Report: U.S. plants release a toxic herbicide into the air that more than 70 countries have banned

Waynesboro, Mississippi, in Wayne County is home to a 
 paraquat processing facility. (Photo by D. Nolan, The Lens)

Despite being banned in more than 70 countries, the toxic herbicide paraquat, which has been linked to Parkinson's disease, is regularly released into the air from facilities in the southern U.S., reports Delaney Nolan of The Lens. Currently, Parkinson's is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disease in the world.

The number of Parkinson's disease deaths in rural Wayne County, Mississippi, serves as an example. The county is home to the largest paraquat-emitting facility in the U.S., and was ranked in the top 7% for national Parkinson's deaths between 2018 and 2024, Nolan writes.

Although a significant body of research has linked the herbicide to Parkinson's disease deaths among residents living near paraquat plants, farms or golf courses that use it, the herbicide's popularity is growing. Nolan explains, "About 35% of large commercial farms in the U.S. now use paraquat to kill weeds and dry up crops for harvest, often soybean, corn and cotton."

American factories don't directly produce paraquat; they import paraquat concentrate. Oftentimes, the imported concentrate is "trucked up along the Mississippi River, reformulated and packaged at a [U.S.] facility," Nolan explains. And while paraquat is considered a toxic chemical in the U.S., it is not "a federally regulated air pollutant – states have the authority to regulate it but generally do not set maximum emissions standards."

A "mass of research, including a rigorous 2024 study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, has repeatedly affirmed the dangers of paraquat," Nolan adds. "When a person inhales paraquat, it travels into the brain, killing the neurons which produce dopamine, which in some people can lead to Parkinson’s. . . . Even people who live near fields where paraquat is sprayed have increased risks of Parkinson’s and thyroid cancer."

National Park Service let go its last engineer who monitored abandoned wells, which pose a 'significant threat'

Unplugged oil and gas wells can still spew noxious gases 
and pollute groundwater. (Adobe Stock photo)

Forrest Smith was the National Park Service's sole engineer tasked with finding and cleaning up the roughly 93 abandoned gas and oil wells scattered across federal lands. But in September, the NPS chose not to renew Smith's contract, leaving no one to track leaky wells. Old, unplugged wells can pose a "significant threat to the environment and public health," reports Maxine Joselow of The New York Times.

Often dubbed "orphaned wells," most forgotten sites were drilled and abandoned before the "national parks were established," Joselow explains. Orphaned wells can continue to spew noxious gases, such as methane, a greenhouse gas, and benzene, a chemical "linked to leukemia and other blood cancers. . . . .Oil and brine can seep from the wells into aquifers that supply drinking water to nearby communities."

Inactive and orphaned wells will continue to pose an unseen threat because the NPS lacks employees to monitor sites and make arrangements to have them sealed through a process know as "plugging". Beau Kiklis, associate director of energy and landscape conservation at the National Parks Conservation Association, told Joselow, "I don’t think I can underscore enough that this has been a significantly underestimated public health and safety problem." 

Smith estimated that there are "around 2,500 inactive wells on Park Service lands, including 93 that are orphaned. Of those abandoned wells, about 70 are leaking methane," Joselow reports.

A spokeswoman for the Interior Department, which oversees the Park Service, told the Times that "the Park Service 'has made strong progress in meeting the administration’s priorities to identify and plug orphaned wells on park lands,' and that 'staffing levels naturally fluctuate as appointments conclude and new positions are filled.'"

Trump Administration wants to revive the coal industry, including mining on federal land and reducing regulations

Photo by Dominik Vanyi on Unsplash

The Trump Administration’s plans to revive the coal industry include leasing 13.1 million acres of federal land for coal mining and reducing the royalty rate for coal, Brad Plumer and Lisa Friedman of The New York Times reported.

Additionally, regulations that “curb carbon dioxide, mercury and other pollutants from coal plants” will be repealed by the Environmental Protection Agency, Plumer and Friedman wrote.

This has led to concerns from environmental groups, activists and politicians about the harmful impacts of coal mining on the environment and its contribution to climate change.

Yet a surge in American electricity needs was already threatening climate goals, due to the inability for renewable and other sources of energy to keep up to demands.

The rise in usage of artificial intelligence has led to the construction of data centers that consume enormous amounts of electricity. More than 50 coal plants that were set to close have remained open to meet this demand.

Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior, cited China’s expansion of coal plants and the threat of losing the “AI arms race” as reasons that the United States needed to invest in coal.

However, unlike the U.S. which is boosting coal while rolling back renewable energy efforts, China is also investing renewable energy and as a result has managed to sink carbon emissions by around 1% despite its usage of coal.

EPA cuts may leave rural towns with even fewer resources to combat extreme weather

Hills Creek Valley in Oakridge, Ore. EPA funds were
earmarked for wildfire smoke management. (Adobe Stock photo)

The Environmental Protection Agency cut $1.5 billion in DEI and Environmental Justice grants intended to help rural western communities combat ongoing extreme weather such as flooding, smog, drought and melting permafrost. Joshua Partlow and Amudalat Ajasa of The Washington Post report, "Residents and local organizations in these communities say the funding cuts undermine what little defense there is against growing climate threats."

The EPA initiated the cuts after President Trump "issued an executive order calling for federal grants to be terminated if they provide funding for programs that 'promote or take part in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives' or 'environmental justice initiatives,'" Partlow and Ajasa explain. "The recipients include nonprofit organizations, Native American tribes, cities, counties and universities across the country."

Each community planned to use the funds to address a unique set of environmental challenges. Some Alaskan villages sought funding to deal with ongoing coastal flooding brought on by melting permafrost, while Native American tribes needed dollars to address pollution, and mountain towns in the Pacific Northwest looked to use the money to assist with wildfire smoke problems. The lost support means all of these regions will have fewer resources to plan for and work through climate events.

Sarah Altemus-Pope, executive director of South Willamette Solutions, a nonprofit that helps communities with forest management, told the Post, "These were dollars that were going to really make a difference to people who are financially without the means to do this work to protect their health."

South Willamette Solutions held part of a $1 million EPA grant that would have helped seal homes against wildfire smoke in tiny Oakridge, Oregon, but the grant money was terminated. The Post reports, "The money, stemming from the Inflation Reduction Act, was intended for work on about 30 homes. The work included installing grates on attic vents to keep embers out and sealing doors and windows to keep out smoke."

Simply adding ground limestone to rivers and oceans could decrease global warming, but the challenges are many

Rivers

naturally

deliver

carbon

to

the

ocean,

preventing

it

from

entering 

the

atmosphere.
(CarbonRun graphic)

Scientists aim to fight global warming by adding ground limestone to oceans and rivers, report Brad Plumer and Raymond Zhong of The New York Times. The Earth's water sources "contain carbon dioxide that is constantly escaping into the air, where it traps heat and warms the planet. Adding limestone converts some of that carbon dioxide into a stable molecule that instead stays underwater and washes into the sea, where it should remain trapped for thousands of years."

Oceans already play a big part in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. "By speeding up that process, scientists believe even more carbon could be packed into those watery depths," the Times reports. "One idea is known as alkalinity enhancement, which involves adding limestone, magnesium oxide or another alkaline substance to rivers and oceans, changing their chemistry in a way that makes them soak up more carbon dioxide."

The company, CarbonRun, is putting the new science to the test, with its first limestone silo under construction in Nova Scotia. Later this year, "the machine will grind up limestone inside a tall green silo and release the powder into the nearby West River Pictou, creating a chalky plume that should dissolve within minutes," Plumer and Zhong explain. With the addition of powdered limestone, the water will do the rest. "Scientists estimate that similar methods deployed in oceans could remove billions of tons per year."

Despite its promise, the technology faces challenges from nature and unanswered questions. While dumping ground limestone in a river may be successful, full-scale drops into oceans would be more complex and require massive amounts of ground limestone. The Times reports, "toying with ocean chemistry also carries unknown risks. Some environmental groups worry that even early experiments with these techniques could threaten fish and other aquatic life."

To mitigate environmental pushback, CarbonRun’s founders are "proving that adding limestone to rivers doesn’t just take carbon out of the air — it can also safely benefit local ecosystems," Plumer and Zhong add. "It’s relatively straightforward for CarbonRun to show that adding limestone to rivers converts some carbon dioxide into a stable bicarbonate. . . .The harder part is mining and moving the limestone cheaply."

The UN pledged to reduce global production of plastic; companies prefer better recycling efforts

Adobe Stock photo

Is it possible to create a planet where plastic production and waste aren't a constant problem? Maybe. In March 2022, the United Nations "pledged to negotiate a treaty to 'end plastic pollution,' with the goal of delivering a final draft by 2025," reports Joseph Winters of Grist. One proposed solution was to negotiate with plastic makers to produce less, which hasn't happened. But, what Grist found out by motoring through petrochemical trade and industry group public statements and policies were various levels of the "industry’s desired pathway to a 'world without waste.'"

Among the various players that Grist contacted, "only two agreed to answer questions about the policies they support," Winters writes. "What we found is that, although they fall far short. . . . the industry groups’ proposals to bolster recycling and waste collection could cause a significant reduction in mismanaged plastic waste — even in the absence of a cap on plastic production."

When their proposals were entered into a policy analysis tool developed at the University of California, "the elements of the treaty that industry groups support, cobbled together, could cut global plastic pollution by 43 million metric tons annually by 2050 — a 36% reduction below business-as-usual estimates," Winters adds. "Meanwhile, a realistic production cap could cut annual pollution by 48 million metric tons all by itself."

When it comes to global garbage, the plastics industry is economically influential. Unsurprisingly, the industry does not think that the solution to plastic waste reduction is making less plastic. Instead, industry groups support a concept called "plastics circularity," which "seeks to keep the material in use for as long as possible before it’s thrown away. Generally, this means more recycling," Winters reports. 

But that can be challenging. "The world only recycles about 9 percent of all plastic it produces; the rest gets sent to landfills or incinerators, or winds up as litter," Winters explains. Given the problem, the industry is promoting more and better recycling by supporting policies that build recycling infrastructure and placing some of the onus for recycling costs on companies that use it.

Even as the plastic waste reduction agreement takes shape, "it’s clear that self-preservation is at the heart of the petrochemical industry’s agenda for the treaty," Winters reports. "The policies it supports could have a positive impact on plastic pollution."

East Palestine's controlled chemical burn in 2023 spread pollutants to at least 16 states, new study shows

Norfolk Southern's controlled burn spread chemicals
to surrounding states. (Adobe Stock photo)

In February 2023, a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, leading to an explosion and a toxic vinyl chloride spill. The subsequent controlled burn, which was intended to prevent further explosions, created a plume that spread air pollutants to at least 16 states, according to research published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, Zack Budryk of The Hill reports. The cloud "reached as far north as New England . . . according to researchers from the University of Wisconsin. They found the overall radius spanned more than 540,000 square miles."

Researchers studied soil samples before and immediately after the spill to evaluate the burn's reach. "They found evidence of high chloride concentration in states including Virginia, South Carolina and Wisconsin, as well as particularly high concentrations near Canada's border with New York, an area downwind of the crash site," Budryk explains. 

The chemical plume may have also changed precipitation pH levels in surrounding areas. "Researchers found unprecedentedly high, or more basic, pH values across a broad belt in the Midwest and Northeast," Budryk reports. "They also found elevated alkaline and earth metals levels, in some cases within the 99th percentile of measurements for the last decade."

The study's lead researcher, David Gay, said, "All of these pollutants are important in the environment because their accumulation has an impact on the Earth's aquatic and terrestrial environments in many ways."

In March 2024, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy, testified at a Senate hearing that the deliberate burn was not necessary because there was no risk of additional explosions.

Friday's quick hits: This bot cleans up; sculpture park honors enslaved people; trying weird veggies; camping trip plan

(The Searial Cleaners photo via Route Fifty)

Almost everyone knows what a litterbug is, but what about a litterbot? In Detroit, a litterbot named BeBot "will sift through the sand and suck out trash like cigarette butts, bottles, food wrappers and other small pieces of plastic to help prevent trash from making its way from the Detroit River, which flows between the U.S. and Canada, into Lake Erie," reports Kaitlyn Levinson of Route Fifty. "The robot is roughly the size of a riding lawn mower and weighs more than 1,300 pounds. It uses a metal grate to sift through the sand and pick up trash as it rolls along beachfronts at about two miles per hour. "

Bernie Sanders of Vermont isn't the only one investigating 4-day work weeks. Educators in Pennsylvania now have the option of a 4-day school week. "Legislation signed into law in December amended the Pennsylvania School Code to eliminate the requirement for a minimum 180 school days, providing 900 or more instruction hours each academic year," reports Valerie Myers of The Erie Times. "Districts now can choose between 180 school days and hourly instruction requirements: 900 for elementary students and 990 for secondary students." Despite the option, a lot of school administrators don't feel ready to sign up.

The Legacy Sites photo

How can Americans confront slavery's part in our national history? A park in Alabama is memorializing this past with art. "Montgomery, Alabama -- once a major trafficking port for enslaved people – opened its new Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, which features bronze sculptures and historical artifacts that highlight what life was like for enslaved people," reports Mackenzie McCarty of The Christian Science Monitor. "The park culminates in the four-story National Monument to Freedom, inscribed with 122,000 last names that formerly enslaved people chose for themselves after being emancipated."

Guess who's hitting their Earth-loving metrics? U.S. farmers. Daniel Munch of the American Farm Bureau Federation reported on a new study from the Environmental Protection Agency that showed "'U.S. agriculture represents just under 10% of total U.S. emissions when compared to other economic sectors. Overall, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased from 2021 to 2022 by 1.3%, though agricultural emissions dropped 1.8% – the largest decrease of any economic sector.' . . . 2022 marks the lowest U.S. agricultural greenhouse gas emissions since 2012."

With googly eyes, most veggies look more approachable.
(Adobe Stock photo)

Some vegetables get a bad rap: Okra is slimy. Eggplants look more like purple slugs than food. Rutabagas don't even sound like a food. But what if there was a way to make those strange foods approachable? Even edible. "It's hard to be intimidated by celeriac — or rutabaga, radicchio, eggplant or okra — when it's wiggling googly eyes at you," reports Rebekah Denn of The Washington Post. Chef and food educator Becky Selengut "began pasting eyes on produce while teaching a 'Misunderstood Vegetables' cooking class and writing a related new cookbook."

Don't let raccoons, bugs, lumpy ground or lackluster meals ruin your summer camping trip. A great camping trip starts with solid planning, "so you'll return home with great memories," writes Alex Temblador for National Geographic. "We’ve created a list of all the items you’ll need. . . . From clothes to kitchen supplies and gear to help you sleep." Find the checklist here.

Coal markets remain robust as Asia increases reliance on coal to fill supply gaps; output set a record in 2023

Coal will remain an energy source for many decades
to come. (Photo by Dominik Vanyi, Unsplash)

Despite coal's reputation as the "dirtiest fossil fuel," it is still considered a reliable form of energy, and its removal from global energy systems looks to be a slow ride. "Thanks to a combination of China’s energy insecurity. . . and rising Indian demand, the continued fallout from the war in Ukraine and faltering international programs to wean developing economies off fossil fuels, coal is proving remarkably resilient," reports Bloomberg News. "Output hit a record last year."

Coal prices remain steady as the Asian market returns to coal as a more reliable energy source. "By 2026, China and India will comprise more than 70% of global coal use," Bloomberg reports. Those two countries, along with Indonesia, which opened new coal power plants last year, use about 93% of the world’s coal power, according to Global Energy Monitor.

Rob Bishop, chief executive officer of Australian miner New Hope Corp., told Bloomberg, "You look at Asia, the demand and the build-out of coal-fired power plants, particularly in India — coal’s not going anywhere anytime soon." Bloomberg reports, "In 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and blackouts during heatwaves in India further bolstered coal demand. By last year, output had risen to a record 8.7 billion tons, according to the International Energy Agency."

As nations work to transition from coal to renewables, coal will play a vital role. Global change to cleaner sources depends on multiple variables, particularly in countries such as China and Indonesia. Bloomberg reports, "Coal phaseouts, however, have proved far more challenging than anticipated. . . .The transition tests years-long expectations of rapid peaks and subsequent steep declines." Bishop told Bloomberg, "We see that the world needs more operators to mine coal and support the transition over many decades to come."

In East Palestine, Ohio, residents and officials now know the 'controlled burn' was not neccesary

Vinyl chloride is used to make
PVC piping. (Wikipedia photo)

More than a year has passed since the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which left the community of 5,000 facing the aftermath of a chemical explosion followed by a "controlled chemical burn" of vinyl chloride that at the time was presented as the "least bad" of two options. However, area residents and Congress discovered last week that Ohio decision-makers didn't have all the facts needed to avoid the burn.

"The decision to blow open five tank cars and burn the toxic chemical inside them after a freight train derailed in Eastern Ohio last year wasn't justified, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board told Congress," reports Josh Funk of The Associated Press. "But she said the key decision-makers who feared those tank cars were going to explode three days after the crash never had the information they needed."

The East Palestine train derailment.
(Wikipedia photo)

The company Oxy Vinyl made the vinyl chloride inside the five cars, and its experts told "contractors hired by Norfolk Southern railroad that they believed that no dangerous chemical reaction was happening, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said. But Oxy Vinyls was left out of the command center," Funk explains. While vinyl chloride is a flammable gas, it needs a specific combination of heat, air, light, and a contact catalyst to start a fire or explode. Homendy testified that the Oxy Vinyl's experts did not believe this combination or "polymerization" was occurring. "However, that information was never relayed to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and the first responders in charge, she said."

DeWine's spokesperson, Dan Tierney, said a lack of information made the burn seem like the only safe option. He told Funk: "The only two scenarios that were ever brought up were a catastrophic explosion occurring, where shrapnel would be thrust in all directions to a one-mile radius, or averting that through a controlled vent and burn. Nobody ever brought up a scenario where if you just did nothing, it wouldn't explode."

East Palestine is in Columbiana
County, Ohio. (Wikipedia)

Area residents now face the heartbreak of knowing the burn was not needed, and some suspect Norfolk Southern pushed for the burn versus waiting for the cars to cool so that more costly delays could be avoided. Funk reports, "Misti Allison, who lives with her family about a mile away from the derailment site, said the findings reaffirm what she believed to be true all along: that the vent and burn did not need to happen." She told Funk, "Norfolk Southern was putting profits over people to get the train tracks up and running as fast as possible and to destroy whatever evidence was left."

Vinyl chloride does not occur naturally and is a category 1A carcinogen. The National Cancer Institute notes that "vinyl chloride exposure is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer (hepatic angiosarcoma), as well as primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma), brain and lung cancers, lymphoma, and leukemia." 

A year after the East Palestine derailment, some residents have not returned home, and others report health problems

The site of the East Palestine train derailment.
(Photo by Cara Owsley, The Enquirer via USA Today)

More than a year has passed since the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, left the unsuspecting community of 5,000 living in the aftermath of a hazardous chemical explosion and its mitigating "controlled chemical burn." Many residents believe their lives are forever changed because of toxic exposure during and after the disaster.

Five days after the accident, Ohio officials announced that it was safe for residents to return home. "But five families who spoke to The Cincinnati Enquirer . . . just before the one-year anniversary say they're still dealing with health problems," reports Elizabeth B. Kim of The USA Today Network. Despite the lack of scientific studies tying the derailment's toxic spill to long-term health problems, "relocated families are still experiencing symptoms and foot many of their medical bills without help from the railroad or the government. They don't consider their East Palestine homes to be safe, and they're worried that moving back will worsen their symptoms."

Financial help from Norfolk Southern ends on Feb. 9 for families who relocated to other areas. "Some of the symptoms families say they face are chronic, and others are acute, appearing suddenly after a short period of time spent in one's home," Kim writes. "Christa Graves, 49, has had migraines before, but they increased in frequency from weekly to daily starting last February. . . . While Norfolk Southern offered to relocate people living within a mile of the derailment site, Graves lives 1.2 miles away. The railroad denied her request for relocation assistance, and her family has been unable to move out ever since."

Despite residents' reported health problems, the town's air and water have repeatedly passed quality testing. Anne Vogel, director of the Ohio EPA, said, "The agency is not planning to offer more residential air testing following those initial results," Kim reports. Ohio EPA "has also continued weekly sampling of the municipal water system since February 2023 and reported that no contaminants from the derailment have been detected."

Beyond ongoing health issues and expenses, families who have been unable to go home "described the crushing blow of losing their homes, sometimes passed down for generations," Kim reports. "Candy Kiehl still feels a strong connection to her East Palestine house despite feeling unconvinced that it's free of contamination." Kiehl told her: "That was my grandparents' house. That's where my mom passed away. That's where my dad passed away. But is it safe? I don't know."

Many environmentalists prefer real Christmas trees over fake ones because of substantial 'ecological benefits'

A Maine family's annual outing to cut
down their Christmas tree. (TRB photo)

Christmas preparations include dear traditions, and for some Americans, that means a trip to their local Christmas tree farm, where they may sleuth and argue for the best fir to chop down and haul home for the beloved decking of the tree. Little do some know their yearly outing supports more than the Christmas tree farmer. "The ecological benefits of real Christmas trees are why many environmentalists endorse them over the fake, petroleum-based versions shipped from half a world away," reports Cara Buckley of The New York Times. "Christmas tree farms can function much like young forests, said Andy Finton, a forest ecologist with the Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts."

Several years ago, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests started a Christmas tree farm. A few years into its planting, Nigel Manley, who oversaw the operations, "began noticing some interesting developments among the rows of fragrant balsam and Fraser firs lining the land," Buckley writes. "In the spring, areas around the younger trees drew ground nesters like bobolinks — songbirds that migrate to and from South America — killdeer and woodcocks, who availed themselves of the open spaces . . . . Mice and voles living on the land drew foxes and migratory raptors such as kestrels and harriers, who feasted on the cornucopia each time the grass was mowed."

The Rocks Christmas Tree Farm in New Hampshire.
(Photo by Nigel Manley, SPNHF)

Beyond wildlife homes, the firs make their space healthier. Finton told Buckley: "They're pulling carbon from the atmosphere. They're cleaning the air and, in many cases, cleaning the drinking water. They're keeping the landscape undeveloped, preventing impervious surfaces, by giving economic incentives to landowners." Buckley adds, "Ten years ago, researchers "documented 80 plant species at tree farms in North Carolina, including milkweed growing waist-high at the edges of fields, which drew 17 genera of bees and predatory insects that gobbled up tree pests."

Because of pesticide use in larger tree farms, some ecologists don't support the practice, Buckley reports. "Yet Bert Cregg, a professor of horticulture and forestry at Michigan State University, said Christmas tree growers generally want to minimize use of the chemicals. . . . .Pesticides are expensive, he said, and many growers live on-site and don't want to be exposed."

Tom Norby, the president of the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association, said that "a small portion of the trees were harvested each year, leaving roughly 90 percent growing and available for animals," Buckley reports.

Wildfire smoke takes a physical and mental health toll on rural residents, and can be linked to suicides, study shows

Lingering wildfire smoke from Oregon's Archie Creek fire  
(Photo by Jan Pytalski, The Daily Yonder)

Wildfire smoke travels wherever the wind flow takes it, and lingering fires can be physically and emotionally exhausting for residents along the path.

As wildfires become more common, many rural residents struggle to deal with the effects of pervasive air pollution, reports Claire Carlson of The Daily Yonder with John Upton and Kaitlyn Trudeau of Climate Central. "The smoke harms farms and recreation-based businesses, can be psychologically triggering for wildfire survivors, frequently drives residents indoors, and recent research showed it's associated with increases in rural suicides."

Ongoing exposure to wildfire smoke can lead to a litany of health issues. "It exacerbates asthma and worsens infections," the Yonder reports. "Tiny smoke particles move from lungs into bloodstreams and can directly affect brain health, with research out of the University of Montana connecting smoke exposure to the development of dementia."

A study published last fall in the science journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences "linked smoke exposure with increases in suicides among rural populations, though not among urban ones," Carlson, Upton and Trudeau write. David Molitor, a health economist at the University of Illinois, who led the research, which drew on 13 years of smoke and federal suicide data to track mental health effects, told reporters, "In rural areas, we find that smoke days are significantly associated with increases in suicide rates."

But the very nature of wildfire smoke as a smelly, hazy, lingering environment leaves rural residents with an inescapable mental hazard. Colleen Reid, a health geographer and environmental epidemiologist at the University of Colorado, who studies the health effects of wildfire smoke, told the Yonder: "In rural areas, there's likely more people whose livelihoods are based on the land and working outside. We're increasingly seeing mental health impacts. . . . There are some more recent studies where even individuals who were just affected by the smoke could have mental health impacts."

Looking for a way around the gas stove controversy? This writer found a solution.

Americans are 'very attached to their gas stoves.'
(Photo by Donna Kallner, The Daily Yonder)

Chefs, cooks and bakers from all walks of life have claimed kinship with their gas stoves. For rural fans, their devotion goes beyond being able to control heat; it speaks to survival when electricity fails. "For those who've never lived out yonder, it can be hard to understand how often we deal with power outages, reports Donna Kallner of The Daily Yonder. "During an electrical outage, I cannot use my oven because there's no way to light it manually. But I can light the stovetop burners the old school way: A box of kitchen matches sits by the stove 24/7/365."

Gas ovens' reliability and long-time presence in American homes make their removal seem unlikely, even when residents like Kallner want cleaner, safer energy. "Most Americans would prefer to live in a home where almost all major appliances run on electricity — but only if they can keep their gas stoves," reports Tik Root of Grist. "Just 31 percent want to go fully electric. People across the political and demographic spectrum are very attached to their natural gas stoves — an affinity that was particularly strong among respondents who identified as Hispanic. Nationally, one-third of all homes use methane for cooking."

So, what is a possible solution? Kallner, a rural cook, found a solution: "Liquid propane is considered a very clean burning fossil fuel suitable for indoor use. It was approved as an alternative fuel under the Clean Air Act, as well as the National Energy Policy Act of 1992. About 90% of the LP gas used in this country is produced in the United States. LP may be more expensive than natural gas, but it's about twice as energy efficient per cubic foot. It's delivered to the tank on my property by a friendly guy who checks our supply on a regular schedule and fills the tank before it's empty."

Kallner purchased a propane stove, including a new range hood. She writes, "This [hood] has a greater intake area than our old hood to increase the air exchange. . . . We should be able to cook a batch of pancakes in half the time. And I can light those burners with a match when the power is out."

Better known as Roundup, glyphosate is found in pregnant women who live near farms, study finds

Herbicide drift is one possible explanation for the
study's findings. (Photo by Eric Brehm, Unsplash)

Considered the world's most commonly sprayed weedkiller, glyphosate, sometimes sold under the name brand "Roundup," is a suspected cause of  serious health concerns. New research found pregnant women "living near farm fields show 'significantly' increased concentrations of glyphosate weedkiller in their urine during periods when farmers spray their fields with the herbicide," reports Carey Gillam of The Guardian. "The research team said the findings were concerning, given recent studies that have found gestational exposure to glyphosate is associated with reduced fetal growth and other fetal problems."

The study yielded some surprising results, Gilliam writes, "because none of the women studied worked with glyphosate or other herbicides or had a household member who worked with weedkillers, said Cynthia Curl, associate professor at Boise State and lead author on the paper. Curl couldn't account for how the women were exposed and questioned whether herbicide drift, soil particle adhesion, house dust or drinking water were to blame. She told Gilliam: "Until we figure that out, we can't suggest the right interventions."

For the study, researchers from the University of California, the University of Washington, Boise State University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention included 40 pregnant women in southern Idaho and took into account their proximity to farms using glyphosate. "In those living near the fields, glyphosate was detected both more frequently and at much higher concentrations during the months when farmers were spraying glyphosate than during the periods when they were not spraying," Gilliam reports. "Those participants living farther away still showed glyphosate in their urine, but the frequency and concentrations stayed relatively unchanged throughout the year."

Philip Landrigan, director of the Program for Global Public Health at Boston College, told Gilliam, “Sadly, I am not surprised that pregnant women who live near fields sprayed with glyphosate have elevated levels of glyphosate in their bodies during the spraying season. This situation is analogous to the elevated exposures to benzene, 1,3-butadiene and other toxic plastics chemicals that have been documented in women who live in ‘fenceline’ communities.”

Gilliam adds, "Though glyphosate has been on the market for more than 50 years, it is only within the last few years that researchers have started to document the extent of human exposure."

California's new climate laws are set to have a global impact; the state is the fifth-largest world economy

Lily Hsueh, Associate Professor of Economics
and Public Policy, Arizona State University

Under California's new climate laws, corporate behemoths like Apple and Exxon that do business in the state will have to track and report "almost all their greenhouse gas emissions -- including emissions from their supply chains, business travel, employees' commutes and the way customers use their products," reports Lily Hsueh for The Conversation, a platform for journalism for academics. "That means oil and gas companies like Chevron will likely have to account for emissions from vehicles that use their gasoline, and Apple will have to account for materials that go into iPhones."

The mandatory disclosure laws are "a huge leap from current federal and state reporting requirements, which require reporting only certain emissions from companies' direct operations. And it will have global ramifications," Hsueh explains. While other places have similar laws, "California is the fifth-largest economy in the world. So, the state's new laws are poised to have substantial influence worldwide."

Despite the change in rules, many corporations knew mandatory reporting was coming and prepared, and some were already doing a portion of it. "Close to two-thirds of the companies listed in the S&P 500 index voluntarily report to CDP, formerly called the Carbon Disclosure Project. CDP is a nonprofit that surveys companies on behalf of institutional investors about their carbon management and plans to reduce carbon emissions," Hsueh reports. "Many also face reporting requirements elsewhere, including in the European Union, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Singapore and cities like Hong Kong."

Research is unclear if mandatory disclosures work.
(Photo by Robin Sommer, Unsplash)

What changes do mandatory disclosures make in terms of lowering greenhouse gas output? Hseuh writes, "My research shows that voluntary carbon disclosure systems like CDPs that focus on reporting corporate sustainability outputs, such as having science-based emissions targets, tend not to be as effective as those that focus on outcomes, such as a company's actual carbon emissions. . . . For example, a company could earn an A or B grade from CDP and still increase its entity-wide carbon emissions, notably when it does not face regulatory pressure.

"In contrast, a recent study of the U.K.'s 2013 disclosure mandate for U.K.-incorporated listed firms found that companies reduced their operational emissions by about 8% relative to a control group, with no significant changes to their profitability. When companies report their emissions, they can gain important knowledge about inefficiencies in their operations and supply chains that weren't evident before. . . . Ultimately, a well-designed disclosure program, whether voluntary or mandatory, needs to focus on consistency, comparability and accountability. Those traits allow companies to demonstrate that their climate pledges and actions are real, not just a front for greenwashing."

USDA's voluntary tack on climate change brought farmers along; next job is convincing Wall Street, environmentalists

Methane emissions from livestock are not targeted by the USDA's
initial program, which focuses on soil. (Photo by Mario Tama, Getty)

President Biden’s plan to help farmers reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions "has the powerful, conservative Beltway farm lobby smiling ear-to-ear," Garrett Downs of Politico reports. "That’s enough investment to turn the agricultural lobby around on Biden, for now. But the administration acknowledges it still has a long way to go in proving to climate advocates that its plan will reduce the effects of global warming in a meaningful way."

Biden's main tool is "a $3 billion initiative dubbed Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities," which is spending to test farming methods that reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, "akin to a large-scale science experiment," Downs writes. It aims to involve 60,000 farms and 25 million acres. "The Agriculture Department estimates the results will produce emissions benefits equal to taking around 12 million cars off the road."

Administration officials hope the "influx of cash will produce an impressive feat: turning some farmers, generally a conservative group, around on Biden," Downs reports. The so-called Inflation Reduction Act "will grow the incentive-driven climate-ag space by nearly $20 billion," and "They have even broader hopes for the new $3 billion initiative: that Wall Street will see the financial possibilities of turning farms green and make their own investments in similar projects."

Cover crops seeded into mature corn are a big part of the private
carbon-control market. (Photo from DTN/The Progerssive Farmer)

“This can’t just be government money; we have to attract private investment,” said Robert Bonnie, the USDA’s undersecretary of farm production and conservation. “Part of the real interest in the Partnerships program is a way to provide seed money to entice more folks in the private sector to come in … The government’s not going to do it alone.” He added, “If we’re going to maintain agriculture and forestry support for this, it’s got to stay voluntary. And if we can prove that this approach works, we have a high probability of doing that.”

Bonnie, a Kentucky native, is "a veteran of the Obama administration and saw that administration’s cap-and-trade approach go up in smoke," Downs notes. "He researched how to gain support in rural communities for environmental efforts."

Downs points out, "Wall Street has been nervous about investing in green supply chains — and in particular in purchasing carbon credits under government programs designed to quickly offset pollution from farms. Last year, a Bloomberg article exposed that scores of companies claiming to be eco-friendly actually purchased carbon credits that turned out to be bogus. . . . But after USDA provides significant monetary incentives to farms around the country to go green, Wall Street will have a better idea of what works and what doesn’t — and which carbon credits and sustainable farming tools are worth the money."

UPDATE, Aug. 11: Chris Clayton of DTN/The Progerssive Farmer reports, "With at least 22 different carbon programs being marketed now to farmers by private companies, a new research paper looks at how those programs should be transformed to deal with barriers to adoption and ideally broaden the adoptions of conservation practices in the process."

Railroad employee, working solo, got warnings but says he was too busy to notice before derailment; safety bill stalls

Aerial view of the deliberate burning of hazardous vinyl chloride
(Columbiana County commissioners photo from NTSB via ABC)

One employee watching 19,500 miles of track could have prevented Norfolk Southern Corp.'s February train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, but he says he was distracted by other trains and failed to see  warnings that a wheel bearing was heating up and would fail, reports Darrel Rowland of ABC News: "He wasn't even looking at the readings from defect detectors along the tracks on the bearing, suspected by the National Transportation Safety Board of causing the fiery crash in East Palestine."

Gary Rambo, automatic train-control analyst for the Atlanta-based railroad, told NTSB investigators "he was monitoring other Norfolk Southern trains at the same time," Rowland reports. "Thus, he didn't notice a 'trending alert' from the wayside defect detector showing a spike of 103 degrees in the bearing of doomed train 32N in Ohio. . . . He said, 'Honestly, I didn't see it when it first came in. There were three other trains I was working on.'"

"Rambo said he didn't know for sure the train had derailed until he heard from the chief dispatcher's office that 'We got a lot of cars on the ground' and 'They're on fire,'" Rowland reports. "He told investigators that on the day of the crash, he – as usual – was working solo on a 12-hour shift, attempting to monitor from home all the company's trains on 19,500 miles of track in the eastern U.S. . . . He said he did not even have a scheduled lunch break or time to use the bathroom as he tried to keep up with an average of 300 alerts per shift. . . . Rambo said two persons used to work the shift until Norfolk Southern staff cutbacks a few years ago."

Should Rambo had noticed the warning, he may not have acted, Rowland writes: "The temperature fell just short of the railroad's threshold to stop the train – although whether someone like Rambo could have asked for a halt due to the rapid temperature rise remains unclear. . . . Critics say the nothing-to-see-here stance of Norfolk Southern on a crucial element of the derailment provides just one indicator of how hard it's proving to bring real change on rail safety as we approach the six-month anniversary of the crash where 38 cars from the 1.75-mile-long train derailed in East Palestine, including 11 with toxic materials that first responders had difficulty identifying."

Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown (D) and J.D. Vance are pushing a bill to create more rail safeguards. The Senate Commerce Committee approved it in May, and a handful of other "Trump-aligned conservatives have signed onto the effort, but party leaders on both sides believe the legislation in its current form lacks enough GOP support to clear the 60-vote threshold" in the Senate, Punchbowl News reports. "The problem for most Republicans is that the bill goes too far in imposing new regulations on the industry.”

Joe Perticone of The Bulwark’s “Press Pass” reports, “The bill’s fortunes started shifting around the same time that the Norfolk Southern Corp.” political-action committee “was cutting big checks to PACs and members of Congress whose positions made them critical to the bill’s fate.“

Purdue professor explains why the world is getting hotter and what that means for wildfires, rain and air quality

Dr. Daniel Cziczo

Is it hotter than it used to be? The short answer is yes. Why? A video explanation from Daniel Cziczo, a professor and head of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University, has been loaded for viewing by members of The Associated Press, AP reports. "He goes over why higher temperatures have become more common and what that means for wildfires, rain and air quality." The video can be found here.

"Cziczo says that as man-made greenhouse gases are released into the environment, heat becomes trapped and raises temperatures. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane act like a blanket over Earth, keeping the sun’s heat from escaping the atmosphere," Purdue reports. "Thanks to this rise in temperature, forest-fire season starts earlier, ends later, and happens in areas where wildfires didn’t used to occur. Hot and dry weather can also lead to a decrease in precipitation and a drop in air quality."

If you'd like more in-depth look at Cziczo's research, he presents his area of expertise, particle and cloud research, as key to a human response to climate change in his July 2022 MEERTalk. He points out that humans are are heating up the atmosphere mostly through mixed greenhouse gases, but we are also cooling the planet with particle matter. Clouds form around tiny airborne particles called aerosols. Understanding how cloud formation influences our atmosphere is key to understanding and mitigating climate change from the stratosphere.

Are current heatwaves evidence that climate change is speeding up? The Economist tries to answer the question

Are the current heatwaves evidence that climate change is speeding up? That's the headline over a comprehensive article in The Economist, with a subhead, "All sorts of records are being broken in all sorts of places." Yes, it;'s July, but "the highest temperatures tend to come later in the season. That this year’s should start so early, rise so high and run so long is unprecedented."

The British magazine notes the basic drivers: Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is "the highest it has been for over 3 million years. Methane and nitrous oxide, two other long-lived greenhouse gases, have also reached levels never before experienced by humans. The world is now, on average, around 1.2°C warmer than it was before humans started thickening the glass in the greenhouse."

James Hansen of Columbia University, a climate scientist who was one of the first to warn of global warming, "argues that the rate at which the world is warming seems to have gone through a step change in the 2010s, though he has not yet convinced his peers. This summer’s surprises, especially a run of record temperatures in the North Atlantic, might help change that."

An El Niño began last month, which has a warming effect, but such ocean oscillations tend to have their greatest impact about a year in, and "Today’s ocean temperatures look like evidence of this one getting off to a flying start." Another likely factor is the huge eruption of a submarine Pacific volcano last year, which  injected a huge amount of water vapor, a powerful greenhouse gas, into the air. "In the lower atmosphere it condenses out into rain or snow fairly quickly. In the stratosphere, though, it lingers for longer," The Economist notes, adding that trhe eruption "is thought to have increased the amount of water vapor in the stratosphere by 13%."

We'v heard more lately about methane, a very powerful greenhouse gas, and "Some scientists cite recent increases in methane levels as evidence" that the world is warming in much the same way it did at the end of the last ice age. Some think it's because there are more tropical wetlands, "whose plants produce the gas when they rot. This is one candidate for the mechanism that drives the methane spikes seen at the end of ice ages. If true, it opens up the possibility of a feedback loop starting today similar to the ones that seem to have operated in the past. More methane means more warming, which means more wetlands, and therefore more methane."

Also, government limits on sulfur dioxide to quash acid rain and a more recent change to reduce pollution from ocean shipping may have cause more warming. Sulphate particles that SO2 creates in the lower atmosphere reflect sunlight, and "can help create clouds which reflect away more sunshine still." However, "The indirect effects that aerosol particles have on cloud cover are notoriously hard to capture in climate models."