When we hear the word “bees,” most people think of honeybees, but there’s a lot…
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Canada is currently experiencing its worst wildfire season ever, and on Monday smoke from the hundreds of blazes once again drifted across the border into the United States, prompting another round of air quality warnings.
The new bout of smoke and haze led to air quality alerts being issued for around 70 million people in 32 states and the District of Columbia, from Montana across to Vermont and all the way down into Northern Alabama, reported CNN and The New York Times. Cities affected included New York, Cleveland and Chicago.
“We are acutely aware that the recent weather events prominently impacting our City this summer are the direct result of the climate crisis,” said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, as The New York Times reported.
Precautions like wearing masks and limiting time outside were recommended by officials. Wildfire smoke can irritate the nose, throat and eyes, and can lead to breathing issues. Exposure has also been associated with increased risks of heart attack, lung cancer, stroke and cognitive decline.
“The advice to limit strenuous activities is because when your respiratory rate is higher, you inhale more particulates,” said Yale Medicine’s Dr. Carrie Redlich on the Yale Medicine website. The tiny particles from the smoke “get everywhere through the bloodstream and trigger inflammatory pathways, which can exacerbate a number of underlying cardiac and respiratory conditions.”
Redlich said the best kind of mask to wear to protect yourself from the poor air quality that comes with wildfire smoke is an N95 or P100.
According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, 904 active fires were burning across Canada on Monday, with 587 out of control and 203 under control. In British Columbia (B.C.), officials reported 391 active fires, with 125 in Alberta and 107 in Québec, according to CBS News.
In some parts of the country, “light to moderate” smoke is forecast to hang around through mid-week, ABC News reported.
In the past week, two firefighters have lost their lives battling the epic blazes, prompting an outpouring of tributes and thanks for those on the front lines of the thus far untamable and relentless fires, reported The Guardian.
Of 19-year-old nursing student Devyn Gale, who had been helping to combat a fire near her hometown in B.C., the B.C. wildfire service said, “She was one of us. She was the heart of us,” as The Guardian reported.
“When they burn like this there’s no way to even put people in front of it to stop the fire, there’s no amount of resources on the ground or from the sky that’s going to be able to stop… these fires when they get the momentum,” said Matt Rau, an incident commander with the U.S.-based Southwest Area Incident Management Team, according to CNN in another report.
Some days, wildfire crews can work as long as 16 hours battling the unrelenting blazes.
Currently, fire crews from Mexico, New Zealand, the U.S. and, most recently, Australia are helping to fight the blazes alongside Canadian firefighters.
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Olive harvests are expected to face a second challenging year in a row as heat waves threaten crops across Europe.
This year’s heat waves arrived a month earlier than the first heat waves of last year’s hot, dry season, according to Earth.org. The first heat wave arrived in late April, following a warmer- and drier-than-usual March. The winter was also unusually warm.
During the first heat wave of 2023, the trees were just beginning to flower, putting them in a vulnerable position.
“This happened as the olive trees were in bloom,” said Rafael Pico, director of Asoliva, the Spanish association of olive oil producers and exporters in Spain, as reported by Phys.org. “If there are no flowers, there’s no fruit. And if there’s no fruit, there’s no oil.”
Spain, the largest olive oil producer in Europe, has had its annual supply decline by half because of the heat and drought. Last year, heat waves caused the country’s olive oil production to decline from 1.48 million metric tons in 2021 to 2022 to just 660,000 metric tons from 2022 to 2023. Experts are predicting olive oil supply to reach 850,000 metric tons this year, still far below average, but continuing heat waves could impact the harvest.
“In Spain we already know it is going to be another bad year, but no one has got to grips with the what’s currently happening. The record temperatures are not going to help the situation,” Walter Zanre, the chief executive of the UK branch of Filippo Berio, the largest olive oil producer globally, told The Guardian. “I can’t share how much anxiety this is causing us. Last year, Spain came into crop with a bit of carry-over [from the year before], which negated the shortfall somewhat. This year the barrels are dry. Even if Spain produces the predicted 850,000 tonnes, the price situation is worse.”
Spain isn’t alone. Other major olive oil-producing countries, such as Italy and Portugal, have experienced smaller yields because of the harsh conditions.
Since June 2022, olive oil prices have surged in response to the poor olive harvests, as the crop has been affected by the extreme heat. Olive oil prices have hit over $6,000 per metric ton, the highest price this product has been since 1997, Weather.com reported.
As The Guardian reported, consumers may expect to see shortages of olive oil in the fall, as last year’s supply is expected to run out in September, and the new supply for 2023 isn’t expected to be ready until November.
Many crops are facing shortages amid the climate crisis. The current heat waves in Europe are also threatening vineyards, even putting types of grapes that have long been known to survive in extreme conditions at risk. Maturing tomatoes in Italy are at risk from blistering in the extreme temperatures, and these crops were already impacted by severe floods earlier this year.
The post Heat Waves in Europe Threaten Olive Harvest for Second Consecutive Year appeared first on EcoWatch.
Hot summers may have you considering an entirely new landscape to save water. Or maybe…
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Climate Connections is a collaboration between Grist and the Associated Press that explores how a changing climate is accelerating the spread of infectious diseases around the world, and how mitigation efforts demand a collective, global response.
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline How climate change is making us sick on Jul 18, 2023.
Workers in Erie, Pennsylvania, are on strike, asking for familiar items like better pay, voting rights, and health care benefits. They’re also asking for one unique condition: to shift their production plant to greener technology.
The plant workers in Erie, two hours north of Pittsburgh, manufacture locomotives for Wabtec Corporation. Locomotives are the engine of the train and generally run on diesel fuel.
Manufacturing workers have been on strike since June 22 and are represented by the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America union, or UE. Initial conversations to renegotiate working contracts began in April. Scott Slawson is the president of the local 506 UE chapter in Erie and said there are currently 1,400 workers on strike.
“The members are dug in for the long haul,” Slawson said. “This is a passionate fight for them and they’re willing to go the distance if required.”
He said his union and train operator unions are working together to push for better environmental standards and greener technology in the industry.
Trains aren’t massive polluters, but the industry is trying to reduce emissions. The transportation industry is responsible for the highest amount of greenhouse gas emission of all industries in the country, with rail being responsible for two percent of the sector’s emissions, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Compared to other options, both freight and passenger rail lines emit fewer pollutants than automobiles or planes.
Still, trains are known to release air pollutants in the communities they operate in. For example, diesel emissions from locomotives are responsible for 70 percent of cancer risk in California and the rail industry releases 640 tons of air pollutants every year in that state alone. This reality recently pushed California regulators to create the nation’s first emissions regulations for trains.
To prevent pollution, train companies would purchase and use emissions-reducing locomotives, commonly referred to as Tier 4 locomotives, from manufacturers like Wabtec.
These machines decrease emissions by an estimated 70 percent more than their counterparts, according to industry projections. Top rail companies Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific have made pledges to reduce their emissions (30 percent by 2030 and net zero by 2050, respectively) and adopt some of these greener locomotives.
The industry is moving slowly to make this change, according to a report from the investigative labor outlet Workday Magazine and the progressive public policy organization American Prospect. The Environmental Protection Agency told Workday that, as of 2020, 74 percent of all of the locomotives operated by major rail companies are Tier 2 or lower, with almost all smaller rail companies operating outdated, polluting technology.
Slawson wants to speed up this industry shift and said workers are using their voices to get it done. A report from the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that manufacturing green, Tier 4 locomotives at the Erie plant would create between 2,600 and 4,300 estimated new jobs, and additional several thousand in the region.
“It’s not just about building the locomotive; it’s about requiring the rail industry as a whole to make this switch,” Slawson said. “Even though rail is one of the least polluting things out there, there still has to be a push to adopt the newest technologies.”
Organized workplaces and strikes are on the rise across the country. Industries across the nation are now dealing with the realities of what the transition away from fossil fuel dependency logistically looks like. The UE has said its industry is deeply tied to fossil fuel usage to power the cars they create and they want to break ties with the polluting past.
“The company is not willing to make commitments towards assisting us in this venture and they’re not willing to make commitments to the workforce to allow us to do this,” Slawson said, “and that’s a problematic piece of this.”
In a statement to Grist, a Wabtec spokesperson said the company is disappointed the union has engaged in a strike and that “no one benefits from a walkout.”
“The company is a leader with a proven track record in developing environmentally zero or low-emission locomotives for the rail industry,” Tim Bader, Wabtec spokesperson said.
In addition to the Tier 4 locomotives, Wabtec also manufactures a green technology locomotive that is 100 percent battery-powered, known as a FLXdrive. Bader said Erie engineers, who are not striking, do significant design work for these locomotives, but the manufacturing is done on a “case-by-case basis factoring in plant capacity, location, cost competitiveness, and schedule.”
Bader said most of the Tier 4 manufacturing is being done in Fort Worth, Texas.
Past labor battles over a green transition have been rooted in anxiety that as industries try and pivot away from fossil fuel use or polluting machinery, workers would be left in the lurch. This has played out before when offshore wind came to Texas and oil workers worried the transition would leave them behind.
But, this doesn’t mean that workers in these industries don’t support the change. In 2021, 4,500 California oil workers signed on in support of renewable energy projects like wind and solar. That same year, the nation’s largest coal mining union announced its support for clean energy projects, albeit with a few caveats.
Liz Ratzloff said the ongoing strike in Pennsylvania is an example of how industries not directly operating in fossil fuels are moving towards greeners solutions and their workers are demanding they be active participants in any sort of transition.
[Read next: The shared history of unions and the environmental justice movement]
Ratzloff is the co-executive director of the Labor Network for Sustainability, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on the intersection of labor organizing and climate action. She said as the nation pushes for more renewable technologies in transportation, it makes sense the frontline workers creating those products are organizing.
“These companies are using this point of transition as a way to undo a lot of labor standards that have been won,” Ratzloff said.
Right now, the auto industry is preparing for a round of labor negotiations. The United Auto Workers, or UAW, are advocating for a guaranteed transition for workers who currently manufacture gas-powered vehicles to the manufacturing of EVs. The union, which represents roughly 400,000 active workers across the country, has criticized the lower pay associated with EV production. UAW has also called out the Biden administration for not requiring union laborers and fair pay standards when giving federal subsidies to EV manufacturers.
She said the strike in Pennsylvania echoes similar pushes in auto manufacturing to decarbonize and manufacture electric vehicles, all with fair pay. Auto industry workers who manufacture electric vehicles are often paid less than their legacy coworkers who create gas-powered vehicles, she said. For example, a battery cell manufacturing plant in Lordstown, Ohio currently has a starting wage of $16.50 an hour, with the chance to make up to $20 per hour after seven years. The plant, a General Motors project, replaced an assembly plant that closed in 2019 where GM union workers made double the current starting pay.
Ratzloff said the fight in Pennsylvania goes behind a push for a green transition and is ensuring that workers continue to have rights and a say in their jobs as the industry changes.
“[The Wabtec strike] shows the potential power of workers, communities, and the labor movement in addressing the climate crisis where companies are uninterested and unwilling, and the government is seemingly unable,” she said.
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Pennsylvania locomotive manufacturing workers are striking for greener jobs on Jul 18, 2023.
Once upon a time, plastic was heralded as a miracle material. Cheap, lightweight, infinitely customizable…
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One easy way to conserve water at home is to swap your standard showerhead for…
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Some of the most breathtaking and specialized wine regions in the world are also the most challenging to maintain.
Vineyards in these areas are part of what is known as “heroic viticulture,” meaning the grapes are grown in extreme environments, such as altitudes of 1,640 feet or more above sea level, on slopes of 30 percent or higher grade, on small islands or on terraces, reported Cell Press.
They are referred to as “heroic” because the grapes there are difficult to cultivate and harvest.
“Viticulture becomes ‘heroic’ when practiced under extreme climatic, geomorphologic, and geographical conditions. Farmers are considered heroes because they deal with this ‘adverse’ environment every day, typically by purely manual operations without the use of mechanized tools,” researchers from the University of Padova wrote in a Backstory published in the journal iScience.
In addition to the inherent challenges of cultivating wine grapes in these regions, scientists are now concerned that extreme weather brought on by climate change, as well as shifting socioeconomic conditions, may present risks to crops and their cultural legacy, according to Cell Press.
“The risk is not only losing an agricultural product or seeing a landscape change, negatively impacting the local economy,” the authors of the Backstory wrote. “The risk is losing entire communities’ history and their cultural roots.”
Some of the world’s most celebrated wines come from the heroic viticulture regions of Portugal, Spain and Italy, including the Prosecco Hills, Cell Press reported.
“Viticulture is one of the most relevant agricultural systems of steep-slope landscapes. In Europe, we can find some of the most famous sites and popular wines (e.g., Port wine, Prosecco, Passito),” the authors wrote. “Landscapes characterized by heroic viticulture have been recognized and protected by the United Nations, being inserted in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). Here, a virtuous combination of agronomic practice, famous wine, networks of restaurants, green tourism, and even religion and art (if churches are on the site) created an optimal condition for a circular economy and socioeconomic sustainability. Nevertheless, these landscapes are under threat [from the] changing climate.”
These rare wines come under a multitude of climate-related threats, as the authors highlight in the Backstory.
“The increased frequency of weather extremes driven by climate change accelerates soil degradation. Intense and localized rainfall events, if soil and water conservation solutions are not optimally adopted, can quickly trigger slope failures and widespread soil erosion processes on cultivated hillslopes. In addition, prolonged droughts, as we observed in Europe in 2022, could pose another criticality: sustainable water resources management on steep slopes,” the authors wrote.
The authors went on to say that socioeconomic factors pose additional issues for the survival of heroic vineyards.
“The last half past century has been characterized by rural exodus and a gradual abandonment of mountain landscapes. The new generation is unwilling to continue working under extreme conditions if economic benefits are insignificant.”
Solutions such as small water storage systems that prevent runoff, as well as discussions and collaboration between farmers, scientists and consumers were suggested by the authors, reported Cell Press.
“The key to success lies in combining the traditional knowledge of winemakers with innovation and scientific rigor,” the authors of the Backstory wrote. “In this way, farms can work closely with scientists to optimize investments for a more functional, sustainable, and safe agricultural landscape — a winning alliance to face these diverse natural and anthropogenic challenges.”
The post Some of Europe’s Most Popular Wines at Risk From Climate Crisis appeared first on EcoWatch.
This week and last, Europe has been buffeted from one heat wave to another, and when “heat storms” start being named, you know they must be intense.
Last week, a heat wave named after Cerebus — a three-headed dog from Greek mythology that guards the entrance to Hades — brought scorching temperatures and wildfires to southern and eastern Europe, from Spain to Turkey.
This week, the Charon anticyclone and accompanying heat wave, which also takes its name from Greek mythology — in this case the ferry operator who brought souls across the river to the underworld — will move from north Africa into Europe, bringing temperatures that may break records.
The hottest locations are predicted to be Italy, Greece, Spain and portions of the Balkans, reported The Guardian. Tuesday and Wednesday could bring temperatures as high as 118.4 degrees Fahrenheit on the islands of Sardinia and Sicily. In 2021, the mercury reached 119.8 degrees Fahrenheit in Sicily, a record high for Europe.
Rome is also predicted to see record heat this week.
“We need to prepare for a severe heat storm that, day after day, will blanket the whole country,” warned Italian weather news service Meteo.it on Sunday, as Reuters reported. “In some places ancient heat records will be broken.”
Orazio Schillaci, Italy’s Minister of Health, warned tourists who plan to visit popular Roman ruins to take precautions.
“Going to the Colosseum when it is 43C (109.4F) is not advisable,” Schillaci told Il Messaggero newspaper yesterday, adding that people should remain indoors from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., reported Reuters.
According to authorities, at least 4,000 people were evacuated on the Spanish island of La Palma in the Canary Islands due to a forest fire.
“The #ClimateCrisis is not a warning. It’s happening. I urge world leaders to ACT now,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, in a tweet.
Some tourists have collapsed and suffered from heat stroke, and Greece’s Acropolis has been closed by authorities during the hottest hours of the day, according to the Daily Mail.
“This is not normal. I don’t remember such intense heat, especially at this time of year,” said Federico Bratti, a Lake Garda sunbather, as the Daily Mail reported.
Scientists have warned of the combination of El Niño, which brings higher sea surface and air temperatures, and climate change.
“We’re from Texas and it’s really hot there, we thought we would escape the heat but it’s even hotter here,” said Colman Peavy, on vacation in Rome with his wife Ana, as reported by CBS News.
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