Sadly, the second herpes virus-related death occurred after this story was released at the Albuquerque BioPark. The victim was a five-year old Asian elephant named Daizy.
Source:
The Scientist
Sadly, the second herpes virus-related death occurred after this story was released at the Albuquerque BioPark. The victim was a five-year old Asian elephant named Daizy.
Source:
The Scientist
This week, the Center for Public Integrity launched a new investigative series into the failure of regulators to protect workers for toxic exposures. The series begins with the story of a bricklayer who developed acute silicosis after exposure to silica, a deadly substance that threatens more than 2 million workers and that OSHA has been struggling to regulate for 40 years. The bricklayer, Chris Johnson, is just 40 years old and can expect to survive less than five years. Reporters Jim Morris, Jamie Smith Hopkins and Maryam Jameel write:
An 18-month investigation by the Center for Public Integrity has found that the epidemic of occupational disease in America isn’t merely the product of neglect or misconduct by employers. It’s the predictable result of a bifurcated system of hazard regulation — one for the general public and another, far weaker, for workers. Risks of cancer and other illnesses considered acceptable at a workplace wouldn’t be tolerated outside of it.
For years, the best OSHA has been able to do is set chemical limits so that no more than one extra cancer case would be expected among every 1,000 workers exposed at the legal maximum over their entire careers. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for the public are 10 to 1,000 times more protective. The real gap is often worse, a former OSHA official says.
“I can’t see any justification for treating people that differently,” said Adam M. Finkel, who heads the Penn Program on Regulation at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and was director of health standards programs at OSHA from 1995 to 2000.
The reporters describe the toll of such occupational illnesses as a “slow-motion tragedy” that often unravels outside of the public eye. Among the investigation’s top findings is that the system for preventing occupational illnesses and fatalities linked to chemical, fume and dust exposure is so weak that “OSHA warns companies not to rely on its legal exposure limits to protect employees.” In addition, a Center for Public Integrity analysis found that U.S. workers face high cancer risks if exposed over their careers to certain chemicals at their legal limits. Going back to the example of silica exposure and the 40-year fight to protect worker health and safety, the reporters write:
In February 2011, OSHA finally sent a proposed silica rule to the Office of Management and Budget for vetting. It emerged 921 days later in 2013. OMB officials will not say why it took so long; 90 days, plus a single 30-day extension, is supposed to be the maximum unless the rulemaking agency asks for more time.
Apart from trimming the silica exposure limit to the NIOSH-recommended number for all workers, the proposed standard would require employers to control dust with methods such as water or vacuum systems and provide medical monitoring for highly exposed workers. OSHA predicted it would save nearly 700 lives and prevent 1,600 new cases of silicosis per year.
The Labor Department held 14 days of hearings in Washington, D.C., in the spring of 2014. Among the witnesses was construction worker Santiago Hernandez, who’d come to the United States five years earlier from Tlaxcala, Mexico, expecting to find safer conditions.
Instead, he said in written testimony, “things are actually much worse here than in Mexico. … The protections you receive here are useless. Employers give you a little paper mask that, when you finish, is just as dirty and dusty on the inside as on the outside.”
To read the full story, which was co-published with Slate, click here. To read the full investigative series, titled “Unequal Risk,” as well as future installments coming this week and stories from families affected by occupational illness, visit the Center for Public Integrity. Also, click here for a number of helpful infographics that illustrate the state of occupational illness and the regulatory response.
In other news:
Frontline: In “Rape on the Night Shift,” Bernice Yeung writes about the women janitors who face rape and sexual assault risks while they work in typically isolated surroundings and often for companies more concerned with public embarrassment than employee safety. Yeung begins the story with Erika Morales, who worked for a subsidiary of ABM Industries Inc., the largest cleaning company in the country. Morales said she faced persistent sexual harassment from a supervisor and one night, as she was cleaning a local branch of Bank of America, her supervisor cornered her and began forcefully taking off her clothes. Fortunately, Morales was able to fight him off. In her investigation, Yeung found 42 lawsuits from the past 20 years in which ABM janitors said they were sexually harassed, assaulted or raped at work. She writes: “The night shift janitor is an easy target for abuse. She clocks in after the last worker has flipped off the lights and locked the door. It’s tough work done for little pay in the anonymity of night, among mazes of empty cubicles and conference rooms. She’s even less likely to speak up if she’s afraid of being deported or fired.” To watch a Frontline investigative report about rape on the night shift and read more in-depth coverage on the issue, click here.
NPR: OSHA is launching a new program to protect the health and safety of nurses, reports Daniel Zwerdling, who earlier this year authored an in-depth series on the dangerous experiences and conditions nurses often face on the job as well as the employers who turn their backs on nurses who’ve sustained preventable injuries at work. In an exclusive interview with NPR, OSHA chief David Michaels said agency inspectors will begin investigating what hospitals are doing to protect nurses. While OSHA has previously made recommendations on how hospitals can prevent high rates of injuries among nurses, Michaels said OSHA will now move from “merely recommending safe practices to potentially fining hospitals if they do not adopt them,” Zwerdling reports. However, there is skepticism about just how much of a difference OSHA’s new actions can make. Zwerdling writes: “For instance, OSHA’s staff is so small compared to its mission that OSHA officials estimate it would take 100 years to inspect every workplace in the nation just once. So even though the agency has more than 1,000 inspectors, an OSHA official acknowledges that they will likely investigate dozens of the nation’s 4,000 hospitals each year, not hundreds.”
Huffington Post: Dave Jamieson reports that IKEA says its previous wage hike was so successful, the company plans to raise wages again — the new increase will bring starting wages at the furniture company to nearly $12 an hour. In January, IKEA implemented a system in which the starting wage for any given U.S. store takes into account that particular community’s cost of living as determined by the MIT Living Wage Calculator. Jamieson writes that IKEA reports a number of benefits after raising wages, including less employee turnover and the ability to attract more qualified applicants. Jamieson reports: “Ikea may have implemented its raises in the most unique manner, thanks to its reliance on the MIT Living Wage Calculator. For comparison, at the College Park, Maryland, store, in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, the minimum wage will be $14.54 next year, while at the store in Pittsburgh, it will be $10.”
Slate: Alison Griswold interviews Barbara Ann Berwick, the woman at the center of the recent California Labor Commission ruling that deemed Berwick an employee of the ride-hailing service Uber, as opposed to an independent contractor. While Uber is appealing the decision, the commission ruled that Uber owed her about $4000 in expenses. In response to the success, Berwick says she plans to launch a series of classes on how drivers can successfully file complaints against Uber and be deemed official employees of the company. Griswold writes: “(Berwick) breezes through the company’s ‘control mechanisms’ for its drivers— last-minute cancellations without pay, the five-star rating system, rider feedback, and weekly emails — as though she is delivering a well-practiced spiel. ‘Four mechanisms don’t just constitute pervasive control,’ Berwick says, citing a key phrase California uses to define an employer-employee relationship, ‘in my opinion, they constitute abject control.’”
Kim Krisberg is a freelance public health writer living in Austin, Texas, and has been writing about public health for more than a decade.
This week, the Center for Public Integrity launched a new investigative series into the failure of regulators to protect workers for toxic exposures. The series begins with the story of a bricklayer who developed acute silicosis after exposure to silica, a deadly substance that threatens more than 2 million workers and that OSHA has been struggling to regulate for 40 years. The bricklayer, Chris Johnson, is just 40 years old and can expect to survive less than five years. Reporters Jim Morris, Jamie Smith Hopkins and Maryam Jameel write:
An 18-month investigation by the Center for Public Integrity has found that the epidemic of occupational disease in America isn’t merely the product of neglect or misconduct by employers. It’s the predictable result of a bifurcated system of hazard regulation — one for the general public and another, far weaker, for workers. Risks of cancer and other illnesses considered acceptable at a workplace wouldn’t be tolerated outside of it.
For years, the best OSHA has been able to do is set chemical limits so that no more than one extra cancer case would be expected among every 1,000 workers exposed at the legal maximum over their entire careers. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for the public are 10 to 1,000 times more protective. The real gap is often worse, a former OSHA official says.
“I can’t see any justification for treating people that differently,” said Adam M. Finkel, who heads the Penn Program on Regulation at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and was director of health standards programs at OSHA from 1995 to 2000.
The reporters describe the toll of such occupational illnesses as a “slow-motion tragedy” that often unravels outside of the public eye. Among the investigation’s top findings is that the system for preventing occupational illnesses and fatalities linked to chemical, fume and dust exposure is so weak that “OSHA warns companies not to rely on its legal exposure limits to protect employees.” In addition, a Center for Public Integrity analysis found that U.S. workers face high cancer risks if exposed over their careers to certain chemicals at their legal limits. Going back to the example of silica exposure and the 40-year fight to protect worker health and safety, the reporters write:
In February 2011, OSHA finally sent a proposed silica rule to the Office of Management and Budget for vetting. It emerged 921 days later in 2013. OMB officials will not say why it took so long; 90 days, plus a single 30-day extension, is supposed to be the maximum unless the rulemaking agency asks for more time.
Apart from trimming the silica exposure limit to the NIOSH-recommended number for all workers, the proposed standard would require employers to control dust with methods such as water or vacuum systems and provide medical monitoring for highly exposed workers. OSHA predicted it would save nearly 700 lives and prevent 1,600 new cases of silicosis per year.
The Labor Department held 14 days of hearings in Washington, D.C., in the spring of 2014. Among the witnesses was construction worker Santiago Hernandez, who’d come to the United States five years earlier from Tlaxcala, Mexico, expecting to find safer conditions.
Instead, he said in written testimony, “things are actually much worse here than in Mexico. … The protections you receive here are useless. Employers give you a little paper mask that, when you finish, is just as dirty and dusty on the inside as on the outside.”
To read the full story, which was co-published with Slate, click here. To read the full investigative series, titled “Unequal Risk,” as well as future installments coming this week and stories from families affected by occupational illness, visit the Center for Public Integrity. Also, click here for a number of helpful infographics that illustrate the state of occupational illness and the regulatory response.
In other news:
Frontline: In “Rape on the Night Shift,” Bernice Yeung writes about the women janitors who face rape and sexual assault risks while they work in typically isolated surroundings and often for companies more concerned with public embarrassment than employee safety. Yeung begins the story with Erika Morales, who worked for a subsidiary of ABM Industries Inc., the largest cleaning company in the country. Morales said she faced persistent sexual harassment from a supervisor and one night, as she was cleaning a local branch of Bank of America, her supervisor cornered her and began forcefully taking off her clothes. Fortunately, Morales was able to fight him off. In her investigation, Yeung found 42 lawsuits from the past 20 years in which ABM janitors said they were sexually harassed, assaulted or raped at work. She writes: “The night shift janitor is an easy target for abuse. She clocks in after the last worker has flipped off the lights and locked the door. It’s tough work done for little pay in the anonymity of night, among mazes of empty cubicles and conference rooms. She’s even less likely to speak up if she’s afraid of being deported or fired.” To watch a Frontline investigative report about rape on the night shift and read more in-depth coverage on the issue, click here.
NPR: OSHA is launching a new program to protect the health and safety of nurses, reports Daniel Zwerdling, who earlier this year authored an in-depth series on the dangerous experiences and conditions nurses often face on the job as well as the employers who turn their backs on nurses who’ve sustained preventable injuries at work. In an exclusive interview with NPR, OSHA chief David Michaels said agency inspectors will begin investigating what hospitals are doing to protect nurses. While OSHA has previously made recommendations on how hospitals can prevent high rates of injuries among nurses, Michaels said OSHA will now move from “merely recommending safe practices to potentially fining hospitals if they do not adopt them,” Zwerdling reports. However, there is skepticism about just how much of a difference OSHA’s new actions can make. Zwerdling writes: “For instance, OSHA’s staff is so small compared to its mission that OSHA officials estimate it would take 100 years to inspect every workplace in the nation just once. So even though the agency has more than 1,000 inspectors, an OSHA official acknowledges that they will likely investigate dozens of the nation’s 4,000 hospitals each year, not hundreds.”
Huffington Post: Dave Jamieson reports that IKEA says its previous wage hike was so successful, the company plans to raise wages again — the new increase will bring starting wages at the furniture company to nearly $12 an hour. In January, IKEA implemented a system in which the starting wage for any given U.S. store takes into account that particular community’s cost of living as determined by the MIT Living Wage Calculator. Jamieson writes that IKEA reports a number of benefits after raising wages, including less employee turnover and the ability to attract more qualified applicants. Jamieson reports: “Ikea may have implemented its raises in the most unique manner, thanks to its reliance on the MIT Living Wage Calculator. For comparison, at the College Park, Maryland, store, in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, the minimum wage will be $14.54 next year, while at the store in Pittsburgh, it will be $10.”
Slate: Alison Griswold interviews Barbara Ann Berwick, the woman at the center of the recent California Labor Commission ruling that deemed Berwick an employee of the ride-hailing service Uber, as opposed to an independent contractor. While Uber is appealing the decision, the commission ruled that Uber owed her about $4000 in expenses. In response to the success, Berwick says she plans to launch a series of classes on how drivers can successfully file complaints against Uber and be deemed official employees of the company. Griswold writes: “(Berwick) breezes through the company’s ‘control mechanisms’ for its drivers— last-minute cancellations without pay, the five-star rating system, rider feedback, and weekly emails — as though she is delivering a well-practiced spiel. ‘Four mechanisms don’t just constitute pervasive control,’ Berwick says, citing a key phrase California uses to define an employer-employee relationship, ‘in my opinion, they constitute abject control.’”
Kim Krisberg is a freelance public health writer living in Austin, Texas, and has been writing about public health for more than a decade.
In the binary system V404 Cygni, a stream of gas from a star much like the sun flows toward a 10 solar mass black hole. Instead of spiraling toward the black hole, the gas accumulates in an accretion disk around it. Every couple of decades, the disk switches into a state that sends the gas rushing inward, starting a new outburst.
On June 15, just before 2:32 p.m. EDT, a NASA satellite detected a rising tide of high-energy X-rays from the constellation Cygnus. About 10 minutes later, a Japanese experiment on the International Space Station (ISS) also picked up the flare.
The outburst came from V404 Cygni, a binary system located about 8,000 light-years away that contains a black hole. Every couple of decades the black hole fires up in an outburst of high-energy light, becoming an X-ray nova. Until now, it had been slumbering since 1989.
An X-ray nova is a bright, short-lived X-ray source that reaches peak intensity in a few days and then fades out over a period of weeks or months. The outburst occurs when stored gas abruptly rushes toward a neutron star or black hole. By studying the patterns of the X-rays produced, astronomers can determine the kind of object at the heart of the eruption.
Neil Gehrels is the NASA Swift satellite’s principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He said:
Relative to the lifetime of space observatories, these black hole eruptions are quite rare. So when we see one of them flare up, we try to throw everything we have at it, monitoring across the spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays.
Astronomers classify this type of system as a low-mass X-ray binary. In V404 Cygni, a star slightly smaller than the sun orbits a black hole 10 times its mass in only 6.5 days. The close orbit and strong gravity of the black hole produce tidal forces that pull a stream of gas from its partner. The gas travels to a storage disk around the black hole and heats up to millions of degrees, producing a steady stream of X-rays as it falls inward.
But the disk flips between two dramatically different conditions. In its cooler state, the gas resists inward flow and just collects in the outer part of the disk like water behind a dam. Inevitably the build-up of gas overwhelms the dam, and a tsunami of hot bright gas rushes toward the black hole.
These images show the patch of the sky where the black-hole binary system V404 Cygni is located, as observed with the IBIS instrument on ESA’s Integral gamma-ray observatory. This system, comprising a black hole and a star orbiting one another, is located in our Milky Way galaxy, almost 8000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. On 15 June 2015, V404 Cygni started showing signs of extraordinary activity, something that had not happened since 1989. The renewed activity is likely caused by material slowly piling up in the disc, until eventually reaching a tipping point that dramatically changes the black hole’s feeding routine for a short period.The image on the left was taken on 19 May 2015, before the outburst: V404 Cygni is not present, and its position is marked with a cross. The image on the right, taken on 18 June 2015, shows V404 Cygni as the brightest source in the field. Image credit: ESA/Integral/IBIS/ISDC
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Astronomers relish the opportunity to collect simultaneous multiwavelength data on black hole binaries, especially one as close as V404 Cygni. In 1938 and 1956, astronomers caught V404 Cygni undergoing outbursts in visible light. During its eruption in 1989, the system was observed by Ginga, an X-ray satellite operated by Japan, and instruments aboard Russia’s Mir space station.
V404 Cygni has flared many times since the eruption began, with activity ranging from minutes to hours.
Erik Kuulkers, at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre in Madrid, said:
It repeatedly becomes the brightest object in the X-ray sky … It is definitely a ‘once in a professional lifetime’ opportunity.
In a single week, flares from V404 Cygni generated more than 70 “triggers” of the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) aboard Fermi. This is more than five times the number of triggers seen from all objects in the sky in a typical week. The GBM triggers when it detects a gamma-ray flare, then it sends numerous emails containing increasingly refined information about the event to scientists on duty.
Every time the GBM recovered from one trigger, V404 Cygni set it off again, resulting in a torrent of emails. The event prompted David Yu, a GBM scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, to comment on social media: Achievement Unlocked: Mailbox spammed by a blackhole.
Bottom line: On June 15,2015, V404 Cygni, a system comprising a black hole and a star orbiting one another, made its comeback to the cosmic stage. Over the past week, astronomers around the world have been observing the exceptional outburst of high-energy light produced by the black hole that is devouring material from its stellar companion.
In the binary system V404 Cygni, a stream of gas from a star much like the sun flows toward a 10 solar mass black hole. Instead of spiraling toward the black hole, the gas accumulates in an accretion disk around it. Every couple of decades, the disk switches into a state that sends the gas rushing inward, starting a new outburst.
On June 15, just before 2:32 p.m. EDT, a NASA satellite detected a rising tide of high-energy X-rays from the constellation Cygnus. About 10 minutes later, a Japanese experiment on the International Space Station (ISS) also picked up the flare.
The outburst came from V404 Cygni, a binary system located about 8,000 light-years away that contains a black hole. Every couple of decades the black hole fires up in an outburst of high-energy light, becoming an X-ray nova. Until now, it had been slumbering since 1989.
An X-ray nova is a bright, short-lived X-ray source that reaches peak intensity in a few days and then fades out over a period of weeks or months. The outburst occurs when stored gas abruptly rushes toward a neutron star or black hole. By studying the patterns of the X-rays produced, astronomers can determine the kind of object at the heart of the eruption.
Neil Gehrels is the NASA Swift satellite’s principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He said:
Relative to the lifetime of space observatories, these black hole eruptions are quite rare. So when we see one of them flare up, we try to throw everything we have at it, monitoring across the spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays.
Astronomers classify this type of system as a low-mass X-ray binary. In V404 Cygni, a star slightly smaller than the sun orbits a black hole 10 times its mass in only 6.5 days. The close orbit and strong gravity of the black hole produce tidal forces that pull a stream of gas from its partner. The gas travels to a storage disk around the black hole and heats up to millions of degrees, producing a steady stream of X-rays as it falls inward.
But the disk flips between two dramatically different conditions. In its cooler state, the gas resists inward flow and just collects in the outer part of the disk like water behind a dam. Inevitably the build-up of gas overwhelms the dam, and a tsunami of hot bright gas rushes toward the black hole.
These images show the patch of the sky where the black-hole binary system V404 Cygni is located, as observed with the IBIS instrument on ESA’s Integral gamma-ray observatory. This system, comprising a black hole and a star orbiting one another, is located in our Milky Way galaxy, almost 8000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. On 15 June 2015, V404 Cygni started showing signs of extraordinary activity, something that had not happened since 1989. The renewed activity is likely caused by material slowly piling up in the disc, until eventually reaching a tipping point that dramatically changes the black hole’s feeding routine for a short period.The image on the left was taken on 19 May 2015, before the outburst: V404 Cygni is not present, and its position is marked with a cross. The image on the right, taken on 18 June 2015, shows V404 Cygni as the brightest source in the field. Image credit: ESA/Integral/IBIS/ISDC
Enjoying EarthSky? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!
Astronomers relish the opportunity to collect simultaneous multiwavelength data on black hole binaries, especially one as close as V404 Cygni. In 1938 and 1956, astronomers caught V404 Cygni undergoing outbursts in visible light. During its eruption in 1989, the system was observed by Ginga, an X-ray satellite operated by Japan, and instruments aboard Russia’s Mir space station.
V404 Cygni has flared many times since the eruption began, with activity ranging from minutes to hours.
Erik Kuulkers, at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre in Madrid, said:
It repeatedly becomes the brightest object in the X-ray sky … It is definitely a ‘once in a professional lifetime’ opportunity.
In a single week, flares from V404 Cygni generated more than 70 “triggers” of the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) aboard Fermi. This is more than five times the number of triggers seen from all objects in the sky in a typical week. The GBM triggers when it detects a gamma-ray flare, then it sends numerous emails containing increasingly refined information about the event to scientists on duty.
Every time the GBM recovered from one trigger, V404 Cygni set it off again, resulting in a torrent of emails. The event prompted David Yu, a GBM scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, to comment on social media: Achievement Unlocked: Mailbox spammed by a blackhole.
Bottom line: On June 15,2015, V404 Cygni, a system comprising a black hole and a star orbiting one another, made its comeback to the cosmic stage. Over the past week, astronomers around the world have been observing the exceptional outburst of high-energy light produced by the black hole that is devouring material from its stellar companion.
There’s something puzzling about black holes, if you stop to consider it. On the one hand, they’re objects so massive and dense — compacted into such a small region of space — that nothing can escape from it, not even light. That’s the definition of a black hole, and why “black” is in the name.
Image credit: James Provost, sciencenews.org.
But gravity also moves at the speed of light, and yet the gravitational influence of a black hole has absolutely no problem extending not only beyond the event horizon, but infinite distances out into the abyss of space.
Image credit: Henze, NASA.
What’s the resolution to this puzzle? Jillian Scudder has the answer on Astroquizzical today!
There’s something puzzling about black holes, if you stop to consider it. On the one hand, they’re objects so massive and dense — compacted into such a small region of space — that nothing can escape from it, not even light. That’s the definition of a black hole, and why “black” is in the name.
Image credit: James Provost, sciencenews.org.
But gravity also moves at the speed of light, and yet the gravitational influence of a black hole has absolutely no problem extending not only beyond the event horizon, but infinite distances out into the abyss of space.
Image credit: Henze, NASA.
What’s the resolution to this puzzle? Jillian Scudder has the answer on Astroquizzical today!
The Supreme Court’s decision on EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) was disappointing to everyone working to protect public health by reducing emissions of mercury and other toxic air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants. But as we take stock of what this decision means, there are some important factors that make me confident we are still on track to reduce this dangerous pollution and better protect America’s children, families and communities.
Most notably – the Administration remains committed to finalizing the Clean Power Plan this summer and yesterday’s ruling will have no bearing on the effort to reduce carbon pollution from the largest sources of emissions.
Second – this decision is very narrow. It did not invalidate the rule, which remains in effect today. In fact, the majority of power plants are already in compliance or well on their way to compliance. The Court found that EPA should have considered costs at an earlier step in the rulemaking process than it did. The court did not question EPA’s authority to control toxic air pollution from power plants provided it considers cost in that step. It also did not question our conclusions on human health that supported the agency’s finding that regulation is needed. And its narrow ruling does not disturb the remainder of the D.C. Circuit decision which unanimously upheld all other aspects of the MATS rule and rejected numerous challenges to the standards themselves.
Third – this decision does not affect other Clean Air Act programs that address other sources and types of air pollution. It hinged on a very specific section of the Act that applies exclusively to the regulation of air toxics from power plants. This is important to understand because it means that rules and programs that reduce other types of pollutants under other sections of the Clean Air Act—like ozone and fine particles (smog and soot) can continue without interruption or delay.
The decision does not affect the Clean Power Plan, which EPA will be finalizing later this summer and which will chart the course for this country to reduce harmful carbon from its fleet of existing power plants. That’s worth repeating: The Court’s conclusion that EPA must consider cost when determining whether it is “appropriate” to regulate toxic air emissions from utilities under section 112 of the Act will not impact the development of the Clean Power Plan under section 111. Cost is among the factors the Agency has long explicitly considered in setting standards under section 111 of the Act.
Fourth – America’s power sector is getting cleaner year after year by investing in more modern technologies. Since President Obama took office, wind energy has tripled and solar has grown ten-fold. The Clean Power Plan will build on these current positive trends. That means cleaner air in communities across the country, as well as a boost to our economy as we build the clean energy system of the future.
Finally – What’s next for MATS? From the moment we learned of this decision, we were committed to ensuring that standards remain in place to protect the public from toxic emissions from coal and oil-fired electric utilities. We will continue to work to make that happen. There are questions that will need to be answered over the next several weeks and months as we review the decision and determine the appropriate next steps once that review is complete. But as I’ve already noted, MATS is still in place and many plants have already installed controls and technologies to reduce their mercury emissions.
After nearly 45 years of the implementing the Clean Air Act, there have been many more victories than defeats as we’ve worked together to clean the air and raise healthier children and families. Despite the Supreme Court’s MATS decision, the agency remains confident that the progress we’ve made so far in improving air quality and protecting public health will continue.
The Supreme Court’s decision on EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) was disappointing to everyone working to protect public health by reducing emissions of mercury and other toxic air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants. But as we take stock of what this decision means, there are some important factors that make me confident we are still on track to reduce this dangerous pollution and better protect America’s children, families and communities.
Most notably – the Administration remains committed to finalizing the Clean Power Plan this summer and yesterday’s ruling will have no bearing on the effort to reduce carbon pollution from the largest sources of emissions.
Second – this decision is very narrow. It did not invalidate the rule, which remains in effect today. In fact, the majority of power plants are already in compliance or well on their way to compliance. The Court found that EPA should have considered costs at an earlier step in the rulemaking process than it did. The court did not question EPA’s authority to control toxic air pollution from power plants provided it considers cost in that step. It also did not question our conclusions on human health that supported the agency’s finding that regulation is needed. And its narrow ruling does not disturb the remainder of the D.C. Circuit decision which unanimously upheld all other aspects of the MATS rule and rejected numerous challenges to the standards themselves.
Third – this decision does not affect other Clean Air Act programs that address other sources and types of air pollution. It hinged on a very specific section of the Act that applies exclusively to the regulation of air toxics from power plants. This is important to understand because it means that rules and programs that reduce other types of pollutants under other sections of the Clean Air Act—like ozone and fine particles (smog and soot) can continue without interruption or delay.
The decision does not affect the Clean Power Plan, which EPA will be finalizing later this summer and which will chart the course for this country to reduce harmful carbon from its fleet of existing power plants. That’s worth repeating: The Court’s conclusion that EPA must consider cost when determining whether it is “appropriate” to regulate toxic air emissions from utilities under section 112 of the Act will not impact the development of the Clean Power Plan under section 111. Cost is among the factors the Agency has long explicitly considered in setting standards under section 111 of the Act.
Fourth – America’s power sector is getting cleaner year after year by investing in more modern technologies. Since President Obama took office, wind energy has tripled and solar has grown ten-fold. The Clean Power Plan will build on these current positive trends. That means cleaner air in communities across the country, as well as a boost to our economy as we build the clean energy system of the future.
Finally – What’s next for MATS? From the moment we learned of this decision, we were committed to ensuring that standards remain in place to protect the public from toxic emissions from coal and oil-fired electric utilities. We will continue to work to make that happen. There are questions that will need to be answered over the next several weeks and months as we review the decision and determine the appropriate next steps once that review is complete. But as I’ve already noted, MATS is still in place and many plants have already installed controls and technologies to reduce their mercury emissions.
After nearly 45 years of the implementing the Clean Air Act, there have been many more victories than defeats as we’ve worked together to clean the air and raise healthier children and families. Despite the Supreme Court’s MATS decision, the agency remains confident that the progress we’ve made so far in improving air quality and protecting public health will continue.
By Tina Wei
Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
On June 9th, I assisted David Kluesner, EPA Region 2 community affairs team leader, at an event with the Great Swamp Watershed Association where he gave a presentation to the community members of Morristown, NJ about the significant steps the EPA is taking to clean up the lower Passaic River.
At the meeting, we heard attendees express strong support for activities to conserve the environment and protect human health. To learn about the community’s relationship with the environment and to see an example of successful, impactful conservation efforts, we visited the nearby Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.
This refuge, established by Congress in 1960 and located in Morris County, NJ, is one of the 560 refuges in the Department of Interior’s U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s National Wildlife Refuge System. We toured the wonderful Helen C. Fenske Visitor Center, featuring interactive environmental education activities, friendly rangers, and live bird-cams. The refuge’s 7,768 acres of habitat allow for wildlife viewing, photography, and hunting.
We learned that North America is divided into four key flyways for migrating birds. New York City is located in the highly trafficked Atlantic Flyway. This refuge, located only 26 miles away from Times Square, is of great importance, providing a crucial resting place for over 244 species of birds who can’t rest in NYC.
Image by the the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
We also learned about this refuge’s unique history. Beginning in 1844, this area’s marshlands were drained and converted to agricultural fields. As these farms became unprofitable and disappeared, alternative uses for this land were proposed, including a 1959 proposal to turn this area into a major airport (what is now Newark Liberty International Airport). In response, community members raised more than one million dollars to buy almost 3,000 acres of the Great Swamp land, donating it to the Department of the Interior to be conserved and reverted back to swampland.
This history is interesting for thinking about key questions regarding conservation:
Do you know about the local history of a National Wildlife Refuge? What do you think about conservation? Tell us in the comments section!
About the Author: Tina Wei is a summer intern in EPA’s Region 2 Public Affairs Division. She has loved this wonderful learning opportunity, and especially enjoys going on work-related fieldtrips. During the school year, she is an undergraduate student at Princeton University.
By Tina Wei
Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
On June 9th, I assisted David Kluesner, EPA Region 2 community affairs team leader, at an event with the Great Swamp Watershed Association where he gave a presentation to the community members of Morristown, NJ about the significant steps the EPA is taking to clean up the lower Passaic River.
At the meeting, we heard attendees express strong support for activities to conserve the environment and protect human health. To learn about the community’s relationship with the environment and to see an example of successful, impactful conservation efforts, we visited the nearby Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.
This refuge, established by Congress in 1960 and located in Morris County, NJ, is one of the 560 refuges in the Department of Interior’s U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s National Wildlife Refuge System. We toured the wonderful Helen C. Fenske Visitor Center, featuring interactive environmental education activities, friendly rangers, and live bird-cams. The refuge’s 7,768 acres of habitat allow for wildlife viewing, photography, and hunting.
We learned that North America is divided into four key flyways for migrating birds. New York City is located in the highly trafficked Atlantic Flyway. This refuge, located only 26 miles away from Times Square, is of great importance, providing a crucial resting place for over 244 species of birds who can’t rest in NYC.
Image by the the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
We also learned about this refuge’s unique history. Beginning in 1844, this area’s marshlands were drained and converted to agricultural fields. As these farms became unprofitable and disappeared, alternative uses for this land were proposed, including a 1959 proposal to turn this area into a major airport (what is now Newark Liberty International Airport). In response, community members raised more than one million dollars to buy almost 3,000 acres of the Great Swamp land, donating it to the Department of the Interior to be conserved and reverted back to swampland.
This history is interesting for thinking about key questions regarding conservation:
Do you know about the local history of a National Wildlife Refuge? What do you think about conservation? Tell us in the comments section!
About the Author: Tina Wei is a summer intern in EPA’s Region 2 Public Affairs Division. She has loved this wonderful learning opportunity, and especially enjoys going on work-related fieldtrips. During the school year, she is an undergraduate student at Princeton University.
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Roz Pidcock
We need only look to the world's ice cover to see the urgency with which emissions need to come down, scientists told delegates at this week's climate talks in Bonn, Germany.
At a press conference today, US and German scientists updated negotiators and journalists with the latest science on the state of Arctic sea ice, the Antarctic continent and thawing permafrost.
New observations gathered since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report show the cryosphere in serious and irreversible decline, they warned.
Pam Pearson, director of the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, the network of policy experts and researchers holding the event, told the audience:
"This is not like air pollution or water pollution, where if you clean it up it will go back to the way it was before."
Arctic sea ice has been retreating rapidly in recent years as a result of greenhouse gases building up in the atmosphere, explained Dr Dirk Notz, sea ice expert at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. The biggest losses are happening in summer, he said:
"Over the past 10 years or so, we've roughly seen a 50% loss of Arctic sea ice area. So, the ice in the Arctic is currently retreating very, very rapidly."
In March, Arctic sea ice reached its lowest maximum extent in the satellite record. Last week, the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre confirmed Arctic sea ice extent for May was the third lowest on record.
Arctic sea ice extent for 2015 compared to the 1981-2010 long term average. Source: NSIDC
Antarctic sea ice has been at record high levels in 2015 but this should be viewed in perspective with what's happening at the other end of the planet, Notz said:
"There is a slight increase, but it's nothing compared to the very, very rapid loss that we've seen in the Arctic."
Scientists' current understanding is that temperature changes as a result of greenhouse gases are causing winds to blow stronger offshore in the Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica, driving the sea ice outwards. Notz said:
"Both in the Arctic and the Antarctic, the changes we are seeing in the sea ice are very clearly driven predominantly by human activities."
A slide from Dr Dirk Notz's presentation, putting Antartcic sea ice gain in perspective with the rate of Arctic sea ice loss. Source: ICCI press conference, Bonn June 2015
Model simulations suggest sea ice could be gone from the Arctic in summer by mid-century. But if we stop emitting greenhouse gases, the chances of losing sea ice diminish quickly, he said:
"Only a very strong and rapid reduction in carbon dioxide might allow for the survival of Arctic summer sea ice beyond this century."
Turning from sea ice to land ice, a few regions of West Antarctica have grabbed scientists' attention in the past year, explained Prof Ricarda Winkelmann from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Each has the potential to destabilise, raising global sea levels.
The Amundsen Basin in West Antarctica, which houses the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers, is one of these "hotspots." Winkelmann explains:
"It has been shown in a number of studies last year that [the region] has tipped, meaning that it has crossed that threshold and is now undergoing irreversible change."
Once the glaciers in this region drain into the ocean, the volume of water will raise global sea levels by one metre. The question is how fast that will happen, said Winkelmann.
"We've known that this kind of mechanism exists for a long time, it was first proposed in the 1970s. But the observation that something like this is actually happening right now - that's a new one."
Map shows changes in Antarctic ice shelves from 1994 to 2012. Shading of ice shelves shows rate of thickness change (in metres per decade), from thinning (red) to thickening (blue). Dots show percentage of thickness lost (red) or gained (blue). Source: Paolo et al. (2015)
A second region that's been discussed a lot this year is the Antarctic Peninsula. Warm water is reaching the ice shelves and thinning them from the bottom up, recent research shows.
The scientists are watching the Totten glacier in East Antarctica closely, as the same process of irreversible collapse could be at work there too, they say.
Totten is currently thinning faster than any other glacier in East Antarctica and, if it melts, could raise sea levels by 3.5m - more than the whole of the West Antarctic ice sheet put together.
Carbon has been accumulating in permafrost for many thousands of years, but it is starting to be released as warmer temperatures are causing the once-permanently frozen ground to thaw.
Scientists currently estimate there is 1,500bn tonnes of carbon currently locked away in permafrost. That's twice as much as in the atmosphere, explained Dr. Susan Natali, an expert in permafrost feedbacks on climate from the Woods Hole Research Center in the US.
If even a small amount of that carbon escapes to the atmosphere, it could lead to a significant increase in global greenhouse gas emissions, said Natali.
Polar night in mountains in northern tundra in Russia. Source: Kekyalyaynen, Shutterstock.
If emissions stay very high, scientists expect to see a 70% loss in permafrost worldwide by 2100. This could be reduced to 30% if global temperatures are limited to 2C above pre-industrial levels, Natali explained.
How much carbon will find its way to the atmosphere is a complex question. But current estimates are for 130-160bn tonnes of carbon to be released by 2100. That's on par with current rate of emissions from the whole of the United States, the world's second largest emitter.
The actions that we take now in terms of our fossil fuel emissions will have a significant impact on how much permafrost is lost and, in turn, how much carbon is released, said Natali:
"We know that permafrost emissions will be substantial and irreversible on a human-relevant timeframe and these emissions of greenhouse gases from permafrost need to be accounted for if we want to meet our global emissions targets."
This new science isn't feeding into international climate policy as it should be, said Pearson:
"What the IPCC scientists see is a lack of understanding of the urgency of slowing down these processes and the fact that they are irreversible … I think that is the most important aspect [of the science] that still hasn't made it into the negotiations."
Notz urged policymakers to view climate change as a current, not a future, challenge. He said:
"So far, these negotiations have been driven by the idea that this is something that will happen at some point. But if you really look at the developments that have happened over the past two, three or four years, especially in the cryosphere … [they] will have consequences for the next centuries ... We're not speaking about the future here, we're speaking about ongoing changes."
In light of the wealth of new science, Pearson said she would like to see ambitions raised ahead of a global climate agreement in Paris later this year. She said:
"It's clear that given these challenges, the current INDC's [Intended Nationally-Determined Contributions] are not sufficient."
As well as greater ambition, Pearson said she wants to see the flexibility in the final Paris text to enable countries to raise their targets without going through a lengthy negotiation process.
Changes are taking place faster in the cryosphere than anywhere else, making it an ideal lens through which to view climate change negotiations, Pearson concluded. The processes taking place cannot be reversed and while they won't happen while these policymakers are in office, limiting the damage for future generations is a critical part of leadership, she said.
UPDATE: The article was updated on June 10th once Dr Dirk Notz's slides became available online. The figure from his presentation compares changes in Arctic and Antarctic sea ice.
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Roz Pidcock
We need only look to the world's ice cover to see the urgency with which emissions need to come down, scientists told delegates at this week's climate talks in Bonn, Germany.
At a press conference today, US and German scientists updated negotiators and journalists with the latest science on the state of Arctic sea ice, the Antarctic continent and thawing permafrost.
New observations gathered since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report show the cryosphere in serious and irreversible decline, they warned.
Pam Pearson, director of the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, the network of policy experts and researchers holding the event, told the audience:
"This is not like air pollution or water pollution, where if you clean it up it will go back to the way it was before."
Arctic sea ice has been retreating rapidly in recent years as a result of greenhouse gases building up in the atmosphere, explained Dr Dirk Notz, sea ice expert at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. The biggest losses are happening in summer, he said:
"Over the past 10 years or so, we've roughly seen a 50% loss of Arctic sea ice area. So, the ice in the Arctic is currently retreating very, very rapidly."
In March, Arctic sea ice reached its lowest maximum extent in the satellite record. Last week, the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre confirmed Arctic sea ice extent for May was the third lowest on record.
Arctic sea ice extent for 2015 compared to the 1981-2010 long term average. Source: NSIDC
Antarctic sea ice has been at record high levels in 2015 but this should be viewed in perspective with what's happening at the other end of the planet, Notz said:
"There is a slight increase, but it's nothing compared to the very, very rapid loss that we've seen in the Arctic."
Scientists' current understanding is that temperature changes as a result of greenhouse gases are causing winds to blow stronger offshore in the Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica, driving the sea ice outwards. Notz said:
"Both in the Arctic and the Antarctic, the changes we are seeing in the sea ice are very clearly driven predominantly by human activities."
A slide from Dr Dirk Notz's presentation, putting Antartcic sea ice gain in perspective with the rate of Arctic sea ice loss. Source: ICCI press conference, Bonn June 2015
Model simulations suggest sea ice could be gone from the Arctic in summer by mid-century. But if we stop emitting greenhouse gases, the chances of losing sea ice diminish quickly, he said:
"Only a very strong and rapid reduction in carbon dioxide might allow for the survival of Arctic summer sea ice beyond this century."
Turning from sea ice to land ice, a few regions of West Antarctica have grabbed scientists' attention in the past year, explained Prof Ricarda Winkelmann from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Each has the potential to destabilise, raising global sea levels.
The Amundsen Basin in West Antarctica, which houses the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers, is one of these "hotspots." Winkelmann explains:
"It has been shown in a number of studies last year that [the region] has tipped, meaning that it has crossed that threshold and is now undergoing irreversible change."
Once the glaciers in this region drain into the ocean, the volume of water will raise global sea levels by one metre. The question is how fast that will happen, said Winkelmann.
"We've known that this kind of mechanism exists for a long time, it was first proposed in the 1970s. But the observation that something like this is actually happening right now - that's a new one."
Map shows changes in Antarctic ice shelves from 1994 to 2012. Shading of ice shelves shows rate of thickness change (in metres per decade), from thinning (red) to thickening (blue). Dots show percentage of thickness lost (red) or gained (blue). Source: Paolo et al. (2015)
A second region that's been discussed a lot this year is the Antarctic Peninsula. Warm water is reaching the ice shelves and thinning them from the bottom up, recent research shows.
The scientists are watching the Totten glacier in East Antarctica closely, as the same process of irreversible collapse could be at work there too, they say.
Totten is currently thinning faster than any other glacier in East Antarctica and, if it melts, could raise sea levels by 3.5m - more than the whole of the West Antarctic ice sheet put together.
Carbon has been accumulating in permafrost for many thousands of years, but it is starting to be released as warmer temperatures are causing the once-permanently frozen ground to thaw.
Scientists currently estimate there is 1,500bn tonnes of carbon currently locked away in permafrost. That's twice as much as in the atmosphere, explained Dr. Susan Natali, an expert in permafrost feedbacks on climate from the Woods Hole Research Center in the US.
If even a small amount of that carbon escapes to the atmosphere, it could lead to a significant increase in global greenhouse gas emissions, said Natali.
Polar night in mountains in northern tundra in Russia. Source: Kekyalyaynen, Shutterstock.
If emissions stay very high, scientists expect to see a 70% loss in permafrost worldwide by 2100. This could be reduced to 30% if global temperatures are limited to 2C above pre-industrial levels, Natali explained.
How much carbon will find its way to the atmosphere is a complex question. But current estimates are for 130-160bn tonnes of carbon to be released by 2100. That's on par with current rate of emissions from the whole of the United States, the world's second largest emitter.
The actions that we take now in terms of our fossil fuel emissions will have a significant impact on how much permafrost is lost and, in turn, how much carbon is released, said Natali:
"We know that permafrost emissions will be substantial and irreversible on a human-relevant timeframe and these emissions of greenhouse gases from permafrost need to be accounted for if we want to meet our global emissions targets."
This new science isn't feeding into international climate policy as it should be, said Pearson:
"What the IPCC scientists see is a lack of understanding of the urgency of slowing down these processes and the fact that they are irreversible … I think that is the most important aspect [of the science] that still hasn't made it into the negotiations."
Notz urged policymakers to view climate change as a current, not a future, challenge. He said:
"So far, these negotiations have been driven by the idea that this is something that will happen at some point. But if you really look at the developments that have happened over the past two, three or four years, especially in the cryosphere … [they] will have consequences for the next centuries ... We're not speaking about the future here, we're speaking about ongoing changes."
In light of the wealth of new science, Pearson said she would like to see ambitions raised ahead of a global climate agreement in Paris later this year. She said:
"It's clear that given these challenges, the current INDC's [Intended Nationally-Determined Contributions] are not sufficient."
As well as greater ambition, Pearson said she wants to see the flexibility in the final Paris text to enable countries to raise their targets without going through a lengthy negotiation process.
Changes are taking place faster in the cryosphere than anywhere else, making it an ideal lens through which to view climate change negotiations, Pearson concluded. The processes taking place cannot be reversed and while they won't happen while these policymakers are in office, limiting the damage for future generations is a critical part of leadership, she said.
UPDATE: The article was updated on June 10th once Dr Dirk Notz's slides became available online. The figure from his presentation compares changes in Arctic and Antarctic sea ice.
