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Electric Vehicle Fires May Raise Cancer Risk for Communities

By India Edwards HealthDay ReporterMONDAY, March 3, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- As electric vehicles (EVs) become more common on roads, they bring new...

By India Edwards HealthDay ReporterMONDAY, March 3, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- As electric vehicles (EVs) become more common on roads, they bring new health concerns for firefighters and the community, new research shows.Researchers at the University of Miami's Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center found that EV fires expose firefighters, vehicle owners and community residents to dangerous, heavy metals.“While all fires pose exposure risks, EV fires elevate the risk to firefighters, owners and the nearby community because they are powered by massive batteries containing high concentrations of heavy metals,” Dr. Alberto Caban-Martinez, deputy director of Sylvester’s Firefighter Cancer Initiative (FCI), said in a news release. “Many of these metals are associated with increased cancer risk due to their potential to cause DNA damage, oxidative stress and genetic alterations.”Batteries used in EVs contain several metals that may cause cancer, such as:Arsenic: Linked to lung, bladder, skin, liver and kidney cancers Cadmium: Linked to lung, prostate, kidney, pancreatic and breast cancers Chromium: Linked to lung, nasal and sinus cancers Nickel: Linked to lung, nasal and laryngeal cancers Lead: Linked to brain, kidney, stomach and lung cancers In response, Sylvester launched its firefighter cancer program in 2015.“There’s a recognition at Sylvester that we have the scientific and clinical expertise, and firefighters have the day-to-day occupational expertise. If we want to ask the right questions and get the best answers, we need to incorporate their perspectives and insights into what we do. That partnership is saving lives, and it will continue to save lives,” Erin Kobetz, director and principal investigator of the FCI, said in a news release.As part of the first-ever case study focused on EV fires, researchers staged a controlled EV fire to monitor air and environmental contamination. They found:EV battery fires burn much hotter than regular car fires. Exploding EV batteries can send projectiles flying up to 40 feet. Extinguishing an EV fire can require up to 30,000 gallons of water, while a typical car fire requires about 750 gallons of water to extinguish. Levels of cancer-causing chemicals, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), increased in the ground around the vehicle after the fire. As such, researchers emphasized that decontamination efforts are crucial after EV fires to reduce the cancer risk to firefighters and anyone nearby.“If we do our research correctly in line with our mission,” Caban-Martinez said. “We can reduce the cancer burden for current and future firefighters and the communities they serve.”The National Human Genome Research Institute has more on carcinogens.SOURCE: Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, news release, Feb. 27, 2025Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Health
Chemicals
Water

As warming climate hammers coffee crops, this rare bean may someday be your brew

NZARA COUNTY, South Sudan (AP) — Catherine Bashiama runs her fingers along the branches of the coffee tree she's raised from a seedling, searching anxiously for its first fruit buds since she planted it three years ago. When she grasps the small cherries, Bashiama beams. The farmer had never grown coffee in her village in...

NZARA COUNTY, South Sudan (AP) — Catherine Bashiama runs her fingers along the branches of the coffee tree she's raised from a seedling, searching anxiously for its first fruit buds since she planted it three years ago. When she grasps the small cherries, Bashiama beams. The farmer had never grown coffee in her village in western South Sudan, but now hopes a rare, climate-resistant species will help pull her family from poverty. “I want to send my children to school so they can be the future generation,” said Bashiama, a mother of 12. Discovered more than a century ago in South Sudan, excelsa coffee is exciting cash-strapped locals and drawing interest from the international community amid a global coffee crisis caused mainly by climate change. As leading coffee-producing countries struggle to grow crops in drier, less reliable weather, prices have soared to the highest in decades and the industry is scrambling for solutions. Experts say estimates from drought-stricken Brazil, the world’s top coffee grower, are that this year’s harvest could be down by some 12%. “What history shows us is that sometimes the world doesn’t give you a choice, and right now there are many coffee farmers suffering from climate change that are facing this predicament,” said Aaron Davis, head of coffee research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London. Excelsa could play a key role in adapting. Native to South Sudan and a handful of other African countries, including Congo, Central African Republic and Uganda, excelsa is also farmed in India, Indonesia and Vietnam. The tree's deep roots, thick leathery leaves and big trunk allow it to thrive in extreme conditions such as drought and heat where other coffees cannot. It’s also resistant to many common coffee pests and diseases. Yet it comprises less than 1% of the global market, well behind the arabica and robusta species that are the most consumed coffees in the world. Experts say excelsa will have to be shown to be practical at a much larger scale to bridge the gap in the market caused by climate change. Coffee's history in South Sudan Unlike neighboring Ethiopia or Uganda, oil-rich South Sudan has never been known as a coffee-producing nation. Its British colonizers grew robusta and arabica, but much of that stopped during decades of conflict that forced people from their homes and made it hard to farm. Coffee trees require regular care such as pruning and weeding and take at least three years to yield fruit. During a visit earlier this month to Nzara County in Western Equatoria state — regarded as the country's breadbasket — residents reminisced to Associated Press reporters about their parents and grandparents growing coffee, yet much of the younger generation hadn't done it themselves. Many were familiar with excelsa, but didn’t realize how unique it was, or what it was called, referring to it as the big tree, typically taller than the arabica and robusta species that are usually pruned to be bush- or hedge-like. The excelsa trees can reach 15 meters (about 49 feet) in height, but may also be pruned much shorter for ease of harvesting. Coffee made from excelsa tastes sweet — unlike robusta — with notes of chocolate, dark fruits and hazelnut. It’s more similar to arabica, but generally less bitter and may have less body. “There’s so little known about this coffee, that we feel at the forefront to trying to unravel it and we’re learning every day,” said Ian Paterson, managing director of Equatoria Teak, a sustainable agro-forestry company that’s been operating in the country for more than a decade. The company's been doing trials on excelsa for years. Initial results are promising, with the trees able to withstand heat much better than other species, the company said. It's also working with communities to revive the coffee industry and scale up production. Three years ago it gave seedlings and training to about 1,500 farmers, including Bashiama, to help them grow the coffee. The farmers can sell back to the company for processing and export. Many of the trees started producing for the first time this year, and Paterson said he hopes to export the first batch of some 7 tons to specialty shops in Europe. By 2027, the coffee could inject some $2 million into the economy, with big buyers such as Nespresso expressing interest. But production needs to triple for it to be worthwhile for large buyers to invest, he said. Challenges of growing an industry amid South Sudan's instability That could be challenging in South Sudan, where lack of infrastructure and insecurity make it hard to get the coffee out. One truck of 30 tons of coffee has to travel some 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers) to reach the port in Kenya to be shipped. The cost for the first leg of that trip, through Uganda, is more than $7,500, which is up to five times the cost in neighboring countries. It’s also hard to attract investors. Despite a peace deal in 2018 that ended a five-year civil war, pockets of fighting persist. Tensions in Western Equatoria are especially high after the president removed the governor in February, sparking anger among his supporters. When AP reporters visited Nzara, the main road to town was cut off one day because of gunshots and people were fleeing their villages, fearful of further violence. The government says companies can operate safely, but warned them to focus on business. “If I’m a businessman, dealing with my business, let me not mix with politics. Once you start mixing your business with politics, definitely you will end up in chaos,” said Alison Barnaba, the state's minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Environment. Barnaba said there are plans to rehabilitate old coffee plantations and build an agriculture school, but details are murky, including where the money will come from. South Sudan hasn’t paid its civil servants in more than a year, and a rupture of a crucial oil pipeline through neighboring Sudan has tanked oil revenue. Growing the coffee isn't always easy, either. Farmers have to contend with fires that spread quickly in the dry season and decimate their crops. Hunters use fires to scare and kill animals and residents use it to clear land for cultivation. But the fires can get out of control and there are few measures in place to hold people accountable, say residents. Coffee as a way out of poverty Still, for locals, the coffee represents a chance at a better future. Bashiama said she started planting coffee after her husband was injured and unable to help cultivate enough of the maize and ground nuts that the family had lived on. Since his accident she hasn't been able to send her children to school or buy enough food, she said. Another farmer, 37-year-old Taban John, wants to use his coffee earnings to buy a bicycle so he can more easily sell his other crops, ground nuts and cassava, and other goods in town. He also wants to be able to afford school uniforms for his children. Excelsa is an opportunity for the community to become more financially independent, say community leaders. People rely on the government or foreign aid, but when that doesn't come through they're not able to take care of their families, they say. But for coffee to thrive in South Sudan, locals say there needs to be a long-term mentality, and that requires stability. Elia Box lost half of his coffee crop to fire in early February. He plans to replace it, but was dispirited at the work it will require and the lack of law and order to hold people accountable. “People aren't thinking long-term like coffee crops, during war,” he said. “Coffee needs peace." ___ The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. It receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Climate
Agriculture
Business

After groundbreaking bills on jobs and solar, Illinois tackles the grid

Since 2017, sweeping legislation in Illinois has sparked a solar-power boom and launched ambitious energy-equity and green-jobs programs. Now, for the third time in under a decade, state lawmakers, advocates, and industry groups have their sights set on ensuring that clean energy momentum. The focus this…

Since 2017, sweeping legislation in Illinois has sparked a solar-power boom and launched ambitious energy-equity and green-jobs programs. Now, for the third time in under a decade, state lawmakers, advocates, and industry groups have their sights set on ensuring that clean energy momentum. The focus this legislative session is the electric grid. Stakeholders worry the state’s clean energy progress will stagnate if it can’t expand and fortify its infrastructure for moving and storing electricity. Advocates are backing a wide-ranging bill known as the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act, or CRGA, which they describe as the successor to the 2017 Future Energy Jobs Act and the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. Solar and energy-storage industries are backing another bill that includes even more ambitious goals for building out new transmission and energy storage. There’s widespread agreement that Illinois’ current grid is not ready for the state’s mandated transition to 100% clean energy by 2050, especially as overall electricity demand climbs thanks to the proliferation of data centers in Illinois. As in other states, Illinois’ long interconnection queues and lengthy transmission planning processes through the regional transmission organizations make it hard to connect renewable energy sources. CRGA, introduced Feb. 7, aims to make more efficient use of existing grid infrastructure through a transparent audit of the current system and the adoption of grid-enhancing technologies. It would facilitate new transmission buildout by making it easier for merchant transmission developers to get state permits and by allowing high-voltage transmission lines to be built in highway rights-of-way. It also calls for 3 gigawatts of new energy storage to be added to the grid. “Transmission is crucial to a reliable and affordable grid because it allows us to move clean energy from place to place and be more resilient in cases of extreme weather,” said James Gignac, Midwest policy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists’ climate and energy program. The industry-backed transmission and storage bill (HB 3758), introduced Feb. 7, calls for 15 GW of new energy storage, which the bill’s backers say would save consumers $2.4 billion over 20 years. The bill calls on the Illinois Power Agency, which procures energy for the state’s utilities, to also procure energy storage. Gignac said studies by advocacy groups indicate 3 GW of storage is sufficient for the near-term. Both industry and advocacy groups backed a ​“skinny bill” that passed in the legislature’s January lame-duck session, launching an analysis of energy storage needs by the Illinois Commerce Commission, due on May 1. Stakeholders generally agree that new energy legislation is especially crucial given the Trump administration’s rollbacks to clean energy incentives and mandates. “A lot of federal funding we just don’t know the future of, so the role of states and local governments is more important than ever now,” said Jen Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council. Study first Illinois does not do the type of comprehensive planning for energy use and transmission that electric utilities do in states with vertically integrated energy markets. In Illinois, separate companies generate and transmit electricity, with the idea that the open market will match supply with demand. But experts say centralized planning is necessary to ensure that clean energy can meet the state’s needs. “The market is not necessarily going to get us where we need to go on resource adequacy and reliability,” said John Delurey, Midwest deputy program director of the advocacy group Vote Solar. CRGA calls on the state to undertake a clean-resource planning process involving the commerce commission, state Environmental Protection Agency, and Illinois Power Agency, similar to what utilities in other states do with integrated resource plans. The bill also mandates public studies of the grid to determine where it is underutilized and how the latest technology could more efficiently move electrons around — increasing the grid’s capacity without building new wires. “A lot of incumbent transmission owners have confidence in their traditional approaches and tend to rely on those” instead of adopting new grid-enhancing technology, said Gignac. As an example, he pointed to software that can help grid operators reroute power through less congested pathways, a tool reminiscent of Google Maps for road traffic. “There’s potentially a financial disincentive for [companies to embrace] some of these technologies,” Gignac added, ​“because they can often be cheaper solutions” than building new transmission, which earns companies a guaranteed profit from ratepayers. Clean energy advocates say more transmission lines are needed, but they want a comprehensive study to know exactly where and how much.

Energy
Climate
Technology

The best portable air purifiers for 2025

Numerous studies reveal that Indoor air can be more polluted than the air outside. Air purifiers can help improve indoor air quality. However, more powerful smart models are quite bulky and hard to transport from one room—or place—to the next. Many air purifiers for home can weigh between 20 and 30 pounds, making them difficult […] The post The best portable air purifiers for 2025 appeared first on Popular Science.

Numerous studies reveal that Indoor air can be more polluted than the air outside. Air purifiers can help improve indoor air quality. However, more powerful smart models are quite bulky and hard to transport from one room—or place—to the next. Many air purifiers for home can weigh between 20 and 30 pounds, making them difficult to move. “Portable air purifiers can help improve your home’s indoor air quality by actively reducing indoor particulate matter and airborne allergens,” says Dr. John McKeon, CEO of Allergy Standards Ltd. Since air purifiers are designed to clean the air in one room or area effectively, portability is essential if you only have one air purifier. “You’ll want it in the living room when you’re in that room and in the bedroom when you’re there,” McKeon explains. You may also want to take an air purifier—like our best overall, the TruSens Air Purifier—with you to work or when you’re visiting environments that can trigger allergies. The best portable air purifiers are not only easy to move, but they also have many of the same features (on a smaller scale) as larger models.  Best overall: TruSens Air Purifier   Best design: Smartmi Air Purifier Best value: Pure Enrichment PureZone Mini Portable Air Purifier   Best splurge: Coway Airmega AP-1512HH Air Purifier   How we chose the best portable air purifiers To compile this list of the best portable air purifiers, we conducted extensive research, contacted Dr. John McKeon and Kenneth Mendez, president and CEO of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA), and did lots of first-hand testing. We wanted to provide a variety of choices, so the list is a mix of smallish, lightweight air purifiers with handles, and handheld air purifiers that can fit in a vehicle’s cup holder. We also considered peer recommendations and consumer reviews, the clean air delivery rate (CADR), recommended room sizes, filtration, and noise levels. The best portable air purifiers: Reviews & Recommendations As a general rule, the CADR is one of the most critical factors. However, if you need a portable air purifier, the CADR doesn’t really matter if the air purifier is too big and bulky to transport as needed. Some of our articles, like the best smart air purifiers, and the best air purifiers for asthma, include some models with a CADR as high as the 400 to 600 range, which is exceptionally high, considering the average “good” air purifier has a CADR in the 200 range. However, the air purifiers with the highest CADR tend to be big and bulky, so they’re not conducive to moving. So, most of the air purifiers on this list have a good CADR (when that information is available), but keep in mind that, as a general rule, a smaller air purifier isn’t going to deliver the same power as a much larger model. McKeon also says it is important to remember that an air purifier is only one part of a comprehensive approach to improving indoor air quality. “It’s most effective when used in conjunction with other strategies, such as regular cleaning, proper ventilation, and effective source control of pollutants,” he says. But you’re here to improve your environment with the best portable air purifiers, so read on. Best overall: TruSens Air Purifier  Terri Williams Pros Stylish design Handle makes it easy to transport UV, Carbon, and HEPA filtration Three fan speeds Cons No auto mode Specs Dimensions: 7 x 7 x 17 inches Weight: 8.81 pounds Recommended coverage area: Up to 443 sq. ft. CADR: N/A Noise level: 30 – 65 dB I’ve had the TrueSens Small Air Purifier for years, and it’s like an old friend I can always rely on. I have smoking neighbors and tend to use larger, more powerful air purifiers in my living space. However, I keep the TruSens Small Air Purifier downstairs in my garage, which doesn’t get as much smoke—but still a fair amount, and also experiences a variety of other smells. The air purifier does an excellent job of removing those odors and smells.  It has a three-part filtration process that includes a HEPA Type filter, a carbon filter, and a UV-C light (which I never use—it can be turned on and off). The air purifier traps dust, pet dander, smoke, and other allergen, and the bi-directional airflow quickly delivers fresh air. The air purifier has three fan speeds (including a Turbo option), providing options for letting me control the airflow and noise level. The touch controls on the top are easy to operate, and the display panel reveals the speed and lets me know when the filters need to be replaced. This is our top choice because it has an excellent price, is easy to transport, and is quite effective for the scenarios in which most people would use an air purifier. It also has a sleek and space-saving design and is lightweight enough to grab by the handle and move from room to room or even toss in your car and carry to work or other locations. TruSens also makes this air purifier in medium and large sizes, and those models include additional features, like real-time air monitoring, washable pre-filter, timer, and additional fan speeds. Best design: Smartmi P1 Air Purifier Terri Williams Pros App Voice control Dual-laser particle sensor Leather strap Choice of filter Cons Have to turn it upside down to replace the filter Specs Dimensions: 11 x 11 x 17 inches Weight: 3 kg Recommended coverage area: 180 to 320 sq. ft. CADR: 250 Noise level: 19 – 49 dB At first glance, the Smartmi P1 Air Purifier looks like a knockoff of the Molecule Air Mini+ air purifier, which also has a leather strap. However, the Molecule Air Mini (which costs twice as much) only has a small leather strap on the side (with space for one or two fingers), whereas the Smartmi P1 has a stylish leather strap across the entire top. I’ve tested the Molecle, and the Smartmi strap feels much sturdier and doesn’t put all the weight on one or two fingers. The Smarti has a great design overall and is certainly one of the best-looking air purifiers on the market, But that’s not the only reason it gets our best design award. The Smartmi P1 also offers a choice of 2 filter types. The Pollen filter is a good choice for those who suffer from seasonal allergies. There’s also a Pet Filter that’s helpful if you have furry friends in your home. Both filters contain a True HEPA filter, preliminary filter for large particles, and carbon/inner filter, and can remove dust, smoke, pet dander, and other allergens. The touch controls and LCD monitor are on the top and include a dual PM 2.5/PM 10 particle sensor to capture both small and large particles in the air. The air purifier has a timer as well. Since it’s a smart air purifier, I can control it via smartphone or voice control.  Best value: Pure Enrichment PureZone Mini Portable Air Purifier   Terri Williams Pros Fits in vehicle cup tray Several color choices Rechargeable battery Three fan speeds Sits horizontally or vertically Cons Only for a personal bubble Specs Dimensions: 3.3 x 8.5 x 2.7 inches Weight: 0.6 ounces Recommended coverage area: 54 sq. ft. CADR: N/A Noise level: Up to 50 dB If it’s possible for an air purifier to be fun, the Pure Enrichment PureZone Mini Portable Air Purifier certainly is. It’s about the size of a 12-ounce soft drink and fits in my car’s cup holder. It’s also small enough to toss in my handbag or suitcase. When traveling, this air purifier allows me to purify the air when I’m in a hotel room or staying with family members or friends. And the fact that it’s battery-operated means I can use it literally everywhere. Although it’s small, the PureZone Mini works well. It has a dual HEPA filter that also includes an activated charcoal filter. The device has three fan speeds, but you must remember that the higher the speed, the quicker the battery runs out and needs to be recharged. The air purifier filters everything from dust to smoke to pollen and pet dander. One of my favorite features is the adjustable handle. This allows me to stand the device upright or tilt it on the side so it can be used vertically or horizontally. And when it’s hot, the air purifier also doubles as a small fan, providing both purified and cool air. Best splurge: Coway Airmega AP-1512HH Air Purifier Terri Williams Pros Smartphone control Lightweight Voice control Real-time air-quality indicator Cons Bulky compared to others on this list Specs Dimensions: 18.3 x 9.6 x 16.8 inches Weight: 12.3 pounds Recommended coverage area: up to 1,575 sq ft CADR: 221 Noise level: 24 – 53 dB While not necessarily an expensive air purifier (we’ve tested models that cost well over $1,000), the Coway AP-1512HH Air Purifier is the most expensive model on this list, which is why it’s our splurge choice. It can cover up to 1,474 sq. ft., and we think this model is a good portable choice for large rooms. The air purifier is easy to operate and the filtration system includes a pre-filter, True HEPA filter, and a Fresh Starter deodorizer filter, so it can capture both larger and smaller particles while also removing cooking and tobacco odors. The user-friendly control panel on the top lets me view real-time air-quality data, and the color-coded indicators turn blue when the air is fresh and clean, yellow when it’s problematic, and red when the air is unhealthy. There are five speeds, and when the air purifier is in auto mode, the fan will automatically increase or decrease depending on the air-quality indicator data. I can also set the timer for 1, 4, or 8 hours. The filter replacement light (one for the HEPA filter, one for the deodorizer filter) comes on when one of the filters needs to be replaced. What to consider when buying the best portable air purifiers There are several factors to consider when deciding which portable air purifier is right for you. When writing this guide, these are the factors we considered most important.  Room Size An air purifier may be effective in a smaller room but less effective in a larger room. That’s why we included the recommended room size for each air purifier on our list. Ensure you’re not expecting the air purifier to clean more space than it’s recommended to handle. CADR   For air-cleaning effectiveness, McKeon says selecting the correct Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) for the room size is vital. “This is an important metric, which indicates the volume of filtered air an air cleaner can deliver, with separate scores when the device was tested with smoke, pollen, and dust challenges.”  (Note: Some manufacturers combine the scores for smoke, pollen, and dust and just list the average CADR rating of the three tests.)  “A higher CADR means the device can filter more particles,” McKeon says. Filtration Filtration is another important factor to continue, and the presence of a HEPA filter is always a good sign. “HEPA stands for High Efficiency Particulate Air,” Mendez explains. “These filters are media-based, meaning that they are physical filters, which capture particles as air passes through them, and HEPA filters are designed to filter out at least 99.7 percent of particles of 0.3 microns or larger diameter,” he says.  Smart Smart features can make the air purifier easier to operate. For example, some models have an app, so you can control it using your smartphone and even issue voice commands. Other smart features include the ability to auto-detect the level of air purification needed and adjust the airflow accordingly. FAQS Q: How do air purifiers work? “Portable air purifiers function similarly to whole-home systems, but they are designed to clean the air in a specific room,” McKeon says. “They draw air in and pass it through specific filters to remove airborne pollutants, and. they’re often used to address specific areas, like rooms most affected by smoke, or bedrooms where people can spend lots of time.” Q: Where is the best place to put a portable air purifier? “When determining where to place a portable air purifier, you should consider the rooms in the house where you spend the most time,” Mendez says. “This may vary throughout the day, so, you may place the air purifier in a home office during the day and then move it to your bedroom while sleeping.”  Q: Do portable air purifiers work for COVID and other airborne viruses? “According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), when used properly, air purifiers can help reduce airborne contaminants, including viruses in a home or confined space,” Mendez says. “However, by itself, a portable air cleaner is not enough to protect people from COVID-19.” Q: Can air purifiers help with allergies? “Yes. Air purifiers can be a useful tool for reducing exposure to common allergens such as pollen, mold, and pet dander,” Mendez says. McKeon agrees. “Air purifiers can play a key role in helping to manage allergies by removing airborne allergens, such as pet dander, pollen, mold, and dust mite allergen from the breathing zone,” McKeon says. Q: Is it OK to sleep with an air purifier running? Yes. It is generally safe to sleep with an air purifier running. You should always pay attention to the manufacturer’s recommendations for information on how long to run your purifier and where to place it,” Mendez says. “When properly used, an air purifier can help improve the air quality where you sleep.” Final thoughts on the best portable air purifiers Best overall: TruSens Air Purifier   Best design: Smartmi Air Purifier Best value: Pure Enrichment PureZone Mini Portable Air Purifier   Best splurge: Coway Airmega AP-1512HH Air Purifier  An air purifier can only be beneficial to you if it’s in the same room where you’re residing. The best portable air purifiers can be easily transported from one room or area to the next, and some can even be placed in your backpack or vehicle’s cup holder and transported to the office or taken on trips. Factors to consider include filtration, room size, CADR, and preferences such as smart features. The right portable air purifier can help to filter your air—wherever you are. The post The best portable air purifiers for 2025 appeared first on Popular Science.

Science
Health

How the British Broke Their Own Economy

With the best intentions, the United Kingdom engineered a housing and energy shortage.

What’s the matter with the United Kingdom? Great Britain is the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, which ushered in an era of energy super-production and launched an epoch of productivity advancements that made many life essentials, such as clothes and food, more affordable. Today, the country suffers from the converse of these achievements: a profound energy shortage and a deep affordability crisis. In February, the Bank of England reported an ongoing productivity slump so mysterious that its own economists “cannot account fully” for it. Real wages have barely grown for 16 years. British politics seems stuck in a cycle of disappointment followed by dramatic promises of growth, followed by yet more disappointment.A new report, titled “Foundations,” captures the country’s economic malaise in detail. The U.K. desperately needs more houses, more energy, and more transportation infrastructure. “No system can be fixed by people who do not know why it is broken,” write the report’s authors, Sam Bowman, Samuel Hughes, and Ben Southwood. They argue that the source of the country’s woes as well as “the most important economic fact about modern Britain [is] that it is difficult to build almost anything, anywhere.” The nation is gripped by laws and customs that make essentials unacceptably scarce and drive up the cost of construction across the board.Housing is an especially alarming case in point. The homeownership rate for the typical British worker aged 25 to 34 declined by more than half from the 1990s to the 2010s. In that same time, average housing prices more than doubled, even after adjusting for inflation, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.[Read: How the U.K. became one of the poorest countries in Western Europe]The housing shortage traces back to the postwar period, when a frenzy of nationalization swept the country. The U.K. created the National Health Service, brought hundreds of coal mines under state control, and centralized many of the country’s railways and trucking and electricity providers. In 1947, the U.K. passed the Town and Country Planning Act, which forms the basis of modern housing policy. The TCPA effectively prohibited new development without special permission from the state; “green belts” were established to restrict sprawl into the countryside. Rates of private-home building never returned to their typical prewar levels. With some spikes and troughs, new homes built as a share of the total housing stock have generally declined over the past 60 years.The TCPA was considered reasonable and even wise at the time. Postwar Britain had been swept up by the theory that nationalization created economies of scale that gave citizens better outcomes than pure capitalism. “There was an idea that if we could rationalize the planning system … then we could build things in the right way—considered, and planned, and environmentally friendly,” Bowman told me.But the costs of nationalization became clear within a few decades. With more choke points for permitting, construction languished from the 1950s through the ’70s. Under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Conservatives rolled back nationalization in several areas, such as electricity and gas production. But their efforts to loosen housing policy from the grip of government control was a tremendous failure, especially once it was revealed that Thatcher’s head of housing policy himself opposed new housing developments near his home.Housing is, as I’ve written, the quantum field of urban policy, touching every station of urban life. Broken housing policies have a ripple effect. In London, Bowman said, the most common options are subsidized flats for the low-income and luxury units for the rich, creating a dearth of middle-class housing. As a result, the city is bifurcated between the über-wealthy and the subsidized poor. “I think housing policy is a major driver of a lot of anti-foreigner, white-supremacist, anti-Black, anti-Muslim attitudes among young people who are frustrated that so-called these people get free houses while they have to live in a bedsit or move somewhere an hour outside the city and commute in,” Bowman said.[Read: The urban family exodus is a warning for progressives]Constrictive housing policy in Britain has also arguably prevented other great cities from being born. If the University of Cambridge’s breakthroughs in biotech had happened in the 19th century, Bowman said, the city of Cambridge might have bloomed to accommodate new companies and residents, the same way Glasgow grew by an order of magnitude around shipbuilding in the 1800s. Instead Cambridge remains a small city of fewer than 150,000 people, its potential stymied by rules all but prohibiting its growth.The story for transit and energy is similar: Rules and attitudes that make it difficult to build things in the world have made life worse for the British. “On a per-mile basis, Britain now faces some of the highest railway costs in the world,” Bowman, Hughes, and Southwood write. “This has led to some profoundly dissatisfying outcomes. Leeds is now the largest city in Europe without a metro system.” Despite Thatcher’s embrace of North Sea gas, and more recent attempts to loosen fracking regulations, Britain’s energy markets are still an omnishambles. Per capita electricity generation in the U.K. is now roughly one-third that of the United States, and energy use per unit of GDP is the lowest in the G7. By these measures, at least, Britain may be the most energy-starved nation in the developed world.Scarcity is a policy choice. This is as true in energy as it is in housing. In the 1960s, Britain was home to about half of the world’s entire fleet of nuclear reactors. Today, the U.K. has extraordinarily high nuclear-construction costs compared with Asia, and it’s behind much of Europe in the share of its electricity generated from nuclear power—not only France but also Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, and Romania.What happened to British nuclear power? After North Sea oil and gas production ramped up in the 1970s and ’80s, Britain redirected its energy production away from nuclear power. Even this shift has had its own complications. In the past few years, the U.K. has passed several measures to reduce shale-gas extraction, citing earthquake risks, environmental costs, and public opposition. As a result, gas production in the U.K. has declined 70 percent since 2000. Although the country’s renewable-energy market has grown, solar and wind power haven’t increased nearly enough to make up the gap.The comparison with France makes clear Britain’s policy error: In 2003, very large businesses in both countries paid about the same price for electricity. But by 2024, after decades of self-imposed scarcity and the supply shock of the war in Ukraine, electricity in the U.K. was more than twice as expensive as in France.There is an inconvenient subcurrent to the U.K.’s scarcity crisis—and ours. Sixty years ago, the environmentalist revolution transformed the way governments, courts, and individuals thought about their relationship to the natural world. This revolution was not only successful but, in many ways, enormously beneficial. In the U.S., the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act brought about exactly that. But over time, American environmental rules, such as those in the National Environmental Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act, have been used to stop new housing developments and, ironically, even clean-energy additions. Similarly, in the U.K., any individual who sues to stop a new project on environmental grounds—say, to oppose a new road or airport—generally has their legal damages capped at £5,000, if they lose in court. “Once you’ve done that,” Bowman said, “you’ve created a one-way system, where people have little incentive to not bring spurious cases to challenge any new development.” Last year, Britain’s high-speed-rail initiative was compelled to spend an additional £100 million on a shield to protect bats in the woods of Buckinghamshire. Finding private investment is generally difficult for infrastructure developers when the path to completion is strewn with nine-figure surprise fees.Some of Britain’s problems echo across the European continent, including slow growth and high energy prices. More than a decade ago, Germany began to phase out nuclear power while failing to ramp up other energy production. The result has been catastrophic for citizens and for the ruling government. In the first half of 2024, Germans paid the highest electricity prices in the European Union. This month, Social Democrats were punished at the polls with their worst defeat since World War II. Bowman offered a droll summary: “Europe has an energy problem; the Anglosphere has a housing problem; Britain has both.”These problems are obvious to many British politicians. Leaders in the Conservative and Labour Parties often comment on expensive energy and scarce housing. But their goals haven’t been translated into priorities and policies that lead to growth. “Few leaders in the U.K. have thought seriously about the scale of change that we need,” Bowman said. Comprehensive reform is necessary to unlock private investment in housing and energy—including overhauling the TCPA, reducing incentives for anti-growth lawsuits, and directly encouraging nuclear and gas production to build a bridge to a low-carbon-energy economy.Effective 21st-century governance requires something more than the ability to win elections by decrying the establishment and bemoaning sclerotic institutions. Progress requires a positive vision of the future, a deep understanding of the bottlenecks in the way of building that future, and a plan to add or remove policies to overcome those blockages. In a U.S. context, that might mean making it easier to build advanced semiconductors, or removing bureaucratic kludge for scientists while adding staff at the FDA to accelerate drug approval.[Read: A simple plan to solve all of America’s problems]In the U.K., the bottlenecks are all too clear: Decades-old rules make it too easy for the state to block housing developments or for frivolous lawsuits to freeze out energy and infrastructure investment. In their conclusion, Bowman and his co-authors strike a similar tone. “Britain can enjoy such a renewal once more,” they write. “To do so, it need simply remove the barriers that stop the private sector from doing what it already wants to do.”

Energy
Business
Food

Beavers know better. They saved the Czech government $1 million!

After a plan for building a dam stalled in the Czech Republic for seven years, beavers stepped in and did what beavers do, building the dam for free! The post Beavers know better. They saved the Czech government $1 million! first appeared on EarthSky.

Watch this video of how beavers saved the Czech government 1 million dollars. Beavers saved the Czech government $1 million! In 2018, the Czech government proposed a project to create a dam on a river southwest of Prague. The intention was to revive the local ecosystem and protect the species that inhabit the river. However, bureaucracy paralyzed the project, and a colony of beavers, who do not care about paperwork, got to work. In this way, a group of eight beavers built the dam their own way. That is, they simply used stones, wood and mud. What began as a small pond became a wetland that continues to grow thanks to the work of these rodents. Apart from being hardworking, they are also smart, as they chose the best possible location for their architectural masterpiece. The Czech government planned the construction of a dam southwest of Prague. But due to bureaucracy, the next phase never started. After 7 years of waiting, a colony of beavers got to work and built a natural dam in the right placement. Image via Steve/ Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 2.0). The 2025 EarthSky lunar calendar makes a great gift. Get yours today! What happened to the dam? The story begins in 1925, in the Brdy region, about 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Prague. The Czech government gave this region to the military as a training area, and the military built a drainage system on the Klabava river. Eventually, the Czech government wanted to demolish it and replace it with a new dam to revive the ecosystem. However, due to negotiations on the ground, permission difficulties and governmental red tape, the plan remained nothing more than that. The status of the project was idle for seven years. And then, after all the waiting, the paralyzed project was suddenly complete, and for free! Because there were no labor or material costs, the beavers have saved the Czech government $1.2 million USD. The head of the Protected Landscape Area (PLA) in Brdy, Bohumil Fišer, stated: The Military Forest Administration and the Vltava River Basin Authority were negotiating the project and addressing land ownership issues. The beavers got ahead of them, saving us 30 million Czech korunas. They built the dams without any project documentation and at no cost. We can already see a small pond and the surrounding wetland forming. These rodents used nothing but stones, wood and mud to build the dam, saving the Czech government $1.2 million USD. Image via Ralf Schick/ Pixabay. Beavers are masters of engineering These animals may not have a master’s degree in engineering or architecture, but they don’t need to. That’s because beavers are born knowing how to build a dam. Many people consider these rodents hardworking animals and masters of engineering. In fact, this eight-member colony built a natural dam in the perfect spot. And they’re still working to create more wetlands. According to Jaroslav Obermajer, head of the Central Bohemia office of the Czech Nature and Landscape Protection Agency: Beavers always know best. The locations where dams are built are always perfectly chosen; even better than what we designed on paper. Here’s Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, where many beavers live. See that pile of branches? That’s a natural beaver dam construction. Image via Pixabay. Why do beavers build natural dams? Beavers act on instinct. Dam-building gives them a home with underwater entrances only, where they can be safe from land predators, such as wolves or bears. They both live and store food inside the dams. Some people consider these animals a nuisance, as they gnaw on trees and plants for wood and can change the environment quickly. However, they are also capable of returning fresh water to areas that would otherwise have been deserted. They expand wetland ecosystems to the benefit of other creatures. Crayfish, frogs and many other species thrive in these wetlands. These ecosystem engineers keep water in pools with three simple materials: wood, mud and stones. They place stones at the base of the dams and then add tree trunks and branches. The mud acts as cement and settles the construction. This is a beaver lodge in Canada. The entry is underwater. Beavers are safe from land predators here. Image via Bridesmill/ Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0). What benefits do these natural dams produce? These natural dams are so well built they can last for many years, allowing the surrounding ecosystem to flourish. Here are a few ways they benefit the environment. Carbon capture. Beaver dams encourage plant growth and peat formation, which traps carbon, preventing it from being released into the air. This helps mitigate against climate change. Water purification. Beaver dams can filter water almost twice as efficiently as human-built treatment plants. Flood prevention. Beaver dams help to control runoff from heavy rain, thus reducing the risk of flash flooding. Drought mitigation. These dams retain water in the soil, keeping the area moist. In addition, this can help protect areas against wildfire. Beavers in the world As you might expect, a moist area is less likely to burn. So, beaver dams can also help limit forest fires. For example, in 2018, a fire devastated a large swath of Idaho. However, the valleys the beavers inhabited remained lush, moist and green. Scientists have also discovered that beaver ponds can reduce the effect of heavy metals at a rate two to four times greater than a riffle reach (a fast-flowing section of stream with a rocky bed). California recognized the environmental benefits of beavers and launched a beaver-based restoration program in 2023. The Europeans did the same with the Eurasian beaver. Hunting nearly drove this species to extinction. But thanks to recent conservation efforts, beavers have been successfully reintroduced to several areas, including the Czech Republic. Gerhard Schwab, beaver manager for the southern part of Bavaria for the Federal Nature Conservation Association, returned delighted from a field study of beaver habitats and enthusiastically announced the discovery of a valley in Belgium filled with newly formed ponds and streams. This is a clear example of the beaver’s ability to transform its environment. It seems that we still have a lot to learn from these natural engineers! Beavers are masters of engineering. The natural dams they build can last for many years. In addition, there are many ways they benefit the environment. Image via Minette Layne/ Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 2.0). Bottom line: Some people consider beavers a nuisance because they can take down trees and change the water flow of rivers and streams. But many others have recognized all the good they can do. Ask the government of the Czech Republic! Read more: Can beavers revitalize California’s mountains and meadows? Read more: Parachuting beavers created a fire-resistant wetlandThe post Beavers know better. They saved the Czech government $1 million! first appeared on EarthSky.

Government
Animals
Conservation

The concern over GMOs isn’t about what you may think

There’s nothing inherently unsafe about genetically modified foods. It’s the potential herbicide exposure that should give you pause.

Should I worry about GMOs? Are they bad for my health?GMOs, or genetically-modified organisms, have been swept into the larger conversation about chemicals, antibiotics and additives in our food supply. But there’s nothing inherently unsafe about genetically modified crops. What should give you pause, instead, is the potential risk of herbicide exposure — which can be an indirect result of modern GMO farming.The most commonly grown GMO crops in the United States are soy and corn that are resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, which the International Agency for Research on Cancer has labeled a probable human carcinogen.Several studies have shown that consuming GMOs is not associated with elevated health risks, including cancer. But glyphosate use has risen dramatically in the United States since the 1990s, and we lack long-term epidemiological data about what this may — or may not — mean for our health. There is also some emerging data regarding glyphosate exposure, especially among younger children, worth considering.As we take into account what we do know, here’s my advice: GMOs are likely fine for adults to consume, especially if you minimize ultra-processed foods, which are generally linked to adverse health outcomes and are a common source of GMO corn and soy. For pregnant women and young children, it would be very reasonable to minimize consuming GMOs and ultra-processed foods whenever possible.What are GMOs?A GMO is an organism, such as a crop, whose genes have been selected for a superior trait. A GMO is not a modern concept. Farmers have been selectively breeding plants chosen for desired traits for thousands of years. The entire field of Mendelian genetics was born from experiments crossbreeding peas to learn about gene inheritance.For instance, have you ever found it odd that an eggplant, that large deep-purple blob, was named for an egg? It was selectively bred this way. The common eggplants of centuries ago were actually more like small white ovals.Of course, our modern techniques are very different: GMOs may undergo an accelerated process of gene engineering in a laboratory to insert a new gene from another organism into the DNA. Today, the most common traits that have been widely selected in GMOs are tolerance to herbicides and insect resistance.With these GMOs, rather than having to rely heavily on mechanical weeding, farmers have used increasingly larger amounts of herbicides that don’t harm their crops. As a result, measurable quantities of herbicides like glyphosate have been detected in GMO grains intended for our food, animal feeds and in some areas’ drinking water.What are the health risks with GMOs?Human studies that have linked glyphosate to cancers like Hodgkin’s lymphoma predominantly evaluated farmers with high levels of occupational exposure, not people exposed via GMO consumption in daily life.The National Academies of Medicine reviewed over 900 studies in 2016 on GMOs and did not find any evidence of elevated health risks, including cancer. But to be clear, that report (which is now almost 10 years old) acknowledged that we lack long-term epidemiological data about the indirect exposure to herbicides possibly associated with GMOs.Reassuringly, in 2021, the USDA conducted a study of over 10,000 randomly sampled foods across the country and found that more than 99 percent contained pesticide levels well below the safety thresholds set by the Environmental Protection Agency.Why are children more at risk?The evidence gets more complex for children, who are more developmentally vulnerable to toxins and stress. A large retrospective study published this January in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) looked at U.S. rural birth records between 1990 and 2013. Researchers from the University of Oregon found that babies with higher glyphosate exposure, particularly in the rural South and Midwest, were more likely to be born with lower birth weights — a change that they found occurred around the rollout of GMOs after accounting for confounders like use of other pesticides, local income, employment rates and demographics.The prospective studies are small and limited, but the findings still warrant pause: A 2021 study of 250 pregnant women in Puerto Rico — the largest study of its kind — found that prenatal exposure to glyphosate (measured objectively in urine samples) was associated with a 35 percent increased odds of preterm birth.What crops are allowed to be GMO?GMOs are not as ubiquitous as many think. There are only 11 approved GMO crops grown in the United States, including apples, potatoes and papaya. The list does not include crops like tomatoes, wheat and strawberries, for example. You can check out the full list here.Rarely, and under tight regulations, a new GMO enters the market: Last year for the first time a genetically engineered banana was approved in Australia and New Zealand to combat fungal disease.How do I know if a food has GMOs?To easily identify whether foods are GMOs, look for a non-GMO or organic label. Organic foods are defined, according to the USDA, by avoidance of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics and other farming practices like genetic modification.It bears noting that for the most part in the United States, there are no inherent nutritional differences between GMOs and their organic counterparts. Most people cannot distinguish GMOs in taste, and there have been a paucity of studies that have ever demonstrated a meaningful personal health benefit of organic foods among adults.What I want my patients to knowThe 2021 study from the USDA washed much of its fresh produce as part of standard procedures before testing. If you wash any fresh GMO produce before consumption, which many people do anyway, you’ll minimize (though perhaps not entirely eliminate), the risk of exposure to pesticides.

Food
Animals
Health

Big banks abandoned a voluntary climate alliance. Now, critics are calling for new laws.

Environmental groups say state and international policymakers must step up to stop fossil fuel financing.

In the lead-up to Inauguration Day, all six of the United States’ largest banks backed away from a United Nations-sponsored climate initiative amid attacks from conservative lawmakers and regulators.   Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo left the Net Zero Banking Alliance between December and January in what was perceived to be a concession to right-wing criticism of so-called ESG — decision-making driven by environmental, social, and corporate governance considerations. Nineteen Republican attorneys general had issued “civil investigative demands” to those banks in 2022, demanding that they turn over information about their ESG practices. They argued that the alliance was beholden to “the woke climate agenda” and that it violated antitrust laws. While the banks’ exodus from the alliance certainly looks like a setback for the banking sector’s climate progress, environmental advocates say it is a reminder that voluntary initiatives have never been sufficient to drive the sector’s decarbonization. “There are other levers that we can use to hold banks accountable,” said Allison Fajans-Turner, a senior energy finance campaigner at the nonprofit Rainforest Action Network, which publishes an annual report on how much money banks commit to fossil fuel projects. In light of the Trump administration’s pro-oil and gas agenda, she said that over the next four years activists and policymakers will have to keep the pressure on and, critically, push for stricter legislation at the state and international levels. “It is quite clear that major U.S. banks will not police themselves,” she added. The Net Zero Banking Alliance, or NZBA, launched in 2021 under the aegis of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative and has about 140 members after the six American banks — and four Canadian ones — exited. The alliance asks member banks to commit to achieving net-zero greenhouse emissions across their operations and “lending and investment portfolios” by 2050, and to set intermediary emissions reduction targets for 2030 and every five years thereafter. It also asks banks to disclose their annual emissions, and sets some recommendations to limit the application of carbon offsets toward banks’ climate goals. A Bank of American branch in Chicago. Beata Zawrzel / NurPhoto via Getty Images However, much like the Paris Agreement to limit global warming, the NZBA relies on voluntary participation and compliance, and does not have any enforcement authority. It’s been criticized for not asking enough from its members, which are allowed to participate even if they continue underwriting the expansion of oil and gas infrastructure. U.N. proposals that would tighten its requirements — particularly around financing of fossil fuels — faced strong opposition from recently departed banks like JP Morgan and Bank of America. Even some of the NZBA banks themselves have acknowledged the alliance’s limitations in the face of government inaction. In 2023, Amalgamated Bank’s chief sustainability officer, Ivan Frishberg, told the business publication Responsible Investor that NZBA signatories were “being left alone at the altar” as governments around the world failed to legislate a transition away from fossil fuels. GLS Bank, based in Germany, quit the alliance that same year in protest of other NZBA members’ support for fossil fuel projects in Africa. Wells Fargo declined to comment on the rationale behind its departure from the NZBA. Goldman Sachs said it had made “significant progress” on its net-zero goals but did not explain why it left the alliance. The other four recently departed banks did not respond to inquiries from Grist.  Unlike voluntary initiatives, governments have the authority to ensure that banks live up to their stated climate promises and to push them to do more. At an event in New York City last November — notably, even before the NZBA shakeup — the former deputy secretary to the U.S. Treasury, Sarah Bloom Raskin, suggested that states should take on this role. States “have a unique opportunity to lead,” she said, noting the incoming presidential administration’s hostility to climate action. At the time, California had already passed two laws requiring large businesses, including banks, to report their greenhouse gas emissions annually and disclose their climate-related financial risks biannually. Those laws recently survived a legal challenge from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and New York state lawmakers introduced similar bills in January. A Democratic state representative in Illinois introduced a disclosure bill last month.  Former deputy secretary to the U.S. Treasury, Sarah Bloom Raskin, speaks in front of a Senate committee on banking, housing, and urban affairs in 2022. Ken Cedeno-Pool / Getty Images Danielle Fugere, president and chief counsel for the shareholder advocacy nonprofit As You Sow, said disclosure is a prerequisite for holding banks to their climate goals. ”We want to understand what it is they’re doing,” she said. Laws like California’s bring to light the financial instability wrought by fossil fuel-driven climate change and — in theory, at least — discourage financing that would exacerbate it. Of course, merely requiring that banks disclose their emissions and climate-related risks isn’t likely to prevent the worst impacts of global warming. According to a landmark 2021 report from the International Energy Agency, no new oil, gas, and coal infrastructure can be built if the world is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). That’s why Patrick McCully, a senior energy transition analyst for the French nonprofit Reclaim Finance, which advocates for a more sustainable banking sector, said legislators should be “pushing the banks to reduce their financing of fossil fuels.”  “These companies are acting against the interests of humanity, and we need to stop them,” he told Grist. Fajans-Turner, however, said a policy of this nature would be difficult to write into law and would likely face legal challenges even in the most progressive states, where natural gas bans on new construction have been beaten back by industry groups.  Ann Lipton, a business law professor at Tulane University, said a better way for policymakers to limit new fossil fuel projects is to look beyond the banking sector. For instance, lawmakers could require insurance companies to factor in climate-related financial risks when designing their policies — which could make it harder for fossil fuel projects to get coverage. “We would love banks to stop financing risky activities, but at the end of the day the job of a bank is to finance things that are predictably profitable,” she said. “It’s the job of the rest of society to make that [thing] not profitable.” Another strategy is to require that banks publish a clear decarbonization plan, which can, in theory, be a sort of back door to blocking new fossil fuel investments. “Implicit in having a target is that the bank is taking some kind of action to ensure that it meets that target,” Fugere said. If a plan mentions “net-zero” by a certain date, then to be credible it must involve some sort of scaling back of fossil fuel financing. If it claims to align with a pathway to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C, then it must not enable the expansion of fossil fuels.  A Wells Fargo building in Walnut Creek, California. Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images In the U.S., investors like As You Sow have pressured several big banks into voluntarily offering more information about their plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but requests for greater detail were rebuffed last year. (At least one bank, Wells Fargo, has done an about-face, recently dropping its net-zero target altogether.)  Legislation to require detailed decarbonization plans has seen more success on the international stage. The European Union, for instance, is beginning to use two corporate sustainability directives approved by its parliament to require financial institutions to adopt a “transition plan for climate change mitigation.” The laws require institutions to make their “best efforts” to ensure that their plans are compatible with a pathway toward achieving climate neutrality by 2050 and limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees C. McCully said these regulations are promising but noted growing opposition to them from right-wing governments in Europe. “We need to defeat that pushback to make sure that legislation is going to be able to survive,” he said.  Even as they push for stronger government oversight of the banking industry, organizations like the Rainforest Action Network and Reclaim Finance say they plan to continue drawing connections between the financing of fossil fuel projects and the harm these projects may cause to communities — whether directly, because of the risk of oil spills and explosions, or indirectly because of accelerating climate change. Mass demonstrations and research publications like Rainforest Action Network’s annual report can theoretically increase the public’s appetite for state, national, and international regulation. “It’s hard to be optimistic,” said Quentin Aubineau, a policy analyst at the nonprofit BankTrack, which does research and advocacy around banks’ role in the climate crisis and human rights violations. “But we have a lot of people working on the ground, doing a lot of research, and putting a lot of effort together to try to make a change. I think we will get there, even if it’s not the best environment to work in at the moment.” This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Big banks abandoned a voluntary climate alliance. Now, critics are calling for new laws. on Mar 3, 2025.

Climate
Activism
Crisis

Melting Antarctic ice will slow the world’s strongest ocean current – and the global consequences are profound

Part of the system that pumps water, heat and nutrients around the globe is at risk. Climate change could slow the Antarctic Circumpolar Current down 20% by 2050.

Mongkolchon Akesin, ShutterstockFlowing clockwise around Antarctica, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the strongest ocean current on the planet. It’s five times stronger than the Gulf Stream and more than 100 times stronger than the Amazon River. It forms part of the global ocean “conveyor belt” connecting the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. The system regulates Earth’s climate and pumps water, heat and nutrients around the globe. But fresh, cool water from melting Antarctic ice is diluting the salty water of the ocean, potentially disrupting the vital ocean current. Our new research suggests the Antarctic Circumpolar Current will be 20% slower by 2050 as the world warms, with far-reaching consequences for life on Earth. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current keeps Antarctica isolated from the rest of the global ocean, and connects the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. Sohail, T., et al (2025), Environmental Research Letters., CC BY Why should we care? The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is like a moat around the icy continent. The current helps to keep warm water at bay, protecting vulnerable ice sheets. It also acts as a barrier to invasive species such as southern bull kelp and any animals hitching a ride on these rafts, spreading them out as they drift towards the continent. It also plays a big part in regulating Earth’s climate. Unlike better known ocean currents – such as the Gulf Stream along the United States East Coast, the Kuroshio Current near Japan, and the Agulhas Current off the coast of South Africa – the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is not as well understood. This is partly due to its remote location, which makes obtaining direct measurements especially difficult. Understanding the influence of climate change Ocean currents respond to changes in temperature, salt levels, wind patterns and sea-ice extent. So the global ocean conveyor belt is vulnerable to climate change on multiple fronts. Previous research suggested one vital part of this conveyor belt could be headed for a catastrophic collapse. Theoretically, warming water around Antarctica should speed up the current. This is because density changes and winds around Antarctica dictate the strength of the current. Warm water is less dense (or heavy) and this should be enough to speed up the current. But observations to date indicate the strength of the current has remained relatively stable over recent decades. This stability persists despite melting of surrounding ice, a phenomenon that had not been fully explored in scientific discussions in the past. What we did Advances in ocean modelling allow a more thorough investigation of the potential future changes. We used Australia’s fastest supercomputer and climate simulator in Canberra to study the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The underlying model, ACCESS-OM2-01, has been developed by Australian researchers from various universities as part of the Consortium for Ocean-Sea Ice Modelling in Australia. The model captures features others often miss, such as eddies. So it’s a far more accurate way to assess how the current’s strength and behaviour will change as the world warms. It picks up the intricate interactions between ice melting and ocean circulation. In this future projection, cold, fresh melt water from Antarctica migrates north, filling the deep ocean as it goes. This causes major changes to the density structure of the ocean. It counteracts the influence of ocean warming, leading to an overall slowdown in the current of as much as 20% by 2050. Far-reaching consequences The consequences of a weaker Antarctic Circumpolar Current are profound and far-reaching. As the main current that circulates nutrient-rich waters around Antarctica, it plays a crucial role in the Antarctic ecosystem. Weakening of the current could reduce biodiversity and decrease the productivity of fisheries that many coastal communities rely on. It could also aid the entry of invasive species such as southern bull kelp to Antarctica, disrupting local ecosystems and food webs. A weaker current may also allow more warm water to penetrate southwards, exacerbating the melting of Antarctic ice shelves and contributing to global sea-level rise. Faster ice melting could then lead to further weakening of the current, commencing a vicious spiral of current slowdown. This disruption could extend to global climate patterns, reducing the ocean’s ability to regulate climate change by absorbing excess heat and carbon in the atmosphere. Ocean currents around the world (NASA) Need to reduce emissions While our findings present a bleak prognosis for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the future is not predetermined. Concerted efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could still limit melting around Antarctica. Establishing long-term studies in the Southern Ocean will be crucial for monitoring these changes accurately. With proactive and coordinated international actions, we have a chance to address and potentially avert the effects of climate change on our oceans. The authors thank Polar Climate Senior Researcher Dr Andreas Klocker, from the NORCE Norwegian Research Centre and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, for his contribution to this research, and Professor Matthew England from the University of New South Wales, who provided the outputs from the model simulation for this analysis. Taimoor Sohail receives funding from the Australian Research Council. Bishakhdatta Gayen receives funding from Australian Research Council (ARC). He works at University of Melbourne as ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor. He is also A/Prof. at CAOS, Indian Institute of Science.

Climate
Water
Food

Earth’s strongest ocean current could slow down by 20% by 2050 in a high emissions future

Melting Antarctic ice is releasing cold, fresh water into the ocean, which is projected to cause the slowdownGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastIn a high emissions future, the world’s strongest ocean current could slow down by 20% by 2050, further accelerating Antarctic ice sheet melting and sea level rise, an Australian-led study has found.The Antarctic Circumpolar Current – a clockwise current more than four times stronger than the Gulf Stream that links the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans – plays a critical role in the climate system by influencing the uptake of heat and carbon dioxide in the ocean and preventing warmer waters from reaching Antarctica.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

In a high emissions future, the world’s strongest ocean current could slow down by 20% by 2050, further accelerating Antarctic ice sheet melting and sea level rise, an Australian-led study has found.The Antarctic Circumpolar Current – a clockwise current more than four times stronger than the Gulf Stream that links the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans – plays a critical role in the climate system by influencing the uptake of heat and carbon dioxide in the ocean and preventing warmer waters from reaching Antarctica.Using Australia’s fastest supercomputer and climate simulator, Gadi, located at Access National Research Infrastructure in Canberra, the researchers used climate models to analyse the impact of changing temperature, ice melting and wind conditions on the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.The results, published in Environmental Research Letters, revealed a clear link between meltwater from Antarctic ice shelves and circumpolar current slowdown, and comes less than a week after another paper anticipated a weakening in vital Atlantic Ocean currents.What they found suggested a “substantial reconfiguration of Southern Ocean dynamics”, with “far-reaching impacts on global climate patterns, oceanic heat distribution, and marine ecosystems”.Co-author Assoc Prof Bishakhdatta Gayen, from the University of Melbourne, described the result as “quite alarming”.He explained that as melting Antarctic ice released cold, fresh water into the ocean, this sank and spread towards the equator. That flow of fresh water changed the density variation in the ocean, a key driver of movement, causing the slowdown.“The ocean is extremely complex and finely balanced. If this current ‘engine’ breaks down, there could be severe consequences, including more climate variability, with greater extremes in certain regions, and accelerated global warming due to a reduction in the ocean’s capacity to act as a carbon sink,” Gayen said.Co-author and climate scientist Dr Taimoor Sohail said the slowdown could lead to a “vicious cycle”, where more warm water reaches the Antarctic shelf accelerating ice melting and further weakening the current.This could also disrupt ecosystems and food webs, he said, as the oceanic current helps to prevent invasive species – such as rafts of southern bull kelp – from reaching the fragile continent, or redistributed them.“Concerted efforts to limit global warming – by reducing carbon emissions – will limit Antarctic ice melting, averting the projected slowdown,” Sohail said.Dr Edward Doddridge, a physical oceanographer at the University of Tasmania who was not involved with the study, said it was significant and surprising, given previous studies had indicated that the northern parts of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current were accelerating due to ocean warming.Doddridge said it was important to investigate the ways that ocean currents might change, given more than 90% of the extra heat trapped on Earth had been stored in the oceans, which then moved the heat around in ways that affected the climate and weather in different places around the world.Monash University climate scientist Dr Ariaan Purich, who was not involved with the paper, said dramatic changes were already under way in the oceans around Antarctica.Fresh water stored in Antarctic ice sheets and shelves was melting at an accelerating rate, she said, and every summer since 2022 – for the first time in recorded history – the extent of sea ice surrounding the continent had dropped below 2m square kilometres.“We need to know what the ocean is doing and how much heat and carbon the ocean is taking up so that we can better project the climate that we’re experiencing here on land in Australia, and that we can better adapt for that climate,” she said.

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