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The Guardian view on cruise ships: a licence to pollute | Editorial

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Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Local pushback against cruise ships in the world’s top tourist destinations is nothing new. More than three years ago, these vast vessels were barred from Venice’s lagoon on grounds of the risk they posed to the city’s historic buildings. This summer, cruise ships in Amsterdam and Barcelona were targeted by protesters, on grounds of chemical pollution but also as part of a wider movement against overtourism (as the negative impacts of huge influxes of visitors have become known). But – as revealed this week in a series of Guardian articles, The real cost of cruises – the environmental and social impact of this fast-growing industry goes way beyond individual cities, and requires action on a global scale.The carbon emissions of a cruise are roughly double that of the equivalent flights plus a hotel stay. The industry is also responsible for a vast quantity of waste discharged directly into the sea, as well as high levels of toxic air pollution in the ports where ships are docked – usually with their engines running. Once seen as the exclusive pursuit of a minority of wealthy retired people, these holidays are now mainstream, with vast floating resorts designed and marketed for families and young adults. The largest ships have up to 20 floors and room for several thousand people.With numerous new vessels under construction, and the latest models twice the size of older ones, the industry is predicted to be worth nearly 4% of the £1.9tn global holiday market by 2028. Rightly, environmental campaigners are calling for much tougher regulations.Like aviation, shipping in general has benefited from lenient environmental and tax rules – partly due to the difficulty of deciding in which national jurisdiction, and under whose regulatory regime, their activities belong. The EU has recently agreed new penalties for those that use dirty fuel. But in the UK, shipping has not so far been included in the emissions reductions plans submitted to the United Nations – though this should change when these are renewed. The International Maritime Organization’s own carbon reduction targets do not put it on a path to net zero or even the 1.5C average temperature rise allowed for in the Paris climate agreement.As with aviation, there is an urgent need for increased international cooperation and agreement. Cruise companies should not be able to operate with lower environmental standards than other kinds of travel businesses. Their track record is poor, with many opting to fit “scrubbers” that dump emissions into the sea when they were told to reduce air pollution. In future, the ocean, as well as the air, must be protected when rules are tightened.As in other industries, the development and adoption of green technologies must become compulsory, not optional. One example is the currently patchy use of shoreside electricity, which is much lower-carbon than on-board power. The green taxes being discussed in relation to air travel should also be imposed on cruises. If this means that the industry’s plans for rapid further expansion are checked, that would be for the best. In its current form, it is not only unsustainable but causing disproportionate harm by comparison with other forms of tourism, including air travel. The environmental costs of the hedonistic visions it promotes – trips of a lifetime, and so on – must also be more effectively communicated. Trading on images of paradise while doing so much damage cannot carry on.

The environmental harm caused by this shapeshifting, underregulated industry must be tackledLocal pushback against cruise ships in the world’s top tourist destinations is nothing new. More than three years ago, these vast vessels were barred from Venice’s lagoon on grounds of the risk they posed to the city’s historic buildings. This summer, cruise ships in Amsterdam and Barcelona were targeted by protesters, on grounds of chemical pollution but also as part of a wider movement against overtourism (as the negative impacts of huge influxes of visitors have become known). But – as revealed this week in a series of Guardian articles, The real cost of cruises – the environmental and social impact of this fast-growing industry goes way beyond individual cities, and requires action on a global scale.The carbon emissions of a cruise are roughly double that of the equivalent flights plus a hotel stay. The industry is also responsible for a vast quantity of waste discharged directly into the sea, as well as high levels of toxic air pollution in the ports where ships are docked – usually with their engines running. Once seen as the exclusive pursuit of a minority of wealthy retired people, these holidays are now mainstream, with vast floating resorts designed and marketed for families and young adults. The largest ships have up to 20 floors and room for several thousand people. Continue reading...

Local pushback against cruise ships in the world’s top tourist destinations is nothing new. More than three years ago, these vast vessels were barred from Venice’s lagoon on grounds of the risk they posed to the city’s historic buildings. This summer, cruise ships in Amsterdam and Barcelona were targeted by protesters, on grounds of chemical pollution but also as part of a wider movement against overtourism (as the negative impacts of huge influxes of visitors have become known). But – as revealed this week in a series of Guardian articles, The real cost of cruises – the environmental and social impact of this fast-growing industry goes way beyond individual cities, and requires action on a global scale.

The carbon emissions of a cruise are roughly double that of the equivalent flights plus a hotel stay. The industry is also responsible for a vast quantity of waste discharged directly into the sea, as well as high levels of toxic air pollution in the ports where ships are docked – usually with their engines running. Once seen as the exclusive pursuit of a minority of wealthy retired people, these holidays are now mainstream, with vast floating resorts designed and marketed for families and young adults. The largest ships have up to 20 floors and room for several thousand people.

With numerous new vessels under construction, and the latest models twice the size of older ones, the industry is predicted to be worth nearly 4% of the £1.9tn global holiday market by 2028. Rightly, environmental campaigners are calling for much tougher regulations.

Like aviation, shipping in general has benefited from lenient environmental and tax rules – partly due to the difficulty of deciding in which national jurisdiction, and under whose regulatory regime, their activities belong. The EU has recently agreed new penalties for those that use dirty fuel. But in the UK, shipping has not so far been included in the emissions reductions plans submitted to the United Nations – though this should change when these are renewed. The International Maritime Organization’s own carbon reduction targets do not put it on a path to net zero or even the 1.5C average temperature rise allowed for in the Paris climate agreement.

As with aviation, there is an urgent need for increased international cooperation and agreement. Cruise companies should not be able to operate with lower environmental standards than other kinds of travel businesses. Their track record is poor, with many opting to fit “scrubbers” that dump emissions into the sea when they were told to reduce air pollution. In future, the ocean, as well as the air, must be protected when rules are tightened.

As in other industries, the development and adoption of green technologies must become compulsory, not optional. One example is the currently patchy use of shoreside electricity, which is much lower-carbon than on-board power. The green taxes being discussed in relation to air travel should also be imposed on cruises. If this means that the industry’s plans for rapid further expansion are checked, that would be for the best. In its current form, it is not only unsustainable but causing disproportionate harm by comparison with other forms of tourism, including air travel. The environmental costs of the hedonistic visions it promotes – trips of a lifetime, and so on – must also be more effectively communicated. Trading on images of paradise while doing so much damage cannot carry on.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

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Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ taint rural California drinking water, far from known sources

The chemicals have unexpectedly turned up in well water in rural farmland far from known contamination sites, like industrial areas, airports, and military bases. Agricultural communities already face the dangers of heavy metals and nitrates contaminating their tap water. Now researchers worry that PFAS could further harm farmworkers and communities of color disproportionately.

Juana Valle never imagined she’d be scared to drink water from her tap or eat fresh eggs and walnuts when she bought her 5-acre farm in San Juan Bautista, California, three years ago. Escaping city life and growing her own food was a dream come true for the 52-year-old.Then Valle began to suspect water from her well was making her sick.“Even if everything is organic, it doesn’t matter, if the water underground is not clean,” Valle said.This year, researchers found worrisome levels of chemicals called PFAS in her well water. Exposure to PFAS, a group of thousands of compounds, has been linked to health problems including cancer, decreased response to vaccines, and low birth weight, according to a federally funded report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Valle worries that eating food from her farm and drinking the water, found also to contain arsenic, are to blame for health issues she’s experienced recently.The researchers suspect the toxic chemicals could have made their way into Valle’s water through nearby agricultural operations, which may have used PFAS-laced fertilizers made from dried sludge from wastewater treatment plants, or pesticides found to contain the compounds.The chemicals have unexpectedly turned up in well water in rural farmland far from known contamination sites, like industrial areas, airports, and military bases. Agricultural communities already face the dangers of heavy metals and nitrates contaminating their tap water. Now researchers worry that PFAS could further harm farmworkers and communities of color disproportionately. They have called for more testing.“It seems like it’s an even more widespread problem than we realized,” said Clare Pace, a researcher at the University of California-Berkeley who is examining possible exposure from PFAS-contaminated pesticides.Stubborn sludgeConcerns are mounting nationwide about PFAS contamination transferred through the common practice of spreading solid waste from sewage treatment across farm fields. Officials in Maine outlawed spreading “biosolids,” as some sewage byproducts are called, on farms and other land in 2022. A study published in August found higher levels of PFAS in the blood of people in Maine who drank water from wells next to farms where biosolids were spread.Contamination in sewage mostly comes from industrial discharges. But household sludge also contains PFAS because the chemicals are prevalent in personal care products and other commonly used items, said Sarah Alexander, executive director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.“We found that farms that were spread with sludge in the ’80s are still contaminated today,” Alexander said.The first PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, were invented in the 1940s to prevent stains and sticking in household products. Today, PFAS chemicals are used in anything from cookware to cosmetics to some types of firefighting foam — ending up in landfills and wastewater treatment plants. Known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment, PFAS are so toxic that in water they are measured in parts per trillion, equivalent to one drop in 20 Olympic-size swimming pools. The chemicals accumulate in the human body.On Valle’s farm, her well water has PFAS concentrations eight times as high as the safety threshold the Environmental Protection Agency set this year for the PFAS chemical referred to as PFOS. It’s unclear whether the new drinking water standards, which are in a five-year implementation phase, will be enforced by the incoming Trump administration.Valle’s well is one of 20 sites tested in California’s San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast regions — 10 private domestic wells and 10 public water systems — in the first round of preliminary sampling by UC-Berkeley researchers and the Community Water Center, a clean-water nonprofit. They’re planning community meetings to discuss the findings with residents when the results are finalized. Valle’s results showed 96 parts per trillion of total PFAS in her water, including 32 ppt of PFOS — both considered potentially hazardous amounts.Hailey Shingler, who was part of the team that conducted the water sampling, said the sites’ proximity to farmland suggests agricultural operations could be a contamination source, or that the chemicals have become ubiquitous in the environment.The EPA requires public water systems serving at least 3,300 people to test for 29 types of PFAS. But private wells are unregulated and particularly vulnerable to contamination from groundwater because they tend to be shallower and construction quality varies, Shingler said.A strain on the water supplyCalifornia already faces a drinking water crisis that disproportionately hits farmworkers and communities of color. More than 825,000 people spanning almost 400 water systems across the state don’t have access to clean or reliable drinking water because of contamination from nitrates, heavy metals, and pesticides.California’s Central Valley is one of the nation’s biggest agricultural producers. State data shows the EPA found PFAS contamination above the new safety threshold in public drinking water supplies in some cities there: Fresno, Lathrop, Manteca, and others.Not long after she moved, Valle started feeling sick. Joints in her legs hurt, and there was a burning sensation. Medical tests revealed her blood had high levels of heavy metals, especially arsenic, she said. She plans to get herself tested for PFAS soon, too.“So I stopped eating [or drinking] anything from the farm,” Valle said, “and a week later my numbers went down.”After that, she got a water filter installed for her house, but the system doesn’t remove PFAS, so she and her family continue to drink bottled water, she said.In recent years, the pesticide industry has increased its use of PFAS for both active and “inert” ingredients, said David Andrews, a senior scientist of the Environmental Working Group, who analyzed pesticide ingredient registrations submitted to the EPA over the past decade as part of a recently published study.“PFAS not only endanger agricultural workers and communities,” Andrews said, “but also jeopardize downstream water sources, where pesticide runoff can contaminate drinking supplies.”California’s most concentrated pesticide use is along the Central Coast, where Valle lives, and in the Central Valley, said Pace, whose research found that possible PFAS contamination from pesticides disproportionately affects communities of color.“Our results indicate racial and ethnic disparities in potential PFAS threats to community water systems, thus raising environmental justice concerns,” the paper states.Spotty solutionsSome treatment plants and public water systems have installed filtration systems to catch PFAS, but that can cost millions or even billions of dollars. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed laws restricting PFAS in textiles, food packaging, and cosmetics, a move the wastewater treatment industry hopes will address the problem at the source.Yet the state, like the EPA, does not regulate PFAS in the solid waste generated by sewage treatment plants, though it does require monitoring.In the past, biosolids were routinely sent to landfills alongside being spread on land. But in 2016, California lawmakers passed a regulation that requested operators to lower their organic waste disposal by 75% by 2025 to reduce methane emissions. That squeeze pushed facilities to repurpose more of their wastewater treatment byproducts as fertilizer, compost, and soil topper on farm fields, forests, and other sites.Greg Kester, director of renewable resource programs at the California Association of Sanitation Agencies, said there are benefits to using biosolids as fertilizer, including improved soil health, increased crop yields, reduced irrigation needs, and carbon sequestration. “We have to look at the risk of not applying [it on farmland] as well,” he said.Almost two-thirds of the 776,000 dry metric tons of biosolids California used or disposed of last year was spread this way, most of it hauled from wealthy, populated regions like Los Angeles County and the Bay Area to the Central Valley or out of state.When asked if California would consider banning biosolids from agricultural use, Wendy Linck, a senior engineering geologist at California’s State Water Resources Control Board, said: “I don’t think that is in the future.”Average PFAS concentrations found in California’s sampling of biosolids for PFAS collected by wastewater treatment plants are relatively low compared with more industrialized states like Maine, said Rashi Gupta, wastewater practice director at consulting firm Carollo Engineers.Still, according to monitoring done in 2020 and 2022, San Francisco’s two wastewater treatment facilities produced biosolid samples with total PFAS levels of more than 150 parts per billion.Starting in 2019, the water board began testing wells — and finding high levels of PFAS — near known sites of contamination, like airports, landfills, and industry.The agency is now testing roughly 4,000 wells statewide, including those far from known contamination sources — free of charge in disadvantaged communities, according to Dan Newton, assistant deputy director at the state water board’s division of drinking water. The effort will take about two years.Solano County — home to large pastures about an hour northeast of San Francisco — tested soil where biosolids had been applied to its fields, most of which came from the Bay Area. In preliminary results, consultants found PFAS at every location, including places where biosolids had historically not been applied. In recent years, landowners expressed reservations about the county’s biosolids program, and in 2024 no farms participated in the practice, said Trey Strickland, manager of the environmental health services division.“It was probably a ‘not in my backyard’ kind of thing,” Strickland said. “Spread the poop somewhere else, away from us.”Los Angeles County, meanwhile, hauls much of its biosolids to Kern County or out of state. Green Acres, a farm near Bakersfield and owned by the city of Los Angeles, has applied as much as 80,000 dry tons of biosolids annually, fertilizing crops for animal feed like corn and wheat. Concerned about the environmental and health implications, for more than a decade Kern County fought the practice until the legal battle ended in 2017. At the time, Dean Florez, a former state senator, told the Los Angeles Times that “it’s been a David and Goliath battle from Day One.”“We probably won’t know the effects of this for many years,” he added. “We do know one thing: If it was healthy and OK, L.A. would do it in L.A. County.”KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism. This story also ran on San Francisco Chronicle. It can be republished for free.

Chemicals
Water
Crisis

Chemical Fire at Atlanta-Area Plant Sparks Local Movement Against BioLab

Skin rashes, breathing difficulties and “generational rage” led residents to join a nationwide push against companies accused of endangering health and the environment. The post Chemical Fire at Atlanta-Area Plant Sparks Local Movement Against BioLab appeared first on .

In late September, a massive billow of smoke from a chemical fire spread over metro Atlanta, lingering for weeks and prompting national news coverage. The smoke has cleared, but the anger has not dissipated in Conyers, the city of 20,000 where the fire occurred, and in surrounding areas. (Conyers lies 24 miles east of downtown Atlanta.) Smoke from the blaze left some residents with breathing difficulties, headaches, dizziness and skin rashes in the days that followed, along with a deepening worry about their community’s safety.   The fire was pool-chemical company BioLab’s fourth in the last two decades, a track record that has created what one observer described as “generational rage” among residents. Some are now turning to activism for the first time, joined by Atlanta-area, mostly Black-led community groups. The population of Conyers is nearly two-thirds Black, causing some in the community to argue that the repeated industrial accidents at the BioLab facility are an example of environmental racism. The result: an unusually fast-growing grassroots movement led by residents fed up with a company that they say has jeopardized their health and the environment for decades. They also blame local, state and federal authorities for failing to inform the community about the accident’s cause and impact in a timely or transparent manner. Many residents want to see the BioLab facility, which is one of the largest employers in town, permanently shut down. Short of that, they seek to prevent future accidents. BioLab declined to comment, directing Capital & Main to its website, which asserted the company’s commitment to supporting affected residents. In October, BioLab opened a 24/7 call center and a community assistance center, and it has provided ongoing debris removal services. According to the website, the company’s remediation efforts are being conducted under the oversight of Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (GEPD). (In response to a query about the community’s concerns, the GEPD referred Capital & Main to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.) The cause of the most recent fire was still under investigation as of Nov. 1, according to the company’s website. The response of the company and environmental regulators to the fire has been cold comfort to residents of Conyers and surrounding areas, who are demanding to know if their health is at risk. Locals have been confused about the accident’s reach and immediate and long-term impacts. Rockdale County, where BioLab is located, lifted shelter-in-place orders in mid-October after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported that the accident site had been cleaned and levels of chlorine in the community’s air met federal standards. In the days following the fire, Nga Lee (Sally) Ng, professor at the Georgia Tech School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, reported high levels of chlorine and bromine in the air.  Debris was still being cleared from the site of the Sept. 29 BioLab fire in early December. Photo: Jesse Pratt López. Residents also expressed deep frustration over what they say was a disorganized evacuation process and the mixed messages from local authorities about when it was safe to return home. Neke Stroud, a longtime Conyers resident, attempted to follow Rockdale County’s Sept. 29 evacuation orders but got stuck in traffic for hours with her elderly father, ultimately returning home. Local business owner Larry Cox tried to return to his company after Rockdale County lifted its shelter-in-place order on Oct. 17, only to be turned back by police.  Galvanized by the incident, residents of the small city and surrounding counties have gathered more than 11,000 signatures supporting a shut down of BioLab, nearly two-thirds from the Conyers area; a Facebook group called Stand Against BioLab in Rockdale County, Ga has attracted 1,600 members; local farmers are organizing amongst themselves; and residents are connecting with people in other communities affected by industrial disasters, including East Palestine, Ohio, which was exposed to toxic fumes after last year’s Norfolk Southern train wreck. Independent research efforts have also been launched to assess everything from dioxin levels in soil to the fire’s impacts on the health and well-being of people and animals. “I’ve never been in a situation where pretty much everyone on the ground, in the community, was ready to go, as soon as the disaster happened,” said Paul Glaze, spokesperson for Georgia Conservation Voters Education Fund, about the grassroots response. The group is supporting some of the organizing efforts. Glaze said dozens of residents of Conyers and surrounding counties have contacted his organization, complaining of symptoms such as difficulty breathing, skin rashes, dizziness and headaches. Madelyne Reece is one of the locals whose concerns have moved her to act. Reece moved to Conyers in 2020; her home is about five miles from the BioLab facility. She went to the emergency room four days after the chemical fire began because she was having trouble breathing and feeling nauseous. Doctors prescribed steroids. Since then, she’s suffered from a persistent cough. Madelyne Reece at a Dec. 3 community forum in Conyers where residents met to discuss concerns about the recent BioLab fire. The event featured guests from East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a train derailment and chemical spill in early 2023. Photo: Jesse Pratt López. Reece launched the Facebook group advocating for the BioLab facility’s closure in early October as a “place where we could figure out what we need to do and get ourselves heard.” Reece, who works in human resources at an Atlanta golf club, also spoke at a mid-October rally in downtown Conyers. “This is absolutely a first for me,” she said of both efforts. Stroud is also new to activism. Her family has been living in Conyers for nearly a hundred years, but it wasn’t until BioLab sent plumes of smoke wafting over her neighborhood in September that she became the first among her relatives to help organize a protest rally. Stroud’s mother developed colon cancer after the company’s 2004 fire and died in 2014. Her family suspected the cancer was tied to the fire and explored suing BioLab, but Stroud believes that her parents accepted a payment from BioLab and therefore could not sue the company. The company’s website states that “residents and business owners that receive standard financial assistance from the Company will not be asked to release any claims they may have against BioLab or its affiliates arising from the fire.” The company did not respond to a question about whether such terms existed in the past.  The company’s website also notes that as of Nov. 9, a call center set up after the fire had handled more than 15,700 inquiries related to claims, reimbursement requests and other concerns. After the September accident, Stroud said, “I think I’ve had enough.” She began handing out flyers at a local Walmart inviting locals to the Oct. 19 protest rally aimed at shutting down the plant, which has been a presence in the area since 1973. Neke Stroud attends a Dec. 3 community forum in Conyers. Photo: Jesse Pratt López. “Organizing is new to me. But this is personal,” she told Capital & Main. She said the company’s history of environmental contamination has led to “a situation where money outweighs life.” Scott Smith, a Boston-based inventor and businessman, is leading one of the independent research efforts. He has worked with a volunteer team of scientists to test water, soil and debris for different chemicals following environmental disasters across the country since 2006, when his own company’s site was flooded with water contaminated by oil.  Smith has visited East Palestine; Flint, Michigan; and a host of other disaster sites in the last 18 years, around 60 all told. Since the BioLab fire, he’s traveled twice to Conyers, taking dozens of samples to be tested at a Massachusetts lab. He has yet to announce results. Community reaction has not been limited to Conyers residents, as the billows of smoke have traveled with the wind. Ina Braxton runs a small farm in Covington, about 15 miles southeast of Conyers. She was outside on the morning of Sept. 29 when the fire ignited. “Within 30 minutes of the fire,” she said, “my skin started to itch and break out in bumps.” She’s been having difficulty breathing ever since, and wound up deciding to burn her crops — cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers — because she “didn’t want to put produce in the market and have someone getting sick.” Braxton estimates she’s lost more than $35,000 in produce, soil and equipment. She contacted the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a local agricultural extension service for advice — as well as BioLab — but got no response. In the absence of accurate, timely information, she’s decided to organize fellow farmers. “If no one’s looking our way, we have no idea what the summer’s going to look like,” she said, referring to the potential of lingering contamination in soil and water. She and 15 other small-farm owners are seeking help testing for harmful chemicals.  Ina Braxton on her farm in Covington. Photo: Jesse Pratt López. Braxton also said she would like to organize small farms statewide, and gain access to information about industrial polluters, “so when you’re buying farmland, you know if they could cause issues.”  Like all other residents interviewed for this story, Reece wants to see BioLab shut down in her town — but added, “I don’t want to dump this on somebody else.” Instead, she’d like to see laws that address such disasters and “bigger financial penalties when companies are out of compliance.” Rockdale County, where Conyers is located, has sued the company, seeking compensation and to shut the BioLab facility down. County representatives did not respond to repeated queries. Reece said the lawsuit was “a step in the right direction,” adding, “The community taking to the streets moved the needle.”  Communities banding together after industrial accidents like the one at the BioLab facility is not a new phenomenon, said Tracy Perkins, Arizona State University professor and author of a book on environmental activism. These incidents “kick off heightened awareness of the risks people are living under … [and] pull people together quickly when they realize, ‘We all live here, we don’t want this noxious facility,’” she said.  At the same time, Perkins noted that shutting down a plant is “a big lift” for communities affected by pollution — especially when it employs many residents or supports the local tax base, as the BioLab facility does. Communities have found more success organizing to prevent polluters from setting up or expanding in the first place, she said. A banner advertises a local law firm’s services to residents affected by the BioLab fire. Photo: Jesse Pratt López. At a Facebook Live event in October, East Palestine residents recounted cautionary tales about unscrupulous attorneys and explained the intricacies of class-action lawsuits. Many Georgia residents are grappling with tough decisions in the wake of the BioLab fire, including how to find the right lawyer, and whether to file a reimbursement claim with the company or join a lawsuit against it.  Connecting with other communities should be even easier for the nascent Georgia activists in the coming months. In early December, Rockdale County joined the Chemically Impacted Communities Coalition, a group of 35 communities advocating for stronger safety regulations, improved emergency response protocols and increased accountability from corporations and government agencies. The group was founded earlier this year by East Palestine resident Jami Wallace. Meanwhile, Reece said, organizing against the company makes her feel like she has two jobs. The work is “stressful,” but also “gratifying,” she said. “It’s a beautiful thing our community is doing everything it can.” Copyright 2024 Capital & Main

Chemicals
Health
Agriculture

Plastics lobbyists make up biggest group at vital UN treaty talks

Fossil fuel and chemical industry representatives outnumber those of the EU or host country South KoreaRecord numbers of plastic industry lobbyists are attending global talks that are the last chance to hammer out a treaty to cut plastic pollution across the world.The key issue at the conference will be whether caps on global plastic production will be included in the final UN treaty. Lobbyists and leading national producers are furiously arguing against any attempt to restrain the amount that can be produced, leaving the talks on a knife-edge. Continue reading...

Record numbers of plastic industry lobbyists are attending global talks that are the last chance to hammer out a treaty to cut plastic pollution across the world.The key issue at the conference will be whether caps on global plastic production will be included in the final UN treaty. Lobbyists and leading national producers are furiously arguing against any attempt to restrain the amount that can be produced, leaving the talks on a knife-edge.New analysis by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) shows 220 fossil fuel and chemical industry representatives, more plastic producers than ever, are represented at the UN talks in Busan, South Korea.Taken as a group, they would be the biggest delegation at the talks, with more plastic industry lobbyists than representatives from the EU and each of its member states, (191) or the host country, South Korea, (140), according to the Centre for International Environmental Law. Their numbers overwhelm the 89 delegates from the Pacific small island developing states (PSIDs), countries which are among those suffering the most from plastic pollution.Sixteen lobbyists from the plastics industry are at the talks as part of country delegations. China, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Finland, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Malaysia all have industry vested interests within their delegations, the analysis shows. The plastic producer representatives also outnumber delegates from the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty by three to one.Approximately 460m tonnes of plastics are produced annually, and production is set to triple by 2060 under business-as-usual growth rates.More than 900 independent scientists have signed a declaration calling UN negotiators to agree on a comprehensive and ambitious global plastics treaty, based on robust scientific evidence, to end plastic pollution by 2040.According to the Scientists’ Declaration, the harm caused by plastic pollution cannot be prevented by improvements in waste management alone.But the world’s plastic producers have lobbied repeatedly against caps. Countries with large fossil fuel industries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran, called the “like-minded” group, have eschewed production cuts and emphasised waste management as the main solution to the crisis.Delphine Levi Alvares, the global petrochemical campaign coordinator at CIEL, said: “From the moment the gavel came down … to now, we have watched industry lobbyists surrounding the negotiations with sadly well-known tactics of obstruction, distraction, intimidation, and misinformation.“Their strategy – lifted straight from the climate negotiations playbook – is designed to preserve the financial interests of countries and companies who are putting their fossil-fuelled profits above human health, human rights, and the future of the planet.”She said the mandate for the treaty was clear: to end plastic pollution.“Ever-growing evidence from independent scientists, frontline communities, and Indigenous peoples clearly shows that this won’t be achieved without reducing plastic production. The choice is clear: our lives or their bottom line.”skip past newsletter promotionThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essentialPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionGraham Forbes, the head of Greenpeace’s delegation, said: “The analysis exposes a desperate industry willing to sacrifice our planet and poison our children to protect its profits. Fossil fuel and petrochemical lobbyists, aided by a handful of member states, must not dictate the outcome of these critical negotiations.“The moral, economic, and scientific imperatives are clear: by the end of the week, member states must deliver a global plastics treaty that prioritises human health and a livable planet over CEO payouts.”Plastic waste has more than doubled, from 156m tonnes in 2000 to 353m tonnes in 2019, and only 9% was ultimately recycled, according to an OECD report.The Guardian and Unearthed revealed last week that five fossil fuel and chemical companies, who formed a voluntary alliance to end plastic waste, have produced 1,000 times more new plastic than the waste they have cleared in five years.Two of those five companies, Dow and Exxon Mobil, some of the world’s biggest producers of plastic, are among the best represented plastic industry lobbyists at the Busan talks, with five and four delegates respectively.

Chemicals
Pollution
Climate

Where Do Butterflies Migrate From? Clues Can Be Found in Pollen on Their Bodies

Trillions of insects move around the globe each year. Scientists are working on new ways to map those long-distance journeys

A painted lady perches on a flower. Ennio Borgato / iNaturalist CC By-SA 4.0 On a warm summer morning in Ypres, Belgium, 66-year-old Sylvain Cuvelier steps into his blooming garden with his 14-year-old granddaughter, hoping to identify and count all the fluttering butterflies. Other days, he helps scientists by netting butterfly samples. Then he records each sighting’s location using GPS, logs them in his Excel database and sometimes sends the samples to his academic colleagues, who will analyze pollen grains clinging to the insects’ bodies. Those tiny pollen grains, gathered by citizen scientists like Cuvelier, are helping researchers study a process that until now has been largely inscrutable: the migratory patterns of insects as they move around the globe over the course of multiple generations. Using pollen, scientists have been able to identify where individual butterflies began their journeys, and even infer the events that likely triggered their migration. The knowledge may help conservationists better understand some of the effects of climate change—not only on the insects themselves, but also on their migrations and the ecosystems they inhabit. A lot of insects spend their whole lives in one place. Many others migrate, as many birds do, to avoid harsh weather, to find food or to breed. Some estimates suggest that trillions of insects migrate across the globe each year, yet scientists know little about where they go or how they get there. Tracking insect migration is not as straightforward as tracking birds or mammals. With birds, “you can attach a ring to the leg or use radio tracking, and it’s easy to prove that they move from point A to B,” says Tomasz Suchan, a molecular ecologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow. But most insects are too small for these techniques to be successful. In North America, researchers have had some success tracking monarch butterflies, known for their remarkable migration from southern Canada and the northern United States to central Mexico. In the early 1990s, the Monarch Watch citizen science initiative began tagging butterflies around the Rocky Mountains. Over two million monarchs have been tagged, with more than 19,000 recoveries reported in Mexico, where monarchs congregate to roost for the winter. This has helped biologists to track their migration routes. Butterflies without such well-defined aggregations are more difficult to track, however. For example, painted lady butterflies often appear in Europe in the fall, sometimes in great abundance. “Then they disappear, and we don’t really know where they go,” says Gerard Talavera, an entomologist at the Botanical Institute of Barcelona. Some years back, Talavera and his team realized they might be able to track the butterflies indirectly, by studying the pollen that accumulates on their bodies. Every time a butterfly visits a flower for a sip of nectar, it also picks up grains of pollen. If the researchers could identify plants from their pollen, confirm where and when the plants were blooming, and keep tracing them as the butterflies reached different geographic regions, perhaps they could follow the butterflies’ overall journey. “The method is like we put a GPS on them,” Talavera says. “Because we cannot do that, this is the closest we can go.” Pollen migratory maps The scientists were able to test the idea in 2019, when painted ladies experienced one of their sporadic population booms. In March of that year, as swarms of the butterflies appeared in the Middle East and the Mediterranean, the citizen scientists netted butterfly samples, then preserved them in an alcohol mixture and shipped them to Talavera’s lab. There, researchers isolated the pollen grains attached to the butterflies’ bodies and sequenced a particular stretch of the pollen DNA that offers a unique signature for each plant species, a process known as metabarcoding. All the while, citizen scientists kept netting butterfly samples as the population surge gradually spread through eastern, northern and western Europe over the following months, reaching southern Morocco in early November. Analyzing pollen collected from 264 butterflies from ten different countries in seven months, the researchers identified 398 different plants they could use to track the butterflies’ movements backward through the year. From this, they found that swarms of butterflies observed in Russia, Scandinavia and the Baltic countries were likely the offspring of butterflies originating from the surge in Arabia and the Middle East. This appears to have spread to Eastern Europe, then Scandinavia and then to Western Europe, resulting in a noticeable population boom in the United Kingdom, France and Spain. From there, the butterflies may have migrated to southern Morocco, likely continuing on to tropical Africa to complete their annual cycle. The pollen record even suggested a reason why painted ladies suddenly became so abundant in 2019. Butterflies collected from the eastern Mediterranean, right in the beginning of the population spike, were carrying pollen from plant species found primarily in semi-arid shrublands, grasslands and salt marshes of northern Arabia and the Middle East. Examining satellite images, the researchers noticed that from December 2018 to April 2019, those plants experienced big boosts in growth following a period of unusually heavy rainfall. That burst of growth, the researchers speculate, may have provided ideal conditions for the butterflies to feed and breed, kicking off the population explosion and leaving a ripple effect that affected many generations. Talavera and his team have used pollen signatures to track other butterfly movements as well. In 2013, for example, painted lady butterflies had been found resting on the coast of South America, in French Guiana. Painted ladies don’t normally live in South America, and it was a mystery where they had come from. A decade later, Talavera’s team sampled pollen from the still-preserved butterfly bodies and found that Guiera senegalensis, a common plant found only in sub-Saharan Africa, was by far the most common type of pollen attached to these butterflies. By analyzing coastal surveys, wind patterns, pollen and environmental conditions, they confirmed that the butterflies probably crossed the Atlantic in up to eight days’ worth of continuous flight from Africa. This finding marked the first verified instance of an insect crossing the Atlantic. “The use of pollen metabarcoding to track where each generation of butterflies comes from and how they progress through the cycle is super novel,” says Christine Merlin, a biologist at Texas A&M University and co-author of an article on the neurobiology of butterfly migration in the Annual Review of Entomology. Because it identifies individual plant species, she notes, this method promises greater precision than the standard method, isotope signature analysis, which tracks regional variations in the insects’ chemical makeup. While painted ladies serve as a model system for understanding insect migration, researchers say they are confident that this method could be suited for tracking other migrating pollinators that actively visit flowers to collect nectar, including other butterflies, syrphid flies, wasps, beetles and moths. Tracking migration routes of insects could be of growing importance in the face of changing climate, because such insects can carry fungal diseases in addition to pollen. In fact, Suchan detected many species of fungi in some butterflies. Approximately 1,000 fungi are known to affect insects, and over 19,000 can affect crops. Thus, migrating insects could potentially spread these fungal diseases across continents, posing risks to ecosystems and economies. Talavera, Suchan and colleagues hope that using pollen signatures to map changing migration patterns could help to predict where fungal disease outbreaks might occur. Cuvelier, meanwhile, hopes to continue counting butterflies with his granddaughter. Ecologists will increasingly need more “big data” to understand large-scale phenomena, he says. Without citizen scientists, he says, “it is impossible for researchers to gather such databases.” Besides, he adds, young people have more to learn from citizen science than just how to catch a butterfly. “They learn about nature,” he says, “and this fosters curiosity in the world.”Knowable Magazine is an independent journalistic endeavor from Annual Reviews. Get the latest Science stories in your inbox.

Chemicals
Climate
Conservation

Wildfire Smoke Linked to Increased Risk of Dementia

The particles that make up wildfire smoke may raise the risk of dementia even more than similar airborne pollutants from other sources

November 26, 20243 min readWildfire Smoke Linked to Increased Risk of DementiaThe particles that make up wildfire smoke may raise the risk of dementia even more than similar airborne pollutants from other sourcesBy Chelsea Harvey & E&E NewsA firefighter is surrounded by heavy smoke as he battles the advancing Silverado Fire fueled by Santa Ana winds at the 241 toll road and Portola Parkway on October 26, 2020 in Irvine, California. Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesCLIMATEWIRE | Wildfire smoke can aggravate a variety of medical conditions, from asthma to heart disease.Now, new research adds another worry to the mix. It can elevate the risk of dementia.A study published Monday in the scientific journal JAMA Neurology, finds that long-term exposure to smoke concentrations is associated with a higher risk of dementia diagnosis over time. For every one microgram increase in wildfire pollution per cubic meter of air over the course of a three-year period, the odds of dementia diagnosis rise by about 18 percent, the study finds.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.That’s compared with each person’s baseline risk of dementia diagnosis, which remains relatively low among the general population. Still, the increased risks are large enough to pose a public health concern.The study focuses on a form of air pollution known as particulate matter — tiny, inhalable particles, with diameters of 2.5 micrometers or smaller. This kind of air pollution can originate from a variety of sources, including automobiles, industrial sources and fires.Previous studies already have suggested that particulate matter can increase the risk of dementia, among other health problems. The new research zooms in specifically on particles produced by wildfire smoke, which can have different chemical and physical properties than particles produced by other sources.The study examined medical records from more than 1 million people in Southern California from 2008 to 2019, all part of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California medical care consortium. It also analyzed air quality records from the same time period to estimate long-term pollution concentrations, including particles stemming directly from wildfire smoke.The study found that wildfire smoke increases the risk of dementia significantly more than particulate matter from other sources. There are several reasons that could be the case, the researchers say.Wildfire smoke particles tend to have higher concentrations of molecules known for toxic or inflammatory properties. And wildfire smoke tends to spike at certain times of the year, compared with other kinds of air pollution — intermittently exposing communities to extremely high pollution concentrations, which may have greater effects on their health.The study also found that certain demographics are at higher risk than others, including people with lower incomes and people of color, including Black, Hispanic and Asian communities.Low-income communities often are at higher risk of exposure to air pollution, the researchers note. Lower quality housing in these communities may allow particulate matter to infiltrate homes more easily, and residents may have less access to air filtration systems.Marginalized groups also may contend with more health challenges, in part because of systemic discrimination, compounding their risks of developing dementia later in life.“We know that climate change impacts the most vulnerable communities first and worst and we appear to see a similar signal in our data,” said Joan Casey, an environmental epidemiologist and co-author of the new study, in an email to POLITICO'S E&E News.Policymakers can take certain steps to protect these vulnerable communities, she added. They can make sure that all communications about public health are issued in multiple languages. And they can push for policies aimed at combating climate change, reducing other sources of air pollution and mitigating wildfires through strategies such as science-based controlled burns.Meanwhile, there are other questions that scientists can examine in future research.The new study looked at dementia of all kinds. But future studies can investigate whether certain types of conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, have stronger ties to wildfire smoke than others.The research team is also “very curious” about the effects of multiple climate hazards working together, Casey added. If wildfires happen to coincide with power outages, for instance, that could restrict the ability of many households to use air filtration systems — potentially worsening their health risks.These kinds of questions are growing more urgent as the effects of climate change worsen. Recent research has found that about a quarter of all particulate matter pollution in the United States comes from wildfire smoke. And in parts of the Western U.S., smoke is responsible for as much as half.Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.

Chemicals
Climate
Energy

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