeed, California is moving into new — and worrisome — territory for three reasons: rising heat, which causes increased evaporation; the continuing depletion of groundwater supplies; and growing water shortages on the Colorado River, the main external source of water for Southern California.

A decade ago, I first wrote about California and the "perfect drought." Now, unless bold steps are taken to deal with a growing water crisis, California may be facing a future of perfect droughts. 

First, there is the heat. Although the current precipitation deficit cannot be attributed to global climate change, the record-breaking high temperatures of 2014 can be. These elevated temperatures produce increased evaporation from reservoirs and exacerbate irrigation demands. The commonly used Palmer Drought Severity Index combines both temperature and precipitation and in doing so shows that 2014 is indeed off the charts. This combination of low precipitation and high 

The current drought in California might well be considered the harbinger of droughts to come.

evaporative losses fuels the crisis now being faced. 

Climate models do not provide a consensus on the changes in precipitation that might occur in California over the 21st century. Moving forward, there may well be no significant increase or decrease in the average annual precipitation. However, the models do agree that temperatures will continue to rise. Water demands to meet evaporative losses will therefore increase significantly. There is also some evidence that the length and depth of droughts will increase in the later 21st century. As for high temperatures and persistence of extreme conditions, the current drought might well be considered the harbinger of droughts to come. 

Second, increased reliance on groundwater has been an important mechanism by which California coped with past droughts. However, the groundwater resources of the state are displaying clear signs of unsustainability. Over the past 150 years, agricultural and domestic extraction has caused water table depths to fall by 100 or so feet in some instances, and the deep aquifer water level to decline by even greater depths in parts of the San Joaquin Valley, one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world. In some places the land surface itself has subsided by more than 20 feet. The current drought has led to increased demands on groundwater in regions such as the San Joaquin Valley, where more than 2,400 well permits were issued in 2013 as the drought hit home.

Analysis of such trends and new groundwater storage data collected by NASA's GRACE satellite has led NASA hydrologist Jay Famiglietti to suggest that the collapse of the San Joaquin groundwater reserves may be only decades away. In 2014, more than 1,400 domestic water supply problems largely related to groundwater were reported in California, with more than half in the San Joaquin Valley. Going forward this century, the San Joaquin Valley is projected to experience high degrees of warming, and this will greatly increase agricultural water demands in the region. The strategy of drought relief through increased exploitation of groundwater here and elsewhere in the state has reached its limits. 

The third concern is the Colorado River. The Colorado is the largest single source of water for Southern California, but it is primarily fed by precipitation from far-away sources in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The Colorado water has served to mitigate the effects of local droughts. Each year, 16.5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water is apportioned to the states of the Colorado Basin and Mexico. California has been allotted the largest share of the river's water, some 4.4 million acre-feet each year. Prior to 2004, California was able to lay claim to additional "surplus" waters that could total 1 million acre-feet or more of additional water annually. 

Now, however, several challenges confront this potential source of drought relief. The original apportionment of 15 million acre-feet was devised in the 1920s based on an estimated annual discharge of 17 million acre-feet. Over the 20th century, however, the long-term average discharge of the river has

The drought lifeline afforded by the Colorado River is further shrinking as the climate warms.

only been 15 million acre-feet. Thus, there is a systemic over-allocation of the water, and in 2003 California agreed to wean itself down to no more than a 4.4 million acre-feet allocation. 

Like most of the Southwest, the Colorado River basin has also experienced generally hot and arid conditions over the early 21st century. The flow of the Colorado River has declined and the water stored in its massive reservoir system has dropped precipitously. Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the U.S., now stands at 37 percent of its maximum capacity. 

The Bureau of Reclamation recently projected that by January 2017 the surface elevation of Lake Mead will have fallen to below 1,075 feet above sea level. This will invoke a federal water shortage declaration and a reduction in water appropriations to Nevada by 4.3 percent and Arizona by 11.4 percent. Although California with its senior rights will not take a cut, it is conceivable that there will be political and public pressure on California in terms of its senior rights. In the history of Lake Mead and the Colorado River management, there has never been a water shortage declaration. 

Recent research by the Bureau of Reclamation estimates that future climate warming alone will lead to a 10-percent increase in evaporation in Lake Mead as the 21st century progresses. Just as in the case of California's groundwater, the Colorado River has been oversubscribed and the drought lifeline afforded by the river is further shrinking as the climate warms. 

Ten years ago, my colleagues and I framed this situation as a perfect drought that affects local Southern California precipitation, extra-regional supplies from Northern California, and the external supplies from the Colorado River for periods greater than one or two years. What we are experiencing today is indeed a perfect drought, but it is also something

We will not be able to depend on groundwater or external water supplies to see us through future hot droughts.

beyond that. We looked at Southern California's perfect droughts as discrete events. Although hydrologically droughts are indeed discrete events, and the current one will come to a close sooner or later, this drought should focus our attention on the fact that things have changed in terms of the context in which these droughts occur. The rising temperatures will year-by-year increase the demands for water, particularly in our agricultural sector, which accounts for about 80 percent of the applied water in the state. Due to the ever-increasing rates of evaporation, each future drought will have a deeper bite than the previous one. 

So, what is to be done? At the household level, we can continue to change our landscaping mix from lawns and other water-intensive plants to increased use of water-sipping native plants. At the municipal level, we can expand the use of recycled water and desalination, which will likely lead to higher water costs. Stormwater capture will also help on domestic and citywide scales. 

But the big prize, of course, is agriculture. In many cases water-saving irrigation technologies have already been installed. Now, hard decisions will need to be made about the best crops to grow in a water-stressed environment. These options raise serious economic, rural environmental justice, and food security questions. Some gains can be realized through additional infrastructure for water capture, storage, and distribution. In some cases, though, these infrastructure strategies buck up against important environmental concerns or competing interests, such as the conflict in the Sacramento Delta between water demands of the San

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http://e360.yale.edu/feature/beyond_the_perfect_drought_californias_real_water_crisis/2885/

More than 48% of adult cancer deaths can be linked to smoking, American Cancer Society study finds ]

More than 48 percent of U.S. cancer deaths in 2011 among adults 35 and older can be linked to smoking, says a study by the American Cancer Society published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. Researchers examined 12 cancer sites, finding that of the 345,962 deaths among adults 35 and older, 167,805 were caused by cigarette smoking. Smoking rates are particularly high in rural areas, with a 2014 study finding that 26.9 percent of adults in non-metro areas were smokers in 2010. 

Researchers found that "the largest proportions of smoking-attributable deaths were for cancers of the lung, bronchus and trachea (80.2 percent) and larynx (76.6 percent). Approximately half of the deaths from cancers of the oral cavity, esophagus and urinary bladder were due to smoking." (American Cancer Society graphic) 

The study comes on the heels of an Australian study released in February that found that more than two-thirds of adult smokers die from smoking-related deaths. Another study from February, funded by the American Cancer Society, linked more diseases than previously thought to smoking. 

The findings of the latest study "are in a stark contrast to a 2014 U.S. Surgeon General's Report which characterizes the toll of death and disease from tobacco as falling over the years thanks to interventions," Ariana Eunjung Cha reports for The Washington Post. "That's because the report looks only at the smoking-attributable deaths from lung cancer specifically but not the others that are also caused by smoking."

Researchers note "that smoking prevalence decreased from 23.2 percent to 18.1 percent from 2000 to 2012," Cha writes. "But they wrote, 'Cigarette smoking continues to cause numerous deaths from multiple cancers despite half a century of decreasing prevalence.'" (Read more) 

Legalization of pot increasing drug trafficking of heroin and meth, says Oregon report

The Rural Blog
Laws to legalize marijuana in the U.S. are inadvertently increasing production in Mexico of opium—which can be processed chemically to create heroin and other synthetic drugs—and leading to an increase of drug traffic through states like Oregon, says a report by the Oregon High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDT) program, Claire Withycombe reports for The Bulletin in Bend. Ore. Recreational marijuana will become legal in Oregon on July 1. (Geology.com map: U.S. Highway 97 and  Interstate 5 are Oregon's two biggest drug trafficking routes) 

The report credits statewide restrictions on access to pseudoephedrine—an over-the-counter ingredient used to make meth—for having decreased the state's number of meth labs by 95 percent since 2005, Withycombe writes. "While the amount of methamphetamine manufactured in Oregon has dropped, the amount passing through the state is considerable."

From 2008 to 2013, Interstate 5 was responsible for 47 percent of all drug traffic seizures in the state and U.S. Highway 97 for 20 percent, the report states. Both routes travel from California to Canada. The amount of heroin seized on Oregon highways increased from six pounds in 2009 to 41 pounds in 2013.

Between 2008 and 2014, authorities on U.S. Highway 97—which runs through Bend—made 304 seizures "recovering 1,600 pounds of marijuana, 158 pounds of meth and more than $1 million in cash, Withycombe writes. 

The 100-year-old scientist who pushed the FDA to ban artificial trans fat

The Washington Post [feedly]

No one was more pleased by the Food and Drug Administration's decision Tuesday to eliminate artificial trans fats from the U.S. food supply than Fred Kummerow, a 100-year-old University of Illinois professor who has warned about the dangers of the artery-clogging substance for nearly six decades.

"Science won out," Kummerow, who sued the FDA in 2013 for not acting sooner, said in an interview from his home in Illinois. "It's very important that we don't have this in our diet."

In the 1950s, as a young university researcher, Kummerow convinced a local hospital to let him examine the arteries of people who had died from heart disease. He made a jarring discovery. The tissue contained high levels of artificial trans fat, a substance that had been discovered decades earlier but had become ubiquitous in processed foods throughout the country.

Later, he conducted a study showing that rats developed atherosclerosis after being fed artificial trans fats. When he removed the substance from their diets, the atherosclerosis disappeared from their arteries.

Kummerow first published his research warning about the dangers of artery-clogging trans fats in 1957. More than a decade later, while serving on a subcommittee of the American Heart Association, he detailed the massive amounts of trans fat in the shortening and margarines lining grocery shelves, and helped convince the food industry to lower the content in certain products.

Despite Kummerow's research and warnings over the years, artificial trans fats remained a staple of processed food for decades. Well into the 1980s, many scientists and public health advocates believed that partially hydrogenated oils were preferable to more natural saturated fats. And the food industry was reluctant to do away with artificial trans fats, which were cheaper than their natural counterparts, extended shelf life and gave foods desirable taste and texture.

"The industry was very much for trans fat," said Kummerow, noting that each time a group formed to study the issue over the years, it seemed to turn out the same way. "It always ended up that you had to have more research before you could come to a conclusion."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/06/16/the-100-year-old-scientist-who-pushed-the-fda-to-ban-artificial-trans-fat/

France begins nuclear bailout to ward off the inevitable: bankruptcy.

​Last week, the French government announced plans to inject cash into Areva, the firm that constructs nuclear plants in the country. It is a desperate attempt to ward off the inevitable: bankruptcy.

The French nuclear power sector has always been a top priority for government officials ever since the practically forgotten (and failed) Messmer Plan of the early 1970s. With few orders for nuclear reactors on the books and tremendous cost overruns for the EPR plant under construction in Flamanville, Areva now faces a financially dismal future.

As a result, the French government is officially (press release in French) looking into "reorganizing the French nuclear industry" with a strategic partnership between Areva and EDF, the former state power monopolist. The deal would not make the order books look better by ramping up international demand. Instead, it would absorb losses by spreading them across the merged new company – and eventually transferring them (at least in part) into tax budgets. The deal would at least settle a dispute over whether EDF or Areva should cover cost overruns for the ERP reactor under construction in Flamanville.

A report by the AFP put some numbers on the entire situation. EDF has reportedly offered to pay more than 2 billion euros to become a main shareholder of Areva. A broker quoted in the article says the merged company may eventually need 7 billion. Raffaele Piria, energy policy expert at Adelphi and co-author of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2014, estimates that the bailout may eventually add up to far more than 10 billion euros. The reactor vessel at the Flamanville site is also currently under investigation and may need redoing completely – at a cost of hundreds of millions of euros. These cost overruns, he explains, are currently unclear but not included in the current estimates in the press.

"The question is how long such subsidies will remain politically acceptable to the French public," Piria says, not to mention compatible with EU state aid rules. The French policy of supporting national champions may leave the country with few options, however. Only recently, former French President Nicholas Sarkozy denied claims by the former head of Areva that France intended to sell a nuclear reactor to Libya's dictator Moammar Gadhafi. And only a few weeks ago, Finland canceled a potential second order for Areva's EPR reactor, with the first order facing considerable cost overruns and delays.

A recent article at The Ecologist provides a good overview of the demise of the European Pressurized Reactor, on which the fate of Areva heavily relies. Increasingly, the fate of the French economy depends on it as well.

​Read on at: (Craig Morris / @PPchef)
http://www.renewablesinternational.net/france-begins-nuclear-bailout/150/537/88131/​

Michigan, Ohio, Ontario reach agreement to reduce phosphorous in Lake Erie by 40% by 2025

Leaders from Michigan, Ohio and Ontario agreed this weekend to work "to reduce phosphorus in the western Lake Erie basin by 40 percent by 2025," Keith Matheny reports for the Detroit Free Press. "The nutrient is a key ingredient of widespread algae blooms in that portion of the lake—including a toxic strain that disrupted water supplies to 400,000 people in southeast Michigan and the Toledo area last August." Ohio and Michigan farmers last month also agreed to work together to control contamination. (Associated Press photo by D'Arcy Egan)

The interim goal is to reduce phosphorus by 20 percent by 2020, Robert Higgs reports for Northeast Ohio Media Group. "The phosphorus can come from any of several sources—fertilizer and manure runoff from farms or overflows from some waste water treatment plants. With the agreement, each state commits to developing a plan of attack toward reaching the targets." Indiana was also invited to participate but declined, said Ohio Gov. John Kasich's administration. 

"Farmers in northwestern Ohio are under a new state ban on spreading manure on frozen or rain-soaked fields," John Seewer reports for AP. "The new law also requires training before farmers can use commercial fertilizers. The state also is increasing monitoring of wastewater plants. Michigan has a voluntary program to help farmers reduce pollution that goes into waterways. The two states and Indiana will begin sharing $17.5 million from the federal government to reduce farm-field runoff by planting strips of grass or cover crops that help soil absorb and filter phosphorus." Please continue reading from: The Rural Blog

American Medical Association calls for full disclosure of chemicals used in fracking

"The American Medical Association, citing growing concerns about monitoring and tracking long-term human health impacts caused by shale gas development, is calling for the public disclosure of all chemicals" used in hydraulic fracturing, Don Hopey reports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In addition to disclosing chemicals, the organization said monitoring "should focus on human exposure in well water and surface water and government agencies should share this information with physicians and the public." 

Physician Todd Sack, who authored AMA's policy, told Hopey, "Keeping the names of the chemicals secret is preposterous. It places an unreasonable burden on physicians . . . If we don't know what chemicals are being used at specific well sites, physicians and public health officials can't do their jobs." 

The industry, which says it meets all state laws, is opposed to making public all chemicals used, "citing commercial proprietary interests for keeping secret the chemicals used in fracking as biocides, friction inhibitors, anti-corrosives and acids to dissolve minerals," Hopey writes. "Most of the 25 states in the U.S. where shale gas drilling and development is occurring either don't know or don't publicly disclose all the chemicals used in fracking." (Read more) 

CDC: Americans Getting Heavier, Average Woman Weighs As Much As 1960s Man

New statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the average American has packed on the pounds in the past 50 years. Both men and women have gained a considerable amount of weight since 1960, with the average American woman now weighing 166.2 pounds — nearly identical to what American men weighed in the 1960s. U.S. men have been getting bigger too, gaining nearly 30 pounds from the 1960s to 2010 — 166.3 pounds to 195.5 pounds today. The good news is that both sexes have gained almost an inch in height since then, so that accounts for some of the overall weight gain.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ban chemical weed killer and save honeybees

Terrence N. Ingram for SaukValley.com: The world is learning how important honeybees are to our environment, and that our honeybees and other insects are having problems surviving. Because of this, we've seen a big push to ban neonictinoids to save our honeybees.

This action is missing the real culprit – glyphosate, Roundup's main ingredient. But Monsanto, which makes Roundup, is so huge and powerful that no university researchers want to go against the company's statements that Roundup affects only plants. 

Roundup is the real cause of colony collapse disorder in honeybees. It makes the field force, those adult bees collecting the nectar and pollen, so sick they don't return to the hive. Before they die, they unknowingly make trips back to the hive, bringing some of the contaminated honey and pollen, which is converted into royal jelly in a gland in the worker bee's head, is fed to the young larvae, and kills them. 

So we have a case of CCD. The population of honeybees in a hive has crashed with no dead bees being seen near the hives. Many combs that remain are contaminated with glyphosate from the dead larva. A new swarm will not even consider moving into the hive.

Honeybees aren't the only insects affected by Roundup. It kills most all insects in the sprayed field or nearby. Before these insects die, they will have glyphosate in the their bodies, and insect-eating birds that feed on those insects die as well.

In this country, no one even looks for glyphosate in other insects, birds, mammals, amphibians, or even humans. Could glyphosate or Roundup be the DDT of the 21st century, working its way through our whole food chain?

We need to ban Roundup before it's too late. Glyphosate bioaccumulates in the environment, and is also carcinogenic. Perhaps it may already be too late. 

Note to readers: Terrence N. Ingram is president and executive director of Eagle Nature Foundation Ltd., and editor and publisher of Small Beekeepers Journal.

Please continue reading from: SaukValley.com
http://www.saukvalley.com/2015/05/18/ban-chemical-weed-killer-and-save-honeybees/aw0ihoc/
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Nuclear waste facility proposed near Kent « Texas

VAN HORN – For those Far West Texas residents concerned about the Trans Pecos Pipeline, here's something to make your hair stand on end: an Austin firm is considering building a high-level nuclear waste storage facility near Kent on the edge of the Davis Mountains.

Last Tuesday, representatives from AFCI Texas, LLC met with Van Horn and Culberson County officials in Van Horn to discuss the possibility of the proposed storage site, The Van Horn Advocatereported.

The proposed site is about nine miles north of Kent and four miles northeast of FM 2424, the report stated. The site would provide long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel, likely from nuclear power plants from around the country.

Please continue reading from: 
http://bigbendnow.com/2015/06/nuclear-waste-facility-proposed-near-kent/

Rivers, lakes loaded with artificial sweeteners, researchers say |

 CTV News [feedly] According to recent research, scientists have found artificial sweeteners in bodies of water around the world, including Canada.

Sugar substitutes -- such as Splenda and Sweet'N Low -- are designed to be eaten, but not absorbed by the body. Because our bodies cannot break them down, sweeteners go straight through humans.

That's how consumers get the sweet taste without the weight gain often associated with sugar-laden foods.

Once the sweetener leaves the body, wastewater treatment plants face the same dilemma: studies have found they can't break down the complex chemical. Most sweeteners, then, flow into oceans, lakes and rivers in practically the same form in which they were consumed.

It's a situation playing out in the water flowing through southwestern Ontario's Grand River, which empties into Lake Erie. Researchers from the University of Waterloo and Environment Canada found the amount of sugar substitute in the water is equivalent to about 81,000 to 190,000 cans of artificially sweetened soda flowing through the 300-kilometre river each day.

The study tested for sucralose, cyclamate, saccharin and acesulfame. It also found three types of sweetener coming out of the faucets in Brantford.

Sweeteners could harm aquatic life

According to the Canadian study, the effect of artificial sweeteners in the water is largely unknown. But Amy Parente, an assistant professor of biochemistry at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Penn., says scientists should be on alert.

Parente did her own study in Lake Erie looking for sucralose, the substitute used by Splenda. Her team also found the sweetener in the water. But while other studies took samples from what came out of wastewater treatment plants, Parente tested water found at the lake's beaches, where the sweeteners had a chance to dilute.

She and her team found 0.15 micrograms of the sweetener for every litre of water, which meant there could be up to 72 metric tons of sweetener floating in the waters of Lake Erie.

Since Parente's study came out in 2012, Parente and her students have been looking at how sweetener affects a snail living in Lake Erie that forages for food. As part of that work, one student found the presence of sweetener made the animals believe there was nutrition in the water.

The team believes the sweetener affected their foraging abilities, leaving them with fewer calories to be healthy and reproduce. And Parente thinks this could be true for other foraging animals.

"When people think about small animals and small organisms, they tend not to be concerned," Parente said in a phone interview with CTVNews.ca. But she added the impact has the potential for a domino effect.

Another study published by Environmental Science and Technology also found large amounts of sucralose, saccharin, aspartame and acesulfame near wastewater treatment plants in New York State. The study suggested sweetener can harm a plant's ability to perform photosynthesis.

This could create less food for animals that depend on the plants, creating a ripple effect that could make its way back to humans.

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http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/rivers-lakes-loaded-with-artificial-sweeteners-researchers-say-1.2411398

The U.S.’s Biggest Coal Company Can’t Pay To Clean Up Its Own Mines | ThinkProgress

A new investigation has found that the world's largest private-sector coal company does not have adequate funds or insurance to clean up its own mining operations, increasing the risk that taxpayers will have to pay billions of dollars to clean up toxic coal mine sites across the country.

Reuters reported last week that St. Louis-based Peabody Energy is "under scrutiny" from the federal government over concerns that the company is violating federal bonding regulations that are intended to guarantee that if a mining company goes bankrupt, it has sufficient insurance to pay to clean up its own mines. Instead of paying a third party for cleanup insurance, Peabody Energy has sought to comply with federal and state rules by promising regulators that it has sufficient financial resources on hand to pay for any cleanup costs — a practice known as self-bonding.

A review of securities filings by Reuters, however, found that at the end of 2014, Peabody's assets were insufficient to meet federal and state self-bonding requirements. According to Reuters, "slumping coal prices and declining demand have put [coal] industry balance sheets under stress," raising serious questions about whether Peabody and its competitors can continue to insure their own operations. In 2014, Peabody posted more than $700 million in losses.

"One of the key elements of (federal mining law) is to hold mine operators responsible and avoid taxpayers being saddled with the bill," Greg Conrad, director of the Interstate Mining Compact Commission, an independent agency representing state coal programs, told Reuters in April.

Peabody, which operates the largest coal mine in the United States, is one of the five largest coal companies operating on the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana. The basin provides more than 40 percent of the country's coal. Coal in this region is primarily mined in strip mines, a type of surface mining which leaves an open pit with coal exposed, requiring extensive cleanup by companies once mining is completed. Companies are required to replant vegetation, restore topsoil "to match the original topography," and rebuild the original surface ecosystem.

Please continue reading from: 
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/06/08/3667061/coal-cleanup-insurance/

The Atlantic Is Entering A Cool Phase That Will Change The World’s Weather

IFLScience: This is known as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), and the transition between its positive and negative phases can be very rapid. For example, Atlantic temperatures declined by 0.1ºC per decade from the 1940s to the 1970s. By comparison, global surface warming is estimated at 0.5ºC per century – a rate twice as slow.

In many parts of the world, the AMO has been linked with decade-long temperature and rainfall trends. Certainly – and perhaps obviously – the mean temperature of islands downwind of the Atlantic such as Britain and Ireland show almost exactly the same temperature fluctuations as the AMO.

Atlantic oscillations are associated with the frequency of hurricanes and droughts. When the AMO is in the warm phase, there are more hurricanes in the Atlantic and droughts in the US Midwest tend to be more frequent and prolonged. In the Pacific Northwest, a positive AMO leads to more rainfall.

A negative AMO (cooler ocean) is associated with reduced rainfall in the vulnerable Sahel region of Africa. The prolonged negative AMO was associated with the infamous Ethiopian famine in the mid-1980s. In the UK it tends to mean reduced summer rainfall – the mythical "barbeque summer".

Please continue reading from: http://www.iflscience.com/environment/atlantic-entering-cool-phase-will-change-world-s-weather

No One Knows What to Do With Fukushima’s Endless Tanks of Radioactive Water

Nautilus: ...Some experts, including the eminently respectable IAEA, have suggested that TEPCO may have to simply dump the tritium-contaminated water into the ocean. Tritium traditionally hasn't been considered very dangerous to human health. Although tritiated water can reach all parts of the body, like normal water, it's also expelled quickly from the body, like normal water. If released into the ocean, the contaminated water would quickly be diluted, and it wouldn't bioaccumulate in fish (unlike strontium-90, for example, which is taken up by bones). 

But is tritiated water really so harmless? It's currently getting a second look from regulators in the United States. Last year, the EPA announced plans to review safety standards for tritiated water, which has leaked from many a nuclear plant. As this excellent Scientific American article explains, there's considerable uncertainty over whether the stuff is more dangerous than we previously thought.

The amount of tritium in Fukushima Daiichi's water is not negligible. The World Health Organization's standard for tritium in drinking water is 10,000 becquerels per liter (34 ounces). According to Mayumi Yoshida, a TEPCO communications officer, Fukushima's stored water contains between 1 and 5 million becquerels per liter. Yet Yoshida noted that operational nuclear power plants around the world discharge water with a much higher level of tritium than that.

Does that imply that the company is considering discharging its water into the sea, I asked? "Nothing has been decided but to keep storing at the site," Yoshida said. "We will discuss thoroughly with the government, the oversea and domestic experts, the fishermen, and the surrounding residents, which way would be the safest and the best for everyone, before deciding anything."

Please continue reading from: 
http://nautil.us/blog/no-one-knows-what-to-do-with-fukushimas-endless-tanks-of-radioactive-water

Wisconsin Pharmacal launches water purification device the size of a cellphone

A 119-year-old Wisconsin company has introduced a water purification device that's roughly the size of a cellphone and can disinfect up to 20 liters of water at a time to make it safe for drinking.  Please continue reading from: JSOnline.com NewsWatch

Free LEED Webinar - Safer Chemistry for Building Construction Materials​

​LEED v4: Safer Chemistry for Building Construction Materials

The U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC's) LEED rating systems for green building are the most widely used in the world, providing independent verification of a building's green features, including design, construction, operations, and maintenance. LEED v4, the newest version of the rating system, takes a new approach to better building materials by promoting multi-attribute assessment of human health and environmental impacts across a product's life cycle. Two speakers will talk about the details of LEED v4's new approach to safer materials and how it is being put it into practice.

Ashley White, Senior Materials Research Fellow at USGBC, will discuss LEED v4 and the standards and programs that support the new credits for materials including environmental product declarations, the Health Product Declaration (HPD), GreenScreen for Safer Chemicals, and Cradle to Cradle Certified. Lisa Britton, Director of Sales and Marketing and Sustainability Champion at Industrial Louvers, will provide an overview of the HPD standard and speak to the challenges and opportunities in creating HPDs for her company's products.

When?
Tue, Jun 16, 2015 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CST
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6009951815123836417


Join the Safer Chemistry Challenge Program
The National Pollution Prevention Roundtable invites companies to join the 2025 Safer Chemistry Challenge Program (SCCP). This voluntary initiative aims to motivate, challenge, and assist businesses in reducing their use of chemicals of concern to human health and the environment. The SCCP will also recognize and reward companies for finding safer alternatives to the hazardous chemicals they currently use. Questions can be directed to saferchemistry@gmail.com. For information on how to become a member of the Safer Chemistry Challenge program visit: http://www.p2.org/challenge

US House panel approves toxic chemical safety bill.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced a toxic chemical safety bill on a nearly unanimous vote on Wednesday, clearing the bill to hit the House floor by the end of the month. 
Please continue reading from: Environmental Health News

Fall of Rome...America's Discouraged, Underpaid Workforce Turns To Drugs

It's not a fantastic time to be a job hunter in America. The US economic "recovery" officially stalled in Q1 no matter what Steve Liesman, The San Francisco Fed, and/or the BEA say after double-adjusting the numbers, and as we've shown, those who are highly skilled at delivering beer and wings to restaurant patrons are far better off than highly skilled factory workers or, indeed, than those with freshly-minted master's degrees in today's marketplace. 

Of course, even for those who are lucky enough to find work, the picture isn't pretty, as wage growth for the 80% of laborers classified by the BLS as "non-supervisors" remains largely absent, while for those unfortunate enough to be stuck in minimum wage positions, affording even a one bedroom apartment is now officially out of the question in every state.  

Given this rather depressing backdrop, it's little wonder that workers are inclined to "alter their mood" a bit before punching the clock. Indeed, over the past 24 months, a decades-old trend towards falling workplace drug usage has reversed itself, with 4% of workers now testing positive for either legal or illegal drug use:

More, via WSJ:

The share of U.S. workers testing positive for drugs appears to be on the rise, according to data from millions of workplace drug tests administered by one of the nation's largest medical-screening laboratories.

 

Traces of drugs—from marijuana to methamphetamine to prescription opiates—were found in 3.9% of the 9.1 million urine tests conducted for employers by Quest Diagnostics Inc. in 2014, up from 3.7% in 2013.

 

While the numbers might seem small, they reflect the reversal of a longtime trend of declining drug use among workers. Before 2013, positives had dropped nearly every year for 24 years, from 13.6% in 1988 to a low of 3.5% in 2012. Some of the positive results are later discarded if a worker produces a doctor's prescription for a legal drug, but the majority reflect illicit use, driven by increases in marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine positives, said Dr. Barry Sample, director of science and technology for Quest's diagnostics employer solutions business.

 

Experts are unsure why drug usage is rising. Researchers haven't been able to conclusively link drug consumption to economic cycles. A 2013 paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, for example, concluded that "the Great Recession did not generate a clear temporary or permanent pattern in rates of substance abuse."

Maybe it's the weather... 

Please continue reading from: zero hedge

Elon Musk: 'If I cared about subsidies, I would have entered the oil and gas industry.'

Elon Musk says his companies don't need the estimated $4.9 billion they enjoy in government support, but the money will help them move faster to transform the dirty business of energy. 
Please continue reading from: Environmental Health News

76 percent of e-waste workers suffer from respiratory ailments: Assocham.

About 76 percent of electronic-waste workers in India suffer from respiratory ailments like breathing difficulties, irritation, coughing and choking due to improper safeguards at dismantling workshops, an Assocham study has noted. 
Please continue reading from: Environmental Health News

Most Americans could be fed by food grown and raised within 50 miles, study says

Most areas of the U.S. could feed between 80 to 100 percent of the local population with food grown or raised within 50 miles, says a study by the University of California, Merced, Ana Ibarra reports for the Merced Sun-Star. The study was published Monday in the science journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 

Researchers, who looked at farms near every major population center in the U.S. from 1850 to 2000, compared the potential calorie production to the city's population to determine the percentage of regional population that could be fed, Ibarra writes. Researchers, who said they expect data from 2000 to 2015 to yield similar results, said that large agricultural areas such as Merced, Fresno and Sacramento have the farmland to feed 100 percent of their population, while a metro area like New York City could feed 5 percent of the population within 50 miles and 30 percent within 100 miles. (UC Merced graphic)

Researchers said the study's findings "allow for longtime development of land preservation so that food production stays intact," Ibarra writes. "Policies and careful planning are needed to protect farmland suburbanization and to encourage local farming."

Diet can make a difference in the results, researchers said, Ibarra writes. "For example, local food around San Diego can support 35 percent of the people based on the U.S. diet. This jumps to 51 percent of the population if people switched to plant-based diets, the study showed." (Read more) 

US melanoma rate is now double what it was 30 years ago. [feedly]

The incidence of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, has doubled in the U.S. in the last 30 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. 
Please continue reading from: Environmental Health News

An 8-year-old boy falls into one of Mexico’s most contaminated rivers. Eighteen days later, he’s dead.

An 8-year-old boy falls into one of Mexico's most contaminated rivers. Eighteen days later, he's dead. Fusion investigates how factories - many of them U.S. owned - get away with illegally dumping toxic chemicals into one of the country's main waterways, with potentially deadly consequences. Please continue reading from: Environmental Health News

Pollution From Carbon Monoxide Has Fallen Steadily Since 2000, NASA Data Show

As these NASA satellite maps show, carbon monoxide levels have decreased appreciably in much of the world since 2000, thanks to Global carbon monoxide levels as of 2014
improved pollution controls on vehicles and factories and fewer forest fires. Carbon monoxide, which is produced whenever carbon-based fuels are burned, contributes to the formation of ozone, a pollutant that can have adverse health effects. A NASA satellite carrying a sensor called MOPITT — Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere — measures carbon monoxide levels. Higher concentrations of CO are depicted on the map in orange and red and lower concentrations in yellow. NASA said that the decrease in CO levels from 2000 to 2014 was particularly noticeable in the northern hemisphere thanks to technological and regulatory innovations that have led to lower pollution levels from vehicles and industry. Carbon monoxide levels also have decreased in the southern hemisphere since 2000, due largely to a reduction in deforestation fires. Please continue reading from: Yale Environment 360

Costco to be largest organic food seller

Alt Healthworks - Costco is now projected to sell over $4 billion in organic products this year according to this article by takepart.com, which trumps Whole Foods' projected $3.6 billion and makes it the likely number one seller. The numbers were calculated by financial firm BMO Capital Markets.

The article mentioned that Costco has increased sales of organics by about $1 billion the past six months and is now going all in on that commitment, similar to the plans of other major store chains like Kroger (which was also expected to possibly surpass Whole Foods this year) and Target. 

Wal-Mart also has invested heavily in organic food along with several other major retailers who have become worried about being left in the dust. 

More than 150 companies join White House in agreeing to phase out antibiotics in animals

The Rural Blog: More than 150 food companies, retailers and human and animal health stakeholders are joining the White House in an effort to combat antibiotic resistance as part of the "White House Forum on Antibiotic Stewardship," the White House said in a statement. The event will "bring together key human and animal health constituencies involved in antibiotic stewardship—the development, promotion and implementation of activities to ensure the responsible use of antibiotics."

President Barack Obama will sign a memorandum today directing "Federal departments and agencies to create a preference for meat and poultry produced according to responsible antibiotic-use in the meat supply chain by supporting the emerging market for meat produced according to responsible antibiotic-use policies." 

The memorandum "directs a three-tiered, phased approach using Federal purchasing authorities to offer options for meats from animals raised according to responsible antibiotic-use policies within Federal agencies' facilities." 

The memorandum includes three phases:

• Initiating a process within 120 days of issuance of the proposed memorandum to make available meats and poultry from animals raised according to responsible antibiotic-use policies in certain Federal cafeterias. The General Services Administration, which operates a significant number of Federal cafeterias, will lead this approach, although other departments and agencies may join.
• Broadening the availability of meats and poultry produced according to responsible antibiotic-use policies for sale in all Federal cafeterias serving civilian Federal employees by 2018 for poultry and 2020 for other meats, not solely those operated by GSA.
• Developing an acquisition strategy for applying a preference by 2020 in Federal acquisitions for meats and poultry produced according to responsible antibiotic-use policies sold or served in all Federal facilities. 

At the same time, Foster Farms "said it plans to largely eliminate from its poultry supplies all antibiotics used to treat human illnesses, adding to chicken companies' responses to growing health concerns over antibiotic-resistant bacteria," Jacob Bunge reports for The Wall Street Journal. 

"Foster Farms is at least the fourth top U.S. poultry company to unveil plans over the past year to reduce or eliminate the use of antibiotics in their chicken supplies, bowing to growing pressure from consumer groups and public-health officials who have argued that the widespread use of antibiotics in commercial livestock and poultry operations has contributed to a rise in bacteria that have become resistant to such drugs," Bunge writes. "Foster Farms is tied for 10th among U.S. chicken producers by pounds produced, according to meat industry publication Watt Poultry USA."

The top two chicken producers, Tyson Farms and Pilgrim's Pride, have previously released plans to phase out antibiotics. Other major companies that said they would make changes are: Perdue, McDonald's, Chick-fil-A, Panera Bread, Chipotle, Whole Foods and Applegate. 

Scientists Start $150 Billion Program to Cut Clean-Energy Costs

Bloomberg Business [feedly]

Scientists and economists including BP Plc's former chief executive officer, John Browne, are inviting governments to join a $150 billion program that aims to make clean energy cheaper than coal.

The 10-year plan, known as the Global Apollo Programme to Combat Climate Change, will fund research into renewables, power storage and smart-grid technologies to make them cheaper than fossil fuels. It aims to create an international task force of scientists, entrepreneurs and policymakers.

"There is a looming catastrophe that can be avoided," David King, an Apollo founder and former chief scientific adviser to the U.K. government, said in London. "What we need to do is create clean energy that is less costly than fossil energy, and once we get to that point, we're winning all battles."

Apollo already has attracted considerable interest from countries including India, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates, King said. The project plans to make public its members by November, ahead of the United Nations climate change talks in Paris the following month.

Apollo's goal is for new-build renewables to be cheaper than new-build coal plants in sunny countries by 2020, and worldwide from 2025. Generating electricity from the sun currently costs about $136 a megawatt-hour on average, compared with about $91 for coal, according to Bloomberg estimates.

Please continue reading from: 
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-01/scientists-start-150-billion-program-to-cut-clean-energy-costs

Cure for cancer one step closer after 'spectacular' breakthrough

In an international trial of 945 patients, treatment with the drugs ipilimumab and nivolumab stopped the cancer advancing for nearly a year in 58% of cases. This was compared with 19% of cases for ipilimumab alone, which resulted in tumours stabilising or shrinking for an average of two and a half months.

The treatment, known as immunotherapy, uses the body's immune system to attack cancerous cells. Researchers say it could replace chemotherapy as the standard treatment for cancer within five years.

The findings, revealed at the at the American Society of Clinical Oncology, andpublished in the New England Journal of Medicine, could save tens of thousands of lives in the UK alone within a decade, doctors say. Patients who could expect to live for just a matter of months under existing treatments, could see their tumours completely destroyed and go on to enjoy a normal lifespan under the new treatment.

A series of studies show that the drugs are effective against some of the most deadly tumours, including those of the lung, bowel, liver and head.

Roy Herbst , chief of medical oncology at Yale Cancer Centre, described the results as "spectacular". "I think it's huge," he said. "I think we are seeing a paradigm shift in the way oncology is being treated.

"The potential for long-term survival, effective cure, is definitely there," he added.

Dr James Larkin, a consultant at the Royal Marsden hospital and one of the UK's lead investigators, explained to the BBC how the treatment works. "By giving these drugs together you are effectively taking two brakes off the immune system rather than one, so the immune system is able to recognise tumours it wasn't previously recognising and react to that and destroy them."

Please continue reading from: 
http://europe.newsweek.com/cure-cancer-one-step-closer-after-spectacular-breakthrough-328039

Detroit starting to shut off water again

Fusion - The City of Detroit began shutting off water access to residents behind on payments, with thousands at risk of losing access.

According to the Detroit Free Press, 64,769 delinquent residential customers owe the city's water department a combined $48.9 million.

The city started sending out shut-off warnings May 11. According to the Free Press, Mayor Mike Duggan is proceeding with the shutoff orders over the wishes of city council members, who voted on May 12 to freeze the shutoff until an assistance plan to help affected residents was enacted.

Last year, the United Nations warned the city that the shutoffs were violations of residents' human rights, and called on the city to stop them and reconnect their houses.

"None of those things happened," Kauchek said.

Detroit residents are not the only ones facing water shut-offs: In March, Baltimore residents began receiving turn-off notices; according to the Baltimore Sun, 25,000 water customers are delinquent. 

How Elon Musk's Growing Empire is Fueled By Government Subsidies

By the Los Angeles Times' reckoning, Elon Musk's Tesla Motors, SolarCity, and SpaceX together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support. The figure compiled by The Times, explains reporter Jerry Hirsch, comprises a variety of government incentives, including grants, tax breaks, factory construction, discounted loans and environmental credits that Tesla can sell. It also includes tax credits and rebates to buyers of solar panels and electric cars. "He definitely goes where there is government money," said an equity research analyst. "Musk and his companies' investors enjoy most of the financial upside of the government support, while taxpayers shoulder the cost," Hirsch adds. "The payoff for the public would come in the form of major pollution reductions, but only if solar panels and electric cars break through as viable mass-market products. For now, both remain niche products for mostly well-heeled customers." And as Musk moves into a new industry — battery-based home energy storage — Hirsch notes Tesla has already secured a commitment of $126 million in California subsidies to companies developing energy storage technology.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Federal regulation and intervention cost an estimated $1.88 trillion in 2014

Cost of government: Federal regulation and intervention cost American consumers and businesses an estimated $1.88 trillion in 2014 in lost economic productivity and higher prices, according to "Ten Thousand Commandments," by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. If U.S. federal regulation was a country, it would be the world's 10th largest economy, ranking behind Russia and ahead of India. Given that our total national economy is somewhere in the $18 trillion range (GDP was listed as $16.7 trillion in 2013), government regulation adds 10% to the cost of all goods and services produced in the country. You can read the article "Ten Thousand Commandments" at Cost Of Government Regulation And Intervention – D.R.

Please continue reading from: 
https://cei.org/10kc2015

Fossil industry faces a perfect political and technological storm - Telegraph

Ironically, people think "politics" will clean up " fossil fuel industry"... brilliant deduction.  This would be like having a crack head as a AA sponsor - Haase

Telegraph -The political noose is tightening on the global fossil fuel industry. It is a fair bet that world leaders will agree this year to impose a draconian “tax” on carbon emissions that entirely changes the financial calculus for coal, oil, and gas, and may ultimately devalue much of their asset base to zero.

The International Monetary Fund has let off the first thunder-clap. An astonishing report - blandly titled "How Large Are Global Energy Subsidies" - alleges that the fossil nexus enjoys hidden support worth 6.5pc of world GDP.

This will amount to $5.7 trillion in 2015, mostly due to environmental costs and damage to health, and mostly stemming from coal. The World Health Organisation - also on cue - has sharply revised up its estimates of early deaths from fine particulates and sulphur dioxide from coal plants.

The killer point is that this architecture of subsidy is a "drag on economic growth" as well as being a transfer from poor to rich. It pushes up tax rates and crowds out more productive investment. The world would be richer - and more dynamic - if the burning of fossils was priced properly.

• Big banks flag dangers of financial bubble in oil and commodities
• G20: fossil fuel fears could hammer global financial system

This is a deeply-threatening line of attack for those accustomed to arguing that solar or wind are a prohibitive luxury, while coal, oil, and gas remain the only realistic way to power the world economy. The annual subsidy bill for renewables is just $77bn, trivial by comparison.

The British electricity group SSE (ex Scottish and Southern Energy) is already adapting to the new mood. It will close its Ferrybridge coal-powered plant next year, citing the emerging political consensus that coal "has a limited role in the future".

The IMF bases its analysis on the work Arthur Pigou, the early 20th Century economist who advocated taxes to stop investors keeping all the profit while dumping the costs on the rest of society.

The Fund has set off a storm of protest. Subsidies are not quite the same as costs. Oil veterans retort that they have been paying 'social' taxes for a long time.

But whether or not you agree with the IMF’s forensic accounting the publication of such claims by the world's premier financial body is itself a striking fact. The IMF is political to its fingertips. It rarely deviates far from the thinking of the US Treasury.

It is becoming clearer that last year's sweeping deal on climate change between the US and China was an historical inflexion point, the beginning of the end for a century of fossil dominance. At a single stroke it defused the 'North-South' conflict that has bedevilled climate policy and that caused the collapse of the Copenhagen talks in 2009.

Todd Stern, the chief US climate negotiator, said the chemistry is radically different today as sherpas prepare for the COPS 21 summit in Paris this December. "The two 800-pound gorillas are working together," he said.

Mr Stern claims that a constellation of states responsible for 60pc of global CO2 emissions are "already on board" for a binding deal, aimed at limiting the rise in carbon to 450 particles per million (ppm) and capping the rise in temperature to 2C degrees above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. Climate scientists warn that we are currently on course for 4C degrees.

EPA announces $1.6 billion in Clean Water Act funds to upgrade Sacramento’s regional wastewater treatment plant

EchoWater project aims to improve water quality in the San Francisco Bay Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta EstuarySAN FRANCISCO – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld announced a record $1.6 billion in Clean Water Act State Revolving Funds ... Please continue reading from: EPA News

Wisconsin's frac sand industry booms, with a value of about $4 billion

JSOnline.com NewsWatch: Wisconsin was the leading producer of frac sand in 2014, accounting for nearly half of the nation's production of the white sand coveted by the hydraulic fracturing industry, new statistics released this week show.

The United States Geological Survey's preliminary estimates for 2014 show Wisconsin's production at 24 million metric tons, compared with 8 million for Illinois, 8 million for Texas and 5 million for Minnesota.

Wisconsin, which has been dubbed the Saudi Arabia of sand, has seen a significant expansion of sand mines and sand processors in recent years as the oil and gas industry has expanded production of oil and gas through horizontal drilling techniques such as "fracking."

In a report, the USGS estimated that frac sand sales totaled 31 metric tons in 2012.

The agency cautioned that the report came from data voluntarily supplied by sand companies. Figures for 2013 weren't available.

A big question for the industry: Whether a dramatic drop in the price of crude oil — which has slowed well drilling activity — will lead to a long-term drop in production or a scaling back in sand mining companies' aggressive expansion plans?

In Wisconsin, some expansion has slowed. Emerge Energy Services last month canceled a project in Independence, in Trempealeau County, saying it was "no longer economically viable."

But competitor Hi-Crush Partners is moving ahead with permitting for another mine in Wisconsin.

In response to dropping oil prices, Emerge said this month that demand for sand is down at least 30% from late last year, with sand prices off 20% to 25%.

Industry analysts say that unless oil prices remain low over the long term, demand for frac sand remains strong, even with the decline, in part because of drilling techniques adopted in the last few years that require much more sand to be used per well than was the case even five years ago.

The USGS report says a typical fracking well used 900 tons of sand seven years ago but that had grown to 4,100 to 5,000 tons last year.

That means an average of 40 to 50 train carloads of sand were needed for each well, the USGS report said.

U.S. production of 54 metric tons is expected by 2017 to reach 70 million metric tons, with a value of about $4 billion by 2017, according to the report.

The Great Lakes region and Texas "will likely continue to represent the largest production shares through the end of the decade as expansions at existing mines occur and new mines are developed," the agency says.

The rapid growth of the industry has caused complaints, with concerns including truck traffic, air pollution and the effects on waterways.

Environmental groups have sought more aggressive regulation of the sand mines, and this year the state Department of Natural Resources board voted unanimously to have the agency conduct a strategic analysisof industrial sand mining and whether changes should be made to how sand mining is regulated. Please continue reading from: Wisconsin's frac sand industry booms

EPA awards $400,000 brownfields cleanup grant for public park in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that the City and County of San Francisco will receive $400,000 in federal funds to clean up the site of a future public park in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. San Francisco is among 147 communities nationwide receivin... Please continue reading from: EPA News