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ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Atmospheric CO2 Levels

(Weekly Averages)

August 29, 2021: 413.22 ppm
This time last year: 411.9 ppm
10 years ago: 389.78 ppm
Pre-industrial base: 280 Safe level: 350

Why The Guardian Produces This Report

Page Updated:
September 15, 2021

• • Where Most of Our Food Emissions Come From

  Meat and Dairy Represent Almost 60%

  Sep. 14, 2021, (ZME Science), - Production of meat and dairy products releases twice as much greenhouse gases as plant-based foods, according to a new study, despite providing far fewer calories and nutrients than plant foods. Given that food production accounts for more than a third of global emissions, that’s quite a big climate price we pay for eating animal products.

• • Netherlands Wants to Cut Livestock Herd by Millions

  It’s All About Reducing Pollution

  Sep. 10, 2021, (ZME Science), - Every country has to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, that’s a given. But how to do it depends on each one, with different strategies in place. For the Netherlands, fewer emissions mean less livestock, with a new government plan now being considered that would force most farmers to reduce the size of their cattle.

• • The Future of Oil and Gas

  The True Cost of That Power

  Sep. 10, 2021, (Curtin University), -Combustion of oil and gas for electricity generation or transport causes about 33 per cent of human-made greenhouse gas emissions, and activities to produce the fuels themselves accounts for another nine per cent. Directly or indirectly, the oil and gas industry accounts for 42% of global greenhouse gas emissions. And this needs to change.

  To achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement – limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels – many developed and emerging countries have pledged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

• • Editing Bananas to Make them More Disease Resilient

  A Parasite is Coming for our
  Bananas -- But CRISPR is Here to Stop it.

  Sep. 10, 2021, (ZME Science) -Bananas are one of the most important food crops in the world. They’re an essential source of food and income for millions of farmers in resource-poor countries, and the overall banana production worldwide surpasses 155 million tons a year. But bananas are under pressure.

  All the cultivated banana varieties are susceptible to diseases — and Banana xanthomonas wilt (BXW) is particularly problematic. BXW is a bacterial disease that has emerged as one of the largest threats to bananas. Overall economic losses from the disease were estimated at US$ 2–8 billion over a decade.

• • A Radical New Freezing Method Could Significantly Cut Emissions

  It Would Be Equal to One Million
  Cars, While Keeping Food Fresh

  Sep. 10, 2021, (ZME Science)-When the first freezers were mass-produced after World War II, food preservation was never the same. This seemingly simple yet wonderful invention helped extend the life of produce from a few days to months. But there’s a cost: a lot of energy and subsequent carbon emissions.

  This is why scientists have proposed switching freezing technology to a radically different method that is more environmentally friendly. By their estimates, carbon emissions equivalent to those produced by one million cars in a year could be avoided if we switch to this technology.

• • A Machine Capturing Carbon From Air is Turned on in Iceland

  The Orca Plant Can Suck
  4,000 Tonnes of CO2 Out of the
  Air Every Year and Inject It
  Deep Into the Ground to be Mineralized

  Sep. 8, 2021, (The Guardian)-The world’s largest plant designed to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and turn it into rock has started running, the companies behind the project said on Wednesday.

  The plant, named Orca after the Icelandic word “orka” meaning “energy”, consists of four units, each made up of two metal boxes that look like shipping containers.

• • The Impact of Greenhouse Gasses Emitted from 20 Farms

  They Emit More Greenhouse Gas
  than Germany, Britain or France

  Sep. 7, 2021, (The Guardian)- Twenty livestock companies are responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than either Germany, Britain or France – and are receiving billions of dollars in financial backing to do so, according to a new report by environmental campaigners.

• • New Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

  What We Know

  Sep. 6, 2021, (NY Times)-Divers searching for the origin of a substantial oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — one of several spotted off Louisiana’s coast after Hurricane Ida — have discovered three damaged pipelines near the leak, though murky conditions on the seafloor prevented the team from finding the source.

  The Gulf of Mexico is covered with a tangle of pipes, wells and other energy infrastructure, much of it no longer used, as a result of generations of oil extraction there.

• • Louisiana Shell Refinery Spewed Chemicals After Hurricane Ida

  After Storm Power Outages Left Air
  Quality Tracking Systems Out of
  Commission, Making Public
  Health Concern Hard to Gauge

  Sep. 4, 2021, (The Guardian)-Behind a playground littered with downed tree branches, Shell’s refinery in Norco, Louisiana spewed black smoke from its stacks. The smell of rotten eggs, the signature scent of sulphur emissions, lingered in the air. In an effort to burn off toxic chemicals before and after Hurricane Ida, many industrial facilities sent the gases through smoke stacks topped with flares.

  But the hurricane blew out some of those flares like candles, allowing harmful pollution into the air.

• • The Dangers of Housing Sprawl in the
  Woods and Corporate-Fueled Climate Change

  They Make for a Combustable Mix

  Sep. 3, 2021, (Sierra Magazine)-Here in the Lake Tahoe basin, the long-standing rule among locals is that you never plant a garden before Father's Day because there's always a freakish snowstorm in June. Not this year. Summer hadn’t even officially started when we began experiencing 90-degree weather. It wasn't the triple digits of Portland's heat dome, but it was really, really weird.

  So it wasn't a huge surprise when the fires started in late June. By early July, the smoke had settled into this forested region like a Bay Area COVID transplant who refused to leave. The smoke got trapped in the lake basin (as it sometimes does) and just stayed there.

• • Cal. Outdoor Workers: Air Is Becoming Unbreathable

  Vast Numbers of Low
  Wage Workers are Exposed to
  Ever-Higher Levels of Toxins

  Sep. 3, 2021, (The Nation)-In the summer of 2019, as California was, once again, plagued by deadly fires, the state put in place emergency regulations aimed at protecting outdoor workers from the worst impacts of smoke and ash inhalation. Whenever the Air Quality Index rose above 151, employers were required to provide N95 masks and other PPE to outdoor workers, such as those working in agriculture or construction.

  The rules sound good in theory—and they’re certainly a good deal better than nothing. But in practice, it’s hard for employees to keep track of something as fluid as air quality on an hourly basis, and it’s even harder to enforce these regulations in a state with 40 million people.

• • Berlin Universities Cut Meat from Menus

  The Idea: Reduce Greenhouse Gasses

  Sep. 2, 2021, (ZME Science)-It’s time to say goodbye to the currywurst and the schnitzel at universities in Berlin — and say hello to vegetables and meat replacements.

  Students eating at campus canteens will have make to big cuts to their meat and fish options, as universities turn to more climate-friendly menus. The move marks a big shift for Germany, with companies such as Volkswagen also changing menus at the office.

• • They Were Asked to Get the Lead Out and They Did

  Even Algeria is Going
  Along for the Ride

  Sep. 1, 2021, (ZME Science), - The last leaded fuel has finally disappeared from gas stations. The last country in the world to sell it: Algeria.

  “It is a big day,” said Jane Akumu, lead Africa program officer for sustainable mobility at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

  Akumu is one of a cadre of international transportation and children’s health experts who have focused for decades on the issue of lead in fuel and paint.

• • Fossil Fuels Pollution Could Cut Lifespans by 2 to 5 Years

  The Policies that Tackle Climate Change
  Could Add Years Back to Our Lives

  Sep. 1, 2021, (Bloomberg CityLab)-From gas-guzzling cars to power generation, fossil fuel combustion is a leading cause of climate change. But that’s not the only reason to rein in emissions. Fossil fuels are also a leading direct source of air pollution, a health risk that can take years off of human lives.

  The smallest, most dangerous type of particulate air pollution, known as PM2.5, is on track to cost the average person 2.2 years. For people in the most polluted places, the cost would be far more, according to the annual Air Quality Life Index report published Wednesday.

  Click now to read or listen to the story.
• • Potential Threat of the Oil spill from Syria

  It's Close to Hitting Cyprus’ Shores

  Sep. 1, 2021, (ZME Science)-An oil leak from Syria’s largest refinery is spreading across the Mediterranean Sea and could reach Cyprus by Wednesday, according to authorities on the island. Satellite imagery confirmed that this spill is larger than initially thought, currently covering around 800 square kilometers (309 square miles).

  Authorities in Turkish Cyprus have already taken emergency action to try and keep the crude away from the island’s beaches and from wreaking environmental havoc.

• • The Health Risk of Dust From Biomass Pellets

  Drax Power Faces Prosecution Over it

  Sep. 2, 2021, (The Guardian)-The owner of the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire faces a criminal prosecution hearing after allegations that dust from wood pellets used to generate electricity could pose a risk to its employees’ health.

  The company has earned hundreds of millions of pounds in subsidies by upgrading its generating units to burn biomass pellets instead of coal, but the Health and Safety Executive is taking it to court over concerns that the wood dust may have threatened employee health.

• • Amazon Rainforest Fires Threaten Local Species

  Since 2001 an Area Up
  to the Size of Washington
  State has Been Burned

  Sep. 1, 2021, (ScienceNews)-Much of the Amazon’s biodiversity is under fire — literally.

  In the last two decades, deforestation and forest fires have encroached on the ranges of thousands of plant and animal species in the Amazon rainforest, including up to 85% of threatened species in the region, researchers report September 1 in Nature.

  The extent of the damage is closely tied to the enforcement, or lack thereof, of regulations in Brazil aimed at protecting the forest from widespread logging as well as the fires often used to clear open space in the forest and other encroachments. The findings illustrate the key role that forest use regulations have in the fate of the Amazon rainforest, the researchers argue.

• • An Official Goodbye to Leaded Gasoline

  Algeria, the Last Country to
  Use It Will No Longer Do So

  Aug. 31, 2021, (ZME Science)-Every country in the world has now stopped using leaded petrol for cars and trucks, following Algeria’s recent decision to no longer use the toxic fuel, the UN said. Algeria had been the last country to phase out leaded gasoline.

  The news is considered a big win for public health and the environment, after a century of leaded petrol contaminating air, soil and water and seriously affecting people’s health.

• • How Plants Can Stop Runoff

  Based on a University of Florida Study

  Aug. 30, 2021, (Herald-Tribune)- Researchers with the University of Florida are using stormwater ponds in Manatee County to see if plants can help control nitrogen and phosphorus.

  The university’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is using a four year, $197,000 grant from the U.S. EPA to fund the research. If the results find plants beneficial, researchers hope to educate residents and businesses statewide to install plant buffers along stormwater ponds as best practice.

• • Resilient Coral in the Great Barrier
  Reef Offers Hope for the Future

  The Reef’s Widest Coral Has
  Survived For Hundreds of Years,
  Weathering Many Bleaching Events

  Aug. 27, 2021, (ScienceNews)-A coral the size of a carousel is the widest known in the Great Barrier Reef.

  Found just off the coast of Goolboodi Island in Northeast Australia, this reef-building Porites measures 10.4 meters in diameter — earning it the nickname Muga dhambi, or “big coral,” from the Indigenous custodians of the island, the Manbarra people.

  In addition to its record-setting width, Muga dhambi stands a little over 5 meters tall, making it the sixth tallest coral in the Great Barrier Reef, researchers report August 19 in Scientific Reports.

• • The Sataria, Mississippi CO2 Pipeline Explosion

  Turned the Town Into ‘A Zombie Movie’

  Aug. 27, 2021, (nexus media news)-In February of last year, a CO2 pipeline exploded, engulfing Satartia, Mississippi in a noxious green fog that left residents confused, convulsing, foaming at the mouth and even unconscious — an episode that augurs danger for what could be a coming wave of new CO2 pipelines across the country, a 19-month investigation by HuffPost and the Climate Investigations Center reveals.

  The reporting comes as the oil and gas industry is seeking to reinvent themselves, or at least their public image, through massive carbon capture and storage (CCS) investments that would include a whole new network of pipelines.

• • How Dubai’s Conservation Plans Went Awry

  From a Million Trees to a Tree Graveyard

  Aug. 24, 2021 (The Guardian),-Hundreds of thousands of trees have died after costly real estate projects thwarted attempts to halt desertification.

  It all began so beautifully, with the ruler of Dubai photographed planting the first tree of his ambitious environmental initiative, as smiling officials applauded around him. But...

• • Mexico Has a Seaweed Beach Problem

  A Macroalgae Called Sargassum is Spoiling Coastlines from Cancún to Tulum

  Aug. 23, 2021, (National Geographic) -With their palm tree-fringed stretches of golden sand meeting clear blue sea, the beaches of Caribbean Mexico are known for being postcard-pretty. But now, in the spring and summer, the Yucatán coastline between Cancún and Tulum is clogged with mountains of seaweed, fouling the beach with a sulfurous scent of decay and making the water nearly unswimmable.

  This macroalgae is called sargassum, and it’s causing trouble in paradise.

• • Wildfire Smoke Can Affect Rainfall

  It Transforms Clouds,
  Making Rainfall Less Likely

  Aug. 23, 2021 (National Geographic),-Over the summer of 2018, the worst wildfire season the western United States had ever seen sent thick plumes of smoke high into the sky. Atmospheric scientist Cynthia Twohy and her colleagues spent weeks flying a giant C-130 research airplane through the smoke, which was so dense that the light inside the plane sometimes went dusk-dim.

  “You couldn’t even see the clouds outside, the smoke particles were so thick,” says Twohy, who works for NorthWest Research Associates, a scientist-owned research organization. All that smoke, she thought, must have an impact on the clouds forming above the West’s scorched surface.

• •  Lawsuit Seeks to Regulate Plastic as Hazardous Waste

  Widely Used PVC Plastic
  Harms Public Health, Environment

  Aug. 19, 2021 (Center for Biological Diversity),-The CBD sued the EPA today for failing to regulate a common plastic — polyvinyl chloride (commonly called PVC or vinyl) — as hazardous waste.

  PVC is one of the most widely used and discarded forms of plastic, yet numerous studies have found it’s highly toxic to human health and the environment.It's is found in children’s toys, clothing, consumer packaging, building materials, electronics and many other household goods. Yet it releases toxic chemicals and carcinogens, including dioxin and phthalate plasticizers, into the air, water and food web at every stage of its life cycle. Canada began regulating plastic as a toxic substance in May.

• • Deforestation and Landslide Risks

  A More Dynamic Understanding

  Aug. 19, 2021 (nature sustainability), -Changing social and biophysical dynamics, as well as data limitations, in the Kivu Rift in Eastern Africa make it difficult to plan for landslide risk. A study of historical remote sensing data identifies in detail the factors impacting the evolution of this risk.

  Deforestation is a key driver of landslides in developing regions, especially in the first 15 years after removing the tree cover6,7. Once deforested, heavy rain is usually directly responsible for initiating landslides. The main driver of deforestation in the Kivu Rift is agricultural expansion.

  You need a subscription to Nature to read the article.

• • Baltimore's Leaky Pipes and Pharmaceutical Pollution

  Local Waterways are Grossly Affected

  Aug. 18, 2021 (ZME Science), -Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay intakes tens of thousands of doses of various drugs every year, according to a new report. This results in persistent (if variable) levels of drugs in the water year-round, at concentrations that affect ecological processes. The source, according to the report, is the city’s leaky sewage system.

  The sheer scale of human society means that much of what we do impacts the world around us. Climate change is the most consequential one, but pollution and habitat destruction are arguably the most visible. Sometimes, however, they can happen unnoticed right under our noses, meaning we have a very poor understanding of their scale and effects.

• • Dealing with the Colorado River Water Shortages

  Time to Focus on Reducing Demand

  Aug. 16, 2021, (THE CONVERSATION)-The U.S. government announced its first-ever water shortage declaration for the Colorado River on Aug. 16, 2021, triggering future cuts in the amount of water states will be allowed to draw from the river.

  The Tier 1 shortage declaration followed the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s forecast that the water in Lake Mead – the largest reservoir in the U.S., located on the Arizona-Nevada border – will drop below an elevation of 1,075 feet above sea level, leaving less than 40% of its capacity, by the end of 2021.

  The declaration means that in January 2022 the agency will reduce water deliveries to the Lower Colorado River Basin states of Arizona and Nevada and to Mexico, but not to California – yet.

• • Carbon Capture and Storage Could Produce Clean Diesel

  Strategic Biofuels Claims
  to have Successfully Completed a
  Carbon Capture and Storage Test

  Aug. 16, 2021 (Renewable Energy World), -On its quest to develop negative carbon footprint projects, Strategic Biofuels claims to have successfully completed a carbon capture and storage test at its diesel fuel plant in Louisiana.

  The test pilot has completed at the company’s Louisiana Green Fuels Project in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana — the first renewable diesel fuel project to achieve such a feat, according to the company.

• • How We Can Better Understand Ocean Health and Carbon Flows

  Answer: Submersible Robots!

  Aug. 17 , 2021 (zme science), -Although the microscopic marine plants and animals which make up plankton are the bedrock of ocean ecosystems. While they’re essential for the well-being of everything that swims, they’re also very important for our comfort and well-being, too. Plankton is one of the largest single sources of oxygen on the planet, and it consumes a lot of CO2 to do it. This process is known as marine primary productivity.

  Knowing how they’re faring, then, would be a great help. Floating robots can help us out in that regard, according to a new paper.

• • Imbalance: How Power Plants Contribute to Emissions

  5% of the World’s Power
  Plants Produce 73% of them

  Aug. 17, 2021 (ZME Science), -We’re not really doing a great job at reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, we’re doing a pretty lousy job. Achieving net-zero emissions in a couple of decades seems like a pipe dream at this point, so researchers are looking for ways to at least tackle the worst emitters.

  University of Colorado Boulder researchers Don Grant, David Zelinka, and Stefania Mitova used data from 2018 to look at the power plants that produce the most carbon dioxide emissions. They started from the 2009 Carbon Monitoring for Action database (CARMA) and built a more recent update.

• • Iran Says, "Iraq be Dammed"

  Tensions Rise as Iranian Dams
  Cut off Iraqi Water Supplies

  Aug. 16, 2021 (DW News), -The rainy season in the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) usually lasts less than three months of the year. But, in Mahmoud's village of Topkhana, which depends on the Diyala to water its crops, locals say the situation has never been as bad as this year.

  Three years ago, the Topkhana's mukhtar, or village leader, invested $1,700 in a new pump to bring water from the Diyala to irrigate his fields. Now, the pipe hangs uselessly over a bed of dry gravel. What remains of the river runs too far from the village, and too low, to water its fields.

• • Solar Power to Solve Sticky Sewage Sludge Problem

  Sewage Treatment Finally
  Gets its Moment in the Sun

  Aug. 14, 2021 (CleanTechnica) -Municipal sewage sludge ranks high upon the list of things that are sure in life, right alongside death and taxes.

  The good news is that it can be dried and re-used as fertilizer, or up-cycled into various forms of renewable energy. The bad news is that all these processes require energy, which can put you right back at square one in the fight against global warming. One way out of the energy-sludge matrix is solar power, and the US Department of Energy is betting $3 million that the sun can shine its sustainability light on wastewater treatment plants all across the nation

• • A Connection Between Covid and Wildfires

  This is Happening Right Now

  Aug. 13 , 2021 (NY Times Climate Forward), -Exposure to wildfire smoke during last summer’s wildfire season could be associated with thousands of additional coronavirus infections as well as hundreds of deaths, potentially causing an even greater challenge to public health officials in Washington, Oregon and California, a new study has found.

  Wildfire smoke contains high levels of the smallest, most dangerous type of soot known as PM 2.5.

• • Forgotten Oil and Gas Wells Linger

  They're a Silent Menace

  Aug. 8, 2021 (Herald-Tribune) -Rusted pipes litter the sandy fields of Ashley Williams Watt’s cattle ranch in windswept West Texas. Corroded skeletons are all that remain of hundreds of abandoned oil wells. Unable to produce any useful amounts of oil or gas, the wells were plugged with cement decades ago.

  But something eerie is going on beneath the land, where Watt once played among the mesquite trees and jackrabbits.

• • The Developement of Self-Destructing Plastic

  It Happened 50 Years Ago

  Aug. 7, 2021 (ScienceNews) -Public indignation over litter and garbage has caused industry to ask chemists whether self-destroying, or quickly degradable, plastics might be devised to replace indestructible glass, aluminum and plastics, which comprise the largest segment of consumer waste.Chemist James Guillet and his team devised a self-destroying plastic that is about ready for marketing—a wrapping paper that disintegrates in about a month.

  Guillet’s work on polymers that degrade via light helped pave the way for their wider commercial use. But these materials may have created more problems than they solved. Most plastics wind up in landfills where the materials don’t get enough light to degrade as intended. Plastics that do break down turn into microscopic pieces that can wind up in ecosystems and harm animals. Scientists are trying to make more eco-friendly plastics, such as compostable plastics that can be totally broken down with enzymes.

• • The Damage from Lotion in the Ocean

  Is Your Sunscreen Killing the Sea?

  Aug. 6, 2021 (The Guardian), -Autumn Blum was 5 meters underwater, scuba diving off the Pacific island of Palau, when she looked up towards the surface and saw a rainbow.

  “I thought maybe it had been raining,” she says. “As I got closer, I saw that it wasn’t a rainbow: it was actually an oily sheen that was coming off a group of snorkelers.”

  She realized the iridescent slick must have come from the snorkelers’ sunscreen.

• • PA Cities Have a Sewer-System Problem

  Green Infrastructure Can Help,
  but Comes With Risks

  Aug. 6, 2021 (Allegheny Front) -Rafiyqa Muhammad opened the gate to a garden in the Summit Terrace neighborhood of Harrisburg on a warm morning in July. It had finally stopped raining, and the trees hummed with the chatter of birds and bugs.

  “We need the rain, but of course as the rain hits our streets and our pavements and all, it turns into something totally different,” Muhammad said. “I’m going to use the word toxic.”

  Rain gardens like this one, a flower-lined plot about the size of four row-homes on the corner of Bailey and Summit streets, help keep that water from surging directly into storm drains.

• • Mining Metals From an Unusual Source — Plants

  Scientists are Starting to
  Mine Valuable Metals From Plants

  Aug. 3 , 2021 (Grist), -Malaysia’s Kinabalu Park, which surrounds Mount Kinabalu, the 20th-largest peak in the world, is home to a nickel mine like none other. In lieu of heavy machinery, plumes of sulfur dioxide, or rivers red with runoff, you’ll find four acres of a leafy-green shrub, tended to since 2015 by local villagers. Once or twice per year, they shave off about a foot of growth from the 20-foot-tall plants. Then, they burn that crop to produce an ashy bio-ore that is up to 25% nickel by weight.

  Producing metal by growing plants, or phytomining, has long been tipped as an alternative, environmentally-sustainable way to reshape – if not replace – the mining industry.

• • Any Amount of Neonicotinoids Can be Harmful for Bees

  More Reasons to Ditch
  this Commonly Used Insecticide

  Aug. 3, 2021 (ZME Science) -Neonicotinoids, one of the most widely-used types of pesticides, can severely affect bees even when applied well below the label rate, according to a new study. It was surprising even to the researchers to see how much damage neonicotinoids could do.

  Neonicotinoids are a type of pesticide very common in agriculture but with a clear negative effect on the health of bees, causing the death of whole swarms. For years, beekeepers have been warning over their effect, pushing for stronger regulations. Fewer bees in the world can lead to the loss of biodiversity and even affect our food supply.

• • A New Explanation for New York City Smog

  Smelly Deodorants Are Being Blamed

  Aug. 3, 2021 (DailyMail) -Summer has taken hold of the US, bringing hot temperatures that force people to lather up on deodorant, sun block and bug spray, but a new study finds these fragrant products are responsible for a large amount of smog hanging over cities.

  New research, conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), found evaporative ingredients used in such fragrant goods are typically sourced from fossil fuels. With millions of people applying these products in close proximity, the particles greatly add to ozone pollution – even more than traffic.

• • Ammonia & Hydrogen, the New Partnership

  For Fertilizer Production

  Aug. 3, 2021 (Energy Central -Dubai: The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in partnership with Fertiglobe has sold its first cargo of blue ammonia to Japanese trading firm Itochu for use in fertilizer production. Fertiglobe, a joint venture between chemicals maker OCI and ADNOC, will produce blue ammonia at its Fertil plant in Ruwais for delivery to ADNOC’s customers in Japan.

  The shipments, which were sold at an attractive premium to ‘grey ammonia’, represent the first production milestone of a planned scale-up of blue ammonia production capabilities in Abu Dhabi, which is expected to include a low-cost debottlenecking program at Fertil. Fertiglobe will join ADNOC and ADQ as a partner in a new 1 million metric tons per annum blue ammonia project at Ta’ziz in Ruwais, subject to regulatory approvals.

  Click now for the article
  containing an informative graph.
• • Greece’s Santorini Volcano Erupts
  More Often When Sea Level Drops

  Lower Sea Levels Over the Last 360,000
  Years are Linked with More Eruptions

  Aug. 2, 2021 (ScienceNews) -When sea level drops far below the present-day level, the island volcano Santorini in Greece gets ready to rumble.

  A comparison of the activity of the volcano, which is now partially collapsed, with sea levels over the last 360,000 years reveals that when the sea level dips more than 40 meters below the present-day level, it triggers a fit of eruptions. During times of higher sea level, the volcano is quiet, researchers report online August 2 in Nature Geoscience.

• • The Microplastics in Baby Turtles's Guts

  The Impact on Their Health is
  Unclear But it Can’t be Good

  Aug. 2, 2021 (ZME Science -Plastic pollution is so rampant in the oceans that it has created an “evolutionary trap” for juvenile sea turtles. This was the conclusion of a new study that found plastic in most juvenile turtles they caught along both the Pacific and Indian Ocean coasts of Australia.

• • How to Build a Water-Smart City

  Cities Need to Invest in Infrastructure
  and Find Ways to Recycle Their Supply

  Aug. 2, 2021 (Bloomberg CityLab) -Cities across time have stretched to secure water. The Romans built aqueducts, the Mayans constructed underground storage chambers, and Hohokam farmers dug more than 500 miles of canals in what is now the U.S. Southwest.

  Today’s cities use portfolios of technologies to conserve supply — everything from 60-story dams and chemicals to centrifugal pumps and special toilets. And yet, the cities of tomorrow will have to do more.

• • Drinking Bottled Water Impacts
  The Environment and Our Health

  A Study Reveals the Impact

  July 31, 2021 (ScienceAlert) -It's no secret that bottled water has more of an impact on the environment than filling up a bottle from the tap, but now researchers have crunched the numbers on just how much difference there is – and it's a lot.

  Using Barcelona in Spain as a test case – home to some 1.35 million people, around 58 percent of whom consume bottled water at least some of the time – the new study estimates what the impact would be if everyone in the city switched completely to drinking bottled water.

• • Major Newspaper Editorials Urge Adoption of Carbon Price

  These Include the Washington Post
  and the Houston Chronicle

  July 28, 2021 (Citizen’s Climate Lobby) - Recent editorials in two major newspapers are calling on Congress and the Biden administration to include carbon pricing in upcoming legislation to address climate change. The policy endorsements came from the Houston Chronicle and the Washington Post, both of which cited Europe’s ambitious climate plans — including a carbon border adjustment — as motivation for the U.S. to price carbon.

  Senate Democrats just rolled out a budget resolution for $3.5 trillion in spending that includes measures to address climate change. Democrats hope to pass the bill through the budget reconciliation process, which requires a simple majority of votes. Not yet included in the budget is a price on carbon, an omission the Chronicle and the Post find glaring.

• • The Guatamalan Hunger Crisis

  It's Forces Guatemalans to Choose Migration or Death

  July 26, 2021 (National Geographic -Hunger is a familiar feeling for families like María Elisa García’s in a region of far eastern Guatemala known as the “dry corridor.”

  The 26-year-old has six children, two of whom have recently been treated for malnutrition. Many years of drought has destroyed the lives of thousands of farmers, and recently, two hurricanes and the economic tumult from the COVID-19 pandemic left García with no harvest to feed her children.

• • Argentinian Lake Turns Bright Pink Due to Industrial Pollution

  Not All Pink Things are Pretty

  July 26, 2021 (ZME Science) -In Argentina’s southern Patagonia region, you can find a pink lake. It wasn’t always pink, obviously, and local activists blame pollution from fish-preserving industries for the change.

  The change in color, according to local environmental engineers, has been caused by sodium sulfite, a salt used as an antibacterial agent in fish factories. Waste from such factories is dumped into the Chubut river that eventually drains into the Corfo lagoon (the one turned pink) and other bodies of water in the region. Locals have also complained repeatedly about the foul smells and environmental concerns they’re seeing around both the river and lagoon for some time now.


• • Norway Starts Work on Carbon Storage Program

  The Country Believes Simply Reducing
  Emissions Isn't Enough -- We'll Also
  Need to Sequester Carbon Underground

  July 23, 2021 (ZME Science) -Norway is investing 1.7 billion euros into a full-scale carbon capture, transport, and storage project. The project named “Longship” is now under construction, and Norway is inviting other countries to join the project.

  If we want to ensure a sustainable future without catastrophic climate damage, we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions — especially carbon dioxide. That can be done in several ways; one approach is to replace fossil fuel energy with renewable energy; another is to replace diesel cars with electric cars, or bicycles; changing our diets to less carbon-intensive foods can also make a big difference.

• • Dead Zone Risk For Washington State and Oregon

  Low-Oxygen Waters are to Blame

  July 22, 2021 (ENN Network) -Oxygen-depleted bottom waters occur seasonally along the continental shelf of Washington and Oregon when strong winds blowing along the coast in spring and summer trigger upwellings that bring deep, cold, nutrient-rich water to the surface. These waters fuel blooms of plankton that feed small animals like krill, which are food for many marine creatures.

  When these blooms die off, they sink to the bottom, where their decomposition consumes oxygen, leaving less for organisms such as crabs and bottom-dwelling fish.

• • Britain’s Rivers Are Suffocating to Death

  Water that Should be Crystal Clear Has
  Become a Green-Brown Slop Of
  Microscopic Algae Because of Industrial Farm Waste

  July 21, 2021 (The Guardian) -There’s more below the surface than we thought – something even worse than the water companies’ disgusting habit of filling our rivers with raw sewage. After a deep dive into the data, the team that made Rivercide last week discovered that while sewage now dominates our perceptions of river pollution, it’s not their major cause of death.

  On the border between Wales and England, we found a great river dying before our eyes. The Wye is covered by every possible conservation law, but in just a few years it has spiralled towards complete ecological collapse.

  The vast beds of water crowfoot, the long fluttering weed whose white and yellow flowers once bedecked the surface of the river, and which – like mangroves around tropical seas – provide the nurseries in which young fish and other animals grow and adults hide and breed, have almost vanished in recent years. Our own mapping suggests a loss of between 90% and 97%.

• • How Wildfire Smoke Spread Across America

  Here are the Spread Details

  July 21, 2021 (NY Times Climate Forward) - Wildfire smoke from Canada and the Western United States stretched across the continent this week, covering skies in a thick haze and triggering health alerts from Toronto to Philadelphia. Air quality remained in the unhealthy range across much of the East Coast on Wednesday morning as the haze pushed southward.

  In recent weeks, a series of near-relentless heat waves and deepening drought linked to climate change have helped to fuel exploding wildfires. In southern Oregon, the Bootleg Fire grew so large and hot that it created its own weather, triggering lightning and releasing enormous amounts of smoke. But more than 80 large fires are currently burning across 13 American states, and many more are active across Canada.

• • Bali Tackles Its Plastic Waste Problem

  Bali has Long Been Overrun with
  Tourism-Related Trash and Plastic

  July 16, 2021 (GlobalVoices) -Numerous grassroots movements, NGOs, and volunteers are using Indonesia’s pandemic border closure to battle Bali’s long-standing plastic pollution problem, cleaning up rivers and forests that have been littered with tourism-related plastic and trash.

  While Bali’s trash problems are fairly well documented, the root of the problem is decades of unsustainable tourism paired with an underdeveloped waste management infrastructure and an increase in global marine pollution.

• • 8 Eco-Friendly Alternatives to Ziploc Bags

  Find Those Alternatives

  July 16, 2021 (greener ideal) -When it comes to the world of food storage, nothing beats Ziploc bags, yet. Since its inception in the 1960s, these flexible bags have made packing lunch or freezing leftovers a tad bit easier.

  However, as much as they are helpful, they risk polluting the environment with plastic waste. Ziploc bags fall under the category of single-use plastic bags, and most people are guilty of discarding them in the trash bin without much thought.

  This waste ends up in landfills and bodies of water, affecting birds and marine life. Even worse is the fact that plastic bags take hundreds of years to degrade. Some never do.

  The good news is that there are plenty of natural and Eco-friendly alternatives to Ziploc bags. From Lunchskin sandwich bags to Vegan food wraps, the article focuses on eight options you can try out