This Idaho river was named one of the most endangered waterways in the U.S. – again


Scott McIntosh/smcintosh@idahostatesman.com

Eric Barker
Wed, May 4, 2022

The threat that dams and climate change pose to wild salmon and steelhead landed the lower Snake River on a national environmental group’s list of the nation’s most endangered waterways.

American Rivers released its annual list of rivers the group deems to be critically endangered and placed the Snake in the second spot. That is down one spot from the 2021 list that had the Snake as the nation’s most imperiled.

The Snake was replaced in the top spot by the Colorado River, where drought and overappropriation threaten the drinking water of tens of millions of people and the intricate ecology of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.

The Snake River has made the group’s list frequently over the years because of the poor condition of wild runs of sockeye, spring, summer and fall chinook, and steelhead that are listed as either threatened or endangered.

Looming decisions over what steps should be taken to save the fish and whether that should include breaching the four lower Snake River dams helped propel the Snake to the top end of the list. The group bases the list on three main criteria – pending major decisions that the public can weigh in on, the significance of the river to people and wildlife, and the magnitude of the threat to the river and the degree to which climate change plays a role.

The Snake River has some of each. For decades, the Nez Perce Tribe, environmental organizations and fishing groups have advocated for the four lower Snake River dams to be breaching. Doing so would restore the river to its free-flowing state and reduce dam-related fish mortality, including elevated summertime water temperatures made worse by climate change. The Snake produces a significant portion of the salmon and steelhead that return to the Columbia River basin, and high-elevation tributaries in Idaho and northeastern Oregon are seen as wild salmon strongholds.

“We can save salmon from extinction and revitalize the rivers that are the beating heart of this place we call home,” said Wendy McDermott, northwest region director of American Rivers. “We can honor commitment to tribes and invest in a future of abundant salmon, clean energy and thriving agriculture.”

But breaching the dams would eliminate tug-and-barge transportation used by inland wheat farmers to efficiently get their crops to market. The lower Snake River is also a small part of the Columbia River Federal Hydropower System and breaching the dams would reduce power generation. Advocates of the dams say breaching is not needed, would hurt farmers and would eliminate a source of carbon-free power that could be replaced sources that burn fossil fuels such as natural gas.

Federal agencies like the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. The Bureau of Reclamation and the Bonneville Power Administration have said breaching would help the fish but have rejected it as too costly.

But the momentum for breaching has been on the rise. Last year, the breaching debate reached Congress when Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, introduced his $33.5 billion concept that would breach the dams and mitigate affected communities and industries. This spring, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Sen. Patty Murray are expected to release the findings of a draft study looking at ways to replace the services provided by the dam and decide by July 31 whether to back the dams or breaching. That is the same day that a pause in a long-running lawsuit is scheduled to sunset. Plaintiffs that include the Nez Perce Tribe, Oregon and environmental and fishing groups are in talks with the federal government. Both sides have said they are seeking long-term solutions to the decades-long court battle.

Before last year, the lower Snake was last on the endangered waterways list in 2009, when it was named the third-most imperiled river. It landed at the top of the list in 1999 and 2000 and has appeared on the list a handful of other years, each time because of dams and the harm they cause salmon and steelhead.

México’s tortilla bakeries hit hard by high inflation

US CORN FEEDSTOCKS FOR METHANOL E15 WILL RESULT IN CORN SHORTAGES

Pedro Pablo Cortes
Wed, May 4, 2022,

México’s highest inflation rate in 21 years is exacting a particularly steep toll on tortillerias (tortilla bakeries) and their customers, who are facing a spike in corn prices triggered in part by the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Case in point is La Morena, which is based in northern México City’s Pensil Sur neighborhood and is a traditional seller of that thin flat bread made from unleavened cornmeal.

Carmen Hernández, an employee at that establishment, she hasn’t seen another similar rapid increase in prices since she started working there 12 years ago.

“(Customers) get angry, of course. In fact, people think that the (higher prices) are our doing, but it’s really not. It’s the increase in (the price of) corn that’s making us raise the (price per) kilo of tortilla,” said Hernández.

The prices of corn tortillas rose at an annual clip of 17.42 percent in the first half of April, or more than double México’s overall inflation rate of 7.72 percent (a 21-year high).

Isaac Sánchez, La Morena’s manager, said the price of tortillas had long remained unchanged but has risen between 20-25 percent over the past two years.

A kilo of tortillas cost 15 pesos (around $0.75) in 2020 but has since climbed to 20 pesos, meaning that a family now receives between 10 and 12 fewer tortillas for the same amount of money spent, he said.

The climate crisis has spurred droughts, lower crop yields and higher prices, while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has roiled the global grain trade and made matters even worse, according to Sánchez, who said he expects additional price hikes going forward.

A worker packs corn dough that is used for making corn tortillas. Tortilla makers in México have been hit by inflation and a shortage of corn.

La Morena has not laid off any of its 16 employees despite the crisis and currently produces 1,800 kilos (4,000 pounds) of tortillas per day.

According to the Inegi national statistics office, that establishment is one of more than 110,000 bakeries in México that make tortillas either from traditional corn dough or nixtamal meal, which is prepared through a process known as nixtamalization in which corn kernels are cooked and steeped overnight in water mixed with limestone.

Sánchez said the price situation is largely out of the tortilla bakers’ hands and that all they can do is try to reason with their frustrated customers.

“There’s no doubt whatsoever that we’re selling a little less because people also are consuming less. Perhaps we could offer them other alternatives, but at the end of the day nothing can replace the tortilla,” he added.

In response, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday announced that his administration will unveil an inflation control plan on May 4 that will offer “price guarantees” for 24 staple products, including corn and tortillas, and negotiated agreements with business leaders.

He also is urging small farmers to plant more corn and beans to reduce shortages and bring down inflation.

But Blanca Mejía, representative of the Traditional Mexican Tortilla Governing Council that comprises tortilla and tortilla dough makers, expressed skepticism about the plan.

“We’re very nervous in the industrial sector because we don’t know what measures they’re going to take. We’re very afraid of price controls,” she said, adding that producers need freely fluctuating tortilla prices to face the price-hike situation.

Mejía said the main challenge facing tortilla makers is the price-per-ton of corn, which has risen from 6,900 pesos ($345) in early January, prior to the war in Ukraine, to 8,900 pesos at present.

Higher prices of corn are a major bread-and-butter issue in a country where 98 percent of the population consumes tortillas and per-capita consumption of that flat bread stands at around 75 kg per year, according to the Institute of Ecology, a public strategic research institute.

But even if consumption falls in the short term, Sánchez said he is convinced Mexicans will remain loyal to corn tortillas, which accompany most Mexican dishes and are a basic ingredient for making a variety of traditional foods such as tacos, tostadas and enchiladas.

“We could say that without tortillas you practically can’t eat. The Mexican diet needs them,” he added.

EU citizens may sue countries for health-damaging dirty air, top court adviser says


The Eiffel Tower is surrounded by a small-particle haze which hangs above the skyline in Paris


Thu, May 5, 2022
By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Citizens in European Union countries may be able to sue their governments for financial compensation if illegal levels of air pollution damage their health, an adviser to Europe's top court said on Thursday.

The adviser's opinion follows a string of rulings at the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the EU in recent years, with around 10 EU countries including France, Poland, Italy and Romania found guilty of illegal air pollution.

"An infringement of the limit values for the protection of air quality under EU law may give rise to entitlement to compensation from the State," the court said in a statement.

Advocate General Juliane Kokott noted that it is often poorer communities that live and work in highly polluted areas and particularly need judicial protection.

Individuals claiming compensation would need to prove that the damage to their health had been directly caused by the air pollution, she said. A government may also avoid liability if it could prove the pollution limits would still have been breached if it had a sufficient air quality plan in place.

"This legal confirmation that there are routes to hold those in power to account is a major breakthrough in the fight for clean and healthy air," said Irmina Kotiuk, lawyer at environmental law firm ClientEarth.

EU court opinions are non-binding, but the court typically agrees with them in the ruling that follows in the coming months.

The opinion concerns a case brought by a Paris resident seeking 21 million euros in compensation from the French government, on the grounds that air pollution damaged his health and the government failed to ensure compliance with EU limits.

A Versailles court hearing the Paris dispute asked the EU court to clarify whether individuals can claim such compensation.

Paris breached the EU's legal limits for nitrogen dioxide pollution between 2010 and 2020.

In a bid to reduce premature deaths associated with dirty air, the EU will propose an upgrade of its pollution limits this year to better align them with stricter World Health Organization rules.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett, editing by Marine Strauss and Tomasz Janowski)

Big Oil Sold the World on a Plastics Recycling Myth. It May be Too Late to Undo the Damage

Alejandro de la Garza
Thu, May 5, 2022, 

Post Storm Trash
Post storm debris made up mostly of plastics and vegetation is scattered across the high tide line in Long Beach on Monday, Dec. 2, 2019. 

Credit - Scott Varley/MediaNews Group/Torrance Daily Breeze—Getty Images

A few weeks ago, my friend Brett Pogostin showed me a photograph of his girlfriend, Angie, taken on Padre Island National Seashore on the Texas Gulf Coast. They had driven 200 miles from Houston to visit this 60-mile stretch of undeveloped barrier island, which reaches south from Corpus Christi, Texas, towards the Mexican border. But when they stopped and got out of their car, they found the shoreline littered with plastic—old diapers, water bottles, and plastic detergent jugs. Bathers had set up their blankets and umbrellas amid the trash, and children made sand castles between pieces of plastic junk. Brett and Angie got back in the car and drove close to 30 miles trying to find a stretch of unpolluted beach, and finally gave up. Brett took a photograph: Angie smiling beneath a gray sky, bits of plastic garbage mixed in the sand at her feet.

The world is in the midst of a plastic waste crisis. Every year, the world produces about 400 million tons of plastic. In the U.S. barely 6% of that waste was recycled last year, down from around 9% in 2018, as nations like China stop taking U.S. plastic. The vast majority of the waste ends up in landfills, in the oceans, or spread across the land, an endless tide of chemically indestructible junk, polluting our coastlines, infiltrating ecosystems and, when it breaks down into microscopic fragments, entering our bodies, with unknown health repercussions.

For years, the fossil fuel industry has been turning oil and natural gas into plastics in massive, heavily-emitting “cracker” plants. In anticipation of shrinking fossil-fuel demand, it is currently investing $400 billion to expand plastic production—including a $10 billion ExxonMobil-Saudi Basic Industries Corp. facility being built a few dozen miles from Padre Island, across Corpus Christi Bay. The result, according to one 2020 study: 1.3 billion metric tons more plastic dumped into our environment by 2040.

A version of this story first appeared in the Climate is Everything newsletter. To sign up, click here.

For years, the folks selling that plastic have avoided blame for the ecological mess their products have caused, mainly by promoting a largely false set of promises about our ability to recycle plastics, along with a narrative—advertised in countless anti-litter commercials—that dealing with plastic waste was the responsibility of consumers, not producers. But that may be changing. Last week, California’s Attorney General opened an investigation into fossil fuel and petrochemicals companies, accusing them of perpetuating a decades-long disinformation campaign.

Such an inquiry has never been attempted before. And it will likely add to mounting pressure the industry has been experiencing recently. The plastics industry has a “target on its back,” Tony Radoszewski, president of the Plastics Industry Association, told attendees at an event last summer. “Some people are trying to put us out of business.”

ExxonMobil Corp. and Saudi Basic Industries Corp. Gulf Coast Growth Ventures petrochemical complex under construction in Gregory, Texas, U.S., on Wednesday, July 28, 2021. The plastics plant will be the world's largest steam cracker.

Eddie Seal—Bloomberg/Getty Images

Around the world, 71% of people think single-use plastic products should be banned, according to a 2019 Ipsos survey. Many African nations have outlawed plastic bags in recent years, while the E.U. banned many single-use plastic items last summer. Last month, Los Angeles County blocked restaurants from selling food in plastic containers that can’t be composted or recycled.

I’m fascinated by the question of what causes a person, city, or country to change their view towards plastics, given how difficult it can be to accept that there is something monstrously wrong with the world you take for granted. Evidence accumulates, and we relegate it to that dusty section of our minds reserved for the terrible things about the world that are too overwhelming or omnipresent to really think about. Then, some new bit of information, a thought, a feeling, hits from a different angle, cracks the dam, and suddenly the sheer awfulness of the whole situation—of a world clogged, in every crevice, with plastic junk—spills out into the open.

For some, that moment came back in 2015, when a video of researchers yanking a plastic straw out of a sea turtle’s nose went viral. For others it was reading about the plastics industry’s deception campaign around recycling. For my editor Kyla Mandel, new research on how microplastics are turning up in human blood redoubled anxiety about what plastics were doing to us. For my friend Brett, it was the trip to Padre Island that did it. Upon returning, he purged all the disposable plastic that he could from his life. He ordered sheets of dissolvable laundry detergent, and bought toilet paper packaged in a cardboard box. “Hope you enjoy that meal,” he’d say, seeing a coworker sit down with a pile of plastic containers, “because the planet is going to be enjoying it forever.”

Brett’s right on that point. The plastic we put into the world will be with us for hundreds of years, floating up on shores and circulating through our bodies—and those of our children, and our children’s children. There’s hope of stemming the flow of new plastic pollution if we manage to hold off corporate plans to keep expanding plastic production until we choke on it. But the tragedy of an irrevocably-changed world is already here.

“There was more plastic on that beach than anyone could ever pick up,” Brett said. “And even if you did, there’s infinitely more out in the ocean, and more would just wash up.”

It was that grief for what we’ve lost that woke me up. Brett has always loved the world’s wild places, and he spoke of Padre Island with a tone of indignation. But there was pain beneath the anger, a hint of something like heartbreak. And when I heard it, something in me broke, too.

The Southwest is on fire, iconic deserts and towns are at risk and Biden has issued a disaster declaration


Molly Hunter, 

Associate Research Professor in Environment and Natural Resources, 

University of Arizona

THE CONVERSATION
Wed, May 4, 2022, 

Wind quickly spread a blaze that burned homes near Flagstaff, Ariz., in April 2022. 

Coconino National Forest via AP

New Mexico and Arizona are facing a dangerously early fire season. It has left neighborhoods in ashes and is having such devastating effects that President Joe Biden issued a disaster declaration for New Mexico. Over 600 fires had broken out in the two states by early May, and large wildfires had burned through hundreds of homes near Ruidoso and Las Vegas, New Mexico, and Flagstaff, Arizona.

We asked wildfire scientist Molly Hunter at the University of Arizona to explain what’s fueling the extreme fire conditions and why risky seasons like this are becoming more common.
Why is this year’s wildfire season in the Southwest so early and intense?

Historically, fire season in the Southwest didn’t ramp up until late May or June, because fuels that carry fires – primarily woody debris, leaf litter and dead grasses – didn’t fully dry out until then.

Now, the Southwest is seeing more fires start much earlier in the year. The earlier fire season is partly due to the warming climate. As temperatures rise, the snow melts more rapidly, more water evaporates into the atmosphere and the grasses and other fuels dry out earlier in the season.

Unfortunately, the earlier timing coincides with when the region commonly experiences strong winds that can drive rapid fire growth. Some of the fires we’re seeing this year, like the Tunnel Fire near Flagstaff and the fires in New Mexico, are being driven by these really intense wind events. They’re pretty typical winds for spring, but fuels are now really dry and ready to burn.

Fire crews dig at burning roots in the wake of a fire near Flagstaff, Ariz., in April 2022. 

Tom Story/Northern Arizona Type 3 Incident Management Team, via AP

This year we also have a lot of fuel to burn. Last summer, in 2021, the Southwest had an exceptional monsoon season that left green hillsides and lots of vegetation. By now the grasses and forbs that established during the monsoon have dried out, leaving a lot of biomass that can carry a fire. Often in the Southwest, our biggest fire years come when we have a wet period followed by a dry period, like the La Niña conditions we’re experiencing now.

What role does climate change play?

In the Southwest, climate change has meant warmer, drier conditions. One immediate effect is the lengthening of the fire season.

We now see fires starting in March and April. And if the Southwest doesn’t get a good summer monsoon – the region’s typical period of heavy rainstorms – fire season won’t really stop until we get significant rainfall or snowfall in fall and winter. That means more stress on firefighting resources, and more stress on communities facing fire, smoke and evacuations.

As fire season lengthens, states are also seeing more fires caused by human activities, such as fireworks, sparks from vehicles or equipment, and power lines. More people are moving out into areas that are fire-prone, creating more opportunities for human-caused ignitions.

By May 4, nearly a quarter-million acres had burned in New Mexico, almost double the state’s 2021 total. Fires shown by satellite and on the map below are near Los Alamos and Las Vegas, N.M.

  NASA

What effect is the changing fire regime having on the Southwest’s ecosystems?

When fires burn in areas that didn’t see fire historically, they can transform ecosystems.

People generally don’t think of fire as being a natural part of desert ecosystems, but grasses are now fueling really big fires in the desert, like Arizona’s Telegraph Fire in 2021. These fires are also spreading farther, and into different ecosystems. The Telegraph Fire started in a desert system, then burned through chaparral and into the mountains, with pine and conifer forest.

Part of the problem is invasive grasses like buffelgrass and red brome that spread quickly and burn easily. A lot of grass is now growing in those desert systems, making them more prone to wildfire.



When a fire spreads in the desert, some plant species, like mesquite and other brushy plants, can survive. But the saguaro – the iconic cactuses that are so popular in tourist visions of the Southwest – are not well adapted to fire, and they often die when exposed to fire. Paloverde trees are also not well adapted to survive fires.

What does comes back quickly is the grasses, both native and invasive. So in some areas we’re seeing a transition from desert ecosystem to a grassland ecosystem that is very conducive to the spread of fire.

The Cave Creek Fire near Phoenix in 2005 is an example where you can see this transition. It burned over 240,000 acres, and if you drive around that area now, you don’t see lot of saguaros. It doesn’t look like desert. It looks like more like annual grassland.

This is an iconic landscape, so the loss affects tourism. It affects wildlife as well. A lot of species rely on saguaro for nesting and feeding. Bats rely on the flowers for nectar.
What can be done to avoid high fire risk in the future?

In some respects, people will have to recognize that fire is inevitable.

Fires quickly now surpass our capacity to control them. When winds are strong and the fuels are really dry, there’s only so much firefighters can do to prevent some of these big fires from spreading.

Conducting more prescribed fires to clear out potential fuel is one important way to lessen the probability of really big, destructive blazes.

Historically, far more money went into fighting fires than managing the fuels with tactics like thinning and prescribed fire, but the infrastructure bill signed in 2021 included a huge influx of funding for fuels management. There’s also a push to move some seasonal fire crew jobs to full-time, yearlong positions to conduct thinning and prescribed burns.

Homeowners can also be better prepared to live with fires. That means maintaining yards and homes by removing debris so they’re less likely to burn. It also means being prepared to evacuate.

This article was updated May 5 with Biden issuing the disaster declaration.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Molly Hunter, University of Arizona.

Read more:

6 wildfire terms to understand, from red flag warning to 100% containment

How years of fighting every wildfire helped fuel the Western megafires of today

Molly Hunter has received funding from the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and U.S. Forest Service.

Thousands refuse to evacuate largest U.S. wildfire in New Mexico


FILE PHOTO: Wildfires near Las Vegas, New Mexico

Thu, May 5, 2022
By Andrew Hay

TAOS, N.M. (Reuters) - Thousands of people told to flee the largest wildfire burning in the United States have chosen to stay and defend generational homes in the mountains of northern New Mexico, even as some run out of food and water, officials said.

In Mora County, population 4,500, around 60% of residents in evacuation areas have remained in centuries-old farming and ranching communities where electric power has been lost, said Undersheriff Americk Padilla.

"This is their livelihood, this is all they know, so these elderly people, and a lot of the people, our constituents are not leaving," Padilla said.

The forested mountains around 40 miles northeast of Santa Fe are known for tough, self-sufficient residents, many of whom can trace lineage to 18th century Spanish settlers and Native American tribes.

Local doctor Matthew Probst said residents had high “social vulnerability,” families possibly owning a $15,000 mobile home outright but having no home owner's insurance and few financial resources.

Keeping these "norteños" or northerners in their homes was a strong sense of "querencia," or belonging to the land, he said.

"It's more than just your place or your personal belongings and your material things. This is your land, your soul connected to it generationally," said Probst, who has evacuated his family and livestock from the village of Ojitos Frios.

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said worried relatives were asking her to get family members out.

“I have no doubt that we have people without power who are on oxygen. I have no doubt we have individuals who are running out of food and water,” Lujan Grisham told a news briefing.

Padilla feared violent winds forecast for the weekend could push the fire into villages and even neighboring Taos County after it destroyed at least 166 homes, burning 165,276 acres (67,000 hectares) in Mora and San Miguel counties. He was distributing food and power generators to homes.

"I cannot neglect the people that decided to stay," he said.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Texas Facing ‘Horrible’ Heat That Will Stoke Energy Demand


Brian K. Sullivan and Naureen S. Malik
Wed, May 4, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- Texas’s power-grid manager warned that demand will jump over the weekend as customers turn to air conditioners to get relief from searing record heat

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas said there could be “larger-than-normal” power consumption but the state’s grid should produce enough to meet demand. There is a chance many areas across Texas and neighboring Louisiana could set records for the date as temperatures push into the upper 90s Fahrenheit (30s Celsius) and even higher closer to the Mexican border.

“They may not get any relief for days and days and days,” said David Roth, a senior branch forecaster with the U.S. Weather Prediction Center. “This weekend is horrible, not that it is going to be all that better next week.”

Extreme weather has been putting more pressure on electricity grids -- particularly in Texas and California -- in recent years, which in turn has led to economic and political fallout. Both states have experienced power outages brought on by unusual cold or heat.

Temperatures will soar across the Lone Star state, reaching 94 degrees Fahrenheit in Dallas by Saturday, while Austin will touch 99 on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. Similar heat will grip the border town of Laredo and the state’s biggest metropolis Houston.

A forecast high in Houston of 97 and 102 in Brownsville this weekend would certainly set new records for the date, said Roth.

In many places, temperatures will feel even hotter than the thermometer reads. The heat will also spill over into New Mexico as well, Roth said.

Normally at this time of year, a weather front would push through to ease the high temperatures and bring some mild air, but there’s little chance of that in the next few days, he said.

Equilibrium/Sustainability — Texas stares down the barrel of summer grid failure

Sharon Udasin
Tue, May 3, 2022, 5

AP Photo/David J. Phillip

Texas’s power grid may be courting collapse this weekend as temperatures soar across the state.

By Saturday, the state utility regulator expects just under 70 gigawatts of demand — more than any previous May, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Demand this weekend is expected to climb to just below the amount that crashed the grid during Winter Storm Uri in 2021, according to a study by the Texas Oil and Gas Association.

This means that the state’s “notoriously fickle power grid” is bracing for a squeeze, according to the Chronicle.

With 100-plus-degree temperatures forecast for South and West Texas this weekend, the state regulator is scrambling to restart idled power plants, the Chronicle reported.


Without these plants online, Texas “could be short” on energy — heightening the need for state-funded cooling centers for those “who can’t afford to stay cool,” according to energy consultant Doug Lewin.

Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. We’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Send us tips and feedback. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.

Today we’ll meet New Mexico residents who are forced to choose whether to flee or fight the nation’s largest current fire. Then we’ll look at how so-called forever chemicals can disrupt some teenagers’ bone growth.
Out-of-control fire gives hint of summer to come

The largest fire in the United States is blazing out of control through the pine forests of northern New Mexico, leading to evacuations, 172 burnt houses and the destruction of 228 square miles, The Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

The still-spreading combination of the Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak Fires — propelled by 50-mile-per-hour winds and months of drought conditions that dried trees to tinder — is a grim warning that the West is facing a long, hard fire season.

Big concerns: “We are very concerned about very significant fire growth today,” National Weather Service fire meteorologist David Craft told the AP on Tuesday.

Constantly shifting winds have helped the fire escape containment, incident commander Carl Schwope told The Daily Beast over the weekend.

“We’re at the weather’s mercy,” Joy Ansley, manager of San Miguel county told the Santa Fe New Mexican on Monday.

Running for cover: As the fire burned northwest of Las Vegas, N.M., in San Miguel County, some chose to flee, stripping grocery shelves bare as they went, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.

“I’d rather take off now than hear a siren ringing,” Cathy Garcia told the New Mexican as she wrapped up porcelain figures.

Down the street, Ronnie Marquez loaded his wife and four kids into his truck and a flock of about 100 pet chickens and ducks into his trailer.

“I don’t have to take the furniture, that can all be replaced,” Marquez told the New Mexican. “You can’t replace the personal stuff, your family.”

Others choose to fight: Amid falling ash, Chris Castillo and his cousins moved trees and other fuel away from a relative’s Las Vegas home, the AP reported.

“We’re all family here. We’re trying to make a fire line,” Castillo said.

SIGNS OF A BIG FIRE SEASON STILL TO COME

The Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak fires came on the heels of federal National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) estimates for July and August, which on Sunday predicted elevated fire danger across the West.

What does that mean in practice? According to NIFC predictions, fire risk is elevated in the following locations:

In western Florida in May


On the High Plains through August, particularly after the “green up” of summer grass dries out


In southern and western Colorado in May and June


In Oregon, Washington and Northern California through July


Across most of the Pacific Northwest by August

It’s already a big fire year: More than 1.1 million acres have already burned this year— twice as much as during the equivalent period in 2021 and four times as much as the same period in 2020.

That total burned acreage is still much less than the damage incurred during the 2016, 2017 or 2018 fire seasons, according to NIFC.

Nearby states are on alert: San Diego rang in the beginning of Wildfire Preparedness Week with a “very concerning” .02 inches of April precipitation, NBC San Diego reported.

With dry soil, diminishing snowpack and fire risk creeping north along the Wasatch Range east of Salt Lake City, state officials are urging citizens to “use good fire sense,”Salt Lake City’s KSL reported.

The state credits its Fire Sense educational program with cutting the number of human caused fires by nearly a thousand between 2020 and 2021, according to KSL.

And then there’s the Pacific Northwest — which is bracing for impact.

One local meteorologist, John Saltenberger, warned Portland-based NBC affiliated KGW Oregon that he foresees one of the worst seasons in his 38 years on the job.

“I can’t recall seeing such an ominous signal displayed over such a large swath [of] the continental United States,” Saltenberger said.

A 115-Degree Heat Wave Is Making India’s Power Crisis Worse


(Bloomberg) -- A power crisis in India that’s delivering hours-long blackouts, halting manufacturing lines and triggering street protests is forecast to continue for months, adding pressure on the nation’s economic rebound.

Electricity outages and curbs have spread across more than half of all states and the nation’s coal-dominated energy system is expected to come under further strain as power demand tops a recent record high in the coming weeks.

Even with a temporary reprieve from a blistering heat wave that’s delivered temperatures as high as 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit), households and businesses face ongoing disruptions as coal stockpiles shrink at power plants and fuel imports falter on prices that’ve surged since the war in Ukraine.

“It’s becoming a difficult situation,” Sumant Sinha, chairman of ReNew Energy Global Plc, a supplier of wind and solar power in India, said in an interview. “The whole summer will be a test.”

High coal and oil prices threaten to add to inflationary pressures that prompted India’s central bank to make a surprise move Wednesday to lift its key policy rate. Power curbs will also hit India’s already faltering rebound in industrial production.

Read more: Heat Waves Test the Limits of Human Survival: Pollard & Fickling

Production of coal, the fossil fuel that accounts for more than 70% of India’s electricity generation, has failed to keep pace with unprecedented energy demand from the heat wave and the country’s post-pandemic industrial revival. Logistics snarls, including a lack of railway carriages to transport the fuel from mines to power plants, are exacerbating the shortages.

“If power supply is curtailed to the industrial sector, it could delay the recovery in the manufacturing sector by at least one more quarter,” said Aditi Nayar, an economist with ICRA Ltd.

Stockpiles at coal-fired power stations have tumbled more than 14% since the start of April, leaving about 100 plants with critical supply levels, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Reserves are forecast to shrink further on high demand, and that’ll be followed by a monsoon season from July.

Monsoon rains triggered a previous power crisis last year — which also caused widespread electricity curbs — when coal mines and roads were flooded, hampering production and shipments.

“If coal stockpiles continue to deplete at this rate, we’re going to see a full-blown power crisis across the country,” said Shailendra Dubey, chairman at the All India Power Engineers Federation, an advocacy body that produces energy policy suggestions.

Electricity demand hit a record 207.1 gigawatts on Friday and is expected to rise to 220 gigawatts within the next two months, according to India’s power ministry. Average spot power prices at Indian Energy Exchange have jumped to about 10 rupees (13 cents) a kilowatt hour, almost triple the average in January, and have been capped by the industry regulator.

At least 16 of India’s 28 states have been grappling with power outages of between two and 10 hours a day, Ashok Gehlot, chief minister of Rajasthan, said Monday in a Twitter message, before conditions eased in some areas.

The western desert state, a hub for metal smelters to textile factories, last week ordered power supplies to some industries cut by as much as half. Citizens should limit their use of appliances like air conditioners and coolers in homes and workplaces, Gehlot said.

Maharashtra, home to the nation’s financial capital Mumbai, is battling worsening blackouts, said S. Maheshkumar, general secretary at Maharashtra Industrial and Economic Development Association. “Industries are worried that they may have to cut production and turn down export and domestic orders,” he said by phone.

Anger over patchy electricity supplies prompted protests across the northern state of Punjab — India’s top grains producer — over the weekend, with farmers blockading roads as they appeal for a minimum of eight hours of power a day for agricultural use. Already there are concerns about electricity supply during a paddy sowing season from mid-June, Kamaljeet Singh Hayer, a farmer in the state’s Ferozepur district, said by phone.

In the coal mining states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, many industries are cutting output or running back-up generators with expensive diesel. “If we have to operate like this, we’ll all soon be in the red,” said Philip Mathew, president of Jharkhand Small Industries Association.

Opposition party members marched Saturday through streets in Jammu, protesting against six-hour daily outages. Blackouts have struck key population centers including Uttar Pradesh, and even where supplies are slowly improving like in Karnataka and Kerala connections still aren’t guaranteed around-the-clock.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government isn’t yet facing major new dissent, India’s economy is under pressure from high energy prices, rising inflation and the impacts of the Covid pandemic, including low employment, said Shumita Deveshwar, senior director of India research at TS Lombard.

“These have the potential to become bigger political issues in the longer-term,” Deveshwar said. “If the coal crisis continues for an extended period, it will add to the pressure.”

Heatwave: India's poor bear the brunt of blistering temperatures

Thu, May 5, 2022,

A brutal heatwave has hit India, throwing life out of gear

As a blistering heatwave sweeps through India, the country's poor are once again the most vulnerable. The BBC's Ayushi Shah reports from Mumbai city.

Sulachna Yevale, a vegetable vendor, desperately sprinkles water over her produce - some lemons and spinach that she bought from a wholesale market - to keep it from drying.

But nothing seems to help.

The extreme heat has caused some of the produce to spoil, making them useless for selling.

Even though she has been selling vegetables at the same spot for decades, Ms Yevale says this is the first time she has lost so much of her produce - worth 70 rupees (around $1; £0.80) - a significant amount for someone whose daily income is 800 rupees.

As her profits plummet, she worries about her future. She depends on the stall to provide for a family that includes her widowed daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

"I feel helpless," she says, teary-eyed.

A brutal heatwave has upended lives of millions of people in India who are struggling to cope with the soaring temperatures - the highest in over 100 years.

India issues extreme heatwave warning

After record-breaking weeks, the country's weather department expects temperatures in northwest India to get slightly better, as maximum temperatures are expected to drop by 3-4C this week. But the respite is expected to be short-lived, with maximum temperatures shooting back up by 2-3C few days after that.

Sulachna Yevale has been a vegetable vendor for decades

Caught in the middle are India's poor - people like Ms Yevale who disproportionately bear the cost of such extreme weather events. With a limited income and little resources to adapt to the heat, they are now struggling to survive.

Prameela Walikar, a fisherwoman, wipes the sweat off her face and says that she can barely afford to keep her catch fresh in the stifling heat.

"Most of what I earn is just spent on ice trying to preserve these fish," she says. "I have never had so much spoilt fish in all these decades of selling. Now I am sometimes losing produce worth 2,000 rupees a day."

Even ice prices have risen - a twofold blow that she is struggling to adapt to.

"The government needs to provide equipment and ice to help the fishing community adapt to rising temperatures and the longer summers," she says.

Ice has become more expensive, shrinking the income of Prameela Walikar even more

The woes of the two women reflect those of millions employed in the country's vast unorganised sector, who have no choice but to work outdoors in the heat to make ends meet.

But as heatwaves become more frequent, expert say work such as construction and agriculture will become dangerous during the hottest hours of the day.

This is not just a matter of public health and safety, but also a grave economic issue for a country that is highly dependent on heat-exposed labour. India is already losing $101bn annually due to heat - the most in the world - a report by Nature Communications has found.

The lost labour hours due to increasing heat and humidity could put approximately 2.5-4.5% of GDP at risk by 2030, up to $250bn, according to a 2020 McKinsey report. The number of daylight hours - during which outdoor work is unsafe - will also increase approximately 15% by 2030, compared to a decade earlier, the report says.

Pandurang Girhe, 76, drags his hand cart uphill on a bridge during the hottest hours of the day.

The cart weighs 60kg and feels even heavier in the scorching heat. It is a hard climb for a meagre 200 rupees, but despite his aching knees, he has little choice.

Pandurang Girhe drags his 60 kilo hand cart in the blistering heat

The heatwave that has struck India this year has been particularly severe, but experts say it is not an isolated incident - they say it is a harbinger of the type of events that might become more common in the future as temperatures rise.

But poor street vendors like Mr Girhe do not understand what heatwave means or what may have caused it. All they know is that their daily lives and their earnings are being affected, and that they must continue to work - heatwave or not - to feed their families.

"It is especially hot this year. But if I don't work, how will I fill my stomach?" Mr Girhe shrugs.

Experts say that poor infrastructure in cities has made life harder for people. Free and clean drinking water is limited and there aren't enough shelters for him to escape the heat, even for a while.

Shruti Narayan, regional director of South and West Asia of C40 Cities, says cities need to urgently take action by developing data-driven climate action plans.

"This includes clear, tangible actions on mitigation and adaptation, as well as building resilience to events we are already experiencing such as heat plans."

India's Kashmir region gets redrawn constituencies ahead of elections

#KASHMIR IS #INDIA'S #GAZA

Tourists ride "Shikaras" or boats in the waters of Dal Lake during sunset in Srinagar


Thu, May 5, 2022, 
By Krishna N. Das and Fayaz Bukhari

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India published on Thursday a new list of redrawn political constituencies for the former state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), giving greater representation to the Muslim-majority region's Hindu areas and paving the way for fresh elections.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government broke up J&K into two federal territories in 2019 as part of a move to tighten its grip over the region, which is at the heart of more than 70 years of hostility between India and Pakistan.

Anticipating protests in a region fighting Indian rule for decades, the government put many political leaders under house arrest and cut off internet connections when it announced the move to split the state.

J&K originally comprised the mainly Muslim Kashmir Valley - the bone of contention between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan - the Hindu-dominated Jammu region, and the remote Buddhist enclave of Ladakh.

The government said a delimitation commission had finalised 90 assembly constituencies for J&K, excluding Ladakh, with 43 seats for Jammu and 47 for Kashmir. Earlier, Jammu had 37 seats and the Kashmir valley 46.

The commission, whose report has been rejected by J&K's Peoples Democratic Party, said it had been difficult to accommodate competing claims from various sides, citing in a statement the region's "peculiar geo-cultural landscape".

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said in January that elections would be held in J&K soon after the delimitation process was completed. He also promised to reinstate its statehood once its "situation became normal".

The Jammu Kashmir National Conference, which has governed the region, said it was studying the implications of the move that has been championed by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"No amount of gerrymandering will change the ground reality, which is that whenever elections are held the voter will punish the BJP and its proxies for what they have done to J&K over the last 4 years," the National Conference said on Twitter.

The BJP said on Twitter it would change J&K's image and future for the better if voted to power.

(Reporting by Krishna N. Das, Fayaz Bukhari and Nigam Prusty; Editing by Gareth Jones)