New EPA drinking water standards may help US ensure access to safe water


Esperanza Guerrero, 35, fills a glass full with water from her tap in Teviston, California, U.S., October 20, 2021. The town had advised not to drink the water but only use it for washing dishes and washing clothes due to contamination. Approximately 2.2 billion people worldwide (including 46 million Americans) don't have regular access to clean water — a right Pope Francis outlined in Laudato Si'

. (OSV News/Reuters/Stephanie Keith)


KIMBERLEY HEATHERINGTON
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OSV NEWS
May 20, 2024


"Access to safe drinkable water," Pope Francis said in his milestone 2015 ecological encyclical Laudato Si', "is a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival and, as such, is a condition for the exercise of other human rights."

Approximately 2.2 billion people worldwide don't have regular access to clean water. Among them are 46 million Americans with no running water or with water that's unsafe to drink.

On April 10, those statistics expanded even further — but with an accompanying promise of decline — as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued the first-ever national, legally enforceable drinking water standards to protect Americans from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, also known as "forever chemicals."

"The final rule will reduce PFAS exposure for approximately 100 million people, prevent thousands of deaths, and reduce tens of thousands of serious illnesses," announced the EPA.

"Drinking water contaminated with PFAS has plagued communities across this country for too long," EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in a press release. "That is why President Biden has made tackling PFAS a top priority, investing historic resources to address these harmful chemicals and protect communities nationwide."

Related: Toxic contamination of water sources poses long-term hazards to American communities and environment

"Forever chemicals" are so called because their components don't degrade over time, but instead accumulate in people, wildlife and the environment. Thousands of these man-made elements and their constituent compounds are found in consumer, commercial and industrial products, according to the EPA.

"Exposure to PFAS has been linked to deadly cancers, impacts to the liver and heart, and immune and developmental damage to infants and children," the agency stated.

"Let's put it in perspective," Graham Peaslee, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame, told OSV News. "This is the first new rule for drinking water that the EPA has proposed in 23 years. There was a revision back in 2012 on the lead levels, but that was just a revision to the rule; they made it lower."

"In the U.S., we have to poison somebody before anything gets done," Peaslee said in a note of frustration. "And so that leaves the question: Shouldn't we have acted sooner? Well, we acted as fast as the U.S. can ever regulate something; it takes a while," he explained. "This country litigates more often than it regulates."

Peaslee noted that industry interests also complicate expediency.

"Industry does fight against it; they are fighting against this. But (the EPA) wouldn't have done it unless they felt they could justify it — and the health data certainly justifies a lower limit than ever before," he said.

Nearly $1 billion in government funding will be made available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law "to help states and territories implement PFAS testing and treatment at public water systems and to help owners of private wells address PFAS contamination," the EPA also announced.

The EPA estimates "that between about 6% and 10% of the 66,000 public drinking water systems subject to this rule may have to take action to reduce PFAS to meet these new standards. All public water systems have three years to complete their initial monitoring for these chemicals," the agency added.

"They've picked a limit that is as low as reasonably measurable — which is a very practical compromise," said Peaslee. "They have data indicating that adverse health effects happen at less than one part per trillion. Pancreatic cell cancer lines are affected by PFAS at less than one part per trillion," he emphasized.

Since there are nearly 15,000 PFAS, why are just six being singled out by the EPA?

"The reason they went after these six is that they have the health toxicity data to prove it for these six," Peaslee explained. "There's no doubt that these six are toxic at the levels they've said. You can argue a little bit on one level or the other, but nobody will doubt that if you put these six into an animal, you can get a cancer or a disease or an adverse health effect that's very measurable."

Other EPA rulings for PFAS not included in the April 10 announcement are likely to follow once more study conclusions become available, Peaslee said.

"In about 10 years, we'll have the health data on that — and my guess is that rule might be revised at that point," he predicted. "But this one's good for another 10 years. When you clean up these ones, a lot of others are going to get cleaned up at the same time."

Nonetheless, "the things that we've been using for the last 70 years are out there," said Peaslee, "and they will be there for a couple of thousand years."

A file photo shows the Flint River flowing through downtown Flint, Michigan, which continues to deal with the effects of its 2014 contaminated drinking water crisis 10 years later. 

(OSV News/Reuters/Rebecca Cook)


"The Environmental Protection Agency's new rule on limiting these PFAS chemicals is worth celebrating," said Anna Johnson, North America senior programs manager for the Laudato Si' Movement, an international network of member organizations, local communities and grassroots leaders working to implement the tenets of Francis' encyclical Laudato Si'.

"The federal mandate means that all communities nationwide will benefit from the positive health benefits of removing these from our drinking water, particularly including our U.S. neighbors who are poorest among us," Johnson said. "This will save lives and protect the health of our and future generations; and go even further to protect our children today: This ruling will reduce suffering and upholds and protects the common good."

Ricardo Simmonds, a policy adviser in the Environmental Justice Program at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, agreed.

"Generally speaking, more action should have been taken earlier," Simmonds said. "That's why the USCCB, at least, has been on this for a few years now — mostly with regard to Congressional engagement and action on the issue."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that most Americans have been exposed to PFAS, and have PFAS in their blood.

"These chemicals have been used widely in household items for their water repellent properties — and then there's the added concentration and risk with manufacturing, especially for foam for firefighters and others," Simmonds noted. "That's where I think the risks are even greater."

"It's a first step," Simmonds added, "but we need to do more."

The USCCB has long advocated for safe drinking water, supporting legislation and federal funding to address lead pipe removal, as well as chemicals in drinking water that disproportionately impact children, expecting mothers and the unborn.

"That has been one of the priorities of the pope and the Holy See the last few years. Laudato Si' itself has a whole section just on water," noted Simmonds. "Maybe it doesn't grab the headlines or the attention as it should, but it's a really important issue. We all need water to survive — and nature and the environment is affected by this, too."

Simmonds is, however, realistic about the expediency of the EPA's new standards — which experts say will almost certainly face legal challenges.

"Like many of these issues," he reflected, "it's not like you have a regulation and you solve the problem — so we expect this to be a long battle."

Read this next: High levels of 'forever chemicals' in children's school uniforms, study finds

Worcester, MA, Firefighters' Union Alleges 'Toxic Work Environment'

Results from a survey about safety, morale. leadership and training have been released publicly after the union says nothing has changed.

May 20, 2024

Adam Bass
masslive.com
(TNS)

A Worcester firefighters union is accusing Worcester City Manager Eric Batista’s administration of creating a work environment that is “toxic and demoralizing.”

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday, Worcester Firefighters Local 1009 wrote that the 425 members of the fire department took a survey about the quality of a range of topics, such as safety, morale, leadership and training.

According to the union, the survey was conducted 18 months ago to better understand the current climate within the Worcester Fire Department.

The results of the survey were brought to the city manager’s office in February and were originally intended to be private, according to a union statement.

“After months of no change, we found it necessary to go public,” the statement read.

In a statement to MassLive, Batista said that his administration is committed to the well-being of firefighters in Worcester and defended the findings of the ESCI report.

“The overall health and safety of the membership is a priority for the city’s administration, balancing the needs of the community with the needs of the department,” Batista said. “Membership remains steadfastly dedicated to the public they serve and to the oath they take as a Worcester Firefighter.”

Since Wednesday, the union has been posting different findings from the survey on its social media accounts.

Some of these findings were that 90% of respondents expressed fear of negative consequences for using sick time, and 81% reported coming to work while sick or injured because they were afraid to use sick time. Another finding was that only 6% of respondents said the relationship between the administration and Local 1009 is “good,” highlighting possible tensions between the two bodies behind the scenes.

The rest of the 13-page survey has yet to be revealed, but the union wrote that they will continue to release more information throughout the month.

“We feel an obligation to release these results to our members and the citizens of Worcester,” the union wrote.

The survey came three years after the City of Worcester hired Emergency Services Consulting International (ESCI) to conduct a study for a plan to prevent line-of-duty deaths and create better command structures for firefighters. The plan, which was revealed in September 2021, called for stronger communication, chain of command systems, and better training protocols.

On X, the union said that the proposal has resulted in “experienced few improvements” for its members and that they have “noticed a significant decline in working conditions, morale and overall safety of our firefighters.”

William Mosley, the president of Worcester Firefighters Local 1009, told MassLive that he began to see these problems when he was first elected union president last year. Mosley said it was his and the union’s intention to re-establish a better relationship with the administration but accused Batista of not following through on the process.

“We found out quickly there really doesn’t seem to be that kind of interest for change,” Mosley said.

Mosley told MassLive the union had not decided to go on strike but that it is looking to conduct another survey to gather more information regarding the lack of morale among members.

“The firefighters in Worcester have taken it upon themselves to hire the same company, ESCI, to conduct a survey of our members regarding safety, policies and procedure,” the union wrote.

Advanced Economic Modeling Can Support the Transition to Electric Vehicles

NAFISA LOHAWALA, JOSHUA LINN, AND BEIA SPILLER


Resources - innovative ideas and engaging stories in environmental economics

Date
MAY 20, 2024

Image
SHAWN HAMILTON / SHUTTERSTOCK


Projections of potential policy impact and the transition to electric vehicles are complicated for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Predicting accurate outcomes may be difficult, but possible, if the models incorporate market dynamics comprehensively.


The widespread adoption of electric vehicles could reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially from the US transportation sector, thus improving air quality and public health while helping achieve climate goals. Incentives and regulations in the transportation sector thus aim to increase the adoption of electric vehicles. For example, in April, the US Environmental Protection Agency took notable steps in the pursuit of cleaner transportation, announcing final greenhouse gas emission standards for heavy-duty trucks. Additionally, states are rolling out their own initiatives, with California leading through its Zero-Emission Vehicle mandates for light-duty vehicles and its introduction of the Advanced Clean Fleets and Advanced Clean Trucks regulations for the heavier vehicle classes.

Yet, the transition to electrification for medium- and heavy-duty trucks is more complex than for passenger vehicles, requiring greater infrastructural investments and more complicated decisions that involve vehicle fleets rather than individual vehicles. Accurate models and forecasting in this sector are essential to understanding market transitions, determining the appropriate stringency of regulatory standards, and ensuring compliance with international climate pledges. In this blog post, we explore such complexities, emphasizing the importance of accurate modeling—and noting that failure to address these intricacies may lead to overly optimistic expectations about the costs and the efficacy of a given policy.

Credit: MVProductions / Shutterstock


Data from 2022 indicate that medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks constituted only 0.4 percent of registrations for all new trucks in the United States. Various hurdles may hinder the widespread adoption of medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles, including the high up-front cost of electric trucks and buses, the high cost and low availability of charging infrastructure, and complexities surrounding electricity tariffs. Regulatory impact analyses that use models like the MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator, EMission FACtor model, or total cost of ownership–based models often fail to fully capture some of these hurdles, particularly those that require changes in logistics, behavior, or learning by fleet managers.

For example, the EMission FACtor model relies on sales forecasts from the US Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook to assess the impact of regulatory measures, but the model doesn’t account for how these regulations influence decisions for fleet purchases. Consider California’s Advanced Clean Trucks regulation, which mandates that manufacturers sell a certain percentage of zero-emission vehicles. If there are significant barriers to electric vehicle adoption, the model will likely yield overly optimistic projections for new electric vehicle sales.

While the total cost of ownership–based models effectively capture visible hurdles, such as the up-front price of vehicles and chargers, they do not include less obvious hurdles such as fleet owners’ preferences for specific vehicle features, nor transition costs such as those that arise from having to navigate complex electricity tariffs. By not incorporating the preferences of fleet owners or transition costs in their models, regulatory agencies risk underestimating the costs or overestimating the efficacy of a regulation.

Furthermore, total cost of ownership–based models do not adjust new and used vehicle prices and sales forecasts in response to stringent regulations. Because regulations target only new trucks, these policies may contribute to increased up-front costs to purchase these vehicles (and potentially affect the price of vehicles in the used market); thus, these models would fail to consider the very real possibility that fleets might continue using older vehicles for extended periods. In fact, historical data reveal a consistent increase in truck lifespans and a decline in their scrappage rates.

To explore this issue more directly, we analyzed vehicle registration records from five different years: 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, and 2022. Figure 1 shows the five-year scrappage rates for certain classes of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, broken down by vehicle age for these years. Each line represents a different five-year interval. For each age group, the values show the percentage of trucks that were taken off the road within that five-year interval. For example, the yellow curve indicates that 10 percent of 50-year-old trucks registered in 2017 were taken off the road before 2022. Moreover, the end points of the curves on the x-axis indicate the age of the oldest vehicles that were registered in each year.

Figure 1. Proportion of Aging Trucks Taken Off the Road within Five Years of Last Registration

Figure 1 shows that the likelihood of a truck being taken off the road has decreased notably over time. As a result, the oldest vehicles registered in the United States were 36 years old in 2002, which progressively aged to 41 years in 2007, 46 years in 2012, and as old as 51 years in 2017.

This trend may be attributed, in part, to regulations that allow older trucks to remain in operation without adhering to newer emissions standards, potentially reducing the financial incentive to invest in newer, more environmentally friendly models. By omitting information about scrappage decisions by fleet owners in their models, agencies risk overestimating the benefits of regulations.

Moreover, additional market dynamics, such as market power held by one or a few truck manufacturers, can maintain high prices, further hindering the adoption of new technologies by vehicle fleets. These dynamics are especially true at the beginning of a market transition, when a recognizable brand dominates the market until higher-quality products become available and gain market share.

This challenge of persistent high prices necessitates a more sophisticated approach to modeling outcomes that is grounded in game theory, which can adequately incorporate market structure into analyses. A 2023 analysis from Resources for the Future underscores this issue by scrutinizing data on truck characteristics from 2021 to 2023. The report shows that, for large vehicles, the price gap between conventional and electric trucks markedly exceeds the intrinsic cost of the battery (Figure 2). In the case of the largest vehicles (the heavy-duty category), the price differential is about three times the cost of the battery. This discrepancy can be partly attributed to low economies of scale and limited competition within the market, factors that exacerbate the challenge of transitioning fleets to more sustainable options.

Figure 2. Price Differential and Battery Cost across Vehicle Type
This figure originally appeared in a May 2023 blog post about the high cost of electric trucks.


Rather than estimating price markups based on game-theoretic foundations and actual data, agency analyses often simply assume the size of the markup. Accurate assessment of these market conditions is crucial for understanding how regulations and incentives influence vehicle prices. For example, the Inflation Reduction Act’s purchase subsidies for electric vehicles and charging stations may not be fully passed through to the buyer. This is because, in markets with low competition, incentives that are designed to encourage electric vehicle adoption may inadvertently enable manufacturers to increase pre-incentive prices. This dynamic may, in the end, delay the transition to electric vehicles. Failing to accurately capture the market structure can lead to overestimated cost reductions for fleets.

The need for advanced modeling of this sector is readily apparent. The complexity of the transition to electric fleets, and the myriad policies implemented to support this transition, call for the development and use of a comprehensive econometric, data-based analysis of demand and supply in the medium- and heavy-duty vehicle sector that captures preferences for vehicle characteristics, market dynamics that affect price, and real-world costs of electrification. Without this type of modeling, predictions about the costs and efficacy of existing policies may be overly optimistic.
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US pediatricians group reverses decades-old ban on breastfeeding for those with HIV

The recommendations had been in place since the start of the HIV epidemic in the 1980s.


Photo by: Courtesy Ci Ci Covin via AP

A mother with HIV successfully breastfed her newborn for seven months.

By: AP via Scripps News
Posted May 20, 2024


People with HIV can breastfeed their babies, as long as they are taking medications that effectively suppress the virus that causes AIDS, a top U.S. pediatricians group said Monday in a sharp policy change.

The new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics reverses recommendations it had in place since the start of the HIV epidemic in the 1980s.

It recognizes that routinely prescribed drugs can reduce the risk of transmitting HIV via breast milk to less than 1%, said Dr. Lisa Abuogi, a pediatric HIV expert at the University of Colorado and lead author of the report.

“The medications are so good now and the benefits for mom and baby are so important that we are at a point where it is important to engage in shared decision-making,” Abuogi said.

The drugs, known as antiretroviral therapy, don’t eliminate all risk of transmitting HIV through breast milk. Avoiding breastfeeding is the only certain way to prevent spreading the virus, Abuogi said.

In addition, parents must breastfeed exclusively for the babies' first six months because research shows that switching between breast milk and formula can disrupt an infant's gut in ways that increase the risk of HIV infection.

About 5,000 people who have HIV give birth in the U.S. each year. Nearly all take drugs to suppress the virus to very low levels, Abuogi said, though viral levels can rebound if they don't stay on them.

Before the medications became widely available starting a decade ago, about 30% of HIV infections transmitted from moms to babies occurred during breastfeeding, said Dr. Lynne Mofenson, an adviser to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. In the early 1990s, about 2,000 infections occurred in U.S. infants each year. Today, it’s fewer than 30.

The AAP policy comes more than a year after the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed longstanding recommendations against breastfeeding by people with HIV. That guidance said people who have consistent viral suppression should be counseled on their options. It also emphasizes that health care providers shouldn't alert child protective services agencies if a parent with HIV seeks to breastfeed.

The goal is listening to patients “and not blaming or shaming them,” said Dr. Lynn Yee, a Northwestern University professor of obstetrics and gynecology who helped draft the NIH guidance.

Breastfeeding provides ideal nutrition for babies and protects them against illnesses and conditions such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes, research shows. Nursing also reduces the mother’s risk of breast and ovarian cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure.

The World Health Organization has recommended since 2010 that women with HIV in developing countries breastfeed their infants and have access to antiretroviral therapy. The guidance weighed the risk of infants acquiring HIV through breastfeeding and the risk of babies dying from malnutrition, diarrhea and pneumonia in places where safe replacements for breast milk aren't available.


In developed nations, however, experts had recommended against breastfeeding because the wide availability of safe water, formula and human donor milk could eliminate the risk of HIV transmission, Yee said.

That frustrated people with HIV who were flatly refused the option of nursing.

Ci Ci Covin, 36, of Philadelphia, said she was diagnosed with HIV at age 20 and not permitted to breastfeed her first child, Zion, now 13.

“I couldn't understand how come my sister that lives in a place like Kenya, who looks just like me with the same color brown skin, was given the option to breastfeed and how my option was starkly no," she said.

Not being able to nurse her son sent Covin into a spiral of postpartum depression, she said. When she became pregnant with her now 2-year-old daughter, Zuri, her health care team helped her successfully breastfeed for seven months. Covin took her prescriptions as directed and also gave the baby drugs to prevent infection.

“Breast milk has everything in it that my baby would need,” Covin said. “That's a beautiful thing.”


Abuogi said the AAP report provides crucial guidance for pediatricians, nurses and lactation specialists who work directly with children and families.

Some providers were already helping people treated for HIV to nurse their babies, despite the earlier recommendations. The new guidance should expand the practice, hopefully quickly, Abuogi said.

“This is a unique situation because it’s not just doctors and providers who are changing,” Abuogi said. “Our patients are pushing this as well.”

Copyright 2024 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 

Chinese ad unveils a ‘twin brother’ of the US destroyer Zumwalt

By Boyko Nikolov On May 20, 2024 

New frigates and destroyers are making waves at the Jiangnan Shipyard, generating quite the buzz. Notably, some of these destroyers are being compared to the US Navy’s advanced Zumwalt class. The Chinese news resource, Sohu, even refers to one such destroyer as a “twin brother” of the American model. 

Photo credit: Sohu

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According to Sohu, the Jiangnan Shipyard is developing two ships that bear a striking resemblance to the Zumwalt class. However, these vessels are still in the development phase and not yet part of the People’s Liberation Army Navy. Sohu specifies that these include a new type of frigate and a new type of destroyer. Let’s delve into the details of the new frigate first. 

Given Jiangnan Shipyard’s strict confidentiality norms, the designs showcased in their posters are likely meticulously thought out. The ships’ overall layout, specific roles, and configurations are assuredly based on detailed plans and comprehensive design blueprints. 

Photo credit: Sohu

In the latest promotional poster from Jiangnan Shipyard, it is clear that their new frigate is not especially large. In fact, it is quite a bit smaller than the Type 054A and Type 054B frigates. It seems these 3,000-ton patrol vessels are likely designed with the foreign trade market in mind.

The real eye-catcher is the new destroyer, which bears a striking resemblance to the US Zumwalt-class destroyer. For context, the Zumwalt class is a 15,000-ton, high-tech destroyer developed by the United States, with only three ships built for various reasons. 

While it’s true the Zumwalt class faced several issues during development, the limited number of ships built shouldn’t overshadow it. significance Many design elements, innovative concepts, and system layouts of the Zumwalt are indeed worth studying and could offer valuable insights for navies worldwide.

Photo credit: Sohu

In a recently released promotional poster by Jiangnan Shipyard, the new Chinese destroyer bears a striking resemblance to the U.S. Zumwalt-class destroyer in terms of design, general structure, and basic concept. They look like “twin brothers.” However, on closer inspection, significant differences are evident between the two vessels. For instance, the U.S. Zumwalt-class destroyer sports two 155 mm large-caliber guns at the bow, consuming almost all the space in that area, which is unlike the bow armament on the Chinese destroyer. 

It appears that the Chinese destroyer may be equipped with a new generation of 130 mm naval guns. Utilizing only one bow gun frees up the forward deck to accommodate a greater number of vertical launch units, distinctively setting it apart from the Zumwalt class.

Additionally, a large active phased array radar has been installed at the front of the bridge on China’s new destroyer. The development of these ships by Jiangnan Shipyard symbolizes the future direction of naval vessels. However, whether these ships will be constructed or commissioned into service remains uncertain, according to the Chinese resource Sohu. 

Photo credit: Sohu

The emergence of these new vessels showcases China’s strategic perspective, technical outlook, and strategic considerations in capital ship development. This is particularly important for the next generation of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, including the Type 055 Destroyer and the Type 054B Frigate. You’ll see these technologies and concepts gradually applied to enhance and evolve their naval capabilities.

Experts predict that once China wraps up the second batch of Type 055 destroyers, they will likely move on to developing Type 055B destroyers or another main destroyer category with a full-load displacement between 15,000 and 17,000 tons. 

From 2020 onwards, the primary destroyers’ plans of various nations have trended toward increased size and capability. Countries like the UK, Japan, India, South Korea, and the US have rolled out their own large-tonnage destroyer projects, such as the British Type 83 and the South Korean KDX III.

Photo credit: Sohu

Despite the United States developing only three Zumwalt-class destroyers for various reasons, these vessels stand at the forefront of design innovation and stealth technology. One notable feature is the fully enclosed transom, which integrates the entire superstructure above the waterline seamlessly. 

This design not only reduces radar reflectivity but also minimizes infrared detection from enemy surveillance. Additionally, the low-resistance wave-piercing characteristics of the Zumwalt-class’s tumblehome hull have become increasingly popular among other naval ships.

***

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SPACE

Blue fireball flashes in night sky as comet fragment soars over Spain and Portugal

Footage filmed from several cities across both countries shows an object of "cometary origin" streaking across the sky at around 28 miles per second.

Sunday 19 May 2024 

Blue fireball lights up night sky in Spain


A comet fragment lit up the skies over parts of Spain and Portugal overnight - as one person said witnessing the blue fireball "felt like a movie".

The European Space Agency (ESA) shared a video on the X social media platform on Sunday which it says was captured by its "fireball camera".

The agency said the blue light streaking across the sky over the western Spanish city of Caceres was a "stunning meteor" travelling at roughly 28 miles per second.

However, it later said the light was from a "small piece of a comet" and not a meteor.

The comet fragment eventually burned up over the Atlantic Ocean.

"The likelihood of any meteorites being found is very low," the ESA said.

Videos filmed from several cities in Spain and Portugal were circulating on social media.

They showed the comet fragment crossing the sky at high speed and illuminating it in bright tones of blue and green.

NASA has said magnesium creates a blue-green colour when it burns in meteors.

The Spanish Calar Alto astronomical observatory said a preliminary analysis by Andalusia's Institute of Astrophysics revealed the object had a "cometary origin".

CCTV footage released by the mayor's office in the city of Cadiz in southwestern Spain shows the fireball crossing the sky at 12.46am local time (11:46pm UK time).

The fragment was filmed streaking across the sky as a singer performed at a concert in the Portuguese city of Barcelos.

Another video showed the skies of Porto, Portugal's second-biggest city, turning bright for a few seconds.

Many contacted emergency services to report what happened.

A spokesperson for the Spanish Emergency service 112 in Madrid told Europa Press news agency it had received several calls.

Lisbon resident Bernardo Taborda, 31, told Reuters he was walking around the city with friends when the sky suddenly turned bright green: "It almost looked like daylight... we all looked back and saw it."

He added: "It felt like a movie, we all looked at each other and we were stunned.

"It was amazing."

 

 

How Solar Storms Can Shut Down The Internet, Power Grids, And Even Tractors

Brace yourself.

BYDAVID WALLACE

THE CONVERSATION
3 HOURS AGO

NASA/SDO


The geomagnetic storm that began on May 10, 2024, generated stunning aurora borealis, more commonly known as the northern lights, that could be seen as far south as Mexico. They also generated headaches for farmers whose GPS-guided tractors were idled in the middle of planting season.

Geomagnetic storms occur when a large bubble of superheated gas called plasma is ejected from the surface of the Sun and hits the Earth. This bubble is known as a coronal mass ejection. The plasma of a coronal mass ejection consists of a cloud of protons and electrons, which are electrically charged particles. When these particles reach the Earth, they interact with the magnetic field that surrounds the planet. This interaction causes the magnetic field to distort and weaken, which in turn leads to the strange behavior of the aurora borealis and other natural phenomena.

The May 2024 storm, rated G5 on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 1-to-5 Geomagnetic Storms scale, disrupted GPS communications enough to throw off tractor guidance, which requires centimeter-level precision. Stronger storms would have much more serious consequences. As an electrical engineer who specializes in the power grid, I study how geomagnetic storms also threaten to cause power and internet outages and how to protect against that.

GEOMAGNETIC STORMS

Stronger solar storms have happened, and one caused havoc with one of the earliest electronic technologies. On Sept. 1 and 2, 1859, telegraph systems around the world failed catastrophically. The operators of the telegraphs reported receiving electrical shocks, telegraph paper catching fire, and being able to operate equipment with batteries disconnected. During the evenings, the aurora borealis could be seen as far south as Colombia. Typically, these lights are only visible at higher latitudes in northern Canada, Scandinavia, and Siberia.

What the world experienced that day, now known as the Carrington Event, was the largest recorded account of a geomagnetic storm, far stronger than the May 2024 storm.

MICHAEL SEAMANS/GETTY IMAGES NEWS/GETTY IMAGES


Geomagnetic storms have been recorded since the early 19th century, and scientific data from Antarctic ice core samples has shown evidence of an even more massive geomagnetic storm that occurred around A.D. 774, known as the Miyake Event. That solar flare produced the largest and fastest rise in carbon-14 ever recorded. Geomagnetic storms trigger high amounts of cosmic rays in Earth’s upper atmosphere, which in turn produce carbon-14, a radioactive isotope of carbon.

A geomagnetic storm 60% smaller than the Miyake Event occurred around A.D. 993. Ice core samples have shown evidence that large-scale geomagnetic storms with similar intensities as the Miyake and Carrington events occur at an average rate of once every 500 years.

Scientists were able to estimate the strength of the Carrington Event based on the fluctuations of Earth’s magnetic field as recorded by observatories at the time. There was no way to measure the magnetic fluctuation of the Miyake Event. Instead, scientists measured the increase in carbon-14 in tree rings from that time period. The Miyake Event produced a 12% increase in carbon-14. By comparison, the Carrington Event produced less than a 1% increase in carbon-14, so the Miyake Event likely dwarfed the G5 Carrington Event.

KNOCKING OUT POWER

Today, a geomagnetic storm of the same intensity as the Carrington Event would affect far more than telegraph wires and could be catastrophic. With the ever-growing dependency on electricity and emerging technology, any disruption could lead to trillions of dollars of monetary loss and risk to life dependent on the systems. The storm would affect a majority of the electrical systems that people use every day.

Geomagnetic storms generate induced currents, which flow through the electrical grid. The geomagnetically induced currents, which can be in excess of 100 amperes, flow into the electrical components connected to the grid, such as transformers, relays and sensors. One hundred amperes is equivalent to the electrical service provided to many households. Currents of this size can cause internal damage to the components, leading to large-scale power outages.

A geomagnetic storm three times smaller than the Carrington Event occurred in Quebec, Canada, in March 1989. The storm caused the Hydro-Quebec electrical grid to collapse. During the storm, the high magnetically induced currents damaged a transformer in New Jersey and tripped the grid’s circuit breakers. In this case, the outage led to five million people being without power for nine hours.

BREAKING CONNECTIONS

In addition to electrical failures, communications would be disrupted on a worldwide scale. Internet service providers could go down, which in turn would take out the ability of different systems to communicate with each other. High-frequency communication systems such as ground-to-air, shortwave, and ship-to-shore radio would be disrupted. Satellites in orbit around the Earth could be damaged by induced currents from the geomagnetic storm burning out their circuit boards. This would lead to disruptions in satellite-based telephone, internet, radio, and television.

Also, as geomagnetic storms hit the Earth, the increase in solar activity causes the atmosphere to expand outward. This expansion changes the density of the atmosphere where satellites are orbiting. Higher density atmosphere creates drag on a satellite, which slows it down. And if it isn’t maneuvered to a higher orbit, it can fall back to Earth.

Another area of disruption that could potentially affect everyday life is navigation systems. Virtually every mode of transportation, from cars to airplanes, uses GPS for navigation and tracking. Even handheld devices such as cell phones, smartwatches, and tracking tags rely on GPS signals sent from satellites. Military systems are heavily dependent on GPS for coordination. Other military detection systems, such as over-the-horizon radar and submarine detection systems, could be disrupted, which would hamper national defense.


The global internet is held together by a network of cables crisscrossing the world’s oceans.JENS KÖHLER/ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES

In terms of the Internet, a geomagnetic storm on the scale of the Carrington Event could produce geomagnetically induced currents in the submarine and terrestrial cables that form the backbone of the Internet as well as the data centers that store and process everything from email and text messages to scientific data sets and artificial intelligence tools. This would potentially disrupt the entire network and prevent the servers from connecting to each other.

JUST A MATTER OF TIME

It is only a matter of time before the Earth is hit by another big geomagnetic storm. A Carrington Event-size storm would be extremely damaging to the electrical and communication systems worldwide, with outages lasting for weeks. If the storm is the size of the Miyake Event, the results would be catastrophic for the world, with potential outages lasting months, if not longer. Even with space weather warnings from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, the world would have only a few minutes to a few hour's notice.

I believe it is critical to continue researching ways to protect electrical systems against the effects of geomagnetic storms, for example, by installing devices that can shield vulnerable equipment like transformers and by developing strategies for adjusting grid loads when solar storms are about to hit. In short, it's important to work now to minimize the disruptions from the next Carrington Event.

This article was originally published on The Conversation by David Wallace at Mississippi State University. Read the original article here.

Red Lobster files for bankruptcy days after closing dozens of restaurants

Store closures span more than 20 states.

'Happened out of nowhere': Red Lobster closures leave employees in the dark


Photo by: Jeff Chiu/AP
A Red Lobster restaurant in San Bruno, California, Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

By: AP via Scripps News
Posted  May 20, 2024

Red Lobster has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection days after shuttering dozens of restaurants.

The seafood chain has been struggling with rising lease and labor costs in recent years and also promotions like its iconic all-you-can-eat shrimp deal that backfired.

Demand for one such recent promotion overwhelmed restaurants, reportedly contributing to millions in losses.

The seafood restaurant chain said in a court filing late Sunday that it has more than 100,000 creditors and estimated assets between $1 billion and $10 billion. The company's estimated liabilities are between $1 billion and $10 billion.

'Happened out of nowhere': Red Lobster closures leave employees in the dark

The bankruptcy petition is signed by CEO Jonathan Tibus, a corporate restructuring specialist who took the top post at Red Lobster in March.

Restaurant liquidator TAGeX Brands announced last week that it would be auctioning off the equipment of over 50 Red Lobster locations that were recently closed. The store closures span across more than 20 states — reducing Red Lobster’s presence in cities like Denver, San Antonio, Indianapolis and Sacramento, California.

Maintaining stability at the chain has been problematic due to multiple ownership changes over its 56-year history. Earlier this year, Red Lobster co-owner Thai Union Group, one of the world’s largest seafood suppliers, announced its intention to exit its minority investment in the dining chain.

Thai Union first invested in Red Lobster in 2016 and upped its stake in 2020. At the time of the January announcement on its plans to divest, CEO Thiraphong Chansiri said the COVID-19 pandemic, industry headwinds and rising operating costs had hit the dining chain hard and caused “prolonged negative financial contributions to Thai Union and its shareholders.”

For the first nine months of 2023, the Thailand company reported a $19 million share of loss from Red Lobster.

Red Lobster’s roots date back to 1968, when the first restaurant opened in Lakeland, Florida. The chain expanded rapidly since then and runs more than 700 locations worldwide.
Copyright 2024 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not b

 

Alaska Legislature passes carbon-storage bill with additional energy provisions

By Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon - May 16, 2024

 

Shorebirds forage on July 17, 2019, along the edge of Cook Inlet by the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail in Anchorage. 

The Alaska Legislature has passed a bill that will enable carbon storage in reservoirs deep below Cook Inlet. 

The carbon-storage bill include numerous other provisions aimed at improving energy supplies and deliverability

 in Cook Inlet and elsewhere. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

A bill enabling the state to enter the carbon-sequestration business was expanded with features from other Cook Inlet-focused energy bills

The Alaska Legislature has passed a bill that combines carbon storage, new regulation of natural gas storage, state financing for new Cook Inlet natural gas development and an expansion of the state’s geothermal energy program.

The vehicle for the wide range of energy provisions was a measure, House Bill 50, that sets up a regulatory and commercial framework for Alaska to stash carbon gases that would otherwise be streaming into the atmosphere and reinforcing the greenhouse layer that is heating the planet.

“This bill is about bringing new revenue and new opportunities to Alaska,” said Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, who co-chairs the powerful finance committee and was one of the Senate leaders who shepherded the bill as it grew into wider-ranging energy legislation.

The bill started as one in a pair introduced last year by Gov. Mike Dunleavy that focus on the state’s opportunity to earn money through carbon sequestration or storage. The first bill, which passed last year and became dubbed the “tree bill,” authorized a system for the state to sell carbon credits for preserved land within state-owned forests.

The carbon-sequestration bill, which became known as the “hole bill” because it concerns injection of carbon gas deep underground, turned out to be more complex.

The bill that the Legislature passed sets up a process for carbon-storage leases and regulation of what is known as “pore space,” the underground cavities in which the gas could be reinjected. It sets fiscal terms, including details that bar companies from using their costs of carbon sequestration to offset state oil and gas production taxes, as well as a requirement for 50% of the revenue from carbon-storage leasing to go to the Alaska Permanent Fund. And it addresses long-term monitoring of facilities used for carbon storage.

Global energy trends are driving the sequestration business, Stedman said in his comments. Energy users are demanding that energy producers reduce their carbon footprint, and sequestration is a prime way to do that.

“It’s an expanding industry and the companies are beginning to commit billions of dollars to invest in that subject,” he said.

Through carbon capture, Stedman said, Alaska could turn its old Cook Inlet oil and gas fields, as well as its still-producing North Slope fields, into storage sites of international significance.

“We have what is potentially the largest basin for carbon storage on the American Pacific Coast. That opens possible opportunities from across the Pacific Rim, and foreign countries like Japan are now studying how to handle their carbon sequestration,” he said. Those countries lack reservoir space, he said. “They’re too small. Alaska, with Cook Inlet, is sitting in a prime location,” he said.

And Stedman marveled at the technology being developed to manage captured carbon gas. He spoke of flatware used at a conference he attended last year, all of which was formed out of carbon dioxide. “It’s not your grandma’s silverware,” he said.

Other energy provisions attached

The bill’s section on regulating natural gas storage in Cook Inlet incorporates the contents of a separate bill, Senate Bill 220.It’s a common practice for lawmakers to combine loosely related bills at the end of a session in order to get them passed before the deadline expires.

“This is a huge piece for Cook Inlet,” Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, the sponsor of that separate bill, said in floor comments. “As we are seeking to increase natural gas production in Cook Inlet, we have to have a place to store the gas. During the summer we don’t use as much. We need a place to store it.”

Upper Cook Inlet, off downtown Anchorage, is seen on June 26, 2023, beyond a statue of Olga Nicolai Ezi, a Dena

’ina matriarch and an important figure in local history. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Having the Regulatory Commission of Alaska oversee the prices charged for that storage, she said, is key to consumer protection and fairness.The commission already regulates one natural gas storage facility on the Kenai Peninsula, a commercial site called Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage Alaska that started operating in 2012. The provisions in the just-passed bill authorize the commission to regulate any other Cook Inlet natural gas storage operations.

The bill’s section on reserves-based lending incorporates the substance of yet another measure, House Bill 388, that authorizes the state to lend money for development of Cook Inlet oil or gas projects, with the hydrocarbon reserves to be used as collateral. The lending would be through the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, the state-owned development bank; the bill directs AIDEA to create a special Cook Inlet revolving fund for the projects.

The project eyed by legislators as the likeliest beneficiary of reserve-based lending is the Cosmopolitan Unit just offshore from Anchor Point on the Kenai Peninsula. The unit is owned by BlueCrest Energy, a small Texas-based firm that, legislators say, lacks the financial wherewithal to properly develop known natural gas reserves.

Without mentioning Cosmopolitan by name, Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, referred to it as a reason for including reserve-based lending in the wider-ranging bill.

“That provision alone could unlock over 300 billion cubic feet of gas in one field, we think, which solves our problem in Cook inlet for the next decade,” he said in floor comments.

The geothermal section in the bill incorporates legislation originally introduced by Dunleavy, House Bill 74 and Senate Bill 69, that redefines geothermal energy and expands that size of the tracts that may be leased for development. The new definition lowers the temperature threshold from 120 degrees Celsius to 80 degrees Celsius and allows leased geothermal projects to cover 100,000 acres, an increase from the current 51,200-acre limit.

Wide, but not unanimous, support

The bill won final passage when the House concurred on Wednesday the last day of the session, with the Senate changes.The bill, in its final form, had wide support. It passed the Senate by a 18-2 vote on Tuesday, and the House concurrence was by a 37-3 margin.

But there were detractors.

Although she voted for the bill, Sen. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, scoffed at the idea of carbon storage as a climate solution and even at the global scientific consensus about how much carbon dioxide contributes to climate change.

“I think that there are a lot of questions and a lot of science that is surfacing on whether there truly is the impact of carbon on the climate that has been proposed,” she said. As for carbon capture, “we’re talking about an invisible commodity, a whole system, based on that and one day we may find the bubble pops,” she said. “I actually do think, right now, it is a scam. I do think it is. And yet, if people are foolish enough to pay us to store carbon, I’m not going to turn them down.”

Sen. Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, cast a vote in opposition, as did Sen. Rob Myers, R-Fairbanks.

Shower said entering the carbon capture business exposes Alaska to interference by potentially nefarious forces.

“I do have concerns about where this goes, how this is tied to the bankers and financiers and others when you look at carbon credits and things that are kind of the whole game, if you will, the whole playing field,” he said.

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Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alaska Beacon maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Andrew Kitchenman for questions: info@alaskabeacon.com. Follow Alaska Beacon on Facebook and X. 

 

Climate change causing Siberia’s Batagay crater expansion amid environmental concerns

By Elías Thorsson - May 15, 2024

 

The Batagay crater in Siberia is the world’s biggest permafrost crater. (Reuters)

A vast crater in Siberia, known as the Batagay crater or megaslump, has garnered attention for its remarkable growth and impact on the surrounding landscape. As climate change continues to affect the region, the crater, resembling a “gateway to the underworld,” expands, revealing layers of permafrost dating back hundreds of thousands of years, reports The Week.

• The Batagay crater, also referred to as a megaslump, was first identified in 1991 after a hillside collapse in northern Sakha, Russia, revealing the vast depression in the Earth’s surface.
• Megaslumps are a result of melting permafrost, a characteristic feature of the Arctic landscape, which loosens and collapses the Earth’s surface as the frozen soil and rock thaw due to rising temperatures.
• The crater, measuring up to 100 meters deep and around one kilometer long in 2017, continues to expand, with its cliff face retreating at a rate of 12 meters per year due to permafrost thaw.
• Locals have mixed feelings about the crater, with some fearing it due to mysterious sounds it emits, while others explore the site, which locals call “the cave-in.”
• The expansion of the megaslump poses significant danger, releasing large quantities of organic carbon into the atmosphere as permafrost thaws, exacerbating global warming.
• However, scientists see an opportunity to study the exposed layers of soil dating back hundreds of thousands of years, hoping to gain fresh insights into climate change from the crater’s formation.