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Clairton, Pennsylvania, air quality crisis reveals deeper issues

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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

In Clairton, Pennsylvania, residents face a stark reality of air pollution, revealing deep-seated racial and economic disparities in environmental policy outcomes.Kiley Bense and Victoria St. Martin report for Inside Climate News.In short:Clairton Coke Works, a major coke producer, significantly contributes to the area's air pollution, affecting residents' health.Studies show that air pollution's impact is disproportionately higher in communities of color and low-income areas.The enforcement of the Clean Air Act has not equitably reduced pollution across different demographic groups.Key quote: “ ... racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequities in air pollution exposure persist across the US despite the nationwide downward trend in air pollution indicating inequities in air pollution emissions reductions.”— scientists at Columbia UniversityWhy this matters:Residents of Clairton and surrounding areas have reported a range of health problems, which they attribute to the poor air quality. These issues include increased rates of asthma, especially among children, as well as other respiratory conditions and cardiovascular diseases. The pollution has also raised concerns about long-term effects on the community's overall health. For example, a 2019 study showed that kids in Clairton are experiencing decreased lung function following the Clairton Coke Works fire.

In Clairton, Pennsylvania, residents face a stark reality of air pollution, revealing deep-seated racial and economic disparities in environmental policy outcomes.

Kiley Bense and Victoria St. Martin report for Inside Climate News.

In short:

Clairton Coke Works, a major coke producer, significantly contributes to the area's air pollution, affecting residents' health.
Studies show that air pollution's impact is disproportionately higher in communities of color and low-income areas.
The enforcement of the Clean Air Act has not equitably reduced pollution across different demographic groups.

Key quote:

“ ... racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequities in air pollution exposure persist across the US despite the nationwide downward trend in air pollution indicating inequities in air pollution emissions reductions.”

— scientists at Columbia University

Why this matters:

Residents of Clairton and surrounding areas have reported a range of health problems, which they attribute to the poor air quality. These issues include increased rates of asthma, especially among children, as well as other respiratory conditions and cardiovascular diseases. The pollution has also raised concerns about long-term effects on the community's overall health. For example, a 2019 study showed that kids in Clairton are experiencing decreased lung function following the Clairton Coke Works fire.

Read the full story here.

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Is there enough land on Earth to fight climate change and feed the world?

Study shows how smart policies could address competing land-use needs.

Capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius is a tall order. Achieving that goal will not only require a massive reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, but also a substantial reallocation of land to support that effort and sustain the biosphere, including humans. More land will be needed to accommodate a growing demand for bioenergy and nature-based carbon sequestration while ensuring sufficient acreage for food production and ecological sustainability.The expanding role of land in a 1.5 C world will be twofold — to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and to produce clean energy. Land-based carbon dioxide removal strategies include bioenergy with carbon capture and storage; direct air capture; and afforestation/reforestation and other nature-based solutions. Land-based clean energy production includes wind and solar farms and sustainable bioenergy cropland. Any decision to allocate more land for climate mitigation must also address competing needs for long-term food security and ecosystem health.Land-based climate mitigation choices vary in terms of costs — amount of land required, implications for food security, impact on biodiversity and other ecosystem services — and benefits — potential for sequestering greenhouse gases and producing clean energy.Now a study in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of competing land-use and technology options to limit global warming to 1.5 C. Led by researchers at the MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy (CS3), the study applies the MIT Integrated Global System Modeling (IGSM) framework to evaluate costs and benefits of different land-based climate mitigation options in Sky2050, a 1.5 C climate-stabilization scenario developed by Shell.Under this scenario, demand for bioenergy and natural carbon sinks increase along with the need for sustainable farming and food production. To determine if there’s enough land to meet all these growing demands, the research team uses the global hectare (gha) — an area of 10,000 square meters, or 2.471 acres — as the standard unit of measurement, and current estimates of the Earth’s total habitable land area (about 10 gha) and land area used for food production and bioenergy (5 gha).The team finds that with transformative changes in policy, land management practices, and consumption patterns, global land is sufficient to provide a sustainable supply of food and ecosystem services throughout this century while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions in alignment with the 1.5 C goal. These transformative changes include policies to protect natural ecosystems; stop deforestation and accelerate reforestation and afforestation; promote advances in sustainable agriculture technology and practice; reduce agricultural and food waste; and incentivize consumers to purchase sustainably produced goods.If such changes are implemented, 2.5–3.5 gha of land would be used for NBS practices to sequester 3–6 gigatonnes (Gt) of CO2 per year, and 0.4–0.6 gha of land would be allocated for energy production — 0.2–0.3 gha for bioenergy and 0.2–0.35 gha for wind and solar power generation.“Our scenario shows that there is enough land to support a 1.5 degree C future as long as effective policies at national and global levels are in place,” says CS3 Principal Research Scientist Angelo Gurgel, the study’s lead author. “These policies must not only promote efficient use of land for food, energy, and nature, but also be supported by long-term commitments from government and industry decision-makers.”

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Carnival Corp’s Fleet Emits More CO2 Than Scotland’s Biggest City

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The world’s largest cruise line company is responsible for producing more carbon dioxide in Europe than the city of Glasgow, a report has found. An analysis by the Transport and Environment (T&E) campaign group, provided to the Guardian, found Carnival to be the most climate-polluting cruise company sailing in Europe in 2023. The data covered all Europe-bound cruise ships last year, including 53 that belonged to Carnival. The second most climate-polluting cruise company in Europe was MSC, followed by Norwegian Cruise Line, the group found. Carbon emissions for Carnival’s Europe-bound ships totalled 2.6 million metric tons of CO2 last year. The latest emissions figures for the city of Glasgow, from 2021, with a population of 620,700, were 2.43 million metric tons, according to the city council. MSC emitted 1.4 million and Norwegian 0.84 million. Analysts from T&E used official data on carbon emissions supplied by vessels sailing in the European Economic Area, as required by EU law. “Scrubbers allow ships to convert their air pollution into toxic water pollution, and they can use bunker fuel which is dirty and cheap.” “The larger companies have more vessels and bigger ships,” said Jacob Armstrong, shipping policy manager at T&E. “But bigger isn’t better when it comes to emissions.” Cruising is one of tourism’s fastest-growing sectors. The number of cruise vessels has grown significantly, from 21 in the 1970s to 515 today, and T&E research shows the world’s biggest cruise ships have doubled in size since 2000. Carnival Corporation plc, a Miami-based British and US company, made $2 billion profit in 2023, after losses of $4.4 billion and $7.1 billion in 2022 and 2021, during the Covid pandemic. In 2023, 12.5 million passengers travelled on its 92 ships. In a separate ranking of environmental harm by cruise companies in 2024, by Friends of the Earth (FoE) US, Carnival and its subsidiaries also emerged lowest among 21 cruise lines. An annual “cruise ship report card” awarded five of Carnival’s nine lines—Costa Cruises, P&O Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Cunard, and Seabourn—the grade of F overall. Four factors taken into account were air pollution reduction, sewage treatment, water quality and transparency. Marcie Keever, ocean and vessels programme director at FoE, said Carnival’s continued use of “scrubbers” in its fleet, which, while approved by the International Maritime Organization, allows the use of dirtier fuel and causes water pollution. “Scrubbers allow ships to convert their air pollution into toxic water pollution, and they can use bunker fuel which is dirty and cheap,” she said. This factor, along with a lack of transparency, and not all ships being equipped for shore power, resulted in the F grade, the lowest ranking. FoE awarded expedition cruise lines Hurtigruten and Hurtigruten Expeditions a B+, the highest score, while Disney Cruise line got a B. Hurtigruten vessels plug into shore power instead of running their engines, thus reducing air pollution at shore power-enabled ports. Neither Hurtigruten nor Disney use scrubbers on vessels, and all three were awarded A for transparency. “There are more cruise companies getting higher grades than in previous years, so we are seeing some progress,” Keever said. A Carnival Corp and plc spokesperson said: “We’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars in environmental technologies and solutions, which together with our other decisive climate actions are yielding strong results.”Carnival’s 2023 total greenhouse gas emissions were 9.7 million metric tons, compared with 10.9 million in 2011. The spokesperson said it was on track to cut its emissions per passenger-equivalent by 40 percent by 2026, compared with 2008 levels. An MSC cruise spokesperson said improving the environmental performance of its fleet was of “crucial” importance. “We have already made significant progress, and our ships are 40 percent more efficient than they were 10 years ago.” A spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings said: “We are proud of the progress we are making towards our goal of reducing greenhouse gas intensity per capacity day by 10 percent by 2026 and 25 percent by 2030, using a 2019 baseline.”

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After nearly 10 years of debate, COP29’s carbon trading deal is seriously flawed

The new system may essentially give countries and companies permission to keep polluting.

Negotiators at the COP29 climate conference in Baku have struck a landmark agreement on rules governing the global trade of carbon credits, bringing to a close almost a decade of debate over the controversial scheme. The deal paves the way for a system in which countries or companies buy credits for removing or avoiding greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere in the world, then count the reductions as part of their own climate efforts. Some have argued the agreement provides crucial certainty to countries and companies trying to reach net-zero through carbon trading, and will harness billions of dollars for environmental projects. However, the rules contain several serious flaws that years of debate have failed to fix. It means the system may essentially give countries and companies permissions to keep polluting. What is carbon offsetting? Carbon trading is a system where countries, companies or other entities buy or sell “credits”, or permits, that allow the buyer to offset the greenhouse gas emissions they produce. For example, an energy company in Australia that produces carbon emissions by burning coal may, in theory, offset their impact by buying credits from a company in Indonesia that removes carbon by planting trees. Other carbon removal activities include renewable energy projects, and projects that retain vegetation rather than cutting it down. Carbon trading was a controversial part of the global Paris climate deal clinched in 2015. The relevant part of the deal is known as “Article 6”. It sets the rules for a global carbon market, supervised by the United Nations, which would be open to companies as well as countries. Article 6 also includes trade of carbon credits directly between countries, which has begun operating even while rules were still being finalised. Rules for carbon trading are notoriously complex and difficult to negotiate. But they are important to ensure a scheme reduces greenhouse gas emissions in reality, not just on paper. A long history of debate Over the past few years, annual COP meetings made some progress on advancing the carbon trading rules. For example, COP26 in Glasgow, held in 2021, established an independent supervisory body. It was also tasked with other responsibilities such as recommending standards for carbon removal and methods to guide the issuing, reporting and monitoring of carbon credits. But the recommendations were rejected at COP meetings in 2022 and 2023 because many countries viewed them as weak and lacking a scientific basis. At a meeting in October this year, the supervisory body published its recommendations as “internal standards” and so bypassed the COP approval process. At this year’s COP in Baku, the Azerbaijani hosts rushed through adoption of the standards on day one, prompting claims proper process had not been followed For the remaining two weeks of the conference, negotiators worked to further develop the rules. A final decision was adopted over the weekend, but has attracted criticism. For example, the Climate Land Ambition and Rights Alliance says the rules risk “double counting” – which means two carbon credits are issued for only one unit of emissions reduction. It also claims the rules fail to prevent harm to communities – which can occur when, say, Indigenous Peoples are prevented from accessing land where tree-planting or other carbon-storage projects are occurring. Getting to grips with carbon removal The new agreement, known formally as the Paris Agreement Trading Mechanism, is fraught with other problems. Most obvious is the detail around carbon removals. Take, for example, the earlier scenario of a coal-burning company in Australia offsetting emissions by buying credits from a tree-planting company in Indonesia. For the climate to benefit, the carbon stored in the trees should remain there for as long as the emissions produced when the coal was burnt remain in the atmosphere. But, carbon storage in soils and forests is considered temporary. To be considered permanent, carbon must be stored geologically (injected into underground rock formations). The final rules agreed to at Baku, however, fail to stipulate the time periods or minimum standards for “durable” carbon storage. Temporary carbon removal into land and forests should not be used to offset fossil fuel emissions, which stay in the atmosphere for millennia. Yet governments are already over-relying on such methods to achieve their Paris commitments. The weak new rules only exacerbate this problem. To make matters worse, in 2023, almost no carbon was absorbed by Earth’s forests or soils, because the warming climate increased the intensity of drought and wildfires. This trend raises questions about schemes that depend on these natural systems to capture and store carbon. Temporary carbon removal into land and forests should not be used to offset fossil fuel emissions. Shutterstock What next? Countries already can, and do, trade carbon credits under the Paris Agreement. Centralised trading will occur under the new scheme once the United Nations sets up a registry, expected next year. Under the new scheme, Australia should rule out buying credits for land-based offsets (such as in forests and soil) to compensate for long-lasting emissions from the energy and industry sectors. Australia should also revise its national carbon trading scheme along the same lines. We could also set a precedent by establishing a framework that treats carbon removals as a complement — not a substitute — for emissions reduction, including clear boundaries on how and when carbon removals are used. Kate Dooley receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

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Carnival cruise line emitted more CO2 in 2023 than Scotland’s biggest city – report

World’s largest cruise line named Europe’s most climate-polluting, despite investing millions in cleaner technologiesThe world’s largest cruise line company is responsible for producing more carbon dioxide in Europe than the city of Glasgow, a report has found.Analysis by the Transport and Environment (T&E) campaign group, provided to the Guardian, found Carnival to be the most climate-polluting cruise company sailing in Europe in 2023. Continue reading...

The world’s largest cruise line company is responsible for producing more carbon dioxide in Europe than the city of Glasgow, a report has found.Analysis by the Transport and Environment (T&E) campaign group, provided to the Guardian, found Carnival to be the most climate-polluting cruise company sailing in Europe in 2023.The data covered all Europe-bound cruise ships last year, including 53 that belonged to Carnival. The second most climate-polluting cruise company in Europe was MSC, followed by Norwegian Cruise Line, the group found.Carbon emissions for Carnival’s Europe-bound ships totalled 2.55m tonnes last year. The latest emissions figures for the city of Glasgow, from 2021, with a population of 620,700, were 2.43m tonnes, according to the city council. MSC emitted 1.4m tonnes and Norwegian 0.84m tonnes of CO2. Analysts from T&E used official data on carbon emissions supplied by vessels sailing in the European Economic Area, as required by EU law.“The larger companies have more vessels and bigger ships,” said Jacob Armstrong, shipping policy manager at T&E. “But bigger isn’t better when it comes to emissions.”Cruising is one of tourism’s fastest-growing sectors. The number of cruise vessels has grown significantly, from 21 in the 1970s to 515 today, and T&E research shows the world’s biggest cruise ships have doubled in size since 2000.Carnival Corporation plc, a Miami-based British and US company, made $1.95bn (£1.54bn) profit in 2023, after losses of $4.4bn and $7.1bn in 2022 and 2021, during the Covid pandemic. In 2023, 12.5 million passengers travelled on its 92 ships.Scrubber systems being installed on an Aida cruise ship. Photograph: Martin Feller/Carnival GroupIn a separate ranking of environmental harm by cruise companies in 2024, by Friends of the Earth (FoE) US, Carnival and its subsidiaries also emerged lowest among 21 cruise lines.An annual “cruise ship report card” awarded five of Carnival’s nine lines – Costa Cruises, P&O Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Cunard and Seabourn – the grade of F overall. Four factors taken into account were air pollution reduction, sewage treatment, water quality and transparency.Marcie Keever, ocean and vessels programme director at FoE, said Carnival’s continued use of “scrubbers” in its fleet, which, while approved by the International Maritime Organization, allows the use of dirtier fuel and causes water pollution.“Scrubbers allow ships to convert their air pollution into toxic water pollution, and they can use bunker fuel which is dirty and cheap,” she said. This factor, along with a lack of transparency, and not all ships being equipped for shore power, resulted in the F grade, the lowest ranking.FoE awarded expedition cruise lines Hurtigruten and Hurtigruten Expeditions a B+, the highest score, while Disney Cruise line got a B. Hurtigruten vessels plug into shore power instead of running their engines, thus reducing air pollution at shore power-enabled ports. Neither Hurtigruten nor Disney use scrubbers on vessels, and all three were awarded A for transparency.“There are more cruise companies getting higher grades than in previous years, so we are seeing some progress,” Keever said.A Carnival Corp and plc spokesperson said: “We’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars in environmental technologies and solutions, which together with our other decisive climate actions are yielding strong results.”Carnival Pride docks in the port of Cobh, Ireland. Photograph: denbaim/ShutterstockCarnival’s 2023 total greenhouse gas emissions were 9.65m tonnes, compared with 10.9m tonnes in 2011.The spokesperson said it was on track to cut its emissions per passenger-equivalent by 40% by 2026, compared with 2008 levels.An MSC cruise spokesperson said improving the environmental performance of its fleet was of “crucial importance”. “We have already made significant progress, and our ships are 40% more efficient than they were 10 years ago.”A spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings said: “We are proud of the progress we are making towards our goal of reducing greenhouse gas intensity per capacity day by 10% by 2026 and 25% by 2030, using a 2019 baseline.”

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Clairton, Pennsylvania, air quality crisis reveals deeper issues

Related News

Is there enough land on Earth to fight climate change and feed the world?

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Carnival cruise line emitted more CO2 in 2023 than Scotland’s biggest city – report

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sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

Clairton, Pennsylvania, air quality crisis reveals deeper issues

Related News

Is there enough land on Earth to fight climate change and feed the world?

Carnival Corp’s Fleet Emits More CO2 Than Scotland’s Biggest City

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger Seeks Climate Policy That Works With the Land

After nearly 10 years of debate, COP29’s carbon trading deal is seriously flawed

Carnival cruise line emitted more CO2 in 2023 than Scotland’s biggest city – report

Suggested Viewing

Living with Landslides

A Low Carbon Future for China’s Furnace Cities

THE SPRAYER

Ser Manguezal

Uncovering the Permian Climate Bomb

Join us to forgea sustainable future

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Join us to forge
a sustainable future