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Source: http://grist.org/feed

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14. <title>Grist</title>
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17. <description>Climate. Justice. Solutions.</description>
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34. <title>Texas inmates are being ‘cooked to death’ in extreme heat, complaint alleges</title>
35. <link>https://grist.org/extreme-heat/texas-inmates-are-being-cooked-to-death-in-extreme-heat-complaint-alleges/</link>
37. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Pooja Salhotra, The Texas Tribune]]></dc:creator>
38. <pubDate>Sat, 04 May 2024 13:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
39. <category><![CDATA[Extreme Heat]]></category>
40. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636780</guid>
41.  
42. <description><![CDATA[With the threat of another hot summer ahead, advocates asked a federal judge to declare 100-degree-plus conditions in uncooled Texas facilities unconstitutional.]]></description>
43. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
44. <p class="has-default-font-family"><em>This story was first published by <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/22/texas-prisons-heat-deaths/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Texas Tribune</a>, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.</em></p>
45.  
46.  
47.  
48. <p class="has-default-font-family">April signaled the beginning of blistering heat for much of Texas. And while the summer heat is uncomfortable for many, it can be deadly for the people incarcerated in Texas’ prison system where temperatures regularly reach triple digits.</p>
49.  
50.  
51.  
52. <p class="has-default-font-family">With another sweltering summer likely ahead, on April 22 prison rights advocates filed a complaint against Texas Department of Criminal Justice executive director Bryan Collier, arguing that the lack of air conditioning in the majority of Texas prisons amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.</p>
53.  
54.  
55.  
56. <p class="has-default-font-family">The filing came from four nonprofit organizations who are joining a lawsuit originally filed last August by Bernie Tiede, an inmate who suffered a medical crisis after being housed in a Huntsville cell that reached temperatures exceeding 110 degrees. Tiede, a well-known offender whose 1996 murder of a wealthy widow inspired the film “Bernie,” was moved to an air-conditioned cell following a court order but he’s not guaranteed to stay there this year.</p>
57.  
58.  
59.  
60. <p class="has-default-font-family">Last month&#8217;s filing expands the plaintiffs to include every inmate incarcerated in uncooled Texas prisons, which have led to the deaths of dozens of Texas inmates and cost the state millions of dollars as it fights wrongful death and civil rights lawsuits.</p>
61.  
62.  
63.  
64. <p class="has-default-font-family">The plaintiffs ask that an Austin federal judge declare the state’s prison policy unconstitutional and require that prisons be kept under 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Texas jails are already required to keep facilities cooler than 85 degrees, and federal prisons in Texas have a 76 degree maximum.</p>
65.  
66.  
67.  
68. <p class="has-default-font-family">Between June and August last year, the average temperature was 85.3 degrees — the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/07/texas-hottest-summer-2023/">second hottest</a>&nbsp;on record behind 2011. And this year does not look to be much cooler. The most recent winter season ranked&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/national-climate-202402">warmest on record</a>&nbsp;for the contiguous U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.</p>
69.  
70.  
71.  
72. <p class="has-default-font-family">Scientists have found that climate change has resulted in more severe and longer lasting heat waves. In the last decade, Texas has experienced over 1,000 days of record-breaking heat,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/27/texas-climate-change-heat/">compared to a normal decade</a>.</p>
73.  
74.  
75.  
76. <p class="has-default-font-family">In the hot summer months, those concrete and metal cells can reach over 130 degrees, formerly incarcerated Texans said during an April 22 press conference. Legal representatives hope to prove those conditions are unconstitutional.</p>
77.  
78.  
79.  
80. <p class="has-default-font-family">“What is truly infuriating is the failure to acknowledge that everyone in the system — all 130,000 prisoners — are at direct risk of being impacted by something that has a simple solution that has been around since the 1930s, and that is air conditioning,” attorney Jeff Edwards told reporters. Edwards was the lead attorney in a 2014 prison rights case that cited the nearly two dozen Texas prison inmates who died from heat stroke over the previous two decades. That case <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2018/02/02/after-lawsuit-texas-says-it-will-install-air-conditioning-its-stifling/">culminated in a settlement</a>, where TDCJ agreed to install air conditioning at the Wallace Pack Unit near College Station.</p>
81.  
82.  
83.  
84. <p class="has-default-font-family">About two thirds of the inmates housed across TDCJ’s facilities live in areas without air conditioning. Advocates and inmates’ families have long fought to cool prisons in a state where summer temperatures routinely exceed triple digits and pose dangerous conditions to inmates and correctional officers.</p>
85.  
86.  
87.  
88. <p class="has-default-font-family">Although the state has not reported a heat-related death since 2012, researchers and inmates’ families dispute those statistics. A&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36322085/">2022 study</a>&nbsp;found that 14 prison deaths per year were associated with heat. Last year, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/08/21/texas-prison-heat-deaths/#:~:text=At%20least%2041%20people%20have,to%20a%20Texas%20Tribune%20analysis.">Texas Tribune analysis&nbsp;</a>found that at least 41 people had died in uncooled prisons during the state’s record-breaking heat wave.</p>
89.  
90.  
91.  
92. <p class="has-default-font-family">Health problems that have been linked to excessive heat include renal diseases, cardiovascular mortality, respiratory illnesses and suicides, Julie Skarha, a epidemiology researcher at Brown University who authored the 2022 study, told reporters on Monday.</p>
93.  
94.  
95.  
96. <p class="has-default-font-family">Skarha said while death certificates may not list heat strokes — a condition when the body can no longer control its temperature — as the official cause of death, her research indicates that many prisoners have died from heat-related causes.</p>
97.  
98.  
99.  
100. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Heat deaths haven’t magically stopped,” the lawsuit states. “TDCJ has simply stopped reporting or admitting them after the multiple wrongful death lawsuits and national news coverage.”</p>
101.  
102.  
103.  
104. <p class="has-default-font-family">TDCJ spokesperson Amanda Hernandez declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the agency does not comment on pending litigation. But she emphasized that the department has been adding more air conditioning units since 2018.</p>
105.  
106.  
107.  
108. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Each year we’ve been working to add cool beds, and we’ll continue to do so,” she said.</p>
109.  
110.  
111.  
112. <p class="has-default-font-family">She also pointed to the departments’&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/offender_info/enhanced_heat_protocols.html">“enhanced heating protocols”&nbsp;</a>which are activated from April to October and include providing ice water to inmates and allowing them to purchase fans and cooling towels from the commissary.</p>
113.  
114.  
115.  
116. <p class="has-default-font-family">Lawyers argue that these mitigation tactics are insufficient to combat the state’s sweltering temperatures. To survive the heat, incarcerated people report having to flood their toilets or sinks and lie down in the water on the cell floor to try to cool their bodies, the lawsuit states.</p>
117.  
118.  
119.  
120. <p class="has-default-font-family">“This isn’t an unpredictable event,” said attorney Erica Grossman, who is one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs. “It gets hot every summer, and much like every other building in Texas — including buildings that have animals — we cool the building.”</p>
121.  
122.  
123.  
124. <p class="has-default-font-family">TDCJ staff who work in the facilities are similarly impacted by the heat, said Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin&#8217;s School of Law and LBJ School. The excessive heat invades all aspects of life in prisons: Staff must do physical work in heavy uniforms in the heat; the heat results in more violence among those incarcerated; and it leads to more use of force against prisoners, she said.</p>
125.  
126.  
127.  
128. <p class="has-default-font-family">The TDCJ states on their heat mitigation protocols that staff are “encouraged to increase their water intake” during the hot summer month and are allowed to wear cooling towels and dri-fit compression shirts.</p>
129.  
130.  
131.  
132. <p class="has-default-font-family">New research Skarha has conducted found that the number of assaults that occur in prisons without air conditioning increased as much as five times during summer months compared to that number in climate-controlled facilities.</p>
133.  
134.  
135.  
136. <p class="has-default-font-family">Prison rights advocates say the state could easily fund air conditioning units across its prisons but has simply been unwilling to do so. During the last legislative session — when the state recorded a record surplus — the House <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/04/11/texas-prisons-air-conditioning/">proposed spending $545 million</a> to install air-conditioning in most of the prison facilities lacking it. But the final budget did not include any money dedicated to air conditioning.</p>
137.  
138.  
139.  
140. <p class="has-default-font-family">The House also passed <a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/history.aspx?LegSess=88R&amp;Bill=HB1708">a bill</a> requiring prisons to be kept between 65 and 85 degrees, which is required already in jails and most federal facilities. But the bill failed in the more conservative Senate.</p>
141.  
142.  
143.  
144. <p class="has-default-font-family">“We have the resources. We just seem to not have the compassion to do it,” Rep.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/directory/carl-sherman-sr/">Carl Sherman</a>, D-DeSoto, said during the press conference. Sherman was one of the authors of the bill that would have regulated prison temperatures.</p>
145.  
146.  
147.  
148. <p class="has-default-font-family">The Legislature did allocate approximately $85 million for “additional deferred maintenance projects,” in Texas prisons, and TDCJ is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/ac/index.html">using that money</a>&nbsp;to pay for air conditioning units. Hernandez estimated that those dollars will provide air conditioning for an estimated 10,000 inmates.</p>
149.  
150.  
151.  
152. <p class="has-default-font-family"><em>Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune&#8217;s journalism. Find a complete <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/support-us/corporate-sponsors/">list of them here</a>.</em></p>
153.  
154.  
155.  
156. <script async src="https://ping.texastribune.org/ping.js" data-source="repub" data-canonical="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/22/texas-prisons-heat-deaths/" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
157. <p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/extreme-heat/texas-inmates-are-being-cooked-to-death-in-extreme-heat-complaint-alleges/">Texas inmates are being ‘cooked to death’ in extreme heat, complaint alleges</a> on May 4, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
161. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636780</post-id><timeToRead>7</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[A long corridor of dry grass between metal fences, as seen through a metal fence.]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[]]></summary>      <dc:creator><![CDATA[William Melhado, Texas Tribune]]></dc:creator>
162. </item>
163. <item>
164. <title>The country&#8217;s first new aluminum smelter in 45 years could cut production emissions by 75%</title>
165. <link>https://grist.org/solutions/the-nations-first-new-aluminum-smelter-in-45-years-could-cut-production-emissions-by-75/</link>
167. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Maddie Stone]]></dc:creator>
168. <pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2024 08:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
169. <category><![CDATA[Solutions]]></category>
170. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636465</guid>
171.  
172. <description><![CDATA[Century Aluminum Company hopes half a billion dollars in federal funding will help it revive a dying industry while making it less polluting.]]></description>
173. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
174. <p class="has-default-font-family">Aluminum is a crucial raw ingredient in the fight against climate change. But to ensure the transition off fossil fuels is a clean one, the <a href="https://grist.org/regulation/cleaning-up-aluminum-will-be-critical-to-a-low-carbon-future/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">industry</a> needs a serious makeover. A new federally funded “green smelter” could help make that happen.</p>
175.  
176.  
177.  
178. <p class="has-default-font-family">Making this remarkably versatile metal requires a huge — and near-constant — supply of electricity. Much of it is generated by burning fossil fuels, which is one reason aluminum manufacturers are responsible for about <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/extractiveindustries/publication/competitiveness-of-global-aluminum-supply-chains-under-carbon-pricing-scenarios-for-solar-pv#:~:text=Aluminum%20production%20also%20has%20a,Germany's%20total%20emissions%20in%202019.">1.1 billion tons</a> of carbon dioxide emissions a year. That’s <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/about/news/greenhouse-gas-emissions-march-update-2023#:~:text=The%20report%20shows%20emissions%20were,0.3%20Mt%20CO2%2De).">more than twice</a> the amount all of Australia spews annually.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
179.  
180.  
181.  
182. <p class="has-default-font-family">Cleaning things up poses a huge challenge, one the Department of Energy, or DOE, wants to help solve. In March, the agency <a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-announces-6-billion-transform-americas-industrial-sector">announced</a> $6 billion in funding for “industrial demonstration” projects that showcase promising strategies for reducing the climate impact of heavy industry. The need is particularly acute, because heavy industrial processes like aluminum production generate nearly one-third of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.&nbsp;</p>
183.  
184.  
185.  
186. <p class="has-default-font-family">The beneficiaries of the government’s cleanup effort include Century Aluminum Company, which could receive up to half a billion dollars to build the nation’s first new aluminum smelter in 45 years. The facility, dubbed the Green Aluminum Smelter, could double the amount of virgin, or primary, aluminum the country produces while emitting 75 percent less CO2 than older smelters, thanks to increased efficiency and the use of renewable electricity. The grant, which is awaiting finalization, is a “huge vote of confidence and a shot in the arm” for the industry, said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-sartor/">Annie Sartor</a>, the aluminum campaign director at Industrious Labs, a nonprofit focused on industrial <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips2'>decarbonization</span>.&nbsp;</p>
187.  
188.  
189.  
190. <p class="has-default-font-family">That could boost a sector <a href="https://www.bluegreenalliance.org/site/clean-aluminum/aluminum-revitalized/">on life support</a>. Although the United States once led the world in producing the lightweight and durable metal, most of the country’s aluminum smelters have shuttered since the 1980s <a href="https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-industry/why-a-shrinking-us-aluminum-industry-is-tricky-news-for-clean-energy#:~:text=Faced%20with%20spiking%20energy%20costs,aluminum%20plants%20have%20scaled%20back.">due to rising energy costs</a>, falling prices, and a broader trend of American firms sending manufacturing overseas. Production, which peaked in 1980 at 4.65 million metric tons per year, has <a href="https://www.bluegreenalliance.org/site/clean-aluminum/aluminum-revitalized/">declined by more than 80 percent</a> since then, according to the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of environmental organizations and labor groups. That puts the U.S. in a tricky position as demand surges: A <a href="https://zenodo.org/records/8027939">report</a> released last year by researchers at Dartmouth and Princeton universities found that the country’s wind and solar industries alone could require nearly 8 million metric tons of the material annually by 2035. That’s <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2023/mcs2023-aluminum.pdf">nearly double</a> the amount of primary and recycled aluminum the country produced in 2022.</p>
191.  
192.  
193.  
194. <p class="has-default-font-family">And that’s to say nothing of the <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/the-role-of-critical-minerals-in-clean-energy-transitions/mineral-requirements-for-clean-energy-transitions">aluminum required</a> for EVs, power transmission lines, and countless other applications, from cookware to cell phones. Even recycling the stuff requires virgin material, which is mixed into all those melted cans and car parts and other scrap to produce quality metal.</p>
195.  
196.  
197.  
198. <p class="has-default-font-family">While there’s little question the U.S. will need a lot more aluminum, how it is made is increasingly important. Production starts with converting bauxite, an aluminum-rich ore, into a purified powder called alumina. That material is then smelted to produce the metal. All that mining and processing creates ecological destruction, generates toxic waste, and releases a cocktail of pollutants. It can also help warm the planet: Carbon emissions occur throughout the process, but more than 60 percent of them come from generating the electricity used in smelting. A large operation can require enough juice to <a href="https://www.carboncollective.co/sustainable-investing/gigawatt-gw">power millions of homes</a>.</p>
199.  
200.  
201.  
202. <p class="has-default-font-family">“We’re talking about truly eye-watering amounts of electricity,” said <a href="https://www.climateworks.org/people/rebecca-dell/">Rebecca Dell</a>, an industrial decarbonization expert with the nonprofit ClimateWorks Foundation. If the industry hopes to reduce its carbon footprint, “the first, most important thing to do is to use clean electricity.”</p>
203.  
204.  
205.  
206. <p class="has-default-font-family">Such efforts are underway throughout the world. Although China, the world’s <a href="https://international-aluminium.org/statistics/primary-aluminium-production/">largest producer of primary aluminum</a>, relies upon coal-fired power plants to generate <a href="https://www.woodmac.com/press-releases/carbon-neutrality-goal-forces-chinese-aluminium-smelters-away-from-captive-coal-power/#:~:text=Over%2080%25%20of%20aluminium%20capacity,fired%20power%20generation%20last%20year.">much of the electricity</a> needed to hold that title, others are proving that clean energy can deliver dramatic emissions reductions. Smelters in <a href="https://www.hydro.com/en/about-hydro/stories-by-hydro/the-worlds-most-energy-efficient-aluminium-production-technology/">Norway</a> and <a href="https://www.reliableplant.com/Read/15048/alcoa,-hydro-quebec-sign-power-agreements">Quebec, Canada</a>, release far fewer <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips1'>greenhouse gases</span> because they use hydropower, while those in Iceland tap the nation’s abundant geothermal resources.</p>
207.  
208.  
209.  
210. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Century-Aluminum-Co-green-smelter-DOE-grant-clean.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Century-Aluminum-Co-green-smelter-DOE-grant-clean.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Century-Aluminum-Co-green-smelter-DOE-grant-clean.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Century-Aluminum-Co-green-smelter-DOE-grant-clean.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Century-Aluminum-Co-green-smelter-DOE-grant-clean.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Century-Aluminum-Co-green-smelter-DOE-grant-clean.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Century-Aluminum-Co-green-smelter-DOE-grant-clean.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Century-Aluminum-Co-green-smelter-DOE-grant-clean.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Century-Aluminum-Co-green-smelter-DOE-grant-clean.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Century-Aluminum-Co-green-smelter-DOE-grant-clean.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Century-Aluminum-Co-green-smelter-DOE-grant-clean.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="An enormous stack of new aluminum bars, each weighing about 1,400 pounds, sit stacked on the grounds of a smelting operation in Kentucky" data-caption="Aluminum sows, or bars, each weighing about 1,400 pounds, sit stacked on the grounds of Century Aluminum Company’s plant in Hawesville, Kentucky. " data-credit="Luke Sharrett /For The Washington Post via Getty Images"/><figcaption>Aluminum sows, or bars, each weighing about 1,400 pounds, sit stacked on the grounds of Century Aluminum Company’s plant in Hawesville, Kentucky.  <cite>Luke Sharrett /For The Washington Post via Getty Images</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
211.  
212.  
213.  
214. <p class="has-default-font-family">Century Aluminum, a global producer that’s been around since 1995, already operates a low-carbon smelter in Iceland that’s capable of churning out over 300,000 tons of aluminum each year. The company hopes the DOE funding will allow it to bolster its presence in the U.S., where it operates two smaller smelters in Kentucky and another in South Carolina, while significantly expanding its production of low-carbon aluminum. It hasn’t said exactly how much of the metal its proposed smelter will be able to produce, but based on the expectation that it will roughly double the nation’s virgin production, Sartor suspects the goal is to churn out “just under” a million tons of the metal annually. (The U.S. <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2024/mcs2024-aluminum.pdf">produced</a> 750,000 tons of virgin aluminum in 2023.) Neither Century Aluminum nor the DOE have said when the smelter might begin operations.</p>
215.  
216.  
217.  
218. <p class="has-default-font-family">While many details are uncertain, including the smelter’s production capacity and the construction timetable, one thing is clear: The new plant will be expensive. Sartor said Century Aluminum will need all of the money DOE is offering and much more.</p>
219.  
220.  
221.  
222. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Building a new, large-scale, modern aluminum facility is far more than just twice that amount,” Sartor said. According to energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, aluminum smelters outside of China can cost <a href="https://www.woodmac.com/news/feature/investment-in-new-aluminium-capacity-needed-to-avoid-supply-crunch/">up to $4 billion</a> per million tons of annual production.</p>
223.  
224.  
225.  
226. <p class="has-default-font-family">Beyond building the infrastructure needed to produce aluminum lies the question of how to produce the clean electricity needed to power it. According to the DOE, Century Aluminum’s preferred site is in Kentucky, a state with lackluster clean energy credentials. In 2020, the Bluegrass State had a paltry <a href="https://eec.ky.gov/Energy/KY%20Energy%20Profile/Kentucky%20Energy%20Profile%202023.pdf">30.1 megawatts of solar generating capacity</a> and <a href="https://windexchange.energy.gov/states/ky#capacity">no wind energy production</a> whatsoever. Sartor says she expects a plant of this size to require “somewhere in the neighborhood of a gigawatt” of power. That’s enough to serve 800,000 U.S. homes for a year. “The only way that will happen is if gargantuan amounts of clean energy get built in Kentucky,” Sartor said. “There’s no other way around this.”&nbsp;</p>
227.  
228.  
229.  
230. <p class="has-default-font-family">A representative for Century Aluminum told Grist the company is “excited to move this transformational project forward,” but declined to answer other questions or say how it plans to secure the carbon-free energy required. The DOE wouldn’t speak to the challenges that may arise procuring clean energy, citing ongoing award negotiations.&nbsp;</p>
231.  
232.  
233.  
234. <p class="has-default-font-family">That said, the site hasn’t been finalized, and locations within the Ohio and Mississippi River basins <a href="https://centuryaluminum.com/investors/press-releases/press-release-details/2024/Century-Aluminum-Selected-by-U.S.-Department-of-Energy-to-Receive-500-Million-Investment-to-Build-New-Green-Aluminum-Smelter-to-Accelerate-Industrial-Decarbonization/default.aspx">are also reportedly</a> <a href="https://www.energy.gov/oced/industrial-demonstrations-program-selections-award-negotiations-aluminum-and-metals">under consideration</a>. Dell believes that brings an interesting political dimension to the project because Century Aluminum expects the smelter to create more than 1,000 full-time union jobs and another 5,500 construction jobs.&nbsp;</p>
235.  
236.  
237.  
238. <p class="has-default-font-family">“That’s a very attractive economic development opportunity for a state like Kentucky — or maybe for its neighbors,” Dell said. Century Aluminum, Dell said, is effectively putting Kentucky and nearby states — many of which haven’t exactly embraced renewables — on notice that “there’s a huge opportunity on the table if you guys can figure out a way to develop the electricity that’s needed.”</p>
239.  
240.  
241.  
242. <div id="wisepops-weekly-signup" class="wp-block-grist-wisepops-target-block" style="padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-bottom:0.5rem"></div>
243.  
244.  
245.  
246. <p class="has-default-font-family">If Century Aluminum succeeds in finding the clean energy it needs, it could help catalyze changes in other industrial sectors such as steelmaking. Dell notes that in most of the “high value added markets” for steel, like the automotive sector, the primary competition is aluminum.</p>
247.  
248.  
249.  
250. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Both of these industries are constantly trying to convince the car companies, ‘use our metal, not their metal,’” Dell said. “Having more clean aluminum out there will certainly act as an encouragement to the steel industry to clean up their act.”</p>
251. <script type="text/javascript"> toolTips('.classtoolTips1','Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other gases that prevent heat from escaping Earth’s atmosphere. Together, they act as a blanket to keep the planet at a liveable temperature in what is known as the “greenhouse effect.” Too many of these gases, however, can cause excessive warming, disrupting fragile climates and ecosystems.'); </script><script type="text/javascript"> toolTips('.classtoolTips2','The process of reducing the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that drive climate change, most often by deprioritizing the use of fossil fuels like oil and gas in favor of renewable sources of energy.'); </script><p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/solutions/the-nations-first-new-aluminum-smelter-in-45-years-could-cut-production-emissions-by-75/">The country&#8217;s first new aluminum smelter in 45 years could cut production emissions by 75%</a> on May 3, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
255. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636465</post-id><timeToRead>7</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[A factory worker guides an enormous cask of molten aluminum across the floor of a smelting factory in Kentucky.]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[In March, the US Department of Energy announced $6 billion in funding for “industrial demonstration” projects that showcase promising strategies for reducing the climate impact of heavy industry. The need is particularly acute. Aluminum is a crucial raw ingredient in the fight against climate change, but heavy industrial processes like aluminum production generate nearly one-third of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
256.  
257.  
258. The beneficiaries of the government’s clean-up effort include Century Aluminum Company, a global producer that already operates a low-carbon smelter in Iceland. The company could receive up to half a billion dollars to build the nation’s first new aluminum smelter in 45 years. Thanks to increased efficiency and the use of renewable electricity, the new facility could double the amount of virgin, or primary, aluminum the US produces while emitting 75 percent less CO2 than older smelters.
259.  
260.  
261. US aluminum production, which peaked in 1980 at 4.65 million metric tons per year, has declined by more than 80 percent since then, according to the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of environmental organizations and labor groups. There’s little question the country will need a lot more aluminum, and how it is made is increasingly important.]]></summary> </item>
262. <item>
263. <title>Illinois passed a law to clean up coal ash 5 years ago. What&#8217;s taking so long?</title>
264. <link>https://grist.org/equity/illinois-passed-a-law-to-clean-up-coal-ash-5-years-ago-whats-taking-so-long/</link>
266. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco]]></dc:creator>
267. <pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2024 08:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
268. <category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
269. <category><![CDATA[Equity]]></category>
270. <category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
271. <category><![CDATA[Race]]></category>
272. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636910</guid>
273.  
274. <description><![CDATA[In one Chicago suburb, people have been waiting for relief for years.]]></description>
275. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
276. <p class="has-default-font-family"><em>This coverage is made possible through a partnership between </em><a href="https://www.wbez.org/"><em>WBEZ</em></a><em> and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization. Sign up for</em> <a href="https://www.wbez.org/newsletters"><em>WBEZ newsletters</em></a><em> to get local news you can trust.</em></p>
277.  
278.  
279.  
280. <p class="has-default-font-family">Celeste Flores can tell you the good news about living in Waukegan, Illinois: The air is safer to breathe now.</p>
281.  
282.  
283.  
284. <p class="has-default-font-family">&#8220;Thankfully, we are no longer breathing coal being burned,” said Flores, a co-chair of Clean Power Lake County, or CPLC, an environmental justice organization serving the mostly Latino suburb about 40 miles north of Chicago. The explanation behind that is simple: The Waukegan Generating Station near the shore of Lake Michigan closed in 2022 after decades of pumping <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips1'>greenhouse gases</span> into the atmosphere and coal ash into the ground. </p>
285.  
286.  
287.  
288. <p class="has-default-font-family">Flores can also tell you the bad news: The toxic coal ash is still there, dangerously close to the groundwater. </p>
289.  
290.  
291.  
292. <p class="has-default-font-family">But the explanation behind why the pollution remains in the ground is more complicated than shutting a plant down.</p>
293.  
294.  
295.  
296. <p class="has-default-font-family">Coal ash is a cocktail of hazardous pollutants leftover from coal combustion. Across the country, plant operators dumped that heavy metal-laden sludge into holes in the ground, sometimes called ponds or impoundments. Sometimes these ponds are lined, and sometimes they aren’t. None of the ponds in Waukegan that are lined meet current state and federal standards.&nbsp;</p>
297.  
298.  
299.  
300. <p class="has-default-font-family">In 2019, the state confirmed what advocates like Flores had long suspected: that coal ash had leached into nearby groundwater. Worse yet, the coal ash was stored right near Lake Michigan.</p>
301.  
302.  
303.  
304. <p class="has-default-font-family">That same year, Flores helped push Illinois lawmakers to pass landmark coal ash regulation, which compelled managers of coal ash owners to submit plans to either clean up their operations or shut down.&nbsp;</p>
305.  
306.  
307.  
308. <p class="has-default-font-family">About three years ago the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) finalized exactly how operators had to submit these proposals. But plans are on hold for securing the three coal ash storage pits in Waukegan. The IEPA hasn’t finalized permits for those sites, so they continue to threaten groundwater.</p>
309.  
310.  
311.  
312. <p class="has-default-font-family">“When it comes to the implementation of these rules, it&#8217;s 2024 and we don&#8217;t have permits yet,” said Flores. &#8220;And I don&#8217;t think anyone was expecting that.” </p>
313.  
314.  
315.  
316. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_6177.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_6177.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_6177.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_6177.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_6177.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_6177.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_6177.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_6177.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_6177.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_6177.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_6177.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="two women standing in front of trees." data-caption="Celeste Flores, left, said the air is easier to breathe now in Waukegan, Illinois. Both she and Dulce Ortiz, right, worked to get a coal-burning plant in their suburb shut down. Now they’re trying to remove the coal ash that threatens their drinking water and Lake Michigan.
317. " data-credit="Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco / Grist"/><figcaption>Celeste Flores, left, said the air is easier to breathe now in Waukegan, Illinois. Both she and Dulce Ortiz, right, worked to get a coal-burning plant in their suburb shut down. Now they’re trying to remove the coal ash that threatens their drinking water and Lake Michigan.
318. <cite>Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco / Grist</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
319.  
320.  
321.  
322. <p class="has-default-font-family">Illinois set itself apart from the majority of the country when it finalized its <a href="https://epa.illinois.gov/topics/water-quality/watershed-management/ccr-surface-impoundments.html">coal ash rules</a> back in 2021. Most states, save for a handful like North Carolina and Michigan, relied on 2015 federal guidelines designed to monitor and clean up only some coal ash residuals. </p>
323.  
324.  
325.  
326. <p class="has-default-font-family">For years, the federal rule excluded inactive coal ash ponds and landfills from oversight. An analysis by Earthjustice found that the 2015 rules grandfathered in over 300 of these sites across 48 states. Illinois’ more protective mandate, however, brought them into the state’s regulatory orbit.</p>
327.  
328.  
329.  
330. <p class="has-default-font-family">Even so, advocates say the forthcoming permits are dragging.</p>
331.  
332.  
333.  
334. <p class="has-default-font-family">“The Illinois EPA has been reviewing these proposed permits for almost two years,” said Andrew Rehn, the director of climate policy at Prairie Rivers Network in Champaign. “And that&#8217;s, like, a long time for these permits to sit and just be under review.” </p>
335.  
336.  
337.  
338. <p class="has-default-font-family">The Illinois EPA is currently reviewing 44 separate coal ash surface impoundment permit applications for 25 current or former power plant sites across the state. Earlier this month, two and a half years since the first permit applications were submitted, the agency issued its first two draft permits.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
339.  
340.  
341.  
342. <p class="has-default-font-family">The agency said in a statement to Grist and WBEZ that, “due to the complexity of the information required in the applications, in most cases [the] Illinois EPA has requested additional information or clarification from the applicants.” The statement went on to say that it can take weeks to months to “gather additional information or to analyze groundwater modeling data.”</p>
343.  
344.  
345.  
346. <p class="has-default-font-family">Coal power plants have sought to make exceptions for their permits and have effectively stalled the permit process until the Illinois Pollution Control Board is able to resolve the requests. According to the IEPA, this is the major holdup with the Waukegan permits.&nbsp;</p>
347.  
348.  
349.  
350. <p class="has-default-font-family">Meanwhile, new federal regulations issued last week give the nation&#8217;s fleet of coal power plants and new natural gas plants an ultimatum: adapt or shut down. The power plants have eight years to come up with a plan to capture 90 percent of their greenhouse gas emissions or commit to closing by 2039.&nbsp;</p>
351.  
352.  
353.  
354. <p class="has-default-font-family">Advocates with the Waukegan group see this long awaited move as a step closer to phasing out coal for good. Although the coal business is in decline, it still has an outsized role in driving climate change and polluting surrounding communities. More than half of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions from electric power generation are attributable to burning coal, according to the <a href="https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=77&amp;t=11">U.S. Energy Information Administration</a>.&nbsp;</p>
355.  
356.  
357. <div class="wp-block-in-article-recirc">
358.  <article class="in-article-recirc">
359.    <span class="in-article-recirc__label">Read Next</span>
360.    <div class="in-article-recirc__content">
361.  
362.      
363.      
364.                    
365.            <a class="in-article-recirc__art" href="https://grist.org/regulation/epa-closes-coal-ash-loophole/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">
366.        <figure>
367.          <img src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Georgia-coal-plant.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all" alt="Aerial view of Plant Scherer, a coal-fired power plant in Juliette, Georgia."  class="js-modal-gallery__hidden" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Georgia-coal-plant.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1600w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Georgia-coal-plant.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Georgia-coal-plant.jpg?resize=330%2C186&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Georgia-coal-plant.jpg?resize=768%2C432&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Georgia-coal-plant.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Georgia-coal-plant.jpg?resize=160%2C90&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Georgia-coal-plant.jpg?resize=150%2C84&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 150w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" height="900" width="1600" loading="lazy" decoding="async">
368.        </figure>
369.      </a>
370.            <div class="in-article-recirc__body">
371.        <div class="in-article-recirc__title">
372.                    <a class="in-article-recirc__title-link" href="https://grist.org/regulation/epa-closes-coal-ash-loophole/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">EPA finally takes on abandoned coal ash ponds — but it might be too late</a>
373.        </div>
374.        <div class="in-article-recirc__meta">
375.          
377.  <div class="tease-meta">
378.                            <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/gautama-mehta/>Gautama Mehta</a>              </div>
379.        </div>
380.      </div>
381.    </div>
382.  </article>
383. </div>
384.  
385.  
386.  
387. <p class="has-default-font-family">Almost every coal power plant operator in the country is now staring down the same finish line in 2039. Included in the new rule are stricter safeguards for the coal ash pollution those plants will leave behind in the meantime.</p>
388.  
389.  
390.  
391. <p class="has-default-font-family">“With the 2015 rules, there was a circle of ponds and landfills that were subject to regulation,” said Megan Wachspress, a staff attorney with the Sierra Club. “That circle of ponds and landfills and other dump sites just got bigger.”</p>
392.  
393.  
394.  
395. <p class="has-default-font-family">Inactive coal ash ponds and landfills are now part of the family of coal ash dumps that the federal government demands operators monitor and clean up when they threaten water resources. </p>
396.  
397.  
398.  
399. <p class="has-default-font-family">If it was just a coal plant in Waukegan, Flores said, her organization’s fight might be more manageable. “But there&#8217;s so many other things.”  </p>
400.  
401.  
402.  
403. <p class="has-default-font-family">There are <a href="https://www.epa.gov/il/epa-sites-city-waukegan">five Superfund sites</a> scattered in and around the north shore suburb. These are abandoned lots so contaminated with hazardous materials that the federal government has taken over cleanup. Pointing in several directions, Flores said there are Superfund sites immediately north, south, and west of the old coal plant.</p>
404.  
405.  
406.  
407. <p class="has-default-font-family">And that means generations of Waukegan residents have had to struggle with medical problems and even premature death because of their toxic environment.&nbsp;</p>
408.  
409.  
410.  
411. <p class="has-default-font-family">There’s no question for Flores about what comes next: The coal ash must be removed from the ground. But to do that, state and federal agencies need to pick up the pace. </p>
412.  
413.  
414.  
415. <p class="has-default-font-family">“It&#8217;s about making sure that we know that we&#8217;re leaving behind a community that&#8217;s healthier than what we received,” Flores said.</p>
416. <script type="text/javascript"> toolTips('.classtoolTips1','Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other gases that prevent heat from escaping Earth’s atmosphere. Together, they act as a blanket to keep the planet at a liveable temperature in what is known as the “greenhouse effect.” Too many of these gases, however, can cause excessive warming, disrupting fragile climates and ecosystems.'); </script><p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/equity/illinois-passed-a-law-to-clean-up-coal-ash-5-years-ago-whats-taking-so-long/">Illinois passed a law to clean up coal ash 5 years ago. What&#8217;s taking so long?</a> on May 3, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
420. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636910</post-id><timeToRead>6</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[smokestacks jut up from brick building spewing smoke]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[]]></summary> </item>
421. <item>
422. <title>The world&#8217;s garment workers are on the front lines of climate impacts</title>
423. <link>https://grist.org/labor/the-worlds-garment-workers-are-on-the-frontlines-of-climate-impacts/</link>
425. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Louise Donovan]]></dc:creator>
426. <pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2024 08:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
427. <category><![CDATA[Accountability]]></category>
428. <category><![CDATA[Equity]]></category>
429. <category><![CDATA[Extreme Weather]]></category>
430. <category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
431. <category><![CDATA[International]]></category>
432. <category><![CDATA[Justice]]></category>
433. <category><![CDATA[Labor]]></category>
434. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636642</guid>
435.  
436. <description><![CDATA[Fast fashion is one of the world’s most polluting industries. Its global workforce is paying the price.]]></description>
437. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
438. <p class="has-default-font-family"><em>This story is published in partnership with </em><a href="https://fullerproject.org/"><em>The Fuller Project</em></a>.</p>
439.  
440.  
441.  
442. <p class="has-drop-cap has-default-font-family">As Nour feeds another half-finished pair of pants through her sewing machine, her arms begin to shake. Amid the whir of fans, her T-shirt sticks to her like skin. She fights to focus, knowing full well her target of up to 100 pieces an hour isn’t going to hit itself.&nbsp;</p>
443.  
444.  
445.  
446. <p class="has-default-font-family">“I am completely soaked in sweat,” the 38-year-old says of her work shifts. “The heat makes me exhausted.”</p>
447.  
448.  
449.  
450. <p class="has-default-font-family">Nour, who asked to use a pseudonym out of fear of reprisal from her employer, works at Yakjin, a South Korean-owned garment factory in Cambodia. More than 2,500 employees here stitch apparel for major U.S. giants like Walmart and Gap. Workers at Yakjin say the heat often leads to near-fainting episodes, fatigue, and dehydration. With no windows, the air feels stifling but their requests for fans are at times ignored.&nbsp;</p>
451.  
452.  
453.  
454. <p class="has-default-font-family">Workers at three other factories in Phnom Penh, the country’s capital, producing clothes for brands like Primark, H&amp;M, and Old Navy (owned by Gap Inc.), told similar stories of worsening heat.</p>
455.  
456.  
457.  
458. <p class="has-default-font-family">Around the world, fashion’s mostly female labor force is grappling with working conditions made increasingly unbearable and unhealthy by climate change. Women picking cotton in India’s sun-baked fields are toiling in temperatures of roughly 113 degrees Fahrenheit, while workers in Ghana’s Kantamanto — one of the world’s largest secondhand markets where clothing discarded by Western consumers is resold — are losing vital wages when flooding prevents trade. Nour is just one of nearly 1 million garment workers in Cambodia, a country that has experienced roughly <a href="https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/2021-08/15849-WB_Cambodia%20Country%20Profile-WEB.pdf">1.4 degrees F</a> of warming per decade since the 1960s.</p>
459.  
460.  
461.  
462. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1358054306_Cambodia-factory.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1358054306_Cambodia-factory.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1358054306_Cambodia-factory.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1358054306_Cambodia-factory.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1358054306_Cambodia-factory.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1358054306_Cambodia-factory.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1358054306_Cambodia-factory.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1358054306_Cambodia-factory.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1358054306_Cambodia-factory.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1358054306_Cambodia-factory.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1358054306_Cambodia-factory.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="Employees sit at sewing machines at a garment factory in Cambodia" data-caption="Employees work at a garment factory in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2021.
463. " data-credit="Ouyang Kaiyu/China News Service via Getty Images"/><figcaption>Employees work at a garment factory in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2021.
464. <cite>Ouyang Kaiyu/China News Service via Getty Images</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
465.  
466.  
467.  
468. <p class="has-default-font-family">Fashion has had a devastating impact on the planet, producing more greenhouse gas emissions <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmenvaud/1952/report-summary.html">than aviation and shipping combined</a>. So far, <a href="https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/global-labor-institute/higher-ground-fashions-climate-breakdown">labor experts say</a>, the more than <a href="https://unece.org/forestry/press/un-alliance-aims-put-fashion-path-sustainability">$2.5 trillion</a> industry has mostly focused its climate change efforts on mitigation, such as using more recycled fabrics, while largely ignoring how it impacts workers.&nbsp;</p>
469.  
470.  
471.  
472. <p class="has-default-font-family">“[Labor] violations in factories are so gross, as in so widespread, and so awful … that that&#8217;s where the attention has been,” said Liz Parker, an associate member of Clean Clothes Campaign, an Amsterdam-based alliance of labor unions and nongovernmental organizations. “But workers are suffering from heat stress, from flooding, from water pollution … and we need to protect [them] from that as well.” </p>
473.  
474.  
475.  
476. <p class="has-default-font-family">To expose how climate change is impacting workers throughout fashion’s supply chain, The Fuller Project tracked products from several brands — including Walmart, Primark, H&amp;M, Gap, and Old Navy — across several countries. At each stage, women play a vital role in the global business of fashion, yet their livelihoods — and lives — are being increasingly threatened by extreme weather. </p>
477.  
478.  
479.  
480. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
481.  
482.  
483.  
484. <p class="has-drop-cap has-default-font-family">Cotton fields appear outside the car window an hour into the drive from Ahmedabad, capital of Gujarat state on India’s western coast. In every field, a woman in a sari is scooping cotton blossoms into a bag, spots of bright color that punctuate green fields topped with white fluff.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
485.  
486.  
487.  
488. <p class="has-default-font-family">Roshan Osmanbhai arrives at 7 a.m. daily and ties a strip of cloth around her head to protect it from the sun. By midday, the temperature will hit more than 80 degrees F. The last week of January is supposed to be the height of winter in Gujarat, with average temperatures hovering around <a href="https://en.climate-data.org/asia/india/gujarat-735/r/january-1/">68 degrees F</a>. She hasn’t felt that traditional winter for years.&nbsp;</p>
489.  
490.  
491.  
492. <p class="has-default-font-family">India is the world’s biggest grower of cotton after China. Six million farmers make a living from the sector, most of them women, according to Better Cotton, a nonprofit that promotes sustainable production. Cotton’s global supply chain is complex and lacks transparency, but Primark and H&amp;M both confirmed they source from India. Walmart, Gap, and Old Navy didn’t respond to The Fuller Project’s requests for comment, but nonprofits monitoring supply chains said they likely do as well.&nbsp;</p>
493.  
494.  
495.  
496. <p class="has-default-font-family">“If you’re in the apparel business … you have to come here,” said Ashis Mondal, former director of Action for Social Advancement, an Indian nonprofit supporting small farmers. “You have no other option.”</p>
497.  
498.  
499.  
500. <p class="has-default-font-family">Across the region, the farms might be run by women, but few of them own the land they cultivate. The precarious nature of their work is exacerbated further by the changing climate, with summers arriving earlier and monsoon rains delayed or declining, damaging crops. India recorded extreme weather events on nearly 90 percent of the days in the first nine months of 2023, <a href="https://www.cseindia.org/india-2023-extreme-weather-events-11973">according</a> to The Centre of Science and Environment, a research organization based in New Delhi, killing nearly 3,000 people and ruining almost 5 million acres of crop area.</p>
501.  
502.  
503.  
504. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image alignfull js-breaks-column"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-2139344418_India-cotton.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-2139344418_India-cotton.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-2139344418_India-cotton.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-2139344418_India-cotton.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-2139344418_India-cotton.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-2139344418_India-cotton.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-2139344418_India-cotton.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-2139344418_India-cotton.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-2139344418_India-cotton.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-2139344418_India-cotton.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-2139344418_India-cotton.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="A woman picks cotton in Maharashtra, India" data-caption="A woman picks cotton in Maharashtra, India in 2022.
505. " data-credit="Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images"/><figcaption>A woman picks cotton in Maharashtra, India in 2022.
506. <cite>Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
507.  
508.  
509.  
510. <p class="has-default-font-family">In Gujarat last year, summer rolled in before March, the women said. The temperature shot up to roughly 113 degrees F before anybody knew what to do. Women farmers complained the heat was making it hard to carry on. “The heat makes our skin itch,” said Jessuben Jhapra, a 49-year-old farmer. “Heat rash can erupt all over the body. Our eyes are under enormous strain.”</p>
511.  
512.  
513.  
514. <p class="has-default-font-family">The weather patterns have invited new and unfamiliar pests, requiring pesticides that have created further health problems for the women. Most own protective gear — gloves, boots, goggles — but don’t always use them when it’s hot. Two years ago, Alayben Zilriya, a 55-year-old farmer with sharp cheekbones and thin-rimmed spectacles, sprayed pesticides on the plants using her bare hands. She got such a severe reaction that she had to visit the doctor for treatment. Today, the skin on her hands is still shriveled, her nails grayish.</p>
515.  
516.  
517.  
518. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
519.  
520.  
521.  
522. <p class="has-drop-cap has-default-font-family">Excessive temperatures can do serious harm to humans. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/heatstress/heatrelillness.html">Heat exhaustion</a> sets in when too much water and salt is lost, usually due to excessive sweating. Symptoms include nausea, dizziness, thirst, and palpitations. It can be hard to think clearly — hot weather is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4300451/">linked</a> to reduced cognitive function, judgement errors, and higher risk of occupational injury.</p>
523.  
524.  
525.  
526. <p class="has-default-font-family">For Nour, this sounds familiar. Even though drinking water is available at her factory, she feels dehydrated and has little energy to work. When it&#8217;s hot she takes more toilet breaks but misses her hourly targets and says her supervisors at Yakjin become verbally abusive.&nbsp;</p>
527.  
528.  
529.  
530. <p class="has-default-font-family">“They curse or insult us,” she explained. “They blame us.”&nbsp;</p>
531.  
532.  
533.  
534. <p class="has-default-font-family">Workers at Yakjin interviewed by The Fuller Project said they often feel ill or faint. Ry, 38, who has been employed at the factory for over a decade, thinks the heat is getting worse. Climate change is part of the problem, he says, but also fans aren’t maintained or replaced. While the building has fans that blow mist to keep workers cool, they do not reach all employees. For over two years, Ry has asked the factory for more, but says his requests have fallen on deaf ears.&nbsp;</p>
535.  
536.  
537.  
538. <p class="has-default-font-family">Only a small handful of Cambodia’s roughly 1,300 garment factories have air conditioning, according to Seang Yot from The Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union, or C-CAWDU.&nbsp;</p>
539.  
540.  
541.  
542. <p class="has-default-font-family">At lunchtime, Yakjin employees hang cloth above their heads in the outdoor canteen for extra shade. In heavy rains during the wet season, the area floods, as does the factory, workers told The Fuller Project. Cambodia is already highly vulnerable to flooding, including flash flooding, but projected climate change trends indicate this is only set to get worse — affecting <a href="https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/2021-08/15849-WB_Cambodia%20Country%20Profile-WEB.pdf">tens of thousands</a> more people each year by 2030. Workers are concerned about electric shocks as flood water comes in contact with the factory’s electrical systems, said Nour, though no one has been hurt yet.</p>
543.  
544.  
545.  
546. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Anything involving money is always a problem,” explained Ry, who also asked to use a pseudonym. “The factory managers don’t care about how heat impacts us, only that we speed up and work faster.”</p>
547.  
548.  
549.  
550. <p class="has-default-font-family">In an email, Yakjin Cambodia’s management said the factory maintains “a comfortable indoor temperature with cooling and ventilation systems,” including fans and air conditioners, but said there was no AC in the sewing line.&nbsp;</p>
551.  
552.  
553.  
554. <p class="has-default-font-family">They said there have been no reported cases of fainting in the past two years, and that exhaustion could have many causes including inadequate healthcare, exercise, and lack of sleep, as well as heat.</p>
555.  
556.  
557.  
558. <p class="has-default-font-family">There are grievance mechanisms in place for workers and no one had reported supervisors becoming verbally abusive when production targets were missed. Yakjin said the factory does not flood during the rainy season and there was no risk of electric shock.</p>
559.  
560.  
561.  
562. <p class="has-default-font-family">Walmart, which sources from Yakjin, said it “does not tolerate unsafe working conditions” and is looking into the matter.&nbsp;</p>
563.  
564.  
565.  
566. <p class="has-default-font-family">While Cambodia has always been hot, extreme heat now presents a <a href="https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/2021-08/15849-WB_Cambodia%20Country%20Profile-WEB.pdf">major</a> threat to human health. The country’s garment sector is particularly vulnerable to climate change because it emerged largely ad hoc with little oversight, according to a 2022 <a href="https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/45045019/Hot_Trends_Report.pdf">report</a> led by Laurie Parsons, senior lecturer in geography at Royal Holloway, University of London.&nbsp;</p>
567.  
568.  
569.  
570. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image alignfull js-breaks-column"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1229136883_Cambodia-flooding.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1229136883_Cambodia-flooding.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1229136883_Cambodia-flooding.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1229136883_Cambodia-flooding.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1229136883_Cambodia-flooding.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1229136883_Cambodia-flooding.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1229136883_Cambodia-flooding.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1229136883_Cambodia-flooding.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1229136883_Cambodia-flooding.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1229136883_Cambodia-flooding.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1229136883_Cambodia-flooding.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="Textile workers wade through floodwaters in Cambodia." data-caption="Workers wade through floodwaters trying to salvage clothes from a factory on the outskirts of Phnom Penh in October 2020.
571. " data-credit="Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP via Getty Images"/><figcaption>Workers wade through floodwaters trying to salvage clothes from a factory on the outskirts of Phnom Penh in October 2020.
572. <cite>Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP via Getty Images</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
573.  
574.  
575.  
576. <p class="has-default-font-family">Many of the factories, for example, are technically warehouses. “They’re not built for humans,” said Parsons. Most are also privately rented, which means factory owners have little power — or incentive — to implement changes, added Yot.</p>
577.  
578.  
579.  
580. <p class="has-default-font-family">Cambodia’s labor law sets no limit on workplace temperatures, saying only that they must be “reasonable for employees.” In neighboring Thailand, with a similar-sized garment industry, the maximum is 93 degrees F wet-bulb temperature (a way of measuring heat stress that takes into account factors like temperature and humidity, among others).</p>
581.  
582.  
583.  
584. <p class="has-default-font-family">Over two days, The Fuller Project asked a garment worker to measure temperatures using a digital thermometer in the sewing section of Jade Sun Garment, a factory producing for brands like Primark, Old Navy, and George, a British clothing line sold widely in Walmart. Recordings taken by a garment worker in February, one of the cooler months, hit 97.7 degrees F.&nbsp;</p>
585.  
586.  
587.  
588. <p class="has-default-font-family">During the hottest months, from April to May, the country’s daytime outdoor temperatures can soar above <a href="https://www.accuweather.com/en/climate/brutal-southeast-asia-heat-wave-shatters-all-time-records-across-multiple-countries/1523815">104 degrees F</a>. Leakhena, a soft-spoken sewer who’s worked at Jade Sun for several years, often feels “nearly unconscious” during this period. “We need more oxygen,” she explained. “I cannot breathe properly.”</p>
589.  
590.  
591.  
592. <p class="has-default-font-family">The water provided by the factory isn’t clean either, she said. “It smells a lot. When we drink water from that tap it gives us a sore throat.”</p>
593.  
594.  
595.  
596. <p class="has-default-font-family">In response to inquiries from The Fuller Project about workers’ claims, Gap Inc. said it is opening investigations into Yakjin and Jade Sun Garment and will take appropriate action to remediate any breach of its policies. Primark is aware of the issues raised in connection with Jade Sun Garment and is in the process of “supporting remediation” with its management, adding that the safety of workers in its supply chain is “extremely important” to the company. Jade Sun Garment and George did not reply to multiple requests for comment. </p>
597.  
598.  
599.  
600. <p class="has-default-font-family">In an email, Heng Sour, Cambodia’s Minister of Labour and Vocational Training, said the government is “deeply concerned” about worker welfare. He said The Fuller Project&#8217;s temperature recording at Jade Sun Garment offered a &#8220;limited view&#8221; because it used a single thermometer but pointed to the need for a “more detailed analysis to accurately assess and respond to temperature conditions.” The government is also in the process of “potentially” establishing maximum workplace temperatures and since being contacted has accelerated the deployment of additional cooling systems to factories.&nbsp;</p>
601.  
602.  
603.  
604. <p class="has-default-font-family">Once their shift is over, women return home — yet there is no reprieve from the soaring temperatures. Many live in privately rented dormitories, often single-bedroom dwellings with low, metal roofs and little protection against extreme weather. Several workers described them as virtually unlivable in the heat.&nbsp;</p>
605.  
606.  
607.  
608. <p class="has-default-font-family">“I want to see change,” said Leakhena, who also asked to use a pseudonym for fear of reprisals. “The heat is making us more exhausted every day. We don’t know what impact it will have on our health after five or 10 years. And by that point, it’s already too late.”</p>
609.  
610.  
611.  
612. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
613.  
614.  
615.  
616. <p class="has-drop-cap has-default-font-family">Inside Accra’s bustling central business district lies Kantamanto. A sprawling complex packed with vendors who sell what’s known locally as <em>obroni wawu</em> or “dead white man’s clothes.”</p>
617.  
618.  
619.  
620. <p class="has-default-font-family">Ghana was the largest importer of used clothing in <a href="https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/used-clothing">2021</a>, with $214 million worth of garments passing across its borders. When consumers in the United States or United Kingdom donate their old T-shirts, only 10 to 30 percent are resold in stores. The rest disappears into a vast network, often ending up here, West Africa&#8217;s hub for used garments from the West. In Kantamanto, stalls sell clothing from Primark, H&amp;M, Walmart, Gap, and Old Navy.</p>
621.  
622.  
623.  
624. <p class="has-default-font-family">Young women and teenage girls move through the market balancing 120-pound bales of clothing on their heads. Known as <em>kayayei</em>, they transport bales from importers to stalls, storage, and disposal sites, earning 30 cents to $1 per trip. The market’s narrow aisles don&#8217;t allow for motorized modes of transport, so the women play a crucial link in the secondhand supply chain. Their work frequently causes neck and spine injuries, said Liz Ricketts, co-founder of The Or Foundation, a Ghana and U.S.-based nonprofit. They also face sexual violence, including rape, and are at high risk of unplanned pregnancies, according to the <a href="https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/video/envoy-youth-dancing-kayayei-girls-accra-ghana/">United Nations</a>.</p>
625.  
626.  
627.  
628. <p class="has-default-font-family">Many are here because climate change has made farming in their villages unviable, but the cities have proven to be no refuge either. Ghana is experiencing <a href="https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/Report/DownloadReportByFileName?fileName=Ghana%20Climate%20Change%20Report%20_Accra_Ghana_GH2023-0008.pdf">more</a> intense and frequent flooding and storms as global temperatures tick up. In Kantamanto, clothing waste clogs the gutters, which exacerbates the flooding, says Ricketts, and leads to an increased risk of cholera and malaria.</p>
629.  
630.  
631.  
632. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1983631088_Ghana-Kantamanto.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1983631088_Ghana-Kantamanto.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1983631088_Ghana-Kantamanto.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1983631088_Ghana-Kantamanto.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1983631088_Ghana-Kantamanto.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1983631088_Ghana-Kantamanto.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1983631088_Ghana-Kantamanto.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1983631088_Ghana-Kantamanto.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1983631088_Ghana-Kantamanto.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1983631088_Ghana-Kantamanto.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-1983631088_Ghana-Kantamanto.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="Women sort through secondhand clothes at a market in Ghana" data-caption="Women sort through secondhand clothes at the Kantamanto market in Accra, Ghana in 2023.
633. " data-credit="Nipah Dennis / AFP via Getty Images"/><figcaption>Women sort through secondhand clothes at the Kantamanto market in Accra, Ghana in 2023.
634. <cite>Nipah Dennis / AFP via Getty Images</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
635.  
636.  
637.  
638. <p class="has-default-font-family">The market is open every day but Sunday. When clouds gather, 18-year-old Mariam Karim starts to worry. She earns roughly $14 a week carting bales of secondhand clothes from trucks, which covers her basic needs such as rent and food. During the rainy season, fewer customers show up and the market shuts roughly twice a month from flooding, according to Ricketts, often leaving women without pay.    </p>
639.  
640.  
641.  
642. <p class="has-default-font-family">A downpour can also mean no sleep. “Flooding at my home is common,” said Karim, who lives near the market in a wooden, makeshift dwelling. “I will usually scoop the water out of my room until it subsides. It is scary because colleagues have even lost their lives and properties.”</p>
643.  
644.  
645.  
646. <p class="has-default-font-family">West Africa is a climate change <a href="https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/Report/DownloadReportByFileName?fileName=Ghana%20Climate%20Change%20Report%20_Accra_Ghana_GH2023-0008.pdf">hotspot</a> and Accra&#8217;s low elevation makes it particularly vulnerable. After more than three decades working at Kantamanto, it’s something Daniel Ampadu, vice chairman of the Kantamanto Used Clothing Association, has seen with his own eyes.&nbsp;</p>
647.  
648.  
649.  
650. <p class="has-default-font-family">“I am old enough so I can tell you that these days, so much rain comes &#8230; and many places, especially our market, gets flooded,” he said. “This wasn’t the case 30 years ago.”</p>
651.  
652.  
653.  
654. <p class="has-default-font-family">Of the five brands examined across India, Cambodia, and Ghana, only Primark and H&amp;M provided details in response to queries about what they are doing to protect workers in their global supply chain from climate change. Primark said it knows it must “act to mitigate” the causes and effects of climate change and support its supply chain partners in similar efforts, such as educating farmers in its Sustainable Cotton Programme, a training scheme. H&amp;M said it is aware of the impact that climate change has on the people in its supply chains and will “constantly review and adapt” the scope of its climate-related risks.</p>
655.  
656.  
657.  
658. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
659.  
660.  
661.  
662. <p class="has-drop-cap has-default-font-family">For decades, the fashion industry&#8217;s exploitation of workers in low-income countries has been well documented. But a new challenge now presents itself: Who will protect them from a climate crisis that the very same industry helped bring about? &nbsp;</p>
663.  
664.  
665.  
666. <p class="has-default-font-family">Better Factories Cambodia, a partnership between the International Labour Organisation, the U.N.’s labor agency, and the International Finance Corporation, has <a href="https://betterwork.org/wp-content/uploads/SR-33-BFC-FINAL_ENG.pdf">repeatedly</a> recorded what it says are unacceptable workplace temperatures during inspections. Although <a href="https://betterwork.org/wp-content/uploads/SR-33-BFC-FINAL_ENG.pdf">some</a> factories have invested in improved lighting and better ventilation, most need to do more, it says. More recently, fashion brands involved in Action, Collaboration, Transformation, or ACT, a global agreement aimed at transforming the garment industry, have begun to discuss ways to solve the heat problem for workers, said Yot. Unless extreme heat and flooding are <a href="https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/global-labor-institute/higher-ground-fashions-climate-breakdown">addressed</a>, countries vital for fashion production, including Cambodia, risk losing <a href="https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/global-labor-institute/higher-ground-fashions-climate-breakdown?utm_source=linkedin&amp;utm_medium=organic_social&amp;utm_campaign=higherground">$65 billion</a> in export earnings and 1 million potential jobs by 2030, according to research by Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute. </p>
667.  
668.  
669.  
670. <div id="wisepops-weekly-signup" class="wp-block-grist-wisepops-target-block" style="padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-bottom:0.5rem"></div>
671.  
672.  
673.  
674. <p class="has-default-font-family">“The buck stops always with the brands,” said Parsons. “[But] it’s kind of like pushing an open door … They’re like, yes, we should think about this, but they haven’t yet.”</p>
675.  
676.  
677.  
678. <p class="has-default-font-family">For Nour, she’d simply like to feel cool air on her face. Or the freedom to catch her breath. After work, she showers, washing away the sweat. For a brief moment, she feels alive, before being engulfed by the factory’s heat once more.</p>
679.  
680.  
681.  
682. <p class="has-default-font-family"><em>Additional reporting by Sineat Yon</em></p>
683.  
684.  
685.  
686. <p class="has-default-font-family"><em>The Fuller Project is a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to the coverage of women’s issues around the world. Sign up for </em><a href="https://fullerproject.org/sign-up-to-our-newsletter/"><em>the Fuller Project’s newsletter</em></a><em>, and follow the organization on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/FullerProject?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor"><em>X</em></a><em> or </em><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/fuller-project/"><em>LinkedIn</em></a><em>.</em></p>
687. <p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/labor/the-worlds-garment-workers-are-on-the-frontlines-of-climate-impacts/">The world&#8217;s garment workers are on the front lines of climate impacts</a> on May 2, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
691. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636642</post-id><timeToRead>15</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[Around the world, fashion’s mostly female labor force is grappling with working conditions made increasingly unbearable and unhealthy by climate change. Women picking cotton in India’s sun-baked fields are toiling in temperatures of roughly 113 degrees Fahrenheit, while workers in Ghana’s Kantamanto — one of the world’s largest second-hand markets where clothing discarded by Western consumers is resold — are losing vital wages when flooding prevents trade.
692.  
693.  
694. More than 2,500 employees stitch apparel for major U.S. giants like Walmart and Gap at Yakjin, a South Korean-owned garment factory in Cambodia, a country that has experienced roughly 1.4 degrees F degrees of warming per decade since the 1960s. Yakjin’s workers say the heat often leads to near-fainting episodes, fatigue, and dehydration. With no windows, the air feels stifling but their requests for fans are at times ignored. Workers at three other factories in Phnom Penh, the country’s capital, producing clothes for brands like Primark, H&M, and Old Navy (owned by Gap Inc.), told similar stories of worsening heat.
695.  
696.  
697. Fashion has had a devastating impact on the planet, producing more greenhouse gas emissions than aviation and shipping combined. So far, labor experts say, the more than $2.5 trillion industry has mostly focused its climate change efforts on mitigation, such as using more recycled fabrics, while largely ignoring how it impacts workers.]]></summary>      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Snigdha Poonam]]></dc:creator>
698.      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Albert Oppong-Ansah]]></dc:creator>
699. </item>
700. <item>
701. <title>New documents show oil executives promoted natural gas as green — but knew it wasn&#8217;t</title>
702. <link>https://grist.org/accountability/new-documents-bp-oil-companies-natural-gas-emissions/</link>
704. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Kate Yoder]]></dc:creator>
705. <pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2024 08:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
706. <category><![CDATA[Accountability]]></category>
707. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
708. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636714</guid>
709.  
710. <description><![CDATA[It's the first evidence of an oil company acknowledging that gas wasn't as climate-friendly as promised.]]></description>
711. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
712. <p class="has-default-font-family">A <a href="https://www.budget.senate.gov/hearings/denial-disinformation-and-doublespeak_big-oils-evolving-efforts-to-avoid-accountability-for-climate-change">congressional hearing</a> on the fossil fuel industry’s “evolving efforts to avoid accountability for climate change” turned into a spectacle on Wednesday morning as lawmakers in Washington, D.C., grilled a panel of experts on wide-ranging — and often irrelevant — topics. The thousands of internal oil company documents released before the hearing, however, contained some bombshell findings.</p>
713.  
714.  
715.  
716. <p class="has-default-font-family">One of the biggest revelations is that BP executives understood that natural gas, which the company promoted as a “bridge” or “destination” fuel to a cleaner future as coal declined, was incompatible with the goals of the Paris Agreement signed in 2015. “[O]nce built, gas locks in future emissions above a level consistent with 2 degrees,” at least without widespread carbon capture technology, according to a comment on <a href="https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-oversight.house.gov/files/a/bp-documents/BPA_HCOR_00116893.pdf">a draft outline for a speech</a> by BP’s CEO in 2017.</p>
717.  
718.  
719.  
720. <p class="has-default-font-family">“This is the first evidence I&#8217;ve seen of them acknowledging internally, at the highest levels, that they know this — natural gas is a climate disaster — and yet, they still promote it,” said Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, an environmental advocacy organization.</p>
721.  
722.  
723.  
724. <p class="has-default-font-family">At Wednesday’s hearing, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, invited expert witnesses to talk about the industry’s attempts to shape media coverage and academic research and allegations that they misled the public through deceptive advertising. But Republican lawmakers went off-script, asking questions about boreal forest fires and alleging that reducing fossil fuel production would result in Americans “having to sell blood in order to pay their electricity bill.” At one point, Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana read a list of old Twitter posts in an attempt to discredit <a href="https://grist.org/grist-50/2020/#geoffrey-supran?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">Geoffrey Supran</a>, a climate researcher who testified at the event, apparently without realizing that the posts were not written by Supran, although he did retweet one of them.</p>
725.  
726.  
727.  
728. <p class="has-default-font-family">The hearing was the outcome of a three-year congressional investigation that sought to uncover new information about fossil fuel companies’ history of spreading disinformation about climate change. The <a href="https://grist.org/politics/climate-denial-oil-executives-play-dumb-major-congressional-hearing/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">first hearing</a>, in October 2021, focused on an early chapter of that history, the 1970s, and drew testimony from executives of BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Shell, as well as two industry lobbying groups —&nbsp;the American Petroleum Institute and the Chamber of Commerce.</p>
729.  
730.  
731.  
732. <p class="has-default-font-family">Now, lawmakers have turned their attention to recent history. Ahead of the hearing, they released some 4,500 subpoenaed documents dating back to 2015 that show how oil companies’ internal discussions about the Paris Agreement, <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips3'>methane</span> emissions, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/30/big-oil-climate-crisis-us-senate-report">investigations into their own climate denial</a> have diverged from their public statements. The new evidence, summarized in <a href="https://www.budget.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fossil_fuel_report1.pdf">a 60-page report</a>, could be critical for lawsuits alleging that oil companies lied to the public about climate change, since they provide evidence of ongoing deception.</p>
733.  
734.  
735.  
736. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Raskin-Senate-oil-hearing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Raskin-Senate-oil-hearing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Raskin-Senate-oil-hearing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Raskin-Senate-oil-hearing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Raskin-Senate-oil-hearing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Raskin-Senate-oil-hearing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Raskin-Senate-oil-hearing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Raskin-Senate-oil-hearing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Raskin-Senate-oil-hearing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Raskin-Senate-oil-hearing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Raskin-Senate-oil-hearing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="Photo taken from behind of a man gesturing as he speaks to a congressional committee" data-caption="U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, testifies during the Senate hearing on Capitol Hill on May 1.
737. " data-credit="Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images"/><figcaption>U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, testifies during the Senate hearing on Capitol Hill on May 1.
738. <cite>Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
739.  
740.  
741.  
742. <p class="has-default-font-family">Internal documents show that BP recognized the risks associated with producing methane, a potent greenhouse gas that <a href="https://grist.org/abandoned-oil-gas-wells-permian-texas-new-mexico/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">frequently leaks from old oil and gas wells</a>. The company sought to respond to bad press around methane with a $1.1 million communications campaign, according to <a href="https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-oversight.house.gov/files/a/bp-documents/BPA_HCOR_00306762.pdf">a draft presentation marked “confidential” from 2018</a>. One of the pillars was to “harness excitement around renewables by positioning gas as the perfect partner,” including plans to fund research from Imperial College London “highlighting [the] role of gas as a friend to renewables.” The following year, when a study found that methane leaks can outweigh the fuel’s emissions-efficiency benefits, a BP executive <a href="https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-oversight.house.gov/files/a/bp-documents/BPA_HCOR_00264915.pdf">wrote in an email</a> that the findings were “quite concerning to us as another blow against natural gas.”&nbsp;</p>
743.  
744.  
745.  
746. <p class="has-default-font-family">The documents also suggest that oil companies’ support for the Paris Agreement was superficial. Executives from Exxon and BP privately doubted that limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the aim of the international climate accord, was achievable, even though they publicly voiced support for it.</p>
747.  
748.  
749.  
750. <p class="has-default-font-family">Other sections of the report detail the fossil fuel industry’s resistance to U.S. policies to reduce carbon dioxide and methane emissions, as well as their extensive promotion of low-carbon technologies that they didn’t think had much of a future. Exxon Mobil, for example, has heavily promoted its investments in carbon sequestration despite acknowledging internally that it does not plan to deploy the technology at the scale needed to avert dangerous levels of global warming. The company also spent $175 million to advertise its research into <a href="https://grist.org/economics/whats-with-exxons-big-algae-push/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">algae biofuels</a> despite employees acknowledging that the possibility of actually putting the technology into large-scale practice remained “decades away” and that the ads were potentially misleading.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
751.  
752.  
753.  
754. <p class="has-default-font-family">The documents also shed more light on the $700 million that BP, Chevron, Exxon, and Shell spent on academic research programs at universities including Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology between 2010 and 2020. The funding was part of a philanthropic effort to “gain access to policymakers and influential thought leaders,” according to the report. Additional documents suggest the companies have tracked critics in “weekly activists reports” and attempted to quash news stories about them.&nbsp;</p>
755.  
756.  
757.  
758. <p class="has-default-font-family">During the hearing, Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, lamented the fossil fuel companies’ efforts to mislead the public rather than warn them about the consequences of their products. “They could have been the environmental Paul Revere,” he said. “But they were more like Rip Van Winkle and wanted everyone to go to sleep for a century.”</p>
759.  
760.  
761. <div class="wp-block-in-article-recirc">
762.  <article class="in-article-recirc">
763.    <span class="in-article-recirc__label">Read Next</span>
764.    <div class="in-article-recirc__content">
765.  
766.      
767.      
768.                    
769.            <a class="in-article-recirc__art" href="https://grist.org/politics/climate-denial-oil-executives-play-dumb-major-congressional-hearing/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">
770.        <figure>
771.          <img src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/oilontrial.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all" alt="Collage of oil company logos, the US Capitol building, Earth, and a gavel"  class="js-modal-gallery__hidden" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/oilontrial.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1600w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/oilontrial.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/oilontrial.jpg?resize=330%2C186&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/oilontrial.jpg?resize=768%2C432&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/oilontrial.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/oilontrial.jpg?resize=160%2C90&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/oilontrial.jpg?resize=150%2C84&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 150w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" height="900" width="1600" loading="lazy" decoding="async">
772.        </figure>
773.      </a>
774.            <div class="in-article-recirc__body">
775.        <div class="in-article-recirc__title">
776.                    <a class="in-article-recirc__title-link" href="https://grist.org/politics/climate-denial-oil-executives-play-dumb-major-congressional-hearing/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">What climate denial? Oil executives play dumb at major congressional hearing.</a>
777.        </div>
778.        <div class="in-article-recirc__meta">
779.          
781.  <div class="tease-meta">
782.                            <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/joseph-winters/>Joseph Winters</a> &#038;       <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/zoya-teirstein/>Zoya Teirstein</a>              </div>
783.        </div>
784.      </div>
785.    </div>
786.  </article>
787. </div>
788.  
789.  
790.  
791. <p class="has-default-font-family">In response to Grist’s request for comment, BP and the American Petroleum Institute did not address Democratic lawmakers’ report but affirmed their commitment to moving toward renewables. BP said it is “investing in today’s energy system while helping to build out tomorrow’s.”&nbsp;</p>
792.  
793.  
794.  
795. <p class="has-default-font-family">A spokesperson from Exxon Mobil said the report’s “tired allegations … have already been publicly addressed” in previous congressional hearings and in court, and pointed to the company’s efforts to reduce emissions. A spokesperson from Shell said documents highlighted in the report “are evidence of Shell’s efforts to set realistic targets … and meaningfully participate in the energy transition.” Chevron and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce did not respond to Grist’s requests for comment.</p>
796.  
797.  
798.  
799. <p class="has-default-font-family">The results of the investigation could end up supporting attorneys general who have sued the fossil fuel industry. Oil companies are currently facing around 30 lawsuits for deceiving the public about the consequences of burning fossil fuels. Those suits, filed by state and local governments and Native American tribes, are <a href="https://grist.org/accountability/big-oil-climate-lawsuits-trials-attribution-science-exxon/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">moving closer to trial after years of delay</a>. Some of them have drawn on subpoenaed documents released by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability <a href="https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/news/press-releases/oversight-committee-releases-new-documents-showing-big-oil-s-greenwashing#:~:text=Ro%20Khanna%2C%20Chairman%20of%20the,failure%20to%20meaningfully%20reduce%20emissions.">in 2022</a>. The new evidence released this week, with its focus on the last decade, “really adds to the existing evidence base in the critical phase that&#8217;s going to be needed as a proof point in these cases,” Wiles said.</p>
800.  
801.  
802.  
803. <div id="wisepops-weekly-signup" class="wp-block-grist-wisepops-target-block" style="padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-bottom:0.5rem"></div>
804.  
805.  
806.  
807. <p class="has-default-font-family">There is likely much more to uncover. During the hearing, Raskin said companies used a “paper blizzard tactic,” overwhelming investigators with hundreds of thousands of emails, newsletters, and other “fluff documents.” He alleged that thousands of documents were withheld or heavily redacted by oil companies to hide relevant information.</p>
808.  
809.  
810.  
811. <p class="has-default-font-family">“If the companies had actually complied in good faith,” Raskin said, “who knows what else we might have discovered.”</p>
812.  
813.  
814.  
815. <p class="has-default-font-family"><em>This story has been updated with a clarification on social media posts reshared by Supran.</em></p>
816. <script type="text/javascript"> toolTips('.classtoolTips3',' A powerful greenhouse gas that accounts for about 16% of global emissions, methane is the primary component of natural gas and is emitted into the atmosphere by landfills, oil and natural gas systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, and wastewater treatment, among other pathways. Over short periods, it is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.<br/>'); </script><p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/accountability/new-documents-bp-oil-companies-natural-gas-emissions/">New documents show oil executives promoted natural gas as green — but knew it wasn&#8217;t</a> on May 2, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
820. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636714</post-id><timeToRead>7</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[A pumpjack in the foreground and a burning flare in the background of an oil field in Montana, with dark orange sky.]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[]]></summary>      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Winters]]></dc:creator>
821. </item>
822. <item>
823. <title>After Lāhainā, Indigenous peoples call for independence</title>
824. <link>https://grist.org/indigenous/after-lahaina-indigenous-peoples-call-for-independence/</link>
826. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Anita Hofschneider]]></dc:creator>
827. <pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2024 08:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
828. <category><![CDATA[Global Indigenous Affairs Desk]]></category>
829. <category><![CDATA[Indigenous Affairs]]></category>
830. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636606</guid>
831.  
832. <description><![CDATA[Activists appealed to the United Nations for help staving off “disaster capitalism” in the wake of the deadly blaze.]]></description>
833. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
834. <p class="has-default-font-family">On the evening of August 8, hours after a wildfire ravaged West Maui, Maui County’s top emergency management official, Herman Andaya, texted his secretary to ask about the status of other fires across the island.</p>
835.  
836.  
837.  
838. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Still burning,” she replied.&nbsp;</p>
839.  
840.  
841.  
842. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Wow … Lol,” Andaya texted back.</p>
843.  
844.  
845.  
846. <p class="has-default-font-family">The messages were released in mid-April as part of a <a href="https://fsri.org/research-update/lahaina-fire-comprehensive-timeline-report-released-attorney-general-hawaii">new state report</a> analyzing the government’s response to the fire that <a href="https://grist.org/wildfires/maui-fire-risk-drought-grass-sound-alarm-lahaina-hawaii/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">ripped through Lāhainā</a> killing more than 100 people, making it the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history. Documents, text messages and interviews reveal slow, poor communication between government agencies, causing hours of delay for leaders, like Andaya, to realize the gravity and extent of the crisis. </p>
847.  
848.  
849.  
850. <p class="has-default-font-family">Andaya, who resigned soon after the wildfire due to broad criticism for <a href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/08/was-mauis-emergency-operations-chief-in-over-his-head/">his lack of qualifications</a> and his agency’s decision <a href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/08/state-told-maui-emergency-office-it-should-consider-sounding-sirens-before-fire-spread/">not to sound any sirens</a> as the fire spread, was at a training in Honolulu the day it happened. The texts show that hours after the inferno engulfed the town, Andaya didn&#8217;t know if any homes had been lost and thought only a single business had been leveled. The fire burned more than 2,000 buildings, displacing thousands of people.</p>
851.  
852.  
853.  
854. <p class="has-default-font-family">To Alyssa Purcell, a Native Hawaiian archivist from Oʻahu, the lack of urgency in top officials’ response to the community’s struggles feels familiar.</p>
855.  
856.  
857.  
858. <p class="has-default-font-family">“It&#8217;s a pattern,” she said. “This is not new. And I think the text messages show that there&#8217;s such a desensitization on their part to our needs that there&#8217;s nothing else that we can do at this point except go to the highest possible platforms and stages that we possibly can.”&nbsp;</p>
859.  
860.  
861. <div class="wp-block-in-article-recirc">
862.  <article class="in-article-recirc">
863.    <span class="in-article-recirc__label">Read Next</span>
864.    <div class="in-article-recirc__content">
865.  
866.      
867.      
868.                    
869.            <a class="in-article-recirc__art" href="https://grist.org/indigenous/developer-peter-martin-west-maui-water-wildfire/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">
870.        <figure>
871.          <img src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/peter_martin_merged-16x9-1.png?quality=75&#038;strip=all" alt="Illustrated portrait of a white man in his 70s (Peter Martin) with an orange map of Maui and black palm trees in the background"  class="js-modal-gallery__hidden" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/peter_martin_merged-16x9-1.png?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1600w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/peter_martin_merged-16x9-1.png?resize=1200%2C675&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/peter_martin_merged-16x9-1.png?resize=330%2C186&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/peter_martin_merged-16x9-1.png?resize=768%2C432&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/peter_martin_merged-16x9-1.png?resize=1536%2C864&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/peter_martin_merged-16x9-1.png?resize=160%2C90&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/peter_martin_merged-16x9-1.png?resize=150%2C84&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 150w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" height="900" width="1600" loading="lazy" decoding="async">
872.        </figure>
873.      </a>
874.            <div class="in-article-recirc__body">
875.        <div class="in-article-recirc__title">
876.                    <a class="in-article-recirc__title-link" href="https://grist.org/indigenous/developer-peter-martin-west-maui-water-wildfire/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">The libertarian developer looming over West Maui’s water conflict</a>
877.        </div>
878.        <div class="in-article-recirc__meta">
879.          
881.  <div class="tease-meta">
882.                            <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/anita-hofschneider/>Anita Hofschneider</a> &#038;       <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/jake-bittle/>Jake Bittle</a>              </div>
883.        </div>
884.      </div>
885.    </div>
886.  </article>
887. </div>
888.  
889.  
890.  
891. <p class="has-default-font-family">Two days before the report came out, Purcell flew to the United Nations headquarters in New York City to speak at the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, urging those present to support the self-determination of Native Hawaiians like herself.&nbsp;</p>
892.  
893.  
894.  
895. <p class="has-default-font-family">“The 2023 Lāhainā wildfires exposed a systemic disregard for Indigenous rights,” said Purcell, who is a member of the <a href="https://kalahuihawaii.com/">Ka Lahui Hawaiʻi delegation</a>, a group working to advance Native Hawaiian sovereignty. “Hawaiian families are struggling with disaster capitalism, where corporations and developers are using the aftermath of the fires to acquire land, develop properties, and initiate projects that are not in line with the needs of Indigenous communities or sustainable practices.”</p>
896.  
897.  
898.  
899. <p class="has-default-font-family">The wildfire’s unprecedented destruction underscored the stakes of the group’s decades-old appeal for international support for Native Hawaiian self-determination. In her remarks this year, Purcell called for the U.N. to relist Hawaiʻi as a <a href="https://www.un.org/dppa/decolonization/en/nsgt">non-self-governing territory</a>. That list includes more than a dozen territories — Guam, French Polynesia, and New Caledonia, to name a few —&nbsp; whose people still haven’t yet achieved self-government, either by obtaining independence or choosing to join another country.&nbsp;</p>
900.  
901.  
902.  
903. <p class="has-default-font-family">The Hawaiian Islands were removed from the United Nations list of colonies after Hawaiʻi residents voted to become a state in 1959. But Hawai’i had only been given the option of statehood over their previous status as a U.S. territory. Unlike other island nations like Palau, Vanuatu, and Fiji, the Indigenous peoples of Hawaiʻi were never given the option of independence after the United States overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893.</p>
904.  
905.  
906.  
907. <p class="has-default-font-family">“If you go back to the root of all these seemingly disparate problems, you&#8217;ll find very, very quickly that the root of all of it is the lack of self-determination,” Purcell said.&nbsp;</p>
908.  
909.  
910.  
911. <p class="has-default-font-family">Take Lāhainā. In the decades prior to the overthrow, the coastal community was the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Hawaiian royalty lived on a sandbar in the midst of an expansive fishpond along Maui’s leeward coast. But sugarcane owners in the 19th century diverted water from the wetlands to their fields, forcing many locals to abandon subsistence farming of crops like taro and breadfruit. Eventually, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxjNtcBA1G8">fishpond was paved over</a> for a parking lot and baseball field, and when last year’s wildfire came, the former wetland was arid and primed to burn.</p>
912.  
913.  
914.  
915. <p class="has-default-font-family">The new state report on the Lāhainā wildfires found that as tourism and real estate have replaced large-scale agriculture as main economic drivers in Hawaiʻi in recent decades, landowners have left large tracts of land fallow and filled with highly flammable invasive grasses. </p>
916.  
917.  
918.  
919. <p class="has-default-font-family">“The removal of active agriculture and the subsequent accumulation of highly combustible standing dead fuel on unmanaged lands is leading to more and larger fires,” the report said.</p>
920.  
921.  
922.  
923. <p class="has-default-font-family">These destructive wildfires are modern and 99 percent human-caused, the report said.&nbsp;</p>
924.  
925.  
926. <div class="wp-block-in-article-recirc">
927.  <article class="in-article-recirc">
928.    <span class="in-article-recirc__label">Read Next</span>
929.    <div class="in-article-recirc__content">
930.  
931.      
932.      
933.                    
934.            <a class="in-article-recirc__art" href="https://grist.org/wildfires/maui-fire-risk-drought-grass-sound-alarm-lahaina-hawaii/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">
935.        <figure>
936.          <img src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_1117.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all" alt=""  class="js-modal-gallery__hidden" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_1117.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1600w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_1117.jpg?resize=1200%2C683&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_1117.jpg?resize=330%2C188&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_1117.jpg?resize=768%2C437&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_1117.jpg?resize=1536%2C875&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_1117.jpg?resize=160%2C90&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_1117.jpg?resize=150%2C85&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 150w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" height="911" width="1600" loading="lazy" decoding="async">
937.        </figure>
938.      </a>
939.            <div class="in-article-recirc__body">
940.        <div class="in-article-recirc__title">
941.                    <a class="in-article-recirc__title-link" href="https://grist.org/wildfires/maui-fire-risk-drought-grass-sound-alarm-lahaina-hawaii/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">Locals have been sounding the alarm for years about Lahaina wildfire risk</a>
942.        </div>
943.        <div class="in-article-recirc__meta">
944.          
946.  <div class="tease-meta">
947.                            <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/anita-hofschneider/>Anita Hofschneider</a>              </div>
948.        </div>
949.      </div>
950.    </div>
951.  </article>
952. </div>
953.  
954.  
955.  
956. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Unlike Indigenous uses of fire in continental fire-adapted ecosystems — where systemic and regular burns were used for millennia as a tool for forest health, regeneration, and swidden agriculture — the intentional use of fire in Hawaiʻi was largely limited to the clearing of lowland agricultural fields, cooking, the burning of waste, and small ceremonial practices,” the report said. “Since Hawaiian forests are less adapted to fire and are often destroyed when burned, the cultural ramifications of increased wildfires in Hawaiʻi are significant.”</p>
957.  
958.  
959.  
960. <p class="has-default-font-family">Brandi Ahlo, another member of the Ka Lahui Hawaiʻi delegation to the U.N. who attended the Permanent Forum with Purcell for the first time this year, sees the Lāhainā wildfire as the inevitable consequence of Indigenous land dispossession.</p>
961.  
962.  
963.  
964. <p class="has-default-font-family">“It goes back into history and the loss of water and the fact that us as Kanaka, who live on the land, aren&#8217;t able to steward our own resources,” Ahlo said. “I think bringing awareness to an international arena and forum is really important for people to see and to spotlight, because if it can happen here in Hawaiʻi, who is to say that it can&#8217;t happen to anywhere else?”&nbsp;</p>
965.  
966.  
967.  
968. <p class="has-default-font-family">Extreme weather events like the wildfire are expected to grow more frequent as climate change accelerates. State leaders in Hawaiʻi are still trying to figure out exactly what happened in Lāhainā last year and plan to release two more reports analyzing officials’ decisions and how similar tragedies could be avoided.&nbsp;</p>
969.  
970.  
971.  
972. <p class="has-default-font-family">The state is also trying to figure out housing options for families rendered homeless by the disaster and has <a href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2024/04/state-reduces-meal-service-for-lahaina-fire-survivors-still-living-in-costly-hotels/">cut down on the amount of food they’re giving</a> to more than 2,200 displaced families staying in hotels. People whose homes in Lāhainā were spared <a href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2024/04/the-waters-in-the-roads-are-pretty-good-the-sewers-getting-there-but-lahaina-recovery-is-still-a-ways-off/">still can’t drink the water</a> that was contaminated when the <a href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/11/it-will-be-years-before-clean-water-is-restored-in-lahaina/">fire melted pipes</a>. </p>
973.  
974.  
975.  
976. <p class="has-default-font-family">A continuing concern is the potential for private interests to capitalize on the disaster’s aftermath by seizing more water and land, both highly contested limited resources on Maui long before the fires.&nbsp;</p>
977.  
978.  
979.  
980. <p class="has-default-font-family">In the days following the fire, the state temporarily suspended water regulations in West Maui, benefiting a major local developer who had spent years fighting with Indigenous taro farmers over access to water. On the other side of the island, the state urged a court to allow corporations to divert more water from East Maui streams. The Board of Land and Natural Resources argued that limits on water diversion —&nbsp;limits imposed by the court after lawsuits from <a href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/05/this-native-hawaiian-taro-farmer-has-been-fighting-ab-for-decades/">Native Hawaiian taro farmers asserting</a> their right to the water —&nbsp;meant that there wasn’t enough water to fight fire in central Maui.</p>
981.  
982.  
983.  
984. <p class="has-default-font-family">In April, the state Supreme Court <a href="https://www.courts.state.hi.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/SCPW-23-0000471ada.pdf">issued a ruling saying the state’s</a> arguments were based on zero evidence and made in bad faith.</p>
985.  
986.  
987.  
988. <p class="has-default-font-family">“It seems the BLNR tried to leverage the most horrific event in state history to advance its interests,” the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court ruling said.</p>
989.  
990.  
991.  
992. <p class="has-default-font-family">Meanwhile, the community is still reeling emotionally from the grief of the fire’s destruction.&nbsp;</p>
993.  
994.  
995.  
996. <div id="wisepops-weekly-signup" class="wp-block-grist-wisepops-target-block" style="padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-bottom:0.5rem"></div>
997.  
998.  
999.  
1000. <p class="has-default-font-family">“When I look at the Lāhainā fires, I see cultural destruction, degradation. I see people dying. I see their homes&nbsp;—&nbsp;homes that they&#8217;ve lived on for generations — perished in a minute,” Purcell said. “And when foreigners look at the situation, when business owners look at the situation, they see opportunity.”</p>
1001. <p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/indigenous/after-lahaina-indigenous-peoples-call-for-independence/">After Lāhainā, Indigenous peoples call for independence</a> on May 2, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
1005. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636606</post-id><timeToRead>7</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[a tree and house silhouetted against orange light]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[]]></summary> </item>
1006. <item>
1007. <title>UN plastics treaty inches closer to reality as lobbyists tout plastics&#8217; &#8216;massive societal benefits&#8217;</title>
1008. <link>https://grist.org/international/un-plastics-treaty-inches-closer-to-reality-as-lobbyists-tout-plastics-massive-societal-benefits/</link>
1010. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Winters]]></dc:creator>
1011. <pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2024 15:06:56 +0000</pubDate>
1012. <category><![CDATA[International]]></category>
1013. <category><![CDATA[Regulation]]></category>
1014. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636569</guid>
1015.  
1016. <description><![CDATA[A deal to stop plastic pollution is moving forward, but negotiators can’t agree on whether to produce less of the stuff.]]></description>
1017. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
1018. <p class="has-default-font-family">Negotiators wrapped up the fourth round of formal discussions over the United Nations’ global plastics treaty early on Tuesday morning, inching closer to a final agreement that’s intended to “<a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/39812/OEWG_PP_1_INF_1_UNEA%20resolution.pdf">end plastic pollution</a>.”&nbsp;</p>
1019.  
1020.  
1021.  
1022. <p class="has-default-font-family">Delegates made important progress on the treaty, the final version of which is due by the end of the year. They pared down a lengthy draft of the text and agreed on a formal agenda for “intersessional” work ahead of the next — and final — meeting, in Busan, South Korea, scheduled for November 25. That work will involve critical issues around funding the treaty’s provisions and identifying plastic-related chemicals that should be restricted.</p>
1023.  
1024.  
1025.  
1026. <p class="has-default-font-family">The agenda, however, doesn’t mention the elephant in the room: whether and how the treaty will limit plastic production.</p>
1027.  
1028.  
1029.  
1030. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Nothing happened that was particularly surprising, but this outcome is still quite demoralizing,” said Chris Dixon, an ocean campaign leader for the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency who attended the talks. Other groups called the <a href="https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/2024/04/30/inc-4-negotiating-countries-fail-to-respond-to-the-magnitude-of-the-plastics-crisis/">outcome</a> “<a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/press/55416/inc-4-plastic-treaty-in-danger-as-talks-in-ottawa-end-on-a-disappointing-note/">disappointing</a>” and said the negotiations had been “<a href="https://www.ciel.org/news/outcome-plastics-negotiations-inc4-ottawa/">undermined by deep-rooted industry influence</a>.”&nbsp;</p>
1031.  
1032.  
1033.  
1034. <p class="has-default-font-family">Dixon and other environmental advocates have spent the <a href="https://grist.org/solutions/the-global-plastics-treaty-can-fight-climate-change-if-it-reduces-plastic-production/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">past three</a> <a href="https://grist.org/international/the-world-agreed-to-a-global-plastics-treaty-now-comes-the-hard-part/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">meetings</a> fighting for a treaty that addresses the “full life cycle” of plastics —&nbsp;meaning one that goes beyond waste management to limit the amount of plastic that’s made in the first place.&nbsp;</p>
1035.  
1036.  
1037.  
1038. <p class="has-default-font-family">The world already produces more than <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/282732/global-production-of-plastics-since-1950/">400 million metric tons</a> of plastic per year, and fossil fuel companies are planning to <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/shell-chevron-oil-chemicals-plastics-d75f8fee">dramatically increase that number</a> over the next few decades. Plastics have been described as the fossil fuel industry’s “<a href="https://truthout.org/articles/plastics-are-fossil-fuel-industrys-plan-b-fenceline-communities-pay-the-price/">plan B</a>” as the world pivots away from using oil and gas in transportation and electricity generation. This could have dire implications not only for plastic pollution but for the climate; according to a <a href="https://energyanalysis.lbl.gov/publications/climate-impact-primary-plastic">recent study</a>, greenhouse gas emissions from growing plastic production could eat up one-fifth of the world’s remaining carbon budget by 2050.&nbsp;</p>
1039.  
1040.  
1041.  
1042. <p class="has-default-font-family">Just because production limits aren’t on the agenda for ad hoc working groups, however, doesn’t mean they’re out of the treaty; it just means delegates may arrive in Busan less prepared to discuss technical concepts related to plastics manufacturing. Language about the “full life cycle” of plastics is still in the treaty’s mandate — which <a href="https://grist.org/politics/world-agrees-to-negotiate-a-historic-treaty-on-plastic-pollution/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">countries agreed on in 2022</a> — and throughout the draft text. Countries can also host unofficial discussions on the topic between now and November.&nbsp;</p>
1043.  
1044.  
1045.  
1046. <p class="has-default-font-family">There’s already widespread support for addressing plastic production in the treaty. Dozens of countries supported a <a href="https://resolutions.unep.org/incres/uploads/rwanda_and_peru_crp_on_ppp.pdf">statement presented by Rwanda and Peru last week</a> saying that a global plastic reduction target should be “a North Star” for the treaty. The paper suggested reducing production by 40 percent below 2025 levels by 2040. Another declaration, published on Monday and signed by 28 countries, called for the treaty to “<a href="https://www.bridgetobusan.com/home/#read-the-declaration">achieve sustainable levels of production of primary plastic polymers</a>.”</p>
1047.  
1048.  
1049.  
1050. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Greenpeace-banner-at-INC4-Photo-by-IISDENB-Kiara-Worth.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Greenpeace-banner-at-INC4-Photo-by-IISDENB-Kiara-Worth.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Greenpeace-banner-at-INC4-Photo-by-IISDENB-Kiara-Worth.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Greenpeace-banner-at-INC4-Photo-by-IISDENB-Kiara-Worth.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Greenpeace-banner-at-INC4-Photo-by-IISDENB-Kiara-Worth.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Greenpeace-banner-at-INC4-Photo-by-IISDENB-Kiara-Worth.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Greenpeace-banner-at-INC4-Photo-by-IISDENB-Kiara-Worth.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Greenpeace-banner-at-INC4-Photo-by-IISDENB-Kiara-Worth.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Greenpeace-banner-at-INC4-Photo-by-IISDENB-Kiara-Worth.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Greenpeace-banner-at-INC4-Photo-by-IISDENB-Kiara-Worth.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Greenpeace-banner-at-INC4-Photo-by-IISDENB-Kiara-Worth.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="Greenpeace protestors hang a yellow banner that says 'People Over Polluters: Cut Plastic Production Now!' from a bridge" data-caption="Activists from Greenpeace urged treaty negotiators to place limits on plastic production.
1051. " data-credit="IISD/ENB - Kiara Worth"/><figcaption>Activists from Greenpeace urged treaty negotiators to place limits on plastic production.
1052. <cite>IISD/ENB &#8211; Kiara Worth</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
1053.  
1054.  
1055.  
1056. <p class="has-default-font-family">Dixon said translating that support into binding treaty text is a matter of “political commitment.” On Monday, production was “the first topic to get dropped” as delegates scrambled to agree on an agenda for intersessional work, she said. They were trying to avoid a repeat of the previous conference, <a href="https://grist.org/international/small-victories-and-major-frustrations-mark-latest-round-of-plastics-treaty-negotiations/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">which ended with no agenda at all</a>.</p>
1057.  
1058.  
1059.  
1060. <p class="has-default-font-family">Santos Virgilio, a delegate representing Angola, said during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL5uNdyP8GUxbJ3U5j95DesSoho1LUTYvB&amp;embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.no-burn.org%2F&amp;source_ve_path=MTY0OTksMjg2NjQsMTY0NTAz&amp;feature=emb_share&amp;v=hL-FqO3x9g8">panel on Monday</a> that it is “too early to say” how his country and others will coax oil-producing states into accepting treaty provisions on plastic production. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar are among the countries most vociferously opposed to addressing plastic production as part of the treaty. Plastics industry lobbying groups also <a href="https://www.ciel.org/news/fossil-fuel-and-chemical-industry-influence-inc4/">turned out in full force</a> at the negotiating session to oppose production caps.</p>
1061.  
1062.  
1063.  
1064. <p class="has-default-font-family">Chris Jahn, council secretary of the International Council of Chemical Associations, <a href="https://plasticscircularity.org/?news=as-inc-4-concludes-plastic-and-chemical-makers-urge-intersessional-work">said in a statement</a> on Monday that the industry is “fully committed to a legally binding agreement all countries can join that ends plastic pollution without eliminating the massive societal benefits plastics provide for a healthier and more sustainable world.”&nbsp;</p>
1065.  
1066.  
1067.  
1068. <p class="has-default-font-family">Industry groups used the convening as a public relations opportunity, touting the benefits of plastic in ads placed throughout Ottawa. In a hotel, <a href="http://enb.iisd.org/media/pro-plastic-messaging-seen-hotels-ottawa-inc4-29apr24-photo">one collection of ads</a> said plastics “save lives,” “deliver water,” and “reduce food waste.”</p>
1069.  
1070.  
1071.  
1072. <p class="has-default-font-family">The United States has also resisted plastic production limits as part of the treaty. A State Department official <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a1357843-3cde-4714-bcbb-906c43c1829b">told the Financial Times on Tuesday</a> that “overly prescriptive approaches” could alienate “major producers or consumers of plastics.” Instead of cutting the supply of plastics, the U.S. wants to focus on reducing demand and improving infrastructure for recycling and reuse.</p>
1073.  
1074.  
1075.  
1076. <p class="has-default-font-family">Despite frustrations, several observers noted a promising shift in the tone at this week’s negotiating session, compared to the previous meeting. “There was a different energy, it was more collaborative,” said Erin Simon, the vice president and head of plastic waste and business for the environmental nonprofit WWF. Bjorn Beeler, the general manager and international coordinator for the nonprofit International Pollutants Elimination Network, said it was “very significant” that the delegates were able to move from a <a href="https://grist.org/looking-forward/on-the-agenda-this-earth-day-a-global-treaty-to-end-plastic-pollution/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">70-page “zero draft” of the treaty</a> —&nbsp;a laundry list of options meant to represent everybody’s viewpoints —&nbsp;to a more formal version that’s been vetted by negotiators.&nbsp;</p>
1077.  
1078.  
1079.  
1080. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IISD_ENB_INC4_29April24_KiaraWorth-52.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IISD_ENB_INC4_29April24_KiaraWorth-52.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IISD_ENB_INC4_29April24_KiaraWorth-52.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IISD_ENB_INC4_29April24_KiaraWorth-52.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IISD_ENB_INC4_29April24_KiaraWorth-52.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IISD_ENB_INC4_29April24_KiaraWorth-52.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IISD_ENB_INC4_29April24_KiaraWorth-52.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IISD_ENB_INC4_29April24_KiaraWorth-52.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IISD_ENB_INC4_29April24_KiaraWorth-52.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IISD_ENB_INC4_29April24_KiaraWorth-52.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IISD_ENB_INC4_29April24_KiaraWorth-52.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="Large ads plastered on walls say 'these plastics reduce food waste' against a photograph of cucumbers, 'these plastics save lives' against a photograph of a child in a hospital bed, and 'these plastics deliver water' against a photograph of a child drinking from a disposable water bottle" data-caption="Pro-plastic ads at an Ottawa hotel.
1081. " data-credit="IISD/ENB - Kiara Worth"/><figcaption>Pro-plastic ads at an Ottawa hotel.
1082. <cite>IISD/ENB &#8211; Kiara Worth</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
1083.  
1084.  
1085.  
1086. <p class="has-default-font-family">All of the most ambitious provisions of the treaty are still in the newly updated draft, Beeler said, meaning they’re still up for discussion. He also noted growing support for health-related aspects of the treaty, particularly a provision to limit potentially dangerous chemicals that are commonly added to plastics. Delegates agreed to create an expert group to focus on this topic during intersessional work. They tasked it with proposing a framework to identify the most problematic types of plastic and plastic-related chemicals, as well as product designs that increase plastic products’ recycling and reuse potential.&nbsp;</p>
1087.  
1088.  
1089.  
1090. <p class="has-default-font-family">Although countries disagree on whether certain substances should be banned or just restricted, and which criteria should be used to identify such substances, there is more convergence on regulating chemicals than on most other issues. Even Iraq, a major oil producer, submitted a <a href="https://resolutions.unep.org/incres/uploads/crp_iraq_chemicals_of_concern_1.pdf">statement</a> supporting the creation of two lists of banned and restricted plastic chemicals.&nbsp;</p>
1091.  
1092.  
1093.  
1094. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Everyone knows there are hazardous chemicals in plastics,” Beeler said. Griffins Ochieng, the executive director of the Kenya-based Center for Environmental Justice and Development, said in a <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQ16khBS8XUKLOe3XT_7I7SO1IOxfFn_6PhS9zl0TCFU7IKd2QCLQ6npOOLNA2xLCcjUGtK5TZHbk24/pubhtml">statement</a> that a global plastics treaty that addresses chemicals in plastics “is an impetus toward eradicating plastic pollution.”</p>
1095.  
1096.  
1097.  
1098. <p class="has-default-font-family">One other expert group will focus on finance —&nbsp;where to get funding to help developing countries transition away from single-use plastics and test plastics for hazardous chemicals, among other treaty objectives, and how to distribute that money. Some countries and many environmental groups support the creation of a dedicated fund to help poor countries implement the provisions of the plastics treaty. Others say it would be simpler to use an existing mechanism like the <a href="https://www.thegef.org/who-we-are">Global Environmental Facility</a>, a multilateral fund that provides grants to support government projects.</p>
1099.  
1100.  
1101.  
1102. <p class="has-default-font-family">With eight months remaining in 2024, delegates have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to wrap up a treaty by the end of the year, which is the goal countries agreed on when they decided to write a treaty in March 2022. Even if the treaty does not take its most ambitious form, it could still have a big impact. Policies to disincentivize the use of virgin plastic, for instance — like recycled content requirements —&nbsp;are relatively noncontroversial, and they could indirectly limit plastic production. Beeler said it’s also possible that new requirements on the measurement and disclosure of plastic production could eventually lead to production limits <em>after </em>the treaty is ratified.&nbsp;</p>
1103.  
1104.  
1105.  
1106. <p class="has-default-font-family">Simon, with WWF, said she feels cautiously hopeful following this week’s meeting. The conference was “not a failure, and definitely not a win.” she said. “But it is progress.”</p>
1107. <p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/international/un-plastics-treaty-inches-closer-to-reality-as-lobbyists-tout-plastics-massive-societal-benefits/">UN plastics treaty inches closer to reality as lobbyists tout plastics&#8217; &#8216;massive societal benefits&#8217;</a> on May 1, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
1111. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636569</post-id><timeToRead>7</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[Dozens of people sit in a large conference room, some with laptops and placards on tables in front of them]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[]]></summary> </item>
1112. <item>
1113. <title>What will it take to get companies to embrace reusable packaging?</title>
1114. <link>https://grist.org/business/what-will-it-take-to-get-companies-to-embrace-reusable-packaging/</link>
1116. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Winters]]></dc:creator>
1117. <pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2024 08:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
1118. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
1119. <category><![CDATA[Food]]></category>
1120. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636301</guid>
1121.  
1122. <description><![CDATA[Inside the effort to standardize the design of returnable containers.]]></description>
1123. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
1124. <p class="has-drop-cap has-default-font-family">For several months last year, patrons of a Seattle coffee shop called&nbsp;Tailwind Cafe had the option of ordering their Americanos and lattes in returnable metal to-go cups. Customers could simply borrow a cup from Tailwind, go on their way, and then at some point — perhaps a few hours later, perhaps on another day that week — return the cup to the shop, which would clean it and refill it for the next person. If it wasn’t returned within 14 days, the customer would be charged a $15 deposit, though even that was ultimately refundable if the cup was returned by the end of 45 days.</p>
1125.  
1126.  
1127.  
1128. <p class="has-default-font-family">Tailwind’s head chef, Kayla Tekautz, said her cafe started the program out of a desire to address the environmental scourge of disposable plastic foodware and other packaging, the vast majority of which cannot be recycled. It was a partnership with a reusable packaging and logistics company called Reusables.com, which provided Tailwind and another Seattle area store, Cloud City Coffee, with branded cups and a QR code-operated drop-off receptacle.&nbsp;</p>
1129.  
1130.  
1131.  
1132. <p class="has-default-font-family">But the cafe quickly ran into trouble. It was “overwhelming” to explain the return system to every interested customer, Tekautz said. Many were hesitant to participate after learning that they could only return the cups to Tailwind or the other drop-off location, 6 miles away. Plus, Tailwind’s QR code reader kept malfunctioning, requiring repeated visits from a mechanic. At the end of last summer, Tailwind quietly ended the return program. “It just didn’t work,” Tekautz said. (Reusables.com didn’t respond to Grist’s request for comment.)</p>
1133.  
1134.  
1135.  
1136. <p class="has-default-font-family">In an effort to reduce consumption of single-use plastic, Seattle has spent the past several years <a href="https://www.kuow.org/stories/seattle-s-holy-grail-reducing-single-use-cups">encouraging local businesses</a> to offer reusable cups, dishes, utensils, and packaging. It has made some laudable progress. Concertgoers at the Paramount Theater and attendees of the Northwest Folklife Festival, for example, can now order their libations in reusable polypropylene cups. And since 2022, students at the University of Washington have been able to check out bright green reusable food containers from a company called Ozzi.</p>
1137.  
1138.  
1139.  
1140. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image alignfull js-breaks-column"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bold-Reuse_Northwest-Folklife-2.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bold-Reuse_Northwest-Folklife-2.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bold-Reuse_Northwest-Folklife-2.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bold-Reuse_Northwest-Folklife-2.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bold-Reuse_Northwest-Folklife-2.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bold-Reuse_Northwest-Folklife-2.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bold-Reuse_Northwest-Folklife-2.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bold-Reuse_Northwest-Folklife-2.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bold-Reuse_Northwest-Folklife-2.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bold-Reuse_Northwest-Folklife-2.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bold-Reuse_Northwest-Folklife-2.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="" data-caption="Reusable cups offered at the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle." data-credit="Courtesy of Reuse Seattle"/><figcaption>Reusable cups offered at the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle. <cite>Courtesy of Reuse Seattle</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
1141.  
1142.  
1143.  
1144. <p class="has-default-font-family">These programs are helping Seattle avoid single-use plastic and create a “<a href="https://reuseseattle.org/">waste-free future</a>,” according to the city’s reuse website. It’s a target that’s being pursued by many American cities, and at the global level too. Disposable plastic foodware and packaging — which accounts for <a href="https://www.unep.org/interactives/beat-plastic-pollution/">nearly 40 percent</a> of all plastic production —&nbsp;can only be phased out if there are robust, efficient reuse systems to replace them.&nbsp;</p>
1145.  
1146.  
1147.  
1148. <p class="has-default-font-family">But some businesses, like Tailwind, have struggled to get reusable containers off the ground, often because of the small scale and disconnected nature of existing reuse programs. Instead of pooling resources and employing just one or two large cleaning and logistics services, businesses have so far chosen among several competing initiatives — or in some cases, have created and run their own programs. The result is a slew of incompatible containers, specific to just a few stores or locations, and inefficient systems for gathering, washing, and transporting between customers’ homes, sanitation facilities, and storefronts.</p>
1149.  
1150.  
1151. <div class="wp-block-in-article-recirc">
1152.  <article class="in-article-recirc">
1153.    <span class="in-article-recirc__label">Read Next</span>
1154.    <div class="in-article-recirc__content">
1155.  
1156.      
1157.      
1158.                    
1159.            <a class="in-article-recirc__art" href="https://grist.org/accountability/circular-economy-plastics-recycling-reuse-waste-conference-seattle/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">
1160.        <figure>
1161.          <img src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/circularity-transparentbg.gif?quality=75&#038;strip=all" alt=""  class="js-modal-gallery__hidden" srcset="" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" height="900" width="1600" loading="lazy" decoding="async">
1162.        </figure>
1163.      </a>
1164.            <div class="in-article-recirc__body">
1165.        <div class="in-article-recirc__title">
1166.                    <a class="in-article-recirc__title-link" href="https://grist.org/accountability/circular-economy-plastics-recycling-reuse-waste-conference-seattle/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">How the &#8216;circular economy&#8217; went from environmentalist dream to marketing buzzword</a>
1167.        </div>
1168.        <div class="in-article-recirc__meta">
1169.          
1171.  <div class="tease-meta">
1172.                            <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/joseph-winters/>Joseph Winters</a>              </div>
1173.        </div>
1174.      </div>
1175.    </div>
1176.  </article>
1177. </div>
1178.  
1179.  
1180.  
1181. <p class="has-default-font-family">Having so many companies creating their own designs and logistics can be expensive, causing them to miss out on economies of scale that could make reuse more affordable and easily adoptable. According to Ashima Sukhdev, a policy adviser for the city of Seattle, she should be able to “pick up a coffee from my local cafe, and then drop it off in the lobby of my office building. Or drop it off at the library, or at a bus stop.”</p>
1182.  
1183.  
1184.  
1185. <p class="has-default-font-family">What Sukhdev is describing would represent a highly unusual level of coordination across company lines. At coffee shops, this would mean reusable mugs shared not only between Tailwind and Cloud City, but also Starbucks and Peets. For grocery stores, it could mean picking up a jar of olives at Safeway, dropping off the empty container at Walgreens, and then having the same jar refilled with jam and sold at Whole Foods. Achieving this would require companies to rethink the way they compete with each other and differentiate their products. It would also require big changes from consumers, who have been trained for 70 years to expect disposability in just about every aspect of daily life.</p>
1186.  
1187.  
1188.  
1189. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Reuse-Seattle-Team_rWorld_ZooTunes.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Reuse-Seattle-Team_rWorld_ZooTunes.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Reuse-Seattle-Team_rWorld_ZooTunes.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Reuse-Seattle-Team_rWorld_ZooTunes.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Reuse-Seattle-Team_rWorld_ZooTunes.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Reuse-Seattle-Team_rWorld_ZooTunes.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Reuse-Seattle-Team_rWorld_ZooTunes.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Reuse-Seattle-Team_rWorld_ZooTunes.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Reuse-Seattle-Team_rWorld_ZooTunes.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Reuse-Seattle-Team_rWorld_ZooTunes.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Reuse-Seattle-Team_rWorld_ZooTunes.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="" data-caption="Pat Kaufman, right, with Reuse Seattle team members. " data-credit="Courtesy of Reuse Seattle"/><figcaption>Pat Kaufman, right, with Reuse Seattle team members.  <cite>Courtesy of Reuse Seattle</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
1190.  
1191.  
1192.  
1193. <p class="has-default-font-family">Experts say these changes are necessary. “For this solution to become a reality, you’re gonna need standards,” said Pat Kaufman, manager of Seattle Public Utilities’ composting, recycling, and reuse program.&nbsp;</p>
1194.  
1195.  
1196.  
1197. <p class="has-default-font-family">Kaufman is currently on a yearlong sabbatical working for a nonprofit called PR3, which is trying to create those standards. The questions they’re facing are: What will standardized reusable packaging systems look like —&nbsp;and what will it take to get companies, and consumers, to adopt them?</p>
1198.  
1199.  
1200.  
1201. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=150&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="" data-caption="" data-credit=""/><figcaption></figcaption></div></figure>
1202.  
1203.  
1204.  
1205. <p class="has-drop-cap has-default-font-family">Every year, the world produces about <a href="https://www.unep.org/interactives/beat-plastic-pollution/">400 million metric tons of plastic</a> —&nbsp;almost entirely out of fossil fuels like oil and gas. Some of this is used in essential products like contact lenses and medical equipment,&nbsp;but a much greater fraction goes toward sporks, cups, bags, takeout containers, and other items that get thrown away after just a few minutes of use. Most of this plastic will never be recycled due to technical and economic restraints; <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/whopping-91-percent-plastic-isnt-recycled/">more than 90 percent</a> of all plastics get sent to a landfill or incinerator, or turn up as litter in the environment, where they degrade into microplastics and leach hazardous chemicals. Plastics manufacturing causes additional harms, including air pollution that disproportionately affects low-income communities and communities of color living nearby.&nbsp;</p>
1206.  
1207.  
1208.  
1209. <p class="has-default-font-family">For all of these reasons, public pressure to cut back on single-use plastics has escalated dramatically in recent years. Many companies have responded by launching trials and pilot programs allowing customers to borrow and return reusable cups, bottles, trays, jars, and other containers. These include small players like Ozzi, as well as behemoth brands like Walmart and Coca-Cola. There have been “more trials than Donald Trump,” said Stuart Chidley, co-founder of a reusable packaging company called Reposit.</p>
1210.  
1211.  
1212.  
1213. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/resposit.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/resposit.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/resposit.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/resposit.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1152 1152w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/resposit.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/resposit.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/resposit.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/resposit.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/resposit.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="" data-caption="Returnable containers from Reposit are offered at Mark &amp; Spencer grocery stores in the U.K." data-credit="Courtesy of Reposit"/><figcaption>Returnable containers from Reposit are offered at Mark &amp; Spencer grocery stores in the U.K. <cite>Courtesy of Reposit</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
1214.  
1215.  
1216.  
1217. <p class="has-default-font-family">As in Seattle, however, their efforts have been siloed, making it hard for the reuse sector to grow. According to a <a href="https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/scaling-returnable-packaging/overview">recent report</a> from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, or EMF —&nbsp;a nonprofit that advocates for a “circular economy” that conserves resources — even companies that have pledged to dramatically scale down their use of plastics have only replaced 2 percent or less of their single-use containers with reusables.</p>
1218.  
1219.  
1220.  
1221. <p class="has-default-font-family">“To realize the full benefits of return systems, a fundamentally new approach is required,” the authors concluded.</p>
1222.  
1223.  
1224.  
1225. <div class="wp-block-ups-explainer-block explainer-block white-background" data-currentslide="0"><h2 class="explainer-block__title">The four types of reuse systems</h2><div class="explainer-block__slides"><div class="explainer-block__slide"><p class="slide-content">The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has identified <a href="https://grist.org/solutions/zero-waste-circular-economy-reuse-refill-containers/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">four broad categories of reuse systems</a>, based on who owns the containers and where they’re refilled or returned: refill on the go, refill at home, return on the go, return from home.</p></div><div class="explainer-block__slide"><p class="slide-content"><strong>Refill on the go:</strong> Consumers bring their own reusable containers to grocery stores and other locations, and refill them there — think the bulk section of a supermarket, where shoppers refill their own jars or bags with nuts, grains, and other foods.</p></div><div class="explainer-block__slide"><p class="slide-content"><strong>Refill at home</strong>: Consumers own their own reusable containers but instead of refilling them at a store, they order refills in the mail. For example, you order concentrated dish soap tablets and then dissolve them in a dispenser you already own.</p></div><div class="explainer-block__slide"><p class="slide-content"><strong>Return on the go</strong>: Businesses own containers and let consumers borrow them — often by charging a deposit that is refunded when the container is returned. This system involves container drop-off points at grocery stores, coffee shops, and other designated locations outside the home.</p></div><div class="explainer-block__slide"><p class="slide-content"><strong>Return from home</strong>: Businesses own the reusable containers, which logistics providers pick up from people’s homes and then transport to a washing facility so they can be used again — much like milkmen of old.</p></div></div><div class="explainer-block__controls"><div class="block-controls__dots"><div class="block-control__dot active"></div><div class="block-control__dot not-active"></div><div class="block-control__dot not-active"></div><div class="block-control__dot not-active"></div><div class="block-control__dot not-active"></div></div><div class="block-controls__buttons"><div class="contols-button"><button class="button-left"><span class="arrow-left"></span></button></div><div class="contols-button"><button class="button-right"><span class="arrow-right"></span></button></div></div></div></div>
1226.  
1227.  
1228.  
1229. <p class="has-default-font-family">The EMF report focuses on reusable containers that you can return to the coffee shop, grocery store, or another drop-off point — known as “return on the go” — <a href="https://grist.org/solutions/zero-waste-circular-economy-reuse-refill-containers/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">as opposed to those that consumers own</a> and bring with them to stores. It says that three things need to happen to make reuse mainstream. First, companies have to achieve high return rates, so they don’t lose inventory when people steal or forget to return their containers. Second, they have to share infrastructure for washing, collecting, sorting, and delivery in order to achieve economies of scale. Third, reusable containers must be standardized. The third pillar makes the other two much easier to achieve, since it’s simpler to share logistics, scale up, and familiarize customers with reuse systems if they share common characteristics —&nbsp;for instance, if containers are designed with similar shapes, sizes, and materials.&nbsp;</p>
1230.  
1231.  
1232.  
1233. <p class="has-default-font-family">To that end, <a href="https://www.pr3standards.org/">PR3</a> has spent the past four years drafting standards for reuse systems, with a particular focus on container design. Through a “consensus body” composed of members from big business, the advocacy world, and government, PR3 is hoping to eventually certify the world’s first reuse standards under the <a href="https://www.iso.org/home.html">International Organization for Standardization</a> (known as ISO, to prevent confusion around different acronyms in different languages). This would lend legitimacy to the PR3 proposals, as the ISO maintains one of the world’s most widely accepted catalogs of standards. Others within its portfolio cover everything from food safety to the manufacturing of medical devices, and have been voluntarily adopted by many large <a href="https://www.en.une.org/la-asociacion/sala-de-informacion-une/noticias/espania-en-los-primeros-puestos-mundiales-en-adopcion-de-estandares-iso">companies</a> and <a href="https://committee.iso.org/sites/tc224/home/projects/examples-of-adoptions.html">government bodies</a>.&nbsp;</p>
1234.  
1235.  
1236.  
1237. <p class="has-default-font-family">PR3 released a draft of its standards last year, and it&#8217;s been updating them behind closed doors since then. Specific standards on washing protocols are set to be published for public review this week, and the nonprofit hopes that its consensus body will vote to finalize standards for container design later this year.</p>
1238.  
1239.  
1240.  
1241. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image alignfull js-breaks-column"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/reusable-cup-taiwan-washing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/reusable-cup-taiwan-washing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/reusable-cup-taiwan-washing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/reusable-cup-taiwan-washing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/reusable-cup-taiwan-washing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/reusable-cup-taiwan-washing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/reusable-cup-taiwan-washing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/reusable-cup-taiwan-washing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/reusable-cup-taiwan-washing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/reusable-cup-taiwan-washing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/reusable-cup-taiwan-washing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="Hand with yellow rubber gloves wash many white plastic cups in a large basin of water" data-caption="A worker from Taiwan’s Blue Ocean, an environmental protection company, cleans reusable mugs in Taoyuan.
1242. " data-credit="Sam Yeh / AFP via Getty Images"/><figcaption>A worker from Taiwan’s Blue Ocean, an environmental protection company, cleans reusable mugs in Taoyuan.
1243. <cite>Sam Yeh / AFP via Getty Images</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
1244.  
1245.  
1246.  
1247. <p class="has-default-font-family">So, what makes a good reusable container system? It’s complicated. Containers have to hold up under the stresses of logistics and transportation. They have to be relatively inexpensive. Perhaps most intangibly, they have to <em>seem </em>reusable, so customers don’t accidentally throw them in the trash. This can be accomplished through design elements —&nbsp;like containers’ color, texture, shape, and weight — or through other means, like easily recognizable drop-off boxes for used containers. Some reuse advocates support deposit fees, in which customers pay a small amount,&nbsp;usually just a dollar or two, in order to borrow a reusable container. They get the deposit back once they’ve returned the container.</p>
1248.  
1249.  
1250.  
1251. <p class="has-default-font-family">None of these features is guaranteed to work. In designing draft standards, PR3 has often had to make educated predictions about which ones consumers will respond to. And those predictions can have far-reaching implications. If you assume customers will frequently lose or forget to return their containers, for example, then it probably won’t make sense to design thick containers that are capable of withstanding hundreds of uses.</p>
1252.  
1253.  
1254.  
1255. <p class="has-default-font-family">“In the real world, return rates vary wildly,” Claudette Juska, PR3’s technical director and one of its co-founders, told Grist. “You don’t want to design a container for 400 uses if it’s only going to be used four times.” The most recent version of PR3’s standards say containers must be designed to withstand at least 20 uses and reused in practice at least 10 times.</p>
1256.  
1257.  
1258.  
1259. <p class="has-default-font-family">On the other hand, it may be counterproductive to design containers with the expectation that they won’t be returned. According to Chidley, with Reposit, cheap-looking and -feeling containers could actually <em>cause </em>low return rates, since people might be more careless with them. His philosophy is to use features like color, weight, and shape to communicate containers’ reusability, making it less plausible that people will confuse them for disposables.</p>
1260.  
1261.  
1262. <div class="wp-block-in-article-recirc">
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1269.                    
1270.            <a class="in-article-recirc__art" href="https://grist.org/international/in-france-zero-waste-experiments-tackle-a-tough-problem-peoples-habits/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">
1271.        <figure>
1272.          <img src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/zero-waste-france.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all" alt=""  class="js-modal-gallery__hidden" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/zero-waste-france.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1600w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/zero-waste-france.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/zero-waste-france.jpg?resize=330%2C186&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/zero-waste-france.jpg?resize=768%2C432&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/zero-waste-france.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/zero-waste-france.jpg?resize=160%2C90&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/zero-waste-france.jpg?resize=150%2C84&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 150w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" height="900" width="1600" loading="lazy" decoding="async">
1273.        </figure>
1274.      </a>
1275.            <div class="in-article-recirc__body">
1276.        <div class="in-article-recirc__title">
1277.                    <a class="in-article-recirc__title-link" href="https://grist.org/international/in-france-zero-waste-experiments-tackle-a-tough-problem-peoples-habits/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">In France, zero-waste experiments tackle a tough problem: People&#8217;s habits</a>
1278.        </div>
1279.        <div class="in-article-recirc__meta">
1280.          
1282.  <div class="tease-meta">
1283.                            <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/joseph-winters/>Joseph Winters</a>              </div>
1284.        </div>
1285.      </div>
1286.    </div>
1287.  </article>
1288. </div>
1289.  
1290.  
1291.  
1292. <p class="has-default-font-family">PR3 doesn’t have much specific advice on these characteristics, but some entrepreneurs Grist spoke with said they’ve hit higher return rates through particular design choices. For Chidley, this means making containers “beautiful” through high-quality, heavier materials with stylish branding. His containers are available at <a href="https://uk.99bridges.io/bk/kiosks/customer/return-points">Marks &amp; Spencer grocery stores</a> across England and Scotland. Lindsey Hoell, founder of a reusable container logistics company called <a href="https://dispatchgoods.com/">Dispatch Goods</a> and a member of PR3’s standards panel, has forgone sharp-edged takeout food containers in favor of ones with smoother edges that “feel fancier.” And because so many single-use plastics are either black or white, her containers are bright red. “There’s a lot of soft science of what makes a consumer feel like something is durable,” she told Grist. Her containers are available across most of the U.S., mostly through <a href="https://dispatchgoods.com/partners">grocery and meal delivery programs</a> like Blue Apron and Imperfect Foods.</p>
1293.  
1294.  
1295.  
1296. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=150&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="" data-caption="" data-credit=""/><figcaption></figcaption></div></figure>
1297.  
1298.  
1299.  
1300. <p class="has-drop-cap has-default-font-family">To some extent, the discussion about expected use cycles and perceived quality is really just another way of asking what kinds of materials reusable containers should be made of: durable plastic or something else? Answering that question can bring into conflict businesses’ economic interests with concerns about health and the environment.&nbsp;</p>
1301.  
1302.  
1303.  
1304. <p class="has-default-font-family">In the published draft of its standards from last year, PR3 recommended that reusable containers be “plastic-free,” citing plastic additives’ wide-ranging impacts on human health and ecosystems. Plastic can be cheap, light, and durable, but plastic-related chemicals have been shown to <a href="https://plastchem-project.org/">build up in people’s bodies and the environment</a>, where they may contribute to <a href="https://grist.org/science/plastic-chemicals-are-inescapable-and-theyre-messing-with-our-hormones/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">hormone disruption</a>, <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/toxic-chemicals-substances/how-plastic-can-harm-your-health-a2854312421/">cancer, and reproductive harm</a>.</p>
1305.  
1306.  
1307.  
1308. <p class="has-default-font-family">PR3 panel members like Jane Muncke, chief scientific officer for the nonprofit Food Packaging Forum, supported the recommendation. “I don’t think plastics are suitable materials for reusable packaging,” she told Grist. She’s concerned about chemicals migrating into foods and beverages —&nbsp;especially hot, acidic, or <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-contaminants/how-to-reduce-exposure-to-plastic-in-food-everywhere-else-a9640874767/">fatty foods</a>, which are better at soaking up some plastic additives. Durable plastics are also largely nonrecyclable; after being turned into new products a few times, they have to be thrown away or “<a href="https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2022/5/16/what-really-happens-to-your-plastic-recycling">downcycled</a>” into lower-quality products like carpeting.</p>
1309.  
1310.  
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1320.        <figure>
1321.          <img src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Reduction-in-plastic-production.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all" alt="Protest signs call for reduction in plastic production"  class="js-modal-gallery__hidden" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Reduction-in-plastic-production.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1600w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Reduction-in-plastic-production.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Reduction-in-plastic-production.jpg?resize=330%2C186&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Reduction-in-plastic-production.jpg?resize=768%2C432&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Reduction-in-plastic-production.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Reduction-in-plastic-production.jpg?resize=160%2C90&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Reduction-in-plastic-production.jpg?resize=150%2C84&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 150w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" height="900" width="1600" loading="lazy" decoding="async">
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1323.      </a>
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1325.        <div class="in-article-recirc__title">
1326.                    <a class="in-article-recirc__title-link" href="https://grist.org/science/plastic-chemicals-are-inescapable-and-theyre-messing-with-our-hormones/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">Plastic chemicals are inescapable — and they&#8217;re messing with our hormones</a>
1327.        </div>
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1329.          
1331.  <div class="tease-meta">
1332.                            <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/joseph-winters/>Joseph Winters</a>              </div>
1333.        </div>
1334.      </div>
1335.    </div>
1336.  </article>
1337. </div>
1338.  
1339.  
1340.  
1341. <p class="has-default-font-family">Still, many entrepreneurs and even the PR3 founders themselves have moved away from a hard-line stance against plastics. Hoell, for example, originally got into reuse because she was frustrated by plastic-strewn beaches in California — “I’m a surfer and I hate plastics,” she told Grist. She started out making stainless steel containers but soon discovered that rigid plastics had much lower up-front costs, giving her more wiggle room to deal with lower return rates. She didn’t have to worry as much about frequently lost, stolen, or damaged containers.&nbsp;</p>
1342.  
1343.  
1344.  
1345. <p class="has-default-font-family">Plastic was also easier to transport because of its light weight, Hoell added, and she cited some analyses suggesting that it has a lower carbon footprint than alternatives like steel. (These findings are controversial, however; critics say it’s <a href="https://grist.org/climate/the-selective-accounting-behind-the-plastic-industrys-climate-friendly-claims/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">misleading to focus only on plastic-related carbon emissions</a> and not the materials’ other dangers, like toxic chemicals leaching from landfills.)Dispatch Goods now only makes its containers out of polypropylene, a kind of plastic that’s generally considered more inert than others (although it can still <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.1c01103">leach hazardous chemicals</a>). Other reuse logistics companies like R.world, which operates in Seattle and is also represented on the PR3 panel, have similarly opted for polypropylene containers instead of metal or glass.</p>
1346.  
1347.  
1348.  
1349. <p class="has-default-font-family">At Seattle Pacific University, a reusable container program for students eating at the Gwinn Commons dining hall also uses rigid plastic. The containers’ low cost allows Sodexo, the school’s foodservice provider, to charge students just $5 to participate in its reuse system all year, without tracking return rates or worrying too much about lost inventory. “We don’t have a list of subscribers,” said Andrew Chaplin, the dining team’s general manager. The program “runs itself.”</p>
1350.  
1351.  
1352.  
1353. <p class="has-default-font-family">Representatives from PR3 told Grist that plastic has been a hot topic of debate among consensus body members, and that the final version of the standards is likely to move away from the “plastic-free” recommendation. “The standards are going to address this with the understanding that if the world can move away from plastic, great, but in the meantime, before that&#8217;s feasible, we&#8217;d better move where we can,” said Amy Larkin, PR3’s co-founder and director, who pointed out that moving to reusable plastics will still make a huge dent in overall plastic demand. “Let&#8217;s get rid of 90 to 95 percent of the production of single-use packaging.&#8221;</p>
1354.  
1355.  
1356.  
1357. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=150&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="" data-caption="" data-credit=""/><figcaption></figcaption></div></figure>
1358.  
1359.  
1360.  
1361. <p class="has-drop-cap has-default-font-family">Rather than calling for specific container shapes and sizes, PR3 has drafted a few broad requirements —&nbsp;like that containers be designed to “optimize durability,” and that they follow “best practices for recyclability.” They must comply with existing food-safety regulations. Optionally, companies may label products with a universal symbol — kind of like the ubiquitous “chasing arrows” used to indicate recyclability. Such a symbol doesn’t yet exist for reuse, but PR3 has proposed one: a black, white, or orange rose-like pictogram along with the word “reuse.”</p>
1362.  
1363.  
1364.  
1365. <p class="has-default-font-family">More specific design elements are included only as recommendations. To make washing easier, for instance, PR3’s draft says reusable containers should have interior angles no smaller than 90 degrees, as well as “feet” to maximize airflow during drying. They also say containers should “nest” to save storage space and make transportation easier.</p>
1366.  
1367.  
1368.  
1369. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image alignfull js-breaks-column"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1782794880.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1782794880.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1782794880.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1782794880.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1782794880.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1782794880.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1782794880.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1782794880.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1782794880.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1782794880.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1782794880.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="A stack of greenish reusale containers on a shelf" data-caption="A stack of reusable plastic to-go containers at a restaurant in Denver. " data-credit="Hyoung Chang / The Denver Post via Getty Images"/><figcaption>A stack of reusable plastic to-go containers at a restaurant in Denver.  <cite>Hyoung Chang / The Denver Post via Getty Images</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
1370.  
1371.  
1372.  
1373. <p class="has-default-font-family">This flexible approach fits into a category that EMF calls “bespoke with shared standards,” where containers can vary from brand to brand while still sharing common characteristics —&nbsp;like where labels are placed, or the width of a bottle’s mouth. This leaves big brands free to design their own unique packaging if they want to.&nbsp;</p>
1374.  
1375.  
1376.  
1377. <p class="has-default-font-family">PR3’s approach aims to appease big businesses by allowing them to keep using containers that look and feel very different, so long as they conform to a set of broad requirements. “Product companies want that kind of autonomy,” Juska told Grist.</p>
1378.  
1379.  
1380.  
1381. <p class="has-default-font-family">Coca-Cola, for example, sets itself apart with its iconic — and <a href="https://www.lexisnexisip.com/resources/pop-culture-patents-coca-colas-bottle-design/">patented</a> — hourglass-shaped Coke bottle. And beauty companies are notorious for <a href="https://www.trendincite.com/press/GCIFuelingTheMarket-FragranceObservations11-10.pdf">differentiated packaging</a>: Walking down the perfume aisle, you might see bottles shaped like everything from a <a href="https://www.sephora.com/product/good-girl-P420533">high-heeled shoe</a> to a kitten.</p>
1382.  
1383.  
1384.  
1385. <p class="has-default-font-family">Many reuse advocates want to do away with those unique container designs, going even further than what PR3 has suggested in order to enable sharing among different companies —&nbsp;a situation where packaging is considered “pooled” within a market. So instead of an extravagant diversity of perfume bottles, all fragrances might come in interchangeable cylindrical jars.</p>
1386.  
1387.  
1388.  
1389. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/MacArthur-image-reusable.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/MacArthur-image-reusable.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/MacArthur-image-reusable.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=864 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/MacArthur-image-reusable.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/MacArthur-image-reusable.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=553&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/MacArthur-image-reusable.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/MacArthur-image-reusable.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/MacArthur-image-reusable.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all 864w" alt="A graphic showing two bottles with different shapes on the left, and the same products in identically shaped bottles on the right" data-caption="The Ellen MacArthur Foundation envisions a system in which the same containers are &quot;pooled&quot; so they can be used across company lines." data-credit="Courtesy of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation"/><figcaption>The Ellen MacArthur Foundation envisions a system in which the same containers are &#8220;pooled&#8221; so they can be used across company lines. <cite>Courtesy of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
1390.  
1391.  
1392.  
1393. <p class="has-default-font-family">A small number of companies — especially in Europe —&nbsp;already do this. For example, through a German program called Mach Mehrweg Pool (roughly translated to “Make Reuse Pool”), brands <a href="https://www.duh.de/fileadmin/user_upload/download/Pressemitteilungen/Kreislaufwirtschaft/ShortProfile_Refillable_Award_2023_MMP_final.pdf">share a collection of identical glass jars</a> that can be filled with different foods. When consumers return the empty containers to a supermarket, a logistics provider picks them up and brings them back to food producers for cleaning. Another organization&nbsp;called the <a href="https://zerowastecities.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/2021_04_13_zwe_live-webinar_reuse_Tobias.pdf">German Wells Cooperative</a> runs a similar program for reusable soda and water bottles, counting more than 150 beverage makers as members.</p>
1394.  
1395.  
1396.  
1397. <p class="has-default-font-family">Other companies that have experimented with pooling, however, have only done so within the brands they control. Coca-Cola, for instance, has a “<a href="https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-examples/a-reusable-drinks-bottle-design-for-multiple-brands-universal-bottle">universal bottle</a>” initiative in South America in which a single, standardized reusable bottle can be used for all of its beverage brands —&nbsp;Fanta, Sprite, Coke, and others. But the initiative is not universal across company lines; you couldn’t refill a Coke bottle with Pepsi.&nbsp;</p>
1398.  
1399.  
1400.  
1401. <p class="has-default-font-family">Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of Loop, a “<a href="https://exploreloop.com/">global reuse platform</a>” that is represented on the PR3 panel, said standard-setters shouldn’t try to resist companies’ impulses to differentiate. Brands should be allowed to experiment with both unique and standardized reusable packaging and then “let the market decide” which is preferable, he told Grist. He raised concerns that pooling might not make sense for some particular products — like baby food, since shared containers can increase the risk of contamination, and babies are more vulnerable to illness.</p>
1402.  
1403.  
1404.  
1405. <p class="has-default-font-family">There is already evidence, however, that companies are leaving money on the table by choosing not to pool their containers. According to EMF’s direct comparison of pooled and nonpooled standardized packaging, pooling containers reduces the cost of reusable packaging systems by up to 28 percent.</p>
1406.  
1407.  
1408.  
1409. <p class="has-default-font-family">Plus, at least some intervention —&nbsp;perhaps regulation or financial incentives — is likely required to <em>create </em>conditions that are more favorable to reusables;&nbsp;a hands-off, market-led approach is what has led to today’s proliferation of throwaway plastics. EMF’s modeling suggests that only reuse systems “built collaboratively from the outset” can reach cost parity with single-use. Exactly what that collaboration will look like, however, is unclear, since the kinds of government regulations that could help foster it might be incompatible with the United States’ free market ethos and antitrust laws. Internationally, <a href="https://grist.org/international/in-france-zero-waste-experiments-tackle-a-tough-problem-peoples-habits/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">some cities and countries</a> have done more than the U.S. to promote reuse, but none has gone as far as what EMF is suggesting.</p>
1410.  
1411.  
1412.  
1413. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=150&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/returnables-divider.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="" data-caption="" data-credit=""/><figcaption></figcaption></div></figure>
1414.  
1415.  
1416.  
1417. <p class="has-drop-cap has-default-font-family">Even in the absence of robust regulations, PR3’s standards are likely to nudge the country —&nbsp;and the world — in the right direction. Once they’re finalized, PR3 plans to submit them to the American National Standards Institute,&nbsp;the U.S. member organization of the ISO. From there, the standards would be opened up to public comment, potential revisions, and then final approval. PR3 would have to go through a separate submission and review process to get the standards approved by member countries of the ISO.&nbsp;</p>
1418.  
1419.  
1420.  
1421. <p class="has-default-font-family">What would happen next is unclear. Other ISO standards —&nbsp;like for information security and energy efficiency — have been <a href="https://www.creativesafetysupply.com/qa/regulations-compliance/what-are-some-real-world-examples-of-iso-standard-implementation/">voluntarily adopted</a> by individual companies or industry groups, either because they contain genuinely useful guidance on a complicated issue or because they increase businesses’ perceived <a href="https://www.diligent.com/resources/blog/iso-compliance-and-why-it-matters">trustworthiness</a>.&nbsp;</p>
1422.  
1423.  
1424.  
1425. <p class="has-default-font-family">ISO standards can also inform <a href="https://www.iso.org/iso-and-policy-makers.html">government regulations</a> and international agreements. According to Juska, PR3 is already in talks with Canada’s environment ministry to shape new rules on reusable packaging, and the same thing could happen in any number of other jurisdictions. Juska is also hopeful that PR3’s standards will be acknowledged by or incorporated into the United Nations’ global treaty to end plastic pollution. The <a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/44526/RevisedZeroDraftText.pdf">latest draft</a> of the treaty mentions the need for standards —&nbsp;including for reusable packaging systems —&nbsp;some three dozen times, which Juska said is indicative of how “desperately needed” they are.</p>
1426.  
1427.  
1428.  
1429. <div id="wisepops-weekly-signup" class="wp-block-grist-wisepops-target-block" style="padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-bottom:0.5rem"></div>
1430.  
1431.  
1432.  
1433. <p class="has-default-font-family">“If we want everyone to move in the same direction, we need to set some design parameters for how we want the system to function,” she said.</p>
1434.  
1435.  
1436.  
1437. <p class="has-default-font-family"><em>*Correction: This story originally misattributed Szaky&#8217;s comment about baby food to a different person.</em></p>
1438. <p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/business/what-will-it-take-to-get-companies-to-embrace-reusable-packaging/">What will it take to get companies to embrace reusable packaging?</a> on May 1, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
1442. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636301</post-id><timeToRead>19</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[digital collage of various tupperware and arrows on brightly colored squares]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[Every year, the world produces about 400 million metric tons of plastic — almost entirely out of fossil fuels like oil and gas. Some of this is used in essential products like contact lenses and medical equipment, but a much greater fraction goes toward sporks, cups, bags, takeout containers, and other items that get thrown away after just a few minutes of use.
1443. <br><br>
1444. Most of this plastic will never be recycled due to technical and economic restraints. For all of these reasons, public pressure to cut back on single-use plastics has escalated dramatically in recent years. Disposable plastic foodware and packaging can only be phased out if there are robust, efficient reuse systems to replace them. ]]></summary> </item>
1445. <item>
1446. <title>EPA finally takes on abandoned coal ash ponds — but it might be too late</title>
1447. <link>https://grist.org/regulation/epa-closes-coal-ash-loophole/</link>
1449. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Gautama Mehta]]></dc:creator>
1450. <pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2024 08:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
1451. <category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
1452. <category><![CDATA[Equity]]></category>
1453. <category><![CDATA[Regulation]]></category>
1454. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636474</guid>
1455.  
1456. <description><![CDATA[Will utilities clean up toxic waste at power plants, or run out an election-year clock?]]></description>
1457. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
1458. <p class="has-default-font-family">Last week, the EPA <a href="https://heatmap.news/climate/epa-power-plant-rules-gas">released a suite of long-awaited rules</a> meant to cut down the carbon that the U.S. emits when generating electricity. The rules primarily target existing coal plants and new natural gas facilities, in many cases requiring dramatic emissions cuts that won’t be possible without an unprecedented deployment of carbon capture. (The new EPA proposals are part of an <a href="https://prospect.org/politics/2024-04-23-biden-administration-regulations-congressional-review-act/">ongoing flurry of federal regulatory actions</a> that must be issued by May 22 to minimize the possibility that they’ll be rolled back if Republican Donald Trump defeats President Joe Biden in November’s election.)</p>
1459.  
1460.  
1461.  
1462. <p class="has-default-font-family">The EPA’s new power sector rules have been widely scrutinized for their potential impact on the country’s electric utilities, which have lately been drawing up plans to expand natural gas capacity in response to the growing electricity demand promised by new industrial facilities, AI-supporting data centers, and electric vehicle adoption. However, last week’s rules also contained substantial new controls on the pollution generated by the nation’s aging fleet of coal-fired power plants — as well as the toxins left behind by the many that have already shuttered — including a proposal that closes <a href="https://grist.org/accountability/closing-coal-ash-loophole-epa-proposal/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">a longstanding loophole in federal regulations</a> governing the cleanup of coal ash, a toxic waste byproduct of the coal-fired power process.</p>
1463.  
1464.  
1465.  
1466. <p class="has-default-font-family">The new rule builds on a landmark 2015 rule prohibiting coal ash from being permanently stored in places where it comes into contact with groundwater. This was meant to reform the widespread practice of creating so-called coal ash ponds where the toxin is stored in a wet slurry. While at that time the EPA only applied the rule to coal plants in active use, the new rule will require the cleanup of hundreds of “legacy” coal ash ponds.</p>
1467.  
1468.  
1469.  
1470. <p class="has-default-font-family">“EPA’s new rule is aimed at cleaning up coal plants once and for all,” said Lisa Evans, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, in a press briefing last week. “Coal plants will have to monitor each of these toxic dumps, stop the leaking of hazardous chemicals, and clean up groundwater when contamination is found. This is a watershed moment. For decades, utilities fought coal ash regulation every step of the way with legislation, lawsuits, and lobbying.”</p>
1471.  
1472.  
1473.  
1474. <p class="has-default-font-family">Chris Bowers, an attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, noted that coal ash cleanup is an important environmental justice issue, in part because coal plants have been disproportionately located near poor communities and people of color; some 78 percent of all Black Americans live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant.</p>
1475.  
1476.  
1477.  
1478. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Coal ash continues to be one of the largest, if not the largest, by-volume sources of industrial solid waste that is generated annually. Massive amounts are generated because we’re still burning coal for energy,” said Bowers.</p>
1479.  
1480.  
1481.  
1482. <p class="has-default-font-family">But whether or not the new coal ash regulation brings relief to communities grappling with groundwater contamination may well depend on political will and the agency’s appetite for enforcing its own rules — especially when it means overriding the authority of states that have their own ideas about how strict the rules actually are.</p>
1483.  
1484.  
1485.  
1486. <p class="has-default-font-family">Environmental advocates say that the enforcement of the earlier coal ash rule established a concerning precedent: Rather than implementing the 2015 rule, some states and utilities are effectively waiting out the clock on the Biden administration in the hopes that a potential Trump administration will be friendlier to the power industry. Some utilities are suing the EPA in federal court over interpretations of the rule, while in Georgia and Alabama, state regulators have issued permits that the EPA says are in plain violation of the requirement — leaving the Biden EPA a limited window within which to decisively establish where utilities are allowed to dump coal ash.</p>
1487.  
1488.  
1489.  
1490. <p class="has-default-font-family">“It’s been a pitched battle among the power industry to try to close the chapter on this and do as little as possible,” said Bowers.</p>
1491.  
1492.  
1493.  
1494. <p class="has-default-font-family">Coal plants are usually built near bodies of water because they use turbines powered with steam that must be continuously cooled. For decades, power plants across America dumped coal ash in pits conveniently dug between the plant and a nearby river or lake. Frank Holleman, coordinator of the Southern Environmental Law Center’s regional coal ash initiative, told Grist that this storage method would normally be impermissible for any other kind of waste. Had the 2015 rules been imposed earlier, the ash would have had to be moved to a landfill that was lined to prevent the waste from leaking into its surroundings.</p>
1495.  
1496.  
1497.  
1498. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Juliette-coal-plant.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Juliette-coal-plant.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Juliette-coal-plant.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Juliette-coal-plant.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Juliette-coal-plant.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Juliette-coal-plant.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Juliette-coal-plant.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Juliette-coal-plant.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Juliette-coal-plant.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Juliette-coal-plant.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Juliette-coal-plant.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="An aerial view of a coal-fired power plant in Juliette, Georgia." data-caption="An aerial view of a coal-fired power plant in Juliette, Georgia.
1499. " data-credit="Gautama Mehta"/><figcaption>An aerial view of a coal-fired power plant in Juliette, Georgia.
1500. <cite>Gautama Mehta</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
1501.  
1502.  
1503.  
1504. <p class="has-default-font-family">“That&#8217;s the way all kinds of other waste, including municipal garbage, is stored, but instead of doing that, these utilities — which have tremendous financial resources and tremendous engineering expertise — dug unlined pits between their coal-fired plants and the neighboring water body,” said Holleman.</p>
1505.  
1506.  
1507.  
1508. <p class="has-default-font-family">“When you dig a hole next to a river or lake, you will quickly hit the water table,” Holleman added. That means the water becomes at risk of being contaminated by various toxins, because coal ash contains high concentrations of elements like arsenic, lead, mercury, and selenium, which are hazardous to human and animal health.</p>
1509.  
1510.  
1511.  
1512. <p class="has-default-font-family">Research had long established these dangers to groundwater, but it took two disastrous spills — one at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil coal plant in 2008, and a second at Duke Energy’s Dan River Steam Station in North Carolina in 2014 — for the EPA to issue its landmark 2015 rule. That rule gave the EPA control of the permitting process for coal ash disposal, but it also allowed individual states to apply for delegated authority to administer their own coal ash programs, on the condition that their standards for the cleanup be at least as restrictive as the federal rule.</p>
1513.  
1514.  
1515.  
1516. <p class="has-default-font-family">The 2015 rule went largely unchallenged by utilities until the EPA, under President Biden, ramped up enforcement. Now, in Georgia and Alabama, the federal government is at loggerheads with state agencies over its interpretation of the 2015 rule — leaving environmental advocates concerned that last week’s extension of that rule to cover legacy ponds could suffer the same fate. Meanwhile, a group of utilities is suing the EPA in the D.C. Circuit court over its heightened enforcement of the 2015 rule, which the utilities say amounts to an actual change to the rule itself.</p>
1517.  
1518.  
1519.  
1520. <p class="has-default-font-family">Georgia was among a handful of states to be granted its own permitting program. Fletcher Sams, executive director of the Altamaha Riverkeeper, a conservation organization in Georgia, has spent the last five years advocating for residents of the town of Juliette, which is home to what was <a href="https://grist.org/health/the-coal-plant-next-door/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">once the nation’s largest coal plant</a>. The state&#8217;s dominant utility company plans to close a massive coal ash pond that has come into contact with groundwater there; residents allege that the pond previously contaminated drinking water drawn from wells in the town, sickening locals.</p>
1521.  
1522.  
1523.  
1524. <p class="has-default-font-family">Sams told Grist that he is “very excited about new rules for legacy ponds that would regulate them the same as 2015 ponds. However, if they&#8217;re going to enforce them in Georgia like they’re enforcing the 2015 rule, they’re not worth the paper they’re printed on.”</p>
1525.  
1526.  
1527.  
1528. <p class="has-default-font-family">Georgia’s state environmental agency recently approved a pond closure plan at another coal plant in northwest Georgia, where 1.1 million tons of coal ash will be stored permanently in an unlined pit. The EPA <a href="https://georgiarecorder.com/briefs/epa-objects-to-georgia-power-coal-ash-storage-plan/">issued a letter</a> in February declaring that this plan violated the federal standard, but the agency has not yet directly intervened to contravene the state&#8217;s authority.</p>
1529.  
1530.  
1531.  
1532. <p class="has-default-font-family">In Alabama, however, the EPA took the more drastic step last summer of proposing to deny the state&#8217;s request for a delegated program similar to Georgia&#8217;s, due to the state&#8217;s planned approval of coal ash permits that violate the 2015 rule. (A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management said that the EPA’s denial was “unwarranted” and that the state has complied and continues to comply with federal requirements in its coal ash permitting, which it says is “protective of human health and the environment.”)</p>
1533.  
1534.  
1535.  
1536. <p class="has-default-font-family">The debate between the EPA and the utilities opposing it — as well as the state of Georgia — <a href="https://www.gpb.org/news/2024/04/11/whats-legal-for-closing-georgias-coal-ash-ponds-might-hinge-on-one-word">hinges on the definition of the word “infiltration.”</a> The EPA and environmental advocates argue that the 2015 rule prohibits a coal ash storage site from being infiltrated by water in any direction, while utilities and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division say the word “infiltration” refers only to rainwater seeping into coal ash from above, rather than groundwater from below.</p>
1537.  
1538.  
1539.  
1540. <p class="has-default-font-family">At sites where coal ash is in direct contact with groundwater, the EPA expects utilities to dig it up and install a liner separating it from the water table underneath. But many utilities only want to put a “cap” above the ash ponds to prevent rainwater infiltration — and nothing below.</p>
1541.  
1542.  
1543.  
1544. <div id="wisepops-weekly-signup" class="wp-block-grist-wisepops-target-block" style="padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-bottom:0.5rem"></div>
1545.  
1546.  
1547.  
1548. <p class="has-default-font-family"><strong><em>Editor’s note:</em></strong><em> Earthjustice is an advertiser with Grist. Advertisers have no role in Grist’s editorial decisions.</em></p>
1549. <p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/regulation/epa-closes-coal-ash-loophole/">EPA finally takes on abandoned coal ash ponds — but it might be too late</a> on May 1, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
1553. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636474</post-id><timeToRead>8</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[Aerial view of Plant Scherer, a coal-fired power plant in Juliette, Georgia.]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[]]></summary> </item>
1554. <item>
1555. <title>The problem with forcing people back to the office? All the carbon emissions.</title>
1556. <link>https://grist.org/economics/return-to-office-carbon-emissions-remote-work/</link>
1558. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Kate Yoder]]></dc:creator>
1559. <pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2024 08:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
1560. <category><![CDATA[Culture]]></category>
1561. <category><![CDATA[Economics]]></category>
1562. <category><![CDATA[Solutions]]></category>
1563. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636413</guid>
1564.  
1565. <description><![CDATA[Return-to-office mandates could be getting in the way of companies' climate goals.]]></description>
1566. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
1567. <p class="has-default-font-family"><em>This story was produced by </em><a href="http://grist.org/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist"><em>Grist</em></a><em> and was co-published with </em><a href="http://fastcompany.com/"><em>Fast Company</em></a><em>.</em></p>
1568.  
1569.  
1570.  
1571. <p class="has-default-font-family">When office workers stopped working in offices in 2020, trading their cubicles for living room couches during COVID-19 lockdowns, many began questioning those hours they had spent commuting to work. All those rushed mornings stuck in traffic could have been spent getting things done? Life was often lonely for those stuck in their homes, but people found <a href="https://grist.org/climate/is-nature-all-healed-now-a-look-at-the-pandemics-best-meme/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">something to appreciate</a> when birdsong rang through the quiet streets. And the temporary dip in travel had the side effect of cutting global carbon emissions by <a href="https://grist.org/climate/was-2020-the-year-we-reached-peak-carbon-emissions/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">7 percent in 2020</a> — a blip of good news in an otherwise miserable year.</p>
1572.  
1573.  
1574.  
1575. <p class="has-default-font-family">Emissions <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01332-6">bounced back in 2021</a>, when people started resuming some of their normal activities, but offices have never been the same. While remote work was rare before the pandemic, today, <a href="https://wfhresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WFHResearch_updates_April2024.pdf">28 percent of Americans are working a “hybrid” schedule</a>, going into the office some days, and 13 percent are working remotely full-time.</p>
1576.  
1577.  
1578.  
1579. <p class="has-default-font-family">Recent data suggest that remote work could speed along companies’ plans to zero out their carbon emissions, but businesses don’t seem to be considering climate change in their decisions about the future of office work. “In the U.S., I&#8217;m sad to say it&#8217;s just not high on the priority list,” said Kate Lister, the founder of the consulting firm Global Workplace Analytics. “It gets up there, and then it drops again for the next shiny object.” Commuter travel falls under a company’s so-called “<a href="https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/2022-12/Chapter7.pdf">Scope 3</a>” emissions, the indirect sources that <a href="https://grist.org/regulation/sec-will-require-companies-to-disclose-emissions-with-one-glaring-gap/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">routinely get ignored</a>, but represent, on average, <a href="https://www.wri.org/update/trends-show-companies-are-ready-scope-3-reporting-us-climate-disclosure-rule">three-quarters</a> of the business world’s emissions. </p>
1580.  
1581.  
1582.  
1583. <p class="has-default-font-family">A 10 percent increase in people working remotely could reduce carbon emissions by 192 million metric tons a year, according to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-024-00057-1">a study published in the journal Nature Cities</a> earlier this month. That would cut emissions from the country’s <a href="https://usa.streetsblog.org/2024/01/18/report-transportation-is-still-the-leading-source-of-u-s-emissions-and-not-just-from-tailpipes">most polluting sector</a>, transportation, by 10 percent. Those findings align with other peer-reviewed research: Switching to remote work instead of going into the office can cut a person’s carbon footprint by 54 percent, according to <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2304099120#supplementary-materials">a study published in the journal PNAS</a> last fall, even when accounting for non-commute travel and residential energy use.</p>
1584.  
1585.  
1586.  
1587. <p class="has-default-font-family">“It seems like a very obvious solution to a very pressing and real problem,” said Curtis Sparrer, a principal and co-founder of the PR agency Bospar, a San Francisco-based company where employees have been working remotely since it started in 2015. “And I am concerned that this whole ‘return-to-office’ thing is getting in the way.”</p>
1588.  
1589.  
1590.  
1591. <p class="has-default-font-family">Many companies are mandating their employees show up for in-person work regularly. Last year, big tech companies like <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/13/google-rto-crackdown-gets-backlash-check-my-work-not-my-badge.html">Google</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/17/tech/amazon-return-to-office-mandate-promotions/index.html">Amazon</a>, and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/05/meta-employees-are-back-in-office-three-days-a-week-.html">Meta</a> told employees that they had to come back to the office three days a week or face consequences, like a lower chance of getting promoted. Even Zoom, the company that became a household name during the pandemic for its videoconferencing platform, is making employees who live within 50 miles of the office <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/07/business/zoom-return-to-office/index.html">commute two days a week</a>.&nbsp;</p>
1592.  
1593.  
1594.  
1595. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Amazon-office-walkout.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Amazon-office-walkout.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Amazon-office-walkout.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Amazon-office-walkout.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Amazon-office-walkout.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Amazon-office-walkout.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Amazon-office-walkout.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Amazon-office-walkout.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Amazon-office-walkout.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Amazon-office-walkout.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Amazon-office-walkout.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="Photo of an office building and two people looking out windows" data-caption="Amazon employees in Seattle watch as others join a walkout to protest the company’s return-to-office policies in May 2023. Organizers called attention to the climate impact of commutes, saying it runs counter to the company’s climate pledge to be carbon-neutral by 2040.
1596. " data-credit="AP Photo / Lindsey Wasson"/><figcaption>Amazon employees in Seattle watch as others join a walkout to protest the company’s return-to-office policies in May 2023. Organizers called attention to the climate impact of commutes, saying it runs counter to the company’s climate pledge to be carbon-neutral by 2040.
1597. <cite>AP Photo / Lindsey Wasson</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
1598.  
1599.  
1600.  
1601. <p class="has-default-font-family">Of course, there are many benefits that come with heading into the office to work alongside other humans. Interacting with your coworkers in person gives you a social boost (without the awkward pauses in Zoom meetings) and a compelling reason to change out of your sweatpants in the morning. From a climate change standpoint, the problem is that most Americans tend to jump in their cars to commute, instead of biking or hopping on the bus. A <a href="https://bospar.com/press-release/bospar-earth-day-survey-eco-friendly-work-is-automatic-at-home/">recent poll from Bospar</a> found that two-thirds of Americans are driving to work — and they’re mostly in gas-powered cars. Even though purchases of electric vehicles are rising, they make up roughly <a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualized-ev-market-share-in-the-u-s/">1 percent</a> of the cars on the road.</p>
1602.  
1603.  
1604.  
1605. <p class="has-default-font-family">The climate benefits start falling off quickly when people are summoned into the office. Working from home two to four days a week cuts emissions by between 11 and 29 percent compared with full-time office work, according to the study in PNAS by researchers at Cornell University and Microsoft. If you only work remotely one day a week, those emissions are only trimmed by 2 percent. Another big factor is that maintaining physical office space sucks up a lot of energy, since it needs to be heated and cooled.</p>
1606.  
1607.  
1608.  
1609. <p class="has-default-font-family">So should companies be allowed to claim they’re going green when they’re forcing employees to commute? Many Americans don’t think so, according to Bospar’s survey. Well over half of Millennials and Gen Zers said it’s hypocritical for companies to observe Earth Day while requiring employees to attend work in person. </p>
1610.  
1611.  
1612.  
1613. <p class="has-default-font-family">Sparrer points to Disney, which <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240401263835/en/The-Walt-Disney-Company-and-National-Geographic-Celebrate-Earth-Month-With-New-Global-Cross-Platform-Campaign-ourHOME">celebrated Earth Month</a> in April with a campaign to promote its environmental efforts but <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/10/business/disney-return-to-work/">ordered workers to come into the office four days a week</a> last year. Nike, meanwhile, promoted its Earth Day collection of <a href="https://www.nike.com/launch/t/behind-the-design-earth-day-collection">“sustainable” leather shoes</a> while its CEO, John Donahoe, argued that remote work stifled creativity. “In hindsight, it turns out, it’s really hard to do bold, disruptive innovation, to develop a boldly disruptive shoe on Zoom,” <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/12/nike-ceo-blames-remote-work-for-innovation-slowdown.html">he told CNBC earlier this month</a>.</p>
1614.  
1615.  
1616.  
1617. <p class="has-default-font-family">“We are entering a time of magical thinking, where people seem to think that this is enough, and it&#8217;s not,” Sparrer said. “And the frustration I have is that we all got to experience what it&#8217;s like to work from home, and we know how it works, and we know how it can be improved.”</p>
1618.  
1619.  
1620.  
1621. <p class="has-default-font-family">Working from home, though, could present its own <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/03/is-remote-work-actually-better-for-the-environment">environmental challenges</a>. Recent research that looked at trends before the pandemic found that if 10 percent of the workforce started working remotely, transit systems in the U.S. would lose $3.7 billion every year, a 27 percent drop in fare revenue, according to the study in Nature Cities, conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Florida, and Peking University in Beijing. Some experts worry that remote work could <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2021/07/29/carbon-urbanism-climate-change-taylor-francis/">push people into the suburbs</a>, where carbon footprints tend to be higher than in cities.</p>
1622.  
1623.  
1624.  
1625. <p class="has-default-font-family">Right now, there are many employees who want to work at home full-time but are forced to go into the office, Lister said. She sees the return-to-office mandates as a result of corporate leadership that wants to go back to how things used to be. “As that generation retires,” she said, “I think that a lot of these conversations will go away.”</p>
1626. <p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/economics/return-to-office-carbon-emissions-remote-work/">The problem with forcing people back to the office? All the carbon emissions.</a> on Apr 30, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
1630. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636413</post-id><timeToRead>6</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[Back view photo of person holding protest sign that reads 'I hate commuting']]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[When office workers stopped working in offices in 2020, trading their cubicles for living room couches during COVID-19 lockdowns, many began questioning those hours they had spent commuting to work. All those rushed mornings stuck in traffic could have been spent getting things done? Life was often lonely for those stuck in their homes, but people found something to appreciate when birdsong rang through the quiet streets. And the temporary dip in travel had the side effect of cutting global carbon emissions by 7 percent in 2020 — a blip of good news in an otherwise miserable year.
1631.  
1632.  
1633. Emissions bounced back in 2021, when people started resuming some of their normal activities, but offices have never been the same. While remote work was rare before the pandemic, today, 28 percent of Americans are working a “hybrid” schedule, going into the office some days, and 13 percent are working remotely full-time.
1634.  
1635.  
1636. Recent data suggest that remote work could speed along companies’ plans to zero out their carbon emissions, but businesses don’t seem to be considering climate change in their decisions about the future of office work. According to a study published in the journal Nature Cities earlier this month, a 10 percent increase in people working remotely could reduce carbon emissions by 192 million metric tons a year. That would cut emissions from the country’s most polluting sector, transportation, by 10 percent. Those findings align with other peer-reviewed research: Switching to remote work instead of going into the office can cut a person’s carbon footprint by 54 percent, according to a study published in the journal PNAS last fall, even when accounting for non-commute travel and residential energy use.]]></summary> </item>
1637. <item>
1638. <title>Have the world&#8217;s coral reefs already crossed a tipping point?</title>
1639. <link>https://grist.org/science/coral-reefs-bleaching-climate-tipping-point/</link>
1641. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Kate Yoder]]></dc:creator>
1642. <pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
1643. <category><![CDATA[Extreme Heat]]></category>
1644. <category><![CDATA[Oceans]]></category>
1645. <category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
1646. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636292</guid>
1647.  
1648. <description><![CDATA[A quarter of marine life depends on coral reefs. So do 1 billion people.]]></description>
1649. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
1650. <p class="has-default-font-family">About a year ago, <a href="https://grist.org/extreme-weather/a-record-warm-streak-in-the-oceans-has-scientists-worried/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">the seas got unusually hot</a>, even by our current, overheated standards. Twelve months of broken records later, the oceans are <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/oceans-record-hot-rcna143179">still more feverish</a> than climate models and normal fluctuations in global weather patterns can explain.</p>
1651.  
1652.  
1653.  
1654. <p class="has-default-font-family">When the seas turn into bathwater, it threatens the survival of the planet’s coral reefs, home to <a href="https://phys.org/news/2023-03-biodiversity-coral-reefs-world-depth.html">a quarter of all marine life</a> and a source of sustenance for many people living along the world’s coasts. Mostly clustered in the shallow waters of the tropics, coral reefs have one of the lowest thresholds for rising temperatures of all the possible “<a href="https://grist.org/climate-tipping-points-amazon-greenland-boreal-forest/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">tipping points,</a>” the cascading feedback loops that set off large, abrupt changes in the ecosystems, weather patterns, and ice formations on Earth. Stable, existing systems wind up in new, completely different states: The lush Amazon rainforest, for example, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/04/magazine/amazon-tipping-point.html">might collapse into a grassy savanna</a>. Coral reefs might transform into seaweed-smothered graveyards.&nbsp;</p>
1655.  
1656.  
1657.  
1658. <p class="has-default-font-family">Earlier this month, the world officially entered its fourth — and probably worst — <a href="https://grist.org/science/world-4th-coral-bleaching-event-official-climate/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">mass coral bleaching event</a> in history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the International Coral Reef Initiative. Hot water causes corals to expel the tiny algae that live in their tissues, which provide them with food (through photosynthesis) and also a rainbow of pigments. Separated from their algae, corals “bleach,” turning ghostly white, and start to starve.&nbsp;</p>
1659.  
1660.  
1661.  
1662. <p class="has-default-font-family">The Florida Keys, where water temperatures veered into hot-tub territory last year, saw its <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/04/15/global-coral-bleaching-ocean-temperatures/">most severe bleaching event</a> to date, with scientists <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-17/after-mass-coral-bleaching-florida-scientists-prepare-for-another-hot-summer?sref=wINQCNXe">&#8220;evacuating” thousands of corals</a> to tanks on land. In Australia, the iconic Great Barrier Reef is also facing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/18/great-barrier-reef-coral-bleaching-australia/">its biggest test yet</a>. In the Indian Ocean, even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/15/climate/coral-reefs-bleaching.html">coral species known to be resistant to hot temperatures</a> are bleaching.&nbsp;</p>
1663.  
1664.  
1665.  
1666. <p class="has-default-font-family">“This is one of the key living systems that we thought was closest to a tipping point,” said Tim Lenton, a professor of climate change and Earth systems at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. “This is sort of horrible confirmation that it is.”&nbsp;</p>
1667.  
1668.  
1669.  
1670. <p class="has-default-font-family">An estimated <a href="https://coast.noaa.gov/states/fast-facts/coral-reefs.html">1 billion people around the world</a> benefit from coral reefs, which provide food and income, while also protecting coastal property from storms and flooding. The benefits add up to about <a href="https://sciencepolicyreview.org/2020/08/coral-reefs-are-critical-for-our-food-supply-tourism-and-ocean-health-we-can-protect-them-from-climate-change/">$11 trillion a year</a>. With some scientists worried that coral reefs may have <a href="https://grist.org/climate/report-climate-tipping-points-new-level-danger/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">already passed a point of no return</a>, researchers are turning to desperate measures to save them, from building artificial reefs to attempts to cool down reefs through geoengineering.</p>
1671.  
1672.  
1673.  
1674. <p class="has-default-font-family">Last year, the warmer weather pattern known as El Niño took hold of the globe, <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/degrees-matter">temporarily pushing global average temperatures to 1.5 degrees </a>Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming over pre-industrial times. That’s precisely the level at which scientists have predicted that between <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/SR15_Chapter_3_LR.pdf">70</a> and <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/02/coral-reefs-extinct-global-warming-new-study/">99 percent</a> of tropical reefs would disappear. With a cooler La Niña phase on the way this summer, it’s possible that corals will make it through the current bout of hot ocean temperatures. But each week high temperatures persist, another 1 percent of corals are predicted to bleach. By the early 2030s, global temperatures are <a href="https://grist.org/climate/the-worlds-most-ambitious-climate-goal-is-essentially-out-of-reach/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">on track to pass the 1.5 C</a> threshold for good, compared to around 1.2 C today.</p>
1675.  
1676.  
1677.  
1678. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Divers-Great-Barrier-Reef-bleaching.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Divers-Great-Barrier-Reef-bleaching.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Divers-Great-Barrier-Reef-bleaching.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Divers-Great-Barrier-Reef-bleaching.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Divers-Great-Barrier-Reef-bleaching.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Divers-Great-Barrier-Reef-bleaching.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Divers-Great-Barrier-Reef-bleaching.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Divers-Great-Barrier-Reef-bleaching.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Divers-Great-Barrier-Reef-bleaching.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Divers-Great-Barrier-Reef-bleaching.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Divers-Great-Barrier-Reef-bleaching.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="" data-caption="Tourists snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef in early April, swimming above bleached and dead coral." data-credit="David Gray / AFP via Getty Images"/><figcaption>Tourists snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef in early April, swimming above bleached and dead coral. <cite>David Gray / AFP via Getty Images</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
1679.  
1680.  
1681.  
1682. <p class="has-default-font-family">Bleaching doesn’t spell certain death, but the corals that survive struggle to reproduce and are more susceptible to diseases. Even when reefs do recover, there’s usually a loss of species, said Didier Zoccola, a scientist in Monaco who has studied corals for decades. “You have winners and losers, and the losers, you don&#8217;t know if they are important in the ecosystem,” he said.</p>
1683.  
1684.  
1685.  
1686. <p class="has-default-font-family">For a coral reef, the tipping point would come when bleaching becomes an annual event, according to David Kline, the executive director of the Pacific Blue Foundation, a nonprofit working to preserve reefs in Fiji. Species would go extinct, leaving only the most heat-tolerant creatures, the “cockroaches” of corals that can survive tough conditions. <a href="https://theconversation.com/seaweed-is-taking-over-coral-reefs-but-theres-a-gardening-solution-sea-weeding-212460">Seaweed would start taking over</a>. Parts of the world may be approaching this point, if not already past it: The Great Barrier Reef, for example, has gone through <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/08/coral-bleaching-great-barrier-reef-australia">five mass bleaching events in the last eight years</a>, leaving little chance for recovery. Florida has already lost more than <a href="https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/news/dec19/noaa-launches-mission-iconic-reefs-to-save-florida-keys-coral-reefs.html">90 percent</a> of its coral reefs.</p>
1687.  
1688.  
1689.  
1690. <p class="has-default-font-family">“I think most scientists, myself included, would be very uncomfortable saying we&#8217;ve reached a tipping point,” said Deborah Brosnan, a longtime coral scientist who founded the reef restoration project OceanShot. “But in reality, are we very close to a tipping point? I believe we are, just judging by the scale of the bleaching that we&#8217;re seeing.”</p>
1691.  
1692.  
1693.  
1694. <p class="has-default-font-family">Reefs around the world have already <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2021/september/over-half-of-coral-reef-cover-lost-since-1950.html">declined by half since the 1950s</a> because of climate change, overfishing, and pollution. Some scientists argue that the world may have already passed the point of no return for corals long ago, <a href="https://www.globalcoral.org/we-have-already-exceeded-the-upper-temperature-limit-for-coral-reef-ecosystems-which-are-dying-at-todays-co2-levels/">as far back as the 1980s</a>, yet there’s no consensus. “If we really want to have healthy, diverse coral reefs in the future, we need to do something about our greenhouse gas emissions, like, right now,” Kline said.&nbsp;</p>
1695.  
1696.  
1697.  
1698. <p class="has-default-font-family">Rising temperatures might have already set off other notable tipping points, such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/17/greenland-ice-sheet-on-brink-of-major-tipping-point-says-study">the accelerated melting of the Greenland ice sheet</a> and the thawing of the northern permafrost, which threatens to release vast amounts of <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips3'>methane</span>, a potent greenhouse gas. Coral tipping points would unfold on a regional level, with giant blobs of hot ocean water wrecking reefs, what Lenton characterizes as a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-44609-w">“clustered” tipping point</a>.</p>
1699.  
1700.  
1701. <div class="wp-block-in-article-recirc">
1702.  <article class="in-article-recirc">
1703.    <span class="in-article-recirc__label"></span>
1704.    <div class="in-article-recirc__content">
1705.  
1706.      
1707.      
1708.                    
1709.            <a class="in-article-recirc__art" href="https://grist.org/science/points-of-no-return/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">
1710.        <figure>
1711.          <img src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/tp-feat-img-16-x-9.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all" alt=""  class="js-modal-gallery__hidden" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/tp-feat-img-16-x-9.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1600w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/tp-feat-img-16-x-9.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/tp-feat-img-16-x-9.jpg?resize=330%2C186&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/tp-feat-img-16-x-9.jpg?resize=768%2C432&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/tp-feat-img-16-x-9.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/tp-feat-img-16-x-9.jpg?resize=160%2C90&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/tp-feat-img-16-x-9.jpg?resize=150%2C84&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 150w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" height="900" width="1600" loading="lazy" decoding="async">
1712.        </figure>
1713.      </a>
1714.            <div class="in-article-recirc__body">
1715.        <div class="in-article-recirc__title">
1716.                    <a class="in-article-recirc__title-link" href="https://grist.org/science/points-of-no-return/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">The 7 climate tipping points that could change the world forever</a>
1717.        </div>
1718.        <div class="in-article-recirc__meta">
1719.          
1721.  <div class="tease-meta">
1722.                            <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/alexandria-herr/>Alexandria Herr</a>,      <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/shannon-osaka/>Shannon Osaka</a>, &#038;       <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/maddie-stone/>Maddie Stone</a>              </div>
1723.        </div>
1724.      </div>
1725.    </div>
1726.  </article>
1727. </div>
1728.  
1729.  
1730.  
1731. <p class="has-default-font-family">Coral reefs are so vulnerable, in part, because their existence is fragile in the first palace. Reefs are “a verdant explosion of life in a nutrient desert,” Lenton said, only able to exist because of “really strong reinforcing feedback loops within the system.” An intricate web of corals, algae, sponges, and microbes <a href="https://fiorelabsymbiosis.org/nutrient-cycling-on-coral-reefs/">move essential nutrients like nitrogen</a> around, leading to a profusion of life. “It’s not surprising that if you push it too hard, or knock certain things out, you can tip it into a different ‘no coral’ state, or maybe several different states.”</p>
1732.  
1733.  
1734.  
1735. <p class="has-default-font-family">Losing corals could lead to consequences you wouldn’t expect. For example, you can thank corals for the sand on many beaches — they help create it (coral <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sand.html">skeletons turn into sand</a>) and protect beaches from erosion, with the structure of the reef calming waves before they reach shore. Reefs contribute to <a href="https://coral.org/en/coral-reefs-101/why-care-about-reefs/medicine/">medical breakthroughs</a> — organisms found in them produce compounds used to treat cardiovascular disease and some types of cancer.</p>
1736.  
1737.  
1738.  
1739. <p class="has-default-font-family">Researchers are racing to salvage what’s left of corals and the ecosystems they support. A restoration project in the Caribbean that Brosnan founded, called OceanShot, is <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coral-reefs-restoration-climate-change-ocean-shot-project-caribbean/">building artificial reefs</a> where natural ones have collapsed. The tiered structures provide habitat for creatures that live in the reefs, both the larger species that live on top and the smaller ones that like to hide in crevices lower down. The installations have had good results, with dozens of fish species moving in, alongside invertebrates like lobsters. Even finicky black urchins transplanted on the reef decided to stay. Brosnan’s team is also hoping to deploy them in places where beaches are being lost, since the artificial reefs can also help prevent sand from washing away.</p>
1740.  
1741.  
1742.  
1743. <p class="has-default-font-family">Some preservation attempts are pretty out there. Scientists with the <a href="https://nationalzoo.si.edu/center-for-species-survival/coral-reproduction-and-cryopreservation">Smithsonian&#8217;s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute</a> in Washington, D.C., for example, are working on deep-freezing coral sperm and larvae through “<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-climate-change-and-pollution-imperil-coral-reefs-scientists-are-deep-freezing-corals-to-repopulate-future-oceans-224480">cryopreservation</a>,” <em>Futurama</em>-style, hoping that they can repopulate oceans of the future. In the Great Barrier Reef, researchers have experimented with <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/coral-reef-cloud-brightnening-australia/">brightening clouds with sea salt</a>, a form of geoengineering, to try to protect corals from the hot sun.</p>
1744.  
1745.  
1746.  
1747. <div id="wisepops-weekly-signup" class="wp-block-grist-wisepops-target-block" style="padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-bottom:0.5rem"></div>
1748.  
1749.  
1750.  
1751. <p class="has-default-font-family">Elsewhere, laboratories are breeding corals to withstand heat and ocean acidification. Zoccola works on one such project in Monaco, where scientists are using “<a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000823">assisted evolution</a>” to speed up nature’s process, since corals can’t adapt fast enough in the wild. He calls it a “Noah’s Ark” for corals, hoping that species can live in the lab until, one day, they’re ready to return to the ocean.</p>
1752. <script type="text/javascript"> toolTips('.classtoolTips3',' A powerful greenhouse gas that accounts for about 16% of global emissions, methane is the primary component of natural gas and is emitted into the atmosphere by landfills, oil and natural gas systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, and wastewater treatment, among other pathways. Over short periods, it is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.<br/>'); </script><p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/science/coral-reefs-bleaching-climate-tipping-point/">Have the world&#8217;s coral reefs already crossed a tipping point?</a> on Apr 29, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
1756. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636292</post-id><timeToRead>7</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[Photo of white coral disintegrating in the ocean]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[Earlier this month, the world officially entered its fourth — and probably worst — mass coral bleaching event in history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the International Coral Reef Initiative. Hot water causes corals to expel the tiny algae that live in their tissues, which provide them with food (through photosynthesis) and also a rainbow of pigments. Separated from their algae, corals “bleach,” turning ghostly white, and start to starve.
1757. <br><br>
1758. The Florida Keys, where water temperatures veered into hot-tub territory last year, saw its most severe bleaching event to date, with scientists “evacuating” thousands of corals to tanks on land. In Australia, the iconic Great Barrier Reef is also facing its biggest test yet. In the Indian Ocean, even coral species known to be resistant to hot temperatures are bleaching.
1759. <br><br>
1760. An estimated 1 billion people around the world benefit from coral reefs, which provide food and income, while also protecting coastal property from storms and flooding. The benefits add up to about $11 trillion a year. With some scientists worried that coral reefs may have already passed a point of no return, researchers are turning to desperate measures to save them, from building artificial reefs to attempts to cool down reefs through geoengineering.]]></summary> </item>
1761. <item>
1762. <title>The world agreed to create a climate reparations fund. Now comes the hard part.</title>
1763. <link>https://grist.org/international/loss-and-damage-board-meeting-climate-reparations-fund/</link>
1765. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Naveena Sadasivam]]></dc:creator>
1766. <pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
1767. <category><![CDATA[Equity]]></category>
1768. <category><![CDATA[International]]></category>
1769. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636297</guid>
1770.  
1771. <description><![CDATA[A 26-member board is finally beginning work on the U.N.’s new loss and damage fund.]]></description>
1772. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
1773. <p class="has-default-font-family">After three decades of work, advocates for developing countries scored a major win at last year’s United Nations climate change conference in Dubai: World leaders unanimously <a href="https://grist.org/solutions/loss-and-damage-climate-fund-cop28-countries/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">agreed to set up a climate reparations fund</a>. As the planet warms, the poorest nations are being hit hardest by drought, rising sea levels, hurricanes, and a slew of other climate impacts — even though these countries did the least to cause global warming, compared to their early-industrializing peers. Enter the so-called loss and damage fund, which is supposed to compensate them for the unavoidable effects of climate change. So far, the international community has pledged more than $650 million to the venture.</p>
1774.  
1775.  
1776.  
1777. <p class="has-default-font-family">Now the tedious, unsexy — and often boring — work of setting up the fund is just beginning.&nbsp;</p>
1778.  
1779.  
1780.  
1781. <p class="has-default-font-family">This week, a 26-member board is meeting for the first time to discuss the administrative and institutional policies required to operationalize the fund and dole money out to developing countries in need. The board’s to-do list is long. It ranges from the procedural — selecting co-chairs and agreeing on a host country for the fund — to the more substantive: deciding which countries are eligible to receive funding, how to fundraise and replenish the fund, and whether or not the World Bank will help manage the fund.&nbsp;</p>
1782.  
1783.  
1784.  
1785. <p class="has-default-font-family">The board was supposed to hold its first meeting at the end of January, but <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/15/wealthy-countries-climate-change-victim-fund-00141553">a stalemate among wealthy countries</a>, including the U.S. and those of the European Union, about who to nominate to the board led to delays, putting the meetings three months behind schedule. Much of this work must be completed in just over six months, before the next United Nations climate conference, known as COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan.</p>
1786.  
1787.  
1788.  
1789. <p class="has-default-font-family">“There&#8217;s a very large work plan for the year,” said Brandon Wu, director of policy and campaigns and head of international climate justice work at the nonprofit ActionAid USA. “They are still trying to squeeze in three meetings before COP29 to be able to stay on schedule.” Wu is attending the board meeting as an observer.</p>
1790.  
1791.  
1792.  
1793. <p class="has-default-font-family">The stakes are high. The roughly $650 million that has been pledged so far is a sliver of the estimated need — which researchers have pegged at as much as <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/189-million-people-year-affected-extreme-weather-developing-countries-rich-countries#:~:text=Every%20fraction%20of%20a%20degree,and%20%24580%20billion%20by%202030.">$580 billion per year by 2030</a> — and is broadly seen as startup money sufficient only to establish the fund.&nbsp; As the main contributors to the climate crisis, wealthy countries are expected to be the primary donors to the fund. But before the fund can begin allocating money to poorer nations in need, a number of decisions need to be made.</p>
1794.  
1795.  
1796.  
1797. <p class="has-default-font-family">Key among them is whether the World Bank will serve as a trustee and help manage the operations of the fund. Wealthy nations believe that the bank, which houses several other environmental and climate funds, has the experience, reputation, and administrative know-how to best manage a financial endeavor of this size. But developing countries <a href="https://grist.org/international/world-bank-loss-and-damage-fund/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">were initially opposed to the idea</a>, citing the failures of the bank’s past programs and its role worsening debt crises in poor countries. Ultimately, developing countries reluctantly agreed to allow the World Bank to host the loss and damage fund on an interim basis. But that decision was <a href="https://unfccc.int/documents/632319">contingent on the bank meeting 11 conditions</a>, including allowing recipients to directly access money from the fund instead of requiring that money pass through an intermediary international institution, such as a United Nations agency or multilateral development bank. The World Bank has until June to deliberate, and report on whether or not it can meet those conditions.&nbsp;</p>
1798.  
1799.  
1800.  
1801. <p class="has-default-font-family">Initial discussions about those conditions have already hit snags, <a href="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2024/04/15/new-obstacle-to-climate-aid-who-signs-the-checks-00152131">according to reporting by E&amp;E News</a>. The loss and damage fund’s board and the bank can’t seem to agree on who should sign off on financial agreements when money is disbursed. The World Bank has a number of policies in place to ensure that the money it doles out isn’t misused and meets various environmental and social safeguards. Since the loss and damage fund is expected to hand out money to a range of national and subnational groups as a result of the direct access condition, the bank will likely work with hundreds of entities. That increases the chances that a recipient misuses the money or fails to pay back a loan, putting the bank on the hook. As a result, the bank wants the responsibility — and liability — to lie with the board, while the board has argued that as trustee, the bank should have final signing authority.&nbsp;</p>
1802.  
1803.  
1804.  
1805. <p class="has-default-font-family">If a project that receives money from the fund is unable to pay the bank back, the bank’s credit rating could be affected, which in turn could lead to a decrease in the bank’s borrowing power, said Michai Robertson, a lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, a group representing 39 island nations. “They see this as a big cluster of issues,” he said. “If you have one entity from each developing country, that’s 140 countries that can access the fund directly and not use a go-between. The bank sees this as a huge risk.”</p>
1806.  
1807.  
1808.  
1809. <p class="has-default-font-family">If the bank ultimately reports that it cannot meet the 11 conditions, countries will go back to the drawing board to establish an independent fund. Those decisions will be made at COP29 in Azerbaijan.&nbsp;</p>
1810.  
1811.  
1812.  
1813. <p class="has-default-font-family">Even if the stalemate between the board and bank is resolved, the board will still have many more thorny questions to work out, including which countries will be eligible to receive money from the fund. In the agreement inked in Dubai last year, countries agreed that the fund’s resources are meant for “developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.” But the <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2022/12/08/which-countries-are-particularly-vulnerable-to-climate-change/">agreement did not define</a> which countries qualify as “particularly vulnerable.” The phrase has typically referred to small island states and those classified as “least developed countries” in climate talks — but that leaves out countries like Pakistan, which faced catastrophic floods in 2022, and others that are widely seen as appropriate recipients for loss and damage funding.&nbsp;</p>
1814.  
1815.  
1816.  
1817. <p class="has-default-font-family">Hanging over these discussions is also the question of how the fund will raise the trillions of dollars that will be required in the coming years to address the loss and damage countries will face due to climate change.&nbsp;</p>
1818.  
1819.  
1820.  
1821. <p class="has-default-font-family">“There&#8217;s sort of the elephant-in-the-room question, which is when is the fund actually going to get meaningful amounts of money,” said Wu. If the fund receives very little money, the board will end up designing policies meant to facilitate the transfer of millions of dollars — not the trillions that are needed, he said.&nbsp;</p>
1822.  
1823.  
1824.  
1825. <p class="has-default-font-family">“The scope of the ambition of the fund is a big question,” he said.&nbsp;</p>
1826. <p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/international/loss-and-damage-board-meeting-climate-reparations-fund/">The world agreed to create a climate reparations fund. Now comes the hard part.</a> on Apr 29, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
1830. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636297</post-id><timeToRead>6</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[people on stage at COP28 applauding]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[]]></summary> </item>
1831. <item>
1832. <title>US military bases teem with PFAS. There&#8217;s still no firm plan to clean them up.</title>
1833. <link>https://grist.org/accountability/us-military-bases-teem-with-pfas-theres-still-no-firm-plan-to-clean-them-up/</link>
1835. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Sachi Kitajima Mulkey]]></dc:creator>
1836. <pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
1837. <category><![CDATA[Accountability]]></category>
1838. <category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
1839. <category><![CDATA[Regulation]]></category>
1840. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636350</guid>
1841.  
1842. <description><![CDATA[Excessive levels of PFAS have been detected at 80 percent of active and decommissioned military bases.]]></description>
1843. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
1844. <p class="has-default-font-family">In 2016, Tony Spaniola received a notice informing him that his family shouldn’t drink water drawn from the well at his lake home in Oscoda, Michigan. Over the course of several decades, the Air Force had showered <a href="https://www.nwf.org/-/media/PDFs/Regional/Great-Lakes/PFAS-Contamination-at-the-Former-Wurtsmith-Air-Force-Base.ashx?la=en&amp;hash=3E278B40EA72E4AFC0031CD8B0127B718E34A617">thousands of gallons</a> of firefighting foam onto the ground at Wurtsmith Air Force Base, which closed in 1993. Those chemicals eventually leached into the soil and began contaminating the groundwater.</p>
1845.  
1846.  
1847.  
1848. <p class="has-default-font-family">Alarmed, Spaniola began looking into the problem. “The more I looked, the worse it got,” he said. Two years ago, his concern prompted him to co-found the Great Lakes <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips4'>PFAS</span> Action network. The coalition of residents and activists is committed to making polluters, like the military and a factory making waterproof shoes, clean up the “forever chemicals” they’ve left behind.</p>
1849.  
1850.  
1851.  
1852. <p class="has-default-font-family">PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of nearly <a href="https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/pfc">15,000 fluorinated chemicals</a> used since the 1950s to make clothing and food containers, among other things, oil- and water-repellent. They’re also used in firefighting foam. These chemicals do not break down over time, and have contaminated everything from drinking water to <a href="https://wbur.org/news/2023/03/30/boston-massachusetts-pfas-forever-chemicals-sludge-deer-island">food</a>. Research has linked them to cancer, heart and liver problems, developmental issues, and <a href="https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/pfas/health-effects/index.html">other ailments</a>.</p>
1853.  
1854.  
1855.  
1856. <p class="has-default-font-family">The U.S. Department of Defense, or DOD, is among the nation’s biggest users of firefighting foam and says 80 percent of active and decommissioned bases require cleanup. Some locations, like Wurtsmith, recorded concentrations over <a href="https://www.michiganpublic.org/environment-climate-change/2023-08-17/u-s-defense-department-expanding-pfas-cleanup-at-former-wurtsmith-air-force-base">3,000 times higher</a> than what the agency previously considered safe.</p>
1857.  
1858.  
1859.  
1860. <p class="has-default-font-family">Today, the EPA considers it unsafe to be exposed to virtually any amount of PFOA and PFOS, two of the most harmful substances under the PFAS umbrella. Earlier this month, it implemented the nation’s <a href="https://grist.org/accountability/epa-finalizes-the-nations-first-pfas-limits-in-drinking-water/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">first PFAS drinking water regulations</a>, which included capping exposure to them at the lowest detectable limit. As of April 19, the agency also designated these two compounds “hazardous substances” under the federal <a href="https://www.epa.gov/superfund/what-superfund">Superfund</a> law, making it easier to force polluters to shoulder the costs of cleaning them up.&nbsp;</p>
1861.  
1862.  
1863.  
1864. <p class="has-default-font-family">Meeting these regulations means that almost all of the <a href="https://www.acq.osd.mil/eie/eer/ecc/pfas/data/cleanup-pfas.html">715 military sites</a> and surrounding communities under Defense Department investigation for contamination will likely require remediation. Longstanding cleanup efforts at more than 100 PFAS contaminated bases that are already designated Superfund sites, like Wurtsmith, reveal some of the challenges to come.</p>
1865.  
1866.  
1867.  
1868. <p class="has-default-font-family">“The heart of the issue is, how quickly are you going to clean it up, and what actions are you going to take in the interim to make sure people aren’t exposed?” said Spaniola.&nbsp;</p>
1869.  
1870.  
1871.  
1872. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/APNewsroom-PFAS-AFF-HERO2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/APNewsroom-PFAS-AFF-HERO2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/APNewsroom-PFAS-AFF-HERO2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/APNewsroom-PFAS-AFF-HERO2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/APNewsroom-PFAS-AFF-HERO2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/APNewsroom-PFAS-AFF-HERO2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/APNewsroom-PFAS-AFF-HERO2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/APNewsroom-PFAS-AFF-HERO2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/APNewsroom-PFAS-AFF-HERO2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/APNewsroom-PFAS-AFF-HERO2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/APNewsroom-PFAS-AFF-HERO2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="a health advisory sign says &quot;do not eat deer from the advisory area. high amounts of pfas may be found in deer and could be harmful to your health&quot; while showing a map of the surrounding are." data-caption="A sign warning hunters not to eat deer because of high amounts of toxic PFAS chemicals in their meat, in Oscoda, Michigan.
1873. " data-credit="Drew YoungeDyke, National Wildlife Federation via AP"/><figcaption>A sign warning hunters not to eat deer because of high amounts of toxic PFAS chemicals in their meat, in Oscoda, Michigan.
1874. <cite>Drew YoungeDyke, National Wildlife Federation via AP</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
1875.  
1876.  
1877.  
1878. <p class="has-default-font-family">In a statement to Grist, the DOD says its plan is to follow a federal cleanup law called the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, or CERCLA, to investigate contamination and determine near- and long-term cleanup actions based on risk. But many advocates, including Spaniola, say the process is too slow and that short-term fixes have been insufficient. </p>
1879.  
1880.  
1881.  
1882. <p class="has-default-font-family">The problem started decades ago. In the 1960s, the Defense Department <a href="https://pfas.3m.com/legacy-chemistries-and-aqueous-film-forming-foam#:~:text=In%20the%201960s%2C%203M%20helped,those%20caused%20by%20jet%20fuel.">worked with 3M</a>, one of the largest manufacturers of PFAS chemicals, to develop a foam called AFFF that can extinguish high-temperature fires. The PFAS act as a surfactant, helping the material spread more quickly. By the 1970s, every military base, Navy ship, civilian airport, and fire station regularly used AFFF. </p>
1883.  
1884.  
1885.  
1886. <p class="has-default-font-family">In the decades that followed, <a href="https://lawsuitlegalnews.com/news/water-contaminated-pfas-military-sites/">millions of gallons</a> flowed into the environment. According to the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, or EWG, <a href="https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/2020-military-pfas-sites/map/">710 military sites</a> throughout the country and its territories have known or suspected PFAS contamination. <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/07/31/3m-pfas-minnesota-pfoa-pfos/">Internal studies and memos show</a> that not long after 3M and the U.S. Navy <a href="https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21581364/1966-6-28-navy-and-3m-awarded-patent-for-afff.pdf">patented the foam in 1966</a>, 3M learned that its PFAS products could harm animal test subjects and accumulated in the body. </p>
1887.  
1888.  
1889.  
1890. <p class="has-default-font-family">In a 2022 Senate committee hearing, residents from Oscoda <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/imo/media/doc/Testimony-Minor-2022-08-011.pdf">testified about the health impacts</a>, such as tumors and miscarriages, from the PFAS contamination at Wurtsmith. In 2023, Michigan reached a settlement after suing numerous manufacturers, including 3M and Dupont. Today, thousands of <a href="https://www.robertkinglawfirm.com/personal-injury/military-base-water-contamination-lawsuit/wurtsmith-afb/">victims across the country are suing</a> the chemicals&#8217; manufacturers. While some organizations and communities have tried to hold the military financially responsible for this pollution — farmers in several states recently filed suits in the U.S. District Court in South Carolina to do just that — <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-military-says-it-is-immune-dozens-pfas-lawsuits-2024-02-27/">the DOD says it’s not legally liable</a>.</p>
1891.  
1892.  
1893.  
1894. <p class="has-default-font-family">Congressional pressure on the Pentagon to clean these sites has been growing. In 2020, National Defense Authorization Acts required it to <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/insight-congress-confronts-pfas-in-national-defense-authorization-act-what-you-need-to-know">phase out PFAS-laden firefighting foam by October, 2023</a>. Since passing that law, Congress has also ordered the department to publish the findings of drinking and groundwater tests on and around bases.<br /><br />Results showed nearly <a href="https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2022/06/militarys-filthy-50-sites-contaminated-forever-chemicals-havent-started">50 sites</a> with extremely high levels of contamination, and hundreds more with levels above what was then the EPA’s health advisory. Following further congressional pressure, the military announced plans to implement interim cleanup measures at <a href="https://www.acq.osd.mil/eie/eer/ecc/pfas/docs/data/DoD-PFAS-Interim-Action-Locations-List-02FEB24.pdf">three dozen</a> locations, including a water filtering system in Oscoda.<br /><br />According to <a href="https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2022/06/militarys-filthy-50-sites-contaminated-forever-chemicals-havent-started">a report</a> by the Environmental Working Group, it took an average of nearly three years for the Department of Defense to complete testing at these high-contamination sites. It took just as long to draft stopgap cleanup plans. Today, 14 years after PFAS contamination was discovered at Wurtsmith, the first site to be tested, no site has left the “investigation” phase, and there has yet to be a comprehensive plan to begin permanent remediation on any base.</p>
1895.  
1896.  
1897.  
1898. <p class="has-default-font-family">The Department of Defense says any site found to have PFAS contamination exceeding the Environmental Protection Agency’s previous guideline of 70 parts per trillion will receive immediate remediation, such as bottled waters and filters on faucets. When a site is found to be contaminated, the EPA says, the department has 72 hours to provide residents with alternate sources of water.</p>
1899.  
1900.  
1901.  
1902. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-PFAS-AFF-Inline2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-PFAS-AFF-Inline2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-PFAS-AFF-Inline2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-PFAS-AFF-Inline2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-PFAS-AFF-Inline2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-PFAS-AFF-Inline2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-PFAS-AFF-Inline2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-PFAS-AFF-Inline2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-PFAS-AFF-Inline2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-PFAS-AFF-Inline2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-PFAS-AFF-Inline2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="" data-caption="Water tower near the former Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, which is in the DOD’s list of the 39 most contaminated bases.
1903. " data-credit="Bastiaan Slabbers / NurPhoto via Getty Images"/><figcaption>Water tower near the former Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, which is in the DOD’s list of the 39 most contaminated bases.
1904. <cite>Bastiaan Slabbers / NurPhoto via Getty Images</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
1905.  
1906.  
1907.  
1908. <p class="has-default-font-family">After six years spent working with various cleanup initiatives, Spaniola says waiting for the military to take action has taken a toll on the people of Oscoda. “The community had a really good relationship with the military,” he said. “I’ve watched that change from a very trusting relationship to a terrible one.” </p>
1909.  
1910.  
1911.  
1912. <p class="has-default-font-family">Dozens of states have mandated additional requirements to treat PFAS in municipal water systems, but such efforts often overlook private well owners. That’s leaving thousands of people at risk, given that in Michigan, where some <a href="https://www.environmentalcouncil.org/pfas_in_michigan">1.5 million</a> people drink water from contaminated sources, <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/pfasresponse/drinking-water/statewide-survey#:~:text=Approximately%2075%25%20of%20Michigan%20residents,25%25%20are%20on%20private%20wells.">25 percent</a> of residents rely on private wells.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
1913.  
1914.  
1915.  
1916. <p class="has-default-font-family">Nationwide, the Environmental Working Group found unsafe water in wells near <a href="https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2023/11/abandoned-unsafe-forever-chemicals-levels-thousands-drinking-water">63 military bases in 29 states</a>. While the DOD has tested private wells, it has not published the total number of wells tested or identified which of them need to be cleaned up.&nbsp;</p>
1917.  
1918.  
1919.  
1920. <p class="has-default-font-family">“For those who are on well water, it’s a real problem until there’s a bit of recognition for some sort of responsibility for the contamination,” said Daniel Jones, associate director of the Michigan State University Center for PFAS Research. He is advising cleanup efforts near Grayling, Michigan. “It sort of comes down to who has pockets deep enough to pay for the things that need to be done.”</p>
1921.  
1922.  
1923.  
1924. <p class="has-default-font-family">The EPA’s recent decision to designate PFOA and PFOS “hazardous substances” under the federal Superfund law is <a href="https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/04/19/forever-chemicals-pfas-superfund-cleanup-toxic">unlikely to provide quick financial assistance to communities</a>, even though the agency has made <a href="https://www.epa.gov/dwsrf">$9 billion available</a> for private well owners and small public water systems to address contamination. Whether that support reaches private well owners is up to individual states, which can work with regional EPA offices to draft project plans before <a href="https://www.epa.gov/dwcapacity/emerging-contaminants-ec-small-or-disadvantaged-communities-grant-sdc#Imp">applying for grants</a> to secure funding.</p>
1925.  
1926.  
1927.  
1928. <p class="has-default-font-family">The agency has established a five-year window for water systems to test for PFAS and install filtering equipment before compliance with the newly tightened levels will be enforced. While EPA says the new PFOA and PFOS regulations do not immediately trigger an investigation or qualify them as Superfund sites on the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/superfund/superfund-national-priorities-list-npl">National Priorities List,</a> decisions for each site will be on a case-by-case basis.</p>
1929.  
1930.  
1931.  
1932. <div id="wisepops-weekly-signup" class="wp-block-grist-wisepops-target-block" style="padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-bottom:0.5rem"></div>
1933.  
1934.  
1935.  
1936. <p class="has-default-font-family">“It is a tremendous win for public health, it is tremendously important and cannot come soon enough, particularly for military communities who have been exposed for decades,” said Melanie Benesh, vice president of governmental affairs at the Environmental Working Group. Benesh hopes that the new rules help push the Defense Department to move more quickly.</p>
1937. <script type="text/javascript"> toolTips('.classtoolTips4','An acronym for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS are a class of chemicals used in everyday items like nonstick cookware, cosmetics, and food packaging that have proven to be dangerous to human health. Also called “forever chemicals” for their inability to break down over time, PFAS can be found lingering nearly everywhere — in water, soil, air, and the blood of people and animals.<br/>'); </script><p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/accountability/us-military-bases-teem-with-pfas-theres-still-no-firm-plan-to-clean-them-up/">US military bases teem with PFAS. There&#8217;s still no firm plan to clean them up.</a> on Apr 29, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
1941. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636350</post-id><timeToRead>7</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[diagonally framed rows of white airplanes from an aerial view]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[]]></summary> </item>
1942. <item>
1943. <title>A decade later, Flint&#8217;s water crisis continues</title>
1944. <link>https://grist.org/accountability/decade-later-flint-water-crisis-continues/</link>
1946. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Adam Mahoney, Capital B]]></dc:creator>
1947. <pubDate>Sun, 28 Apr 2024 13:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
1948. <category><![CDATA[Accountability]]></category>
1949. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636181</guid>
1950.  
1951. <description><![CDATA[The past 10 years revealed how government failures at every level could effectively kill a city, turning it into a "ghost town."]]></description>
1952. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
1953. <p class="has-default-font-family"><em>This story was originally published by <a href="https://capitalbnews.org/flint-water-crisis-10-years-later/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Capital B</a>.</em></p>
1954.  
1955.  
1956.  
1957. <p class="has-default-font-family">At the edge of Saginaw Street, a hand-painted sign is etched into a deserted storefront. “Please help, God. Clean-up Flint.”</p>
1958.  
1959.  
1960.  
1961. <p class="has-default-font-family">Behind it, the block tells the story of a city 10 years removed from the start of one of the nation’s largest environmental crises.&nbsp;</p>
1962.  
1963.  
1964.  
1965. <p class="has-default-font-family">Empty lot. Charred two-story home. Empty lot. Abandoned house with the message “All Copper GONE,” across boarded-up windows.&nbsp;</p>
1966.  
1967.  
1968.  
1969. <p class="has-default-font-family">John Ishmael Taylor, 44, was born in this ZIP code, 48503, and he’s seen firsthand the neglect of the place he loves, one he hopes will be reborn for his young children.&nbsp;</p>
1970.  
1971.  
1972.  
1973. <p class="has-default-font-family">“The water crisis, no more jobs, the violence,” Taylor said, has left Flint like a “ghost town — a ghost town with a whole bunch of people still here.”&nbsp;</p>
1974.  
1975.  
1976.  
1977. <p class="has-default-font-family">Over the past decade, Flint’s water crisis has revealed how government failures at every level could effectively kill a city while opening the country’s eyes to how an environmental crisis could wreak havoc on all facets of life, make people sick, destroy a public school system, and kill jobs.&nbsp;</p>
1978.  
1979.  
1980.  
1981. <p class="has-default-font-family">Four years after Flint residents reached the largest civil settlement agreement in Michigan history, Taylor and tens of thousands of other victims still haven’t received a penny from the $626.25 million pot. The only money doled out has gone to lawyers involved in the case, not those who’ve been haunted by the crisis’s true impacts. Still, even when residents ultimately receive the funding, most expressed doubts that the payouts will have any true benefits for their life.</p>
1982.  
1983.  
1984.  
1985. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image alignfull js-breaks-column"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintlead.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintlead.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintlead.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintlead.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintlead.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintlead.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintlead.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintlead.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintlead.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintlead.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="An older woman with glasses and a head wrap walks in front of a brick building with. a billboard that reads Save water. Shower tomorrow." data-caption="As Claire McClinton, a retired auto worker, explained, Flint’s water crisis, and America’s, has long-lasting impacts that won’t be solved by merely replacing lead water service lines.
1986. " data-credit="Adam Mahoney / Capital B"/><figcaption>As Claire McClinton, a retired auto worker, explained, Flint’s water crisis, and America’s, has long-lasting impacts that won’t be solved by merely replacing lead water service lines.
1987. <cite>Adam Mahoney / Capital B</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
1988.  
1989.  
1990.  
1991. <p class="has-default-font-family">In many ways, Taylor’s life shows the violent and widespread nature of America’s water crisis. After being born in Flint, he’d spent his preteen years living outside Jackson, Mississippi, where brown water has flowed through Black homes for decades.&nbsp;</p>
1992.  
1993.  
1994.  
1995. <p class="has-default-font-family">Taylor, a single father, moved back to Flint permanently in January 2014. Within a year, lead levels in the drinking water of&nbsp;<a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.8b00791">three of every four homes</a>&nbsp;in his ZIP code were well above federal standards.</p>
1996.  
1997.  
1998.  
1999. <p class="has-default-font-family">His youngest son, Jalen, was born 52 days before the start of the water crisis, which is recognized as April 25, 2014, the day the city infamously switched its water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River.&nbsp;</p>
2000.  
2001.  
2002.  
2003. <p class="has-default-font-family">The rashes started immediately for baby Jalen, speckling the inside of his legs with coarse, red blotches. Within a few years, he was diagnosed with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6388268/">attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder</a>&nbsp;and a form of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7915585/">autism spectrum disorder</a>; both ailments are associated with lead poisoning.&nbsp;</p>
2004.  
2005.  
2006.  
2007. <p class="has-default-font-family">Taylor says he has battled with anxiety in the aftermath as 20 percent of the city’s residents and hundreds of businesses packed up and left. Flint’s unemployment rate is now 1.5 times higher than the national average as 70 percent of children grow up in poverty.&nbsp;</p>
2008.  
2009.  
2010.  
2011. <p class="has-default-font-family">He wonders what that means for his children.&nbsp;</p>
2012.  
2013.  
2014.  
2015. <p class="has-default-font-family">“I always wonder how they’re gonna do because this is a long-term effect — we’re talking about lead poisoning. This is going to be with them for most of their life. It’s depressing,” he said, and he’s felt no restitution. He believes it has led to a citywide mental health crisis. According to the&nbsp;Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 out of 5 Flint residents reported having poor mental health, which is nearly 40 percent higher than the U.S. average.&nbsp;</p>
2016.  
2017.  
2018.  
2019. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintwaterlevels.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintwaterlevels.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintwaterlevels.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintwaterlevels.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintwaterlevels.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintwaterlevels.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintwaterlevels.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintwaterlevels.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintwaterlevels.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintwaterlevels.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="A woman holds a piece of paper with test results on it." data-caption="Nayyirah Shariff holds a document from the Michigan Department of Environment that shows her home’s lead level in water as three to four times the federal limits.
2020. " data-credit="Adam Mahoney / Capital B"/><figcaption>Nayyirah Shariff holds a document from the Michigan Department of Environment that shows her home’s lead level in water as three to four times the federal limits.
2021. <cite>Adam Mahoney / Capital B</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
2022.  
2023.  
2024.  
2025. <p class="has-default-font-family">Angela Welch, who has lived in Flint for four decades, understands the health implications intimately.&nbsp; She recently tested for lead levels in her blood at 6.5 micrograms per deciliter. Anything above 5 micrograms is considered extremely dangerous for your health.&nbsp;</p>
2026.  
2027.  
2028.  
2029. <p class="has-default-font-family">Since the start of the crisis, Welch has developed chronic skin and cardiac issues, had multiple surgeries, and lost part of her leg to amputation. Her brother Mac showed Capital B the scars along his body from water-induced rashes.</p>
2030.  
2031.  
2032.  
2033. <p class="has-default-font-family">Welch questions what repair looks like for her family. “We gotta be dead to get our money? They want us dead to receive anything from the crisis.”&nbsp;</p>
2034.  
2035.  
2036.  
2037. <p class="has-default-font-family">The federal Environmental Protection Agency and officials with Flint’s mayor’s and city attorney’s offices did not respond to multiple requests from Capital B for comment.</p>
2038.  
2039.  
2040.  
2041. <p class="has-default-font-family">Residents argue that even though they’ve brought the country’s water woes to the forefront, they’re in a worse position today despite hundreds of millions of dollars of investment — and they want you to know that your city can be next.&nbsp;</p>
2042.  
2043.  
2044. <div class="wp-block-in-article-recirc">
2045.  <article class="in-article-recirc">
2046.    <span class="in-article-recirc__label">Read Next</span>
2047.    <div class="in-article-recirc__content">
2048.  
2049.      
2050.      
2051.                    
2052.            <a class="in-article-recirc__art" href="https://grist.org/equity/a-water-crisis-in-mississippi-turns-into-a-fight-against-privatization/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">
2053.        <figure>
2054.          <img src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/boil_water_jackson.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all" alt=""  class="js-modal-gallery__hidden" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/boil_water_jackson.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1600w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/boil_water_jackson.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/boil_water_jackson.jpg?resize=330%2C186&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/boil_water_jackson.jpg?resize=768%2C432&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/boil_water_jackson.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/boil_water_jackson.jpg?resize=160%2C90&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/boil_water_jackson.jpg?resize=150%2C84&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 150w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" height="900" width="1600" loading="lazy" decoding="async">
2055.        </figure>
2056.      </a>
2057.            <div class="in-article-recirc__body">
2058.        <div class="in-article-recirc__title">
2059.                    <a class="in-article-recirc__title-link" href="https://grist.org/equity/a-water-crisis-in-mississippi-turns-into-a-fight-against-privatization/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">A water crisis in Mississippi turns into a fight against privatization</a>
2060.        </div>
2061.        <div class="in-article-recirc__meta">
2062.          
2064.  <div class="tease-meta">
2065.                            <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/lylla-younes/>Lylla Younes</a>              </div>
2066.        </div>
2067.      </div>
2068.    </div>
2069.  </article>
2070. </div>
2071.  
2072.  
2073.  
2074. <p class="has-default-font-family">“We’re seeing it happen to Jackson,” said Nayyirah Shariff, a community activist, whose water is still testing for lead at levels three times higher than federal limits.&nbsp;</p>
2075.  
2076.  
2077.  
2078. <p class="has-default-font-family">“It’s like they have the same playbook to decimate a city.”</p>
2079.  
2080.  
2081.  
2082. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-flint-tells-us-about-the-nation-s-water-crises-nbsp">What Flint tells us about the nation’s water crises&nbsp;</h2>
2083.  
2084.  
2085.  
2086. <p class="has-default-font-family">Flint opened the nation’s eyes to a brewing water affordability and infrastructure crisis, ultimately leading to billions of dollars invested in cleaning the country’s drinking water, improving water plants and roads, and building climate resilience.&nbsp;</p>
2087.  
2088.  
2089.  
2090. <p class="has-default-font-family">There are roughly 9 million lead pipes in service across the U.S., and they’re everywhere, from the oldest cities across Massachusetts to Florida, which leads the country in lead pipes but where infrastructure and the average home is among the nation’s youngest. In November, the Biden administration outlined a plan to replace all 9 million within the next decade, making 50 percent of the $30 billion price tag available from the federal government.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
2091.  
2092.  
2093.  
2094. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintsign.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintsign.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintsign.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintsign.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintsign.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintsign.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintsign.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintsign.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintsign.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintsign.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="A small mural on a brick wall that reads Flint children. Strong. Proud. with images of children." data-caption="Flint residents are fighting to hang on amid the city’s water crisis. The unemployment rate is now 1.5 times higher than the national average, while 70 percent of children grow up in poverty.  " data-credit="Adam Mahoney / Capital B"/><figcaption>Flint residents are fighting to hang on amid the city’s water crisis. The unemployment rate is now 1.5 times higher than the national average, while 70 percent of children grow up in poverty.   <cite>Adam Mahoney / Capital B</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
2095.  
2096.  
2097.  
2098. <p class="has-default-font-family">Yet Flint residents and experts told Capital B that the main flaws of the federal government’s plan have been realized in the city over the past decade: It is complicated, time-consuming, and costly to identify and replace water lines. Not to mention, as Shariff explained, replacing lead water lines is not the “magical silver bullet” to eradicate the issue. The lead service line in her home was replaced in 2017, yet her water is still filled with more lead than federal limits allow.&nbsp;</p>
2099.  
2100.  
2101.  
2102. <p class="has-default-font-family">As officials have claimed that the use of water filters and replacement of lead water lines has solved the crisis, including an infamous&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/obama-drinks-filtered-city-water-in-flint-to-show-its-safe">declaration by former President Barack Obama</a>&nbsp;in 2016, some residents in Flint have felt confused about the true safety of their water.&nbsp;</p>
2103.  
2104.  
2105.  
2106. <p class="has-default-font-family">When approached by Capital B in April, James Johnson explained how a state-conducted test for lead in his drinking water in 2023 returned a clean bill of health. However, public records show Johnson’s property’s lead results were actually 19 parts per billion. The federal limit is 15.</p>
2107.  
2108.  
2109.  
2110. <p class="has-default-font-family">“I don’t know what to think [about the water,]” Johnson said after Capital B explained the results. “We just use filters. We have been since ’14, but they said it’s all clean.”</p>
2111.  
2112.  
2113.  
2114. <p class="has-default-font-family">Flint officials did not respond to Capital B’s request for data related to the status of its water line identification and replacement work. This month, a federal judge found the city in contempt of court for missing deadlines for lead water line replacement and related work in the aftermath of the water crisis.</p>
2115.  
2116.  
2117.  
2118. <p class="has-default-font-family">In addition, as the nation focuses on drinking water, lead lines have created another crisis that rarely gets attention: how lead contamination has torn through kitchens and bathrooms. Flint residents told Capital B that since the crisis began, they’ve had corroded toilets fall through floors, and their shower heads turn black from buildup every few months.&nbsp;</p>
2119.  
2120.  
2121.  
2122. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Dirty water doesn’t just impact service lives,” explained Claire McClinton, a Flint resident and former autoworker. “It’s very naive to think that was the only thing that was impacted, and people do not have the money or support to fix these things.”&nbsp;</p>
2123.  
2124.  
2125.  
2126. <p class="has-default-font-family">All the while, Flint has had amongst the most expensive water bills in the country. A 2016 analysis revealed that the average household was paying more than $850 annually for water services, making it the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.abc12.com/news/flint-water-emergency/study-says-flint-water-was-most-expensive-in-nation/article_c2c90797-1794-507d-a0a6-ece715399754.html#:~:text=The%20study%20was%20just%20released,of%20864%20dollars%20a%20year.">most expensive average bill in the country</a>. Today, the average bill is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.abc12.com/news/flint-water-emergency/flint-working-to-make-high-water-rates-more-affordable/article_bfb6983e-e547-11ed-85b7-6fff6ee05dca.html">$1,200 annually</a>.</p>
2127.  
2128.  
2129.  
2130. <p class="has-default-font-family">McClinton is afraid that as the country chugs on with its focus on drinking water, Black communities will be harmed by efforts to cut costs, or worse, boxed out of their access to publicly run water systems. More than 20 percent of Americans now rely on private companies for drinking water, a substantial increase compared to 2019, according to the National Association of Water Companies. On average, private water utilities charge families&nbsp;<a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2016/02/16/privatized-water-costs-more-than-public-water/">59 percent more on their water bills</a>&nbsp;than public utilities.&nbsp;</p>
2131.  
2132.  
2133.  
2134. <p class="has-default-font-family">“We don’t want&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/05/us/jackson-mississippi-water-crisis.html?action=click&amp;pgtype=Article&amp;state=default&amp;module=styln-water-crisis&amp;variant=show&amp;region=BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT&amp;block=storyline_flex_guide_recirc">corporations to benefit from all this spending</a>&nbsp;— we should want to keep our water public,” McClinton said.&nbsp;</p>
2135.  
2136.  
2137.  
2138. <p class="has-default-font-family">Still, public water systems have their challenges supporting Black communities as well. Failing public water systems are 40 percent more likely to serve people of color, and they take longer than systems in white communities to come back into compliance. Funding to reach these communities remains faulty despite the Biden administration’s goal of spending 40 percent of funds on “disadvantaged communities.”&nbsp;</p>
2139.  
2140.  
2141.  
2142. <p class="has-default-font-family">A Capital B analysis found that 27 percent of drinking water funds from the bipartisan infrastructure law went to “disadvantaged communities” in 2022, and the two states that received the most funds characterized for “disadvantaged communities” were Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, where less than 10 percent of residents are Black.&nbsp;</p>
2143.  
2144.  
2145.  
2146. <p class="has-default-font-family">McClinton said it’s bittersweet to watch Flint purportedly influence the nation for the better while things remain “broken” for Black communities.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
2147.  
2148.  
2149.  
2150. <p class="has-default-font-family">“The system has failed us. We did all the things you’re supposed to do; we participated in water studies, and our water is still dirty, and our health is still bad,” she said. “There’s this thing where they say every generation lives better than the next generation, but all of that is turned upside down right now, and the water crisis is just a manifestation of it.”&nbsp;</p>
2151.  
2152.  
2153.  
2154. <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-start-of-the-second-civil-war">&#8216;The start of the second civil war&#8217;</h2>
2155.  
2156.  
2157.  
2158. <p class="has-default-font-family">In a stream of whiteness, Confederate flags, and Make America Great Again signs, the 60 miles between Detroit and Flint tell the story of Black life in Michigan, Welch said. “Because we are a majority here and have conquered [Flint and Detroit], they want to get back at us,” she said.&nbsp;</p>
2159.  
2160.  
2161.  
2162. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image alignfull js-breaks-column"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintporch.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintporch.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintporch.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintporch.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintporch.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintporch.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintporch.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintporch.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintporch.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintporch.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="A group of two men and a woman sit on the front porch of a house." data-caption="From left: Hatcher Welch, Angela Welch, and Mac Welch all expressed disgust over the continued handling of Flint’s water, arguing that there is little that could be done to repair harm. " data-credit="Adam Mahoney / Capital B"/><figcaption>From left: Hatcher Welch, Angela Welch, and Mac Welch all expressed disgust over the continued handling of Flint’s water, arguing that there is little that could be done to repair harm.  <cite>Adam Mahoney / Capital B</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
2163.  
2164.  
2165.  
2166. <p class="has-default-font-family">Over the past decade, as Detroit’s financial crisis peaked and Flint’s water crisis began,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/far-right-republican-groups-surge-swing-state-michigan-2023-02-17/">far-right white-led groups have surged</a>&nbsp;and a white-led militia plotted to abduct the state’s governor.</p>
2167.  
2168.  
2169.  
2170. <p class="has-default-font-family">“It feels like the start of the second civil war,” Welch said, all while Flint is “left behind.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
2171.  
2172.  
2173.  
2174. <p class="has-default-font-family">It’s seeing this shift intensify that has led some residents to see deeper racial undertones in not only Flint’s battle over water affordability and rights, but also the nation’s.</p>
2175.  
2176.  
2177.  
2178. <p class="has-default-font-family">“The power structure is coalescing over water,” McClinton said.&nbsp;</p>
2179.  
2180.  
2181.  
2182. <p class="has-default-font-family">Flint’s issues began primarily because of a plan that was concocted to save the city money during its water-delivery process. Similar situations are happening&nbsp;<a href="https://grist.org/cities/water-pipeline-joliet-illinois/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">outside of Chicago</a>&nbsp;in a majority Black and Latino town, and in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wypr.org/wypr-news/2023-04-04/study-of-baltimore-water-supply-passes-the-legislature">Baltimore</a>.&nbsp;</p>
2183.  
2184.  
2185. <div class="wp-block-in-article-recirc">
2186.  <article class="in-article-recirc">
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2189.  
2190.      
2191.      
2192.                    
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2194.        <figure>
2195.          <img src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/1-PHW_DSC03978.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all" alt=""  class="js-modal-gallery__hidden" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/1-PHW_DSC03978.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1600w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/1-PHW_DSC03978.jpg?resize=1200%2C674&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/1-PHW_DSC03978.jpg?resize=330%2C185&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/1-PHW_DSC03978.jpg?resize=768%2C432&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/1-PHW_DSC03978.jpg?resize=1536%2C863&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/1-PHW_DSC03978.jpg?resize=160%2C90&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/1-PHW_DSC03978.jpg?resize=150%2C84&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 150w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" height="899" width="1600" loading="lazy" decoding="async">
2196.        </figure>
2197.      </a>
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2199.        <div class="in-article-recirc__title">
2200.                    <a class="in-article-recirc__title-link" href="https://grist.org/accountability/california-communities-are-fighting-the-last-battery-recycling-plant-in-the-west-and-its-toxic-legacy/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">California communities are fighting the last battery recycling plant in the West — and its toxic legacy</a>
2201.        </div>
2202.        <div class="in-article-recirc__meta">
2203.          
2205.  <div class="tease-meta">
2206.                            <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/molly-peterson/>Molly Peterson</a>              </div>
2207.        </div>
2208.      </div>
2209.    </div>
2210.  </article>
2211. </div>
2212.  
2213.  
2214.  
2215. <p class="has-default-font-family">Not to mention the glaring similarities between Jackson and Flint, both majority-Black cities where local Black leadership was overridden by white leaders at the federal and state levels. In Jackson, after an EPA lawsuit against the city allowed the federal government to take control of the water, <a href="https://grist.org/equity/a-water-crisis-in-mississippi-turns-into-a-fight-against-privatization/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">residents are still fighting to be included</a> in the process.&nbsp;</p>
2216.  
2217.  
2218.  
2219. <p class="has-default-font-family">The attack on Black life has also widened the racial gap within the city, Shariff said.&nbsp;</p>
2220.  
2221.  
2222.  
2223. <p class="has-default-font-family">In a commemorative event headlined by a public health researcher from Michigan State University and attended by roughly 50 people the week before the 10-year-anniversary, just five attendees were Black.</p>
2224.  
2225.  
2226.  
2227. <p class="has-default-font-family">It’s events like these, Shariff says, that highlight the disconnect between local leaders, academic researchers, and those directly impacted by the crisis. “All this money these places are spending feels like for nothing,” she said. “People marching in the streets weren’t asking for book talks or community health assessments. We asked for reparations and resources for Black self-determination.”</p>
2228.  
2229.  
2230.  
2231. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">The crisis is a chronic illness</h2>
2232.  
2233.  
2234.  
2235. <p class="has-default-font-family">For some residents, like Taylor, there is still hope that the settlement checks will hit their bank accounts and improve their lives. Children affected by the water crisis are expected to receive 80 percent of the record settlement.</p>
2236.  
2237.  
2238.  
2239. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintrising.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintrising.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintrising.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintrising.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintrising.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintrising.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintrising.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintrising.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintrising.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/flintrising.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="A Black woman in a tee shirt that reads Flint Rising wears glasses and stands with her hands on her hips in the back yard of a home." data-caption="Community activist Nayyirah Shariff said the attack on Black life in Flint has widened the racial gap in the city.
2240. " data-credit="Adam Mahoney / Capital B"/><figcaption>Community activist Nayyirah Shariff said the attack on Black life in Flint has widened the racial gap in the city.
2241. <cite>Adam Mahoney / Capital B</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
2242.  
2243.  
2244.  
2245. <p class="has-default-font-family">As Flint schools have crumbled in the aftermath of the crises, in addition to experiencing an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/03/13/flint-children-school-academic-setbacks/">8 percent increase</a>&nbsp;in the number of students with special needs, especially among school-age boys, Taylor hopes to use the money to better their educational opportunities and put them through college.</p>
2246.  
2247.  
2248.  
2249. <p class="has-default-font-family">However, for others, including Welch and Shariff, the expected payout of $2,000 to $3,000 for adults feels like a slap in the face. There is also a lot of confusion around the settlement process, with two residents telling Capital B they thought the money was already gone, which stopped them from attempting to be a part of the process.&nbsp;</p>
2250.  
2251.  
2252.  
2253. <p class="has-default-font-family">In a lot of ways, although harder to find, opportunities have reached the city in recent years, including through a guaranteed income program for every pregnant person and infant in the city. The new program “prescribes” a one-time $1,500 payment after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and $500 a month during the infant’s first year.&nbsp;</p>
2254.  
2255.  
2256.  
2257. <p class="has-default-font-family">Yet, it still remains challenging to remain confident in change.&nbsp;</p>
2258.  
2259.  
2260.  
2261. <p class="has-default-font-family">“With all the experiences we’ve had over the 10 years, our hopes have been dashed,” explained McClinton, who every April 25 helps to organize a day of commemoration for Flint residents.&nbsp;&nbsp;As Capital B has reported, the water issues afflicting Black communities are&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalbnews.org/water-crisis-black-america/">violent in many ways</a>, and it trickles down into increasing situations of despair around housing, mental and physical health, and communal violence. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic widened the racial death gap in Flint, Black residents’ death rate climbed at a rate that was more than twice the city’s death rate between 2014 and 2019, according to Capital B’s analysis of state data.</p>
2262.  
2263.  
2264.  
2265. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Schooling-Setbacks.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Schooling-Setbacks.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Schooling-Setbacks.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Schooling-Setbacks.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Schooling-Setbacks.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Schooling-Setbacks.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Schooling-Setbacks.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Schooling-Setbacks.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=723&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Schooling-Setbacks.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Schooling-Setbacks.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Schooling-Setbacks.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="A line chart shows chronic absenteeism in Flint. much higher than the overall US average." data-caption="" data-credit="Capital B"/><figcaption><cite>Capital B</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
2266.  
2267.  
2268.  
2269. <p class="has-default-font-family">Several Flint residents explained how the mental health strain caused by the water crisis created a cycle of “disunity” and the inability to trust not just the government or the water flowing out of their pipes, but also the people around them.&nbsp;</p>
2270.  
2271.  
2272.  
2273. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Everyone is just on edge,” Taylor said, “and that has everything to do with the water.”&nbsp;</p>
2274.  
2275.  
2276.  
2277. <p class="has-default-font-family">In the city’s Black areas, it’s hard to find a block without an abandoned home or grassy field full of trash and plastic water bottles. Taylor said it’s depressing to drive through your neighborhood to see your former schools empty, graffitied, and boarded up, or parks closed and desolate.</p>
2278.  
2279.  
2280.  
2281. <p class="has-default-font-family">As job opportunities have become harder to find, so has housing. Nearly all of the dozen residents Capital B spoke to for this story said they experienced housing insecurity at times over the past decade.&nbsp;</p>
2282.  
2283.  
2284.  
2285. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/TheyWantUsDead-1.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/TheyWantUsDead-1.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/TheyWantUsDead-1.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/TheyWantUsDead-1.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/TheyWantUsDead-1.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/TheyWantUsDead-1.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/TheyWantUsDead-1.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/TheyWantUsDead-1.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=648&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/TheyWantUsDead-1.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/TheyWantUsDead-1.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/TheyWantUsDead-1.webp?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="A line chart shows an increase in death rates after the Flint water crisis among the overall and Black populations." data-caption="" data-credit="Capital B"/><figcaption><cite>Capital B</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
2286.  
2287.  
2288.  
2289. <p class="has-default-font-family">Due to a lack of affordable housing options, the average stay at the city’s housing shelter has increased from less than two months to over five. The public housing waitlist has ballooned to two years, even as some public housing buildings still have high levels of lead in the water, including the Richert Manor homes where Welch lived for many years at the height of the water situation.&nbsp;</p>
2290.  
2291.  
2292.  
2293. <p class="has-default-font-family">In the meantime, as race, namely being Black in America,&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33394180/">stands as the biggest risk factor for lead poisoning</a>, more so than even poverty or poor housing, Flint residents say their home serves as a warning to other Black communities.&nbsp;</p>
2294.  
2295.  
2296.  
2297. <p class="has-default-font-family">Nationwide,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084658/">Black children have the highest blood lead levels</a>. As such, even as billions are pumped into fixing the issues, the next generation of Black Americans will remain altered by the impacts of lead poisoning.&nbsp;</p>
2298.  
2299.  
2300.  
2301. <p class="has-default-font-family">As Shariff said: “The water crisis is like having a chronic illness — I mean, it gave me a chronic illness — but it is basically like you’re dealing with it, and it never goes away.”</p>
2302. <p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/accountability/decade-later-flint-water-crisis-continues/">A decade later, Flint&#8217;s water crisis continues</a> on Apr 28, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
2306. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636181</post-id><timeToRead>15</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[A sign that reads Please help God clean up Flint tacked to the side of a building with bars on the windows.]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[]]></summary> </item>
2307. <item>
2308. <title>A highway in Indiana could one day charge your EV while you’re driving it</title>
2309. <link>https://grist.org/transportation/a-highway-in-indiana-could-one-day-charge-your-ev-while-youre-driving-it/</link>
2311. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Kristoffer Tigue, Inside Climate News]]></dc:creator>
2312. <pubDate>Sat, 27 Apr 2024 13:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
2313. <category><![CDATA[Transportation]]></category>
2314. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=635279</guid>
2315.  
2316. <description><![CDATA[Construction of the pilot project on U.S. Highway 52 began this month. State officials hope it can help quell range anxiety and electrify long-haul trucks.]]></description>
2317. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
2318. <p class="has-default-font-family"><em>This story was originally published by&nbsp;<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15042024/indiana-highway-ev-charging/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Inside Climate News</a> and is reproduced here as part of the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.climatedesk.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Climate Desk</a>&nbsp;collaboration.</em></p>
2319.  
2320.  
2321.  
2322. <p class="has-default-font-family">Blake Dollier spoke excitedly as he watched the construction crews pulverize concrete along a quarter-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 52 where it passes through West Lafayette, Indiana.</p>
2323.  
2324.  
2325.  
2326. <p class="has-default-font-family">Soon, the Indiana Department of Transportation, or INDOT, where Dollier works as the public relations director, will install a series of copper coils under the highway’s surface to test a new technology Purdue University researchers developed that can provide power to electric vehicles wirelessly as they drive past.</p>
2327.  
2328.  
2329.  
2330. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Wouldn’t it really be something if we could just drive over the road and catch your charge for your vehicle as you drive across it?” Dollier said during a phone interview, watching the progress from the parking lot of one of the department’s satellite offices in West Lafayette.</p>
2331.  
2332.  
2333.  
2334. <p class="has-default-font-family">The state began construction of its new pilot project this month, and officials say they believe it could spur greater adoption of EVs and redefine the way people think about them. The project, they said, which is being done in partnership with Purdue and the engine manufacturer Cummins Inc., will be capable of providing power to vehicles even as they cruise by at speeds of up to 65 miles per hour.</p>
2335.  
2336.  
2337.  
2338. <p class="has-default-font-family">Ultimately, Purdue researchers and state officials hope the project will open up EVs to a wider customer base, largely by reducing battery costs and quelling concerns over range anxiety — the fear that an electric vehicle will run out of juice before reaching its destination. One in four U.S adults say that they would seriously consider buying an EV for their next purchase, but more than half of those who don’t want to buy an electric vehicle blame range anxiety, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.aaa.com/2023/11/annual-electric-vehicle-sentiment-survey/">a survey conducted by AAA last year</a>.</p>
2339.  
2340.  
2341.  
2342. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/accelerated-pavement-testing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/accelerated-pavement-testing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/accelerated-pavement-testing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/accelerated-pavement-testing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/accelerated-pavement-testing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/accelerated-pavement-testing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/accelerated-pavement-testing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2048 2048w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/accelerated-pavement-testing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/accelerated-pavement-testing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/accelerated-pavement-testing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/accelerated-pavement-testing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/accelerated-pavement-testing.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="A man in jeans, a long sleeved shirt, and boots kneels on the floor and points as another man listens and kneels next to him." data-caption="Purdue professor John Haddock and graduate student Oscar Moncada examine a slab of concrete pavement they tested to handle heavy truckloads with wireless power-transfer technology installed below the surface.
2343. " data-credit="Courtesy of Consensus Digital Media"/><figcaption>Purdue professor John Haddock and graduate student Oscar Moncada examine a slab of concrete pavement they tested to handle heavy truckloads with wireless power-transfer technology installed below the surface.
2344. <cite>Courtesy of Consensus Digital Media</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
2345.  
2346.  
2347.  
2348. <p class="has-default-font-family">While Indiana’s project wouldn’t be the first “dynamic EV charger” in the nation — Detroit installed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/city-of-detroit-installs-nations-first-wireless-charging-road-for-evs/">a similar pilot project</a>&nbsp;on a residential road last fall — it would be the first time the technology was installed on a highway.</p>
2349.  
2350.  
2351.  
2352. <p class="has-default-font-family">If successful, the technology could also help to electrify long-haul trucks, which are among the most difficult vehicles to decarbonize, said&nbsp;<a href="https://engineering.purdue.edu/CE/People/ptProfile?resource_id=92277">Nadia Gkritza</a>, a civil engineering professor at Purdue University and the project’s lead researcher.&nbsp;</p>
2353.  
2354.  
2355.  
2356. <p class="has-default-font-family">That’s because heavy-duty trucks would require significantly larger batteries due to their size, weight and the long distances they tend to travel, Gkritza said. However, she said, if they could receive power as they drive, it would allow those vehicles to carry smaller batteries, lowering overall costs and reducing the number of stops to recharge.</p>
2357.  
2358.  
2359.  
2360. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Really the possibilities are endless,” INDOT’s Dollier said. “And we’re just hopeful that this is something that can really benefit a lot of people here in the state of Indiana and maybe even across the country going forward.”</p>
2361.  
2362.  
2363.  
2364. <p class="has-default-font-family">INDOT says the pilot project should be complete by next summer, though private vehicles won’t be able to use it — at least not yet. Cars and trucks must be equipped with special receivers for the wireless charging to work, meaning current models are incompatible. The coils are installed underground and use magnetic fields to deliver the electricity wirelessly. Each coil only activates when a receiver is above it, Purdue researchers say, so the infrastructure won’t pose a threat to pedestrians, animals or other vehicles.</p>
2365.  
2366.  
2367.  
2368. <p class="has-default-font-family">Kaylee Dann, executive director of Greater Indiana Clean Cities, a clean energy advocacy nonprofit that isn’t involved with the project, agrees that the new technology could spur greater EV adoption in Indiana and nationwide. In fact, she said, the project is coming at a time when more and more Hoosiers are choosing to go electric.</p>
2369.  
2370.  
2371.  
2372. <p class="has-default-font-family">While Indiana’s overall EV adoption rates still pale in comparison to California and other leaders in the EV market, the state saw an astounding 1,200 percent increase in registered electric vehicles between 2016 and 2022, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iedc.in.gov/docs/default-source/electric-vehicle-product-commission/2023-ev-commission-executive-summary.pdf">a state report</a>&nbsp;published last year. Some 24,000 electric vehicles were registered in Indiana last year alone,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.in.gov/oed/resources-and-information-center/vehicle-fuel-dashboard/">according to the state’s Office of Energy Development</a>.</p>
2373.  
2374.  
2375.  
2376. <p class="has-default-font-family">Dann believes that leaning into EVs has been a smart financial move by the state as the nation pivots to cleaner transportation options. Two recent federal policies — the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and the Environmental Protection Agency’s new tailpipe pollution standards,&nbsp;<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20032024/vehicle-carbon-pollution-epa-proposal/">finalized last month</a> — are expected to dramatically increase domestic production of EVs nationwide in the coming years.</p>
2377.  
2378.  
2379.  
2380. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EVWirelessChargingRoad750px.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EVWirelessChargingRoad750px.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EVWirelessChargingRoad750px.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EVWirelessChargingRoad750px.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=635&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EVWirelessChargingRoad750px.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EVWirelessChargingRoad750px.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EVWirelessChargingRoad750px.png?quality=75&amp;strip=all 750w" alt="A diagram shows two electric cars on a road and shows how they will be charged by driving over the road." data-caption="" data-credit="Inside Climate News"/><figcaption><cite>Inside Climate News</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
2381.  
2382.  
2383.  
2384. <p class="has-default-font-family">Indiana is already experiencing some of that economic gain. According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iedc.in.gov/WebsiteTemplates/IEDC/App_Themes/DefaultTheme/global/2023-EV-Commission-Tasking-Report.pdf">a state report</a>&nbsp;published last September, Indiana has received about $8.2 billion in investments related to EV production since 2021. Those include a $3 billion investment by General Motors and Samsung to manufacture EV batteries in the city of New Carlisle and an $803 million investment by Toyota to expand its EV production in the city of Princeton.</p>
2385.  
2386.  
2387.  
2388. <p class="has-default-font-family">“We’ve seen a lot of investment from manufacturers,” Dann said. “So we’re gonna see a big influx of EVs being produced in the state.”</p>
2389.  
2390.  
2391.  
2392. <p class="has-default-font-family">But the biggest benefits to the state could be environmental.</p>
2393.  
2394.  
2395.  
2396. <p class="has-default-font-family">In its annual&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lung.org/research/sota/key-findings/year-round-particle-pollution">State of the Air Report</a>, the American Lung Association ranked the Indianapolis metro area the 10th worst city in the nation for year-round particulate matter pollution known as PM2.5. Regular exposure to PM2.5, which is produced any time something combusts, has been linked to increased health risks, including greater risk of asthma attacks, cardiovascular and lung diseases and even premature death.&nbsp;</p>
2397.  
2398.  
2399.  
2400. <p class="has-default-font-family">Because EVs draw power from batteries, not from burning fuel, a higher adoption of them would lead to better air quality for any state. Gkritza said that reducing air pollution is one of the broader goals of Indiana’s pilot project. “Greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, these are really bad across those freight corridors, transit corridors — we have communities that are negatively impacted by freight movement,” she said.</p>
2401.  
2402.  
2403.  
2404. <div id="wisepops-weekly-signup" class="wp-block-grist-wisepops-target-block" style="padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)"></div>
2405.  
2406.  
2407.  
2408. <p class="has-default-font-family">More EVs also means fewer greenhouse gas emissions, Dann said, which helps to slow climate change. Transportation is America’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-greenhouse-gas-emissions">according to the EPA</a>, making up nearly a third of the country’s carbon footprint.</p>
2409.  
2410.  
2411.  
2412. <p class="has-default-font-family">In Indiana alone, EVs contribute&nbsp;<a href="https://afdc.energy.gov/states/in">60 percent less carbon pollution</a>&nbsp;than their fossil fuel counterparts, Dann said, despite the fact that the state’s electricity — the fuel for EVs — is predominantly produced by coal-fired power plants. More than half of the state’s electricity in 2021 was generated by coal,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2024-03/indiana-priority-climate-action-plan.pdf">according to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management</a>.&nbsp;</p>
2413.  
2414.  
2415.  
2416. <p class="has-default-font-family">Having strong EV charging infrastructure in Indiana could be a boon nationwide, given the state’s centralized location in the U.S.&nbsp;</p>
2417.  
2418.  
2419.  
2420. <p class="has-default-font-family">Indiana has more interstate highways passing through it than any other state, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb touted in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.conexusindiana.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/CNXS_CILC-2020-Report_FINAL-5.pdf">a 2021 report</a>. It’s also home to the nation’s second largest FedEx hub and 41 freight railroads, he added, noting Indiana’s motto of being the “Crossroads of America.”</p>
2421.  
2422.  
2423.  
2424. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Simply put,” Holcomb wrote, “the world moves through Indiana.”</p>
2425. <p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/transportation/a-highway-in-indiana-could-one-day-charge-your-ev-while-youre-driving-it/">A highway in Indiana could one day charge your EV while you’re driving it</a> on Apr 27, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
2429. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">635279</post-id><timeToRead>7</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[Cars sit in bumper to bumper traffic on a highway.]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[]]></summary> </item>
2430. <item>
2431. <title>A water crisis in Mississippi turns into a fight against privatization</title>
2432. <link>https://grist.org/equity/a-water-crisis-in-mississippi-turns-into-a-fight-against-privatization/</link>
2434. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Lylla Younes]]></dc:creator>
2435. <pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2024 08:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
2436. <category><![CDATA[Equity]]></category>
2437. <category><![CDATA[Regulation]]></category>
2438. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636163</guid>
2439.  
2440. <description><![CDATA[Thanks to a federal judge, residents of Jackson will have a say in how the city resolves its yearslong water crisis.]]></description>
2441. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
2442. <p class="has-default-font-family">In the summer of 2022, heavy rainfall damaged a water treatment plant in the city of Jackson, Mississippi, precipitating a high-profile public health crisis. The Republican Governor Tate Reeves <a href="https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2022/08/30/gov-reeves-declares-state-of-emergency-over-jackson-water-crisis/65463192007/">declared a state of emergency</a>, as thousands of residents were told to boil their water before drinking it. For some, the pressure in their taps was so low that they couldn’t flush their toilets and were forced to rely on bottled water for weeks.&nbsp;</p>
2443.  
2444.  
2445.  
2446. <p class="has-default-font-family">Many of the city’s 150,000 residents were wary that their local government could get clean water running through their pipes again. State officials had a history of undermining efforts to repair Jackson’s beleaguered infrastructure, and the city council, for its part, didn’t have the money to make the fixes on its own. So when the federal government stepped in that fall, allocating funding and appointing an engineer to manage the city’s water system, there was reason to believe change may finally be near.&nbsp;</p>
2447.  
2448.  
2449.  
2450. <p class="has-default-font-family">But as the months wore on, hope turned to frustration. The federally appointed engineer, Ted Henifin, began taking steps to run the city’s water system through a private company, despite Mayor Chokwe Lumumba’s objections. Advocates’ repeated requests for data and other information about Jackson’s drinking water went unanswered, according to a local activist, Makani Themba, and despite Henifin’s assurances before a federal judge that the water was safe to drink, brown liquid still poured out of some taps. Faced with these conditions, a group of advocates sent the Environmental Protection Agency a letter last July asking to be involved in the overhaul of the city’s water system.&nbsp;</p>
2451.  
2452.  
2453.  
2454. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Jackson residents have weathered many storms, literally and figuratively, over the last several years,” they wrote <a href="https://forwardjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/PAI-MS-PPC-Community-Statement-7-11-23.pdf">in the letter</a>. “We have a right and responsibility to be fully engaged in the redevelopment of our water and sewer system.” The letter was followed by <a href="https://grist.org/equity/jackson-mississippi-water-crisis-petition/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">an emergency petition</a> to the EPA containing similar requests for transparency and involvement.&nbsp;</p>
2455.  
2456.  
2457.  
2458. <p class="has-default-font-family">Earlier this month, a federal judge <a href="https://www.wlbt.com/2024/03/21/civil-rights-advocacy-groups-now-party-jackson-water-lawsuit/">granted</a> the advocates their request, making two community organizations, the Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign and the People’s Advocacy Group, parties to an EPA lawsuit against the city of Jackson for violating the Safe Drinking Water Act. A seat at the table of the legal proceedings, the advocates hope, will allow the city’s residents to have a say in rebuilding their infrastructure and also ward off privatization. The saga in Jackson reflects a wider problem affecting public utilities across the country, with cash-strapped local governments turning to corporations to make badly needed repairs to water treatment plants, distribution pipes, and storage systems, a course that often limits transparency and boxes locals out of the decision-making.&nbsp;</p>
2459.  
2460.  
2461.  
2462. <p class="has-default-font-family">“This isn’t a uniquely Jackson problem,” said Brooke Floyd, co-director of the Jackson People’s Assembly at the People’s Advocacy Institute. “We need ways for all these cities that need infrastructure repairs to get clean water to their communities.”</p>
2463.  
2464.  
2465.  
2466. <p class="has-default-font-family">The roots of Jackson’s water crisis lie in decades of disinvestment and neglect. Like many other midsize cities around the country, such as Pittsburgh and St. Louis, Jackson declined after white, middle-class residents relocated to the suburbs, taking tax dollars away from infrastructure in increasing need of repair. Between 1980 and 2020, Jackson’s population dropped by around 25 percent. Today, the city is more than 80 percent Black, up from 50 percent in the 1980s. A quarter of Jackson’s residents live below the poverty line, with most households earning less than $40,000 a year, compared with $49,000 for the state overall.</p>
2467.  
2468.  
2469.  
2470. <p class="has-default-font-family">Over the decades, antagonism between the Republican state government and the Democratic and Black-led local government created additional obstacles to updating Jackson’s water and sewage infrastructure. A <a href="https://naacp.org/articles/naacp-files-discrimination-complaint-mishandling-jackson-water-crisis">Title VI civil rights complaint</a> that the NAACP filed with the EPA in September 2022 accused Governor Reeves and the state legislature of “systematically depriving Jackson the funds that it needs to operate and maintain its water facilities in a safe and reliable manner.” The biggest problem, the NAACP argued, was that the state had rejected the city&#8217;s proposal for a 1 percent sales tax to pay for infrastructure updates and by directing funds from the EPA’s Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund away from the capital city. </p>
2471.  
2472.  
2473.  
2474. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Despite Jackson’s status as the most populous city in Mississippi, state agencies awarded federal funds” from the EPA program three times in the past 25 years, the complaint read. “Meanwhile, the state has funneled funds to majority-white areas in Mississippi despite their less acute needs.”</p>
2475.  
2476.  
2477.  
2478. <p class="has-default-font-family">In the absence of adequate resources from the state and local government, Jacksonians have learned to fend for themselves, Floyd told Grist. At the height of the water crisis in 2022, federal dollars helped fund the distribution of bottled water to thousands of residents, but when the money dried up, people organized to secure drinking water for households still reckoning with smelly, off-color fluid running from their taps. When Henifin began posting boil-water notices on a smartphone app that some found hard to use, one resident set up a separate community text service. Floyd said that for some residents, these problems are still ongoing today. </p>
2479.  
2480.  
2481.  
2482. <p class="has-default-font-family">“There&#8217;s this sense of, we have to provide for each other because no one is coming,” Floyd said. “We know that the state is not going to help us.”</p>
2483.  
2484.  
2485.  
2486. <p class="has-default-font-family">Henifin has told a federal judge that he’s made a number of moves to improve Jackson’s water quality. The private company that he set up, JXN Water, has hired contractors to update the main water plant’s corrosion control and conducted testing for lead and bacteria like E. coli. But residents and advocates point out that while the water coming out of the system might be clean, the city hosts more than 150 miles of decrepit pipes that can leach toxic chemicals into the water supply. Advocates want the city to replace them and conduct testing in neighborhoods instead of just near the treatment facility, changes that the city has federal money to make. In December 2022, the federal government <a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-mississippi-jackson-naacp-f6161540d6345f215913b2b41562de5a">allocated $600 million</a> to Jackson for repairs to its water system.</p>
2487.  
2488.  
2489.  
2490. <p class="has-default-font-family">But the worry is that this money will be spent on other things. Henifin is the one who handles the federal funds. By court order, he has the authority to enter into contracts, make payments, and change the rates and fees charged to consumers.&nbsp;</p>
2491.  
2492.  
2493.  
2494. <p class="has-default-font-family">Themba, the local activist, said that Henifin has not responded to residents’ demands for additional testing and access to monitoring data that already exists. Because JXN Water is a private company, it’s not subject to public disclosure laws requiring this information to be shared with the public. (Henifin did not respond to Grist’s requests for comment.)&nbsp;</p>
2495.  
2496.  
2497.  
2498. <p class="has-default-font-family">Themba points to Pittsburgh as an example of a place where residents fought privatization of their water system and secured a more democratic public utility. In 2012, faced with a lack of state and federal funding, the city turned over its water system to Veolia, an international waste- and water-management giant based in France. Over the following years, the publicly traded company elected for cost-cutting measures that <a href="https://www.demos.org/press-release/report-pittsburgh-water-privatization-caused-lead-contamination-skyrocketing-costs">caused lead to enter the water supply</a> of tens of thousands of residents. A local campaign ensued, and advocates eventually won a commitment from the city government to return the water system to city control and give the  public a voice in the system’s management.</p>
2499.  
2500.  
2501.  
2502. <p class="has-default-font-family">“What we&#8217;ve learned from all over the country is that privatization doesn&#8217;t work for the community,” Themba said. “We want what works.”</p>
2503.  
2504.  
2505.  
2506. <div id="wisepops-weekly-signup" class="wp-block-grist-wisepops-target-block" style="padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-bottom:0.5rem"></div>
2507.  
2508.  
2509.  
2510. <p class="has-default-font-family">The court order that designated Henifin as Jackson’s water manager in 2022 does not outline what will happen once his four-year contract expires in 2026. Last month, the Mississippi Senate <a href="https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2024/03/12/ms-senate-passes-bill-giving-state-control-over-jackson-ms-water-system/72946117007/">passed a bill</a> that would put Jackson’s water in the hands of the state after Henifin steps down, a move that the manager recently said he supports and that Jackson’s mayor strongly opposes. That bill soon failed in the House <a href="https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2024/04/04/effort-to-take-over-jackson-water-system-fails-in-ms-house/73203885007/">without a vote</a>. Now that they are part of the lawsuit, advocates hope they’ll have a chance to influence the outcome, before it’s too late. </p>
2511.  
2512.  
2513.  
2514. <p class="has-default-font-family">“Jackson residents have felt left out of the equation for so long,” Floyd said. “If we lose this, that’s a big deal.”</p>
2515. <p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/equity/a-water-crisis-in-mississippi-turns-into-a-fight-against-privatization/">A water crisis in Mississippi turns into a fight against privatization</a> on Apr 26, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
2519. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636163</post-id><timeToRead>7</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[In the summer of 2022, heavy rainfall damaged a water treatment plant in the city of Jackson, Mississippi, precipitating a high-profile public health crisis. The Republican Governor Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency, as thousands of residents were told to boil their water before drinking it. For some, the pressure in their taps was so low that they couldn’t flush their toilets and were forced to rely on bottled water for weeks.
2520.  
2521.  
2522. Many of the city’s 150,000 residents were wary that their local government could get clean water running through their pipes again. State officials had a history of undermining efforts to repair Jackson’s beleaguered infrastructure, and the city council, for its part, didn’t have the money to make the fixes on its own. So when the federal government stepped in that fall, allocating funding and appointing an engineer to manage the city’s water system, there was reason to believe change may finally be near.
2523.  
2524.  
2525. But as the months wore on, hope turned to frustration. The federally appointed engineer, Ted Henifin, began taking steps to run the city’s water system through a private company. Advocates’ repeated requests for data and other information about Jackson’s drinking water went unanswered, according to a local activist, and despite Henifin’s assurances before a federal judge that the water was safe to drink, brown liquid still poured out of some taps. Faced with these conditions, a group of advocates sent the Environmental Protection Agency a letter last July asking to be involved in the overhaul of the city’s water system.
2526.  
2527.  
2528. Earlier this month, a federal judge granted the advocates their request, making two community organizations, the Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign and the People’s Advocacy Group, parties to an EPA lawsuit against the city of Jackson for violating the Safe Drinking Water Act. A seat at the table of the legal proceedings, the advocates hope, will allow the city’s residents to have a say in rebuilding their infrastructure and also ward off privatization.]]></summary> </item>
2529. <item>
2530. <title>Indigenous leaders are risking their lives to speak at the UN</title>
2531. <link>https://grist.org/global-indigenous-affairs-desk/indigenous-leaders-are-risking-their-lives-to-speak-at-the-un/</link>
2533. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Lee]]></dc:creator>
2534. <pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2024 08:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
2535. <category><![CDATA[Global Indigenous Affairs Desk]]></category>
2536. <category><![CDATA[Indigenous Affairs]]></category>
2537. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636129</guid>
2538.  
2539. <description><![CDATA[From harassment to kidnapping and arrest, Indigenous advocates who face reprisals for their work say the U.N. must protect them.]]></description>
2540. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
2541. <p class="has-default-font-family"><em>This story is published as part of the <a href="https://grist.org/indigenous/global-indigenous-affairs-desk/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">Global Indigenous Affairs Desk</a>, an Indigenous-led collaboration between Grist, High Country News, ICT, Mongabay, Native News Online, and APTN.</em></p>
2542.  
2543.  
2544.  
2545. <p class="has-default-font-family">Last September, Nicaraguan state security forces arrived at Indigenous Miskitu leader Brooklyn Rivera’s home in Bilwi, on the North Caribbean coast. Pretending to be health workers, officers allegedly handcuffed Rivera and beat him with batons before putting him in the back of an ambulance and driving away. More than six months later, Rivera’s family still doesn’t know where he is, or if he is alive.&nbsp;</p>
2546.  
2547.  
2548.  
2549. <p class="has-default-font-family">Although Rivera had spent decades fighting for Miskitu autonomy and land rights, Carlos Hendy Thomas, another Miskitu leader, said that the recent targeting began with Rivera’s April 2023 trip to New York for the <a href="https://grist.org/global-indigenous-affairs-desk/your-guide-to-the-2024-un-permanent-forum-on-indigenous-issues/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues</a>, or UNPFII, the world’s largest gathering of Indigenous leaders and activists, and a place for Indigenous peoples to bring attention to issues their communities face. Hendy Thomas said that before Rivera left for New York, government officials warned him not to speak out against the government. He did so anyway, and when Rivera tried to board a plane to return home, he was told that the Nicaraguan authorities had not approved his reentry. Instead, Rivera flew to Honduras and crossed the border back into Nicaragua to return to Bilwi.</p>
2550.  
2551.  
2552.  
2553. <p class="has-default-font-family">A few days before his arrest, Hendy Thomas told Rivera he should leave the country for his own safety, but Rivera insisted his people needed him. That was the last time the two spoke. This year, Hendy Thomas came to the Permanent Forum to ask the United Nations to pressure Nicaragua for information. “We are hoping that by coming here, at least this would come to light, and the U.N. would intervene to get him out from jail, if he&#8217;s still in jail, or if he’s even alive,” Hendy Thomas said. </p>
2554.  
2555.  
2556.  
2557. <p class="has-default-font-family">Rivera’s situation is reflected in a growing trend of Indigenous leaders facing retaliation for speaking out at UNPFII and other international spaces. With <a href="https://grist.org/global-indigenous-affairs-desk/un-puts-spotlight-on-attacks-against-indigenous-land-defenders/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">few options</a> for Indigenous peoples to advocate in their own countries, especially where regimes refuse to even recognize their existence, many leaders turn to the international community for help. But even that option is becoming less feasible for many Indigenous peoples.</p>
2558.  
2559.  
2560.  
2561. <p class="has-default-font-family">According to the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/reprisals">Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights</a>, the number and severity of reprisals against people for engaging with the United Nations system has increased. Just in the past two years, Indigenous leaders attending U.N. meetings have faced attempted kidnapping, harassment, arrest, intimidation, online censorship, travel bans, smearing, and other forms of reprisal. </p>
2562.  
2563.  
2564.  
2565. <p class="has-default-font-family">Hernan Vales, the chief of the Indigenous Peoples and Minorities Section at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that his office has seen an increase in reported cases of reprisals, but declined to give specific numbers. Vales and other U.N. experts also believe that there may be many more cases that go unreported. A <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/reports/ahrc5461-cooperation-united-nations-its-representatives-and-mechanisms-field">2023 U.N. report</a> on the issue also says that more people are simply choosing not to engage with the U.N. because they are afraid of repercussions. According to the report, for example, 38 Indigenous Yukpa people decided not to meet with U.N. officials in Venezuela after being stopped by military forces while on their way to the gathering. </p>
2566.  
2567.  
2568.  
2569. <p class="has-default-font-family">“We cannot tolerate those who bring critical perspective to the United Nations being silenced,” Vales said in a statement. “We need to do more.”</p>
2570.  
2571.  
2572.  
2573. <p class="has-default-font-family">But even with the increased attention and resources available, UNPFII forum members, U.N. experts, and Indigenous leaders say that the problem is still getting worse. Roberto Borrero, who is <a href="https://www.uctp.org/about-us-taino">president of the United Confederation of Taíno Peoples</a>, has attended every session of the Permanent Forum since it began in 2002 and said that the frequency and severity of reprisals has increased, and that the U.N. needs to do more. </p>
2574.  
2575.  
2576.  
2577. <p class="has-default-font-family">“It really speaks to the credibility of the U.N. to highlight and follow up on this issue,” he said. “If they don&#8217;t, the U.N. is going to be even more increasingly seen as ineffective.”</p>
2578.  
2579.  
2580.  
2581. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Brooklyn-Rivera.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Brooklyn-Rivera.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Brooklyn-Rivera.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Brooklyn-Rivera.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1029 1029w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Brooklyn-Rivera.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Brooklyn-Rivera.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Brooklyn-Rivera.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Brooklyn-Rivera.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Brooklyn-Rivera.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="a black and white image of a man posing with is fist on his chin" data-caption="Brooklyn Rivera poses for a photograph in 1988.
2582. " data-credit="The Denver Post via Getty Images"/><figcaption>Brooklyn Rivera poses for a photograph in 1988.
2583. <cite>The Denver Post via Getty Images</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
2584.  
2585.  
2586.  
2587. <p class="has-default-font-family">Last year, Edward Porokwa, an Indigenous Maasai leader from Tanzania, <a href="https://grist.org/indigenous/indigenous-maasai-ask-the-united-nations-to-intervene-on-human-rights-abuses/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">attended UNPFII to call attention to human rights violations</a> carried out against Maasai communities, including forced evictions, land-grabbing, and <a href="https://grist.org/global-indigenous-affairs-desk/indigenous-maasai-in-tanzania-face-resettlement-sites-with-critical-flaws/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">resource deprivation</a>. At the forum, said Porokwa, Tanzanian officials followed him, took videos and pictures without his permission, and said that he was not a legitimate representative. Porokwa said that throughout the forum, he also received anonymous phone calls saying that what he was doing was not right and the government was watching him. </p>
2588.  
2589.  
2590.  
2591. <p class="has-default-font-family">In Tanzania, <a href="https://grist.org/global-indigenous-affairs-desk/after-violent-evictions-indigenous-maasai-call-human-rights-investigation-a-sham/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">Maasai activists have faced arrest and persecution</a>, and Porokwa, spooked by the warnings, decided not to return home for nearly six months. “It was very terrible,” he said. “I could not meet my family. I could not communicate with everybody, because they made me really feel like my life was in danger.” Despite the incident, Porokwa returned to UNPFII this year with an even larger delegation of Maasai leaders. </p>
2592.  
2593.  
2594.  
2595. <p class="has-default-font-family">Indigenous leaders believe that governments are targeting their U.N. participation because it embarrasses them on the world stage. Exposing human rights abuses to the international community can also have financial impacts. Just this week, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tanzania-world-bank-tourism-project-suspension-5d03e1baab0b9081bd632d0211a6ca40">the World Bank announced that it is suspending $50 million</a> in funding for a tourism project in Tanzania that has faced allegations of killings, forced evictions, and rape. </p>
2596.  
2597.  
2598.  
2599. <p class="has-default-font-family">In a statement delivered at UNPFII, Hamisi Malebo, the executive secretary of the United Republic of Tanzania’s National Commission for UNESCO, denied what he called the “baseless and factually inaccurate” allegations made by Maasai leaders. “Tanzania is guided by the rule of law and respect for human rights,” Malebo said. “The government does not condone acts of threat, intimidation, and harassment of its citizens, human rights defenders, and other nonstate actors pursuing this common objective.”</p>
2600.  
2601.  
2602.  
2603. <p class="has-default-font-family">Brian Keane, director of Land Is Life, a nonprofit that advocates for Indigenous rights, says that although threats at the U.N. tend to be less overt than cases like Rivera’s, intimidation and harassment should be taken just as seriously, especially knowing that they can lead to more serious repercussions back home. “It&#8217;s a big issue,” he said. “There&#8217;s this kind of constant bullying that goes on trying to silence people that are here to speak up for their rights,” he said. </p>
2604.  
2605.  
2606.  
2607. <p class="has-default-font-family">On the second day of the two-week UNPFII session, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Indigenous Mbororo from Chad and the chair of the forum, delivered a statement condemning any reprisals. </p>
2608.  
2609.  
2610.  
2611. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/53674076558_d2f1436f10_k.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/53674076558_d2f1436f10_k.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/53674076558_d2f1436f10_k.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/53674076558_d2f1436f10_k.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/53674076558_d2f1436f10_k.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/53674076558_d2f1436f10_k.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/53674076558_d2f1436f10_k.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/53674076558_d2f1436f10_k.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/53674076558_d2f1436f10_k.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/53674076558_d2f1436f10_k.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/53674076558_d2f1436f10_k.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="A woman wears a matching floral shirt and cloth headdress and sits at a desk with a label that says Chair PFII" data-caption="Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim speaks during the 2024 U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. " data-credit="Ines Belchior / Ronja Porho / UN DESA DISD"/><figcaption>Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim speaks during the 2024 U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.  <cite>Ines Belchior / Ronja Porho / UN DESA DISD</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
2612.  
2613.  
2614.  
2615. <p class="has-default-font-family">Last year, a young Indigenous woman from Asia whose name Grist is withholding to protect her identity, was on her way to her local airport to attend UNPFII, when her car was surrounded by a convoy of government vehicles. Officials attempted to drag her out of her car, and it was only after bystanders rushed to her defense that she was eventually permitted to leave. She said she is more careful now. But even after the experience, she returned to UNPFII this year. “I have to continue my work,” she said. “I see my meaning of life that way.”</p>
2616.  
2617.  
2618.  
2619. <p class="has-default-font-family">In July 2022, Yana Tannagasheva, an Indigenous Shor activist from Kemerovo Oblast, Russia, attended a U.N. meeting in Geneva to speak about the harms of coal mining in her community. After she spoke, Tannagasheva and other witnesses say <a href="https://srdefenders.org/russia-intimidation-of-ms-yana-tannagasheva-at-un-human-rights-council-joint-communication/">a Russian representative aggressively approached her</a> and demanded to know her name and personal contact information. Tannagasheva, who has lived in exile in Sweden for six years, says the experience shattered her sense of security. “It was so awful. I wanted to cry,” she said. “I was surprised it can happen during a U.N. session.”</p>
2620.  
2621.  
2622.  
2623. <p class="has-default-font-family">Representatives from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Republic of Nicaragua, the Russian Federation, and the United Republic of Tanzania did not respond to requests for comment.</p>
2624.  
2625.  
2626.  
2627. <p class="has-default-font-family">Binota Moy Dhamai, Tripura from the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh and the chair of the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrc-subsidiaries/expert-mechanism-on-indigenous-peoples">Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples</a>, said that reprisals threaten the entire international system and its goals. “If it continues like this then what is the meaning of talking about the sustainable development goals? What is the meaning of talking about peace-building?” he said.</p>
2628.  
2629.  
2630.  
2631. <p class="has-default-font-family">Despite the risks, Carlos Hendy Thomas, from Nicaragua, has no plans to give up his fight. In 2020, Hendy Thomas’ son, who would have inherited his title of hereditary chief, was murdered. The murder, which Hendy Thomas believes was orchestrated by the state because of his son’s defense of Miskitu land rights, was never investigated. Hendy Thomas, who lives in the United States, says he is not that worried about his own safety, even though he is concerned about his family back home. </p>
2632.  
2633.  
2634.  
2635. <p class="has-default-font-family">“I don’t really care about me,” he said. “They already killed my son. I’m afraid, but I’m speaking. If I don’t, who will?”</p>
2636. <p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/global-indigenous-affairs-desk/indigenous-leaders-are-risking-their-lives-to-speak-at-the-un/">Indigenous leaders are risking their lives to speak at the UN</a> on Apr 26, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
2640. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636129</post-id><timeToRead>8</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[A man faces away from the camera. He wears an elaborate feathered headdress and looks toward a large projector screen]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[]]></summary> </item>
2641. <item>
2642. <title>Rivers are the West’s largest source of clean energy. What happens when drought strikes?</title>
2643. <link>https://grist.org/drought/rivers-are-the-wests-largest-source-of-clean-energy-what-happens-when-drought-strikes/</link>
2645. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Syris Valentine]]></dc:creator>
2646. <pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2024 08:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
2647. <category><![CDATA[Drought]]></category>
2648. <category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
2649. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=635295</guid>
2650.  
2651. <description><![CDATA[With rivers across the West running low, utilities must get creative if they are to meet demand without increasing emissions.]]></description>
2652. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
2653. <p class="has-default-font-family">In Washington, a dozen dams dot the Columbia River — that mighty waterway carved through the state by <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70217223">a sequence of prehistoric superfloods</a>. Between those dams and the hundreds of others that plug the rivers and tributaries that lace the region, including California and Nevada, the Western United States accounts for most of <a href="https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/hydropower/where-hydropower-is-generated.php">the hydroelectric energy the country generates from the waters</a> flowing across its landscape. Washington alone captures more than a quarter of that; combined with Oregon and Idaho, the Pacific Northwest lays claim to well over two-fifths of America&#8217;s dam-derived electricity. So when a drought hits the region, the nation takes notice.</p>
2654.  
2655.  
2656.  
2657. <p class="has-default-font-family">That happened in 2023 when, according to a recent report, U.S. <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61645">hydroelectric power hit its lowest level in 22 years</a>. While the atmospheric rivers that poured across California provided the state with abundant energy, the Pacific Northwest endured low summer flows after a late-spring heat wave caused snowpack to melt and river levels to peak earlier than normal. Though dam turbines kept spinning throughout the year — proving that even <a href="https://grist.org/drought/will-western-hydropower-survive-drought/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">during a drought the nation&#8217;s hydro system remains reliable</a> — last year offered energy providers in the West a glimpse of the conditions they may need to adapt to as the world warms and seasonal weather patterns shift.</p>
2658.  
2659.  
2660.  
2661. <p class="has-default-font-family">While models predict climate change will plunge California and the Southwest deeper into drought, what awaits Washington and Oregon is less clear. The Pacific Northwest will get warmer. That much is certain. But in terms of the rain that places like Seattle and Portland are known for, things get fuzzier.</p>
2662.  
2663.  
2664. <div class="wp-block-in-article-recirc">
2665.  <article class="in-article-recirc">
2666.    <span class="in-article-recirc__label">Read Next</span>
2667.    <div class="in-article-recirc__content">
2668.  
2669.      
2670.      
2671.                    
2672.            <a class="in-article-recirc__art" href="https://grist.org/climate/national-climate-assessment-2023-us-regional-impacts-summary/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">
2673.        <figure>
2674.          <img src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1113_NCA_ClimateImpact.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all" alt="Map of United States showing region-specific climate impacts across the country"  class="js-modal-gallery__hidden" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1113_NCA_ClimateImpact.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1600w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1113_NCA_ClimateImpact.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1113_NCA_ClimateImpact.jpg?resize=330%2C186&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1113_NCA_ClimateImpact.jpg?resize=768%2C432&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1113_NCA_ClimateImpact.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1113_NCA_ClimateImpact.jpg?resize=160%2C90&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1113_NCA_ClimateImpact.jpg?resize=150%2C84&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 150w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" height="900" width="1600" loading="lazy" decoding="async">
2675.        </figure>
2676.      </a>
2677.            <div class="in-article-recirc__body">
2678.        <div class="in-article-recirc__title">
2679.                    <a class="in-article-recirc__title-link" href="https://grist.org/climate/national-climate-assessment-2023-us-regional-impacts-summary/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">How does climate change threaten where you live? A region-by-region guide.</a>
2680.        </div>
2681.        <div class="in-article-recirc__meta">
2682.          
2684.  <div class="tease-meta">
2685.                            <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/grist/>Grist staff</a>              </div>
2686.        </div>
2687.      </div>
2688.    </div>
2689.  </article>
2690. </div>
2691.  
2692.  
2693.  
2694. <p class="has-default-font-family">&#8220;Whenever you bring in water precipitation and you&#8217;re looking at climate model results, they go in all directions,&#8221; said Sean Turner, a water resources and hydropower engineer with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Evergreen and Beaver states could get drier or wetter — or both, depending on the time of year.</p>
2695.  
2696.  
2697.  
2698. <p class="has-default-font-family">Nathalie Voisin, chief scientist for water-energy dynamics at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, said much of the latest research suggests an increase in total annual hydroelectric power in the region, but, as Turner noted as well, uncertainties remain. &#8220;So as a trend, we see an increase&#8221; in annual precipitation, Voisin said, &#8220;but we also see an increase in variability of very wet years and very dry years.&#8221;</p>
2699.  
2700.  
2701.  
2702. <p class="has-default-font-family">Even during wet years, however, the water won&#8217;t fall in a gentle mist evenly distributed from new year to year end. The bulk of it, Voisin said, is expected to come from atmospheric rivers streaming overhead between fall and spring, with rivers running low in late summer as the snow and ice in the mountains that rim the region melt ever earlier and no longer keep the waters as high as they historically have.</p>
2703.  
2704.  
2705.  
2706. <p class="has-default-font-family">These are things that the Bonneville Power Administration — the federal agency responsible for selling energy from the 31 federally owned dams along the Columbia and its tributaries to utilities throughout the region — has a keen eye on. In <a href="https://www.bpa.gov/-/media/Aep/power/hydropower-data-studies/fs-202102-preparing-for-a-resilient-columbia-river-hydropower-system.pdf">a fact sheet</a> detailing the agency&#8217;s plans to ensure its hydropower resources remain resilient, the administration wrote, &#8220;By the 2030s, higher average fall and winter flows, earlier peak spring runoff, and longer periods of low summer flows are very likely.&#8221; Those times of lower hydroelectric generation will coincide with periods when rising temps are expected to drive people to demand more from their thermostats to keep comfortable.</p>
2707.  
2708.  
2709.  
2710. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/hydro-power-pacific-northwest-columbia-river-climate-change-drought-power.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/hydro-power-pacific-northwest-columbia-river-climate-change-drought-power.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/hydro-power-pacific-northwest-columbia-river-climate-change-drought-power.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/hydro-power-pacific-northwest-columbia-river-climate-change-drought-power.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/hydro-power-pacific-northwest-columbia-river-climate-change-drought-power.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/hydro-power-pacific-northwest-columbia-river-climate-change-drought-power.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/hydro-power-pacific-northwest-columbia-river-climate-change-drought-power.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/hydro-power-pacific-northwest-columbia-river-climate-change-drought-power.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640&amp;h=853&amp;crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/hydro-power-pacific-northwest-columbia-river-climate-change-drought-power.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/hydro-power-pacific-northwest-columbia-river-climate-change-drought-power.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/hydro-power-pacific-northwest-columbia-river-climate-change-drought-power.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w" alt="The Grand Coulee Dam is seen through the windows of the dam's visitor center." data-caption="The Grand Coulee Dam is seen through the windows of the dam’s visitor center.
2711. " data-credit="Don and Melinda Crawford / Education Images / Universal Images Group via Getty Images"/><figcaption>The Grand Coulee Dam is seen through the windows of the dam’s visitor center.
2712. <cite>Don and Melinda Crawford / Education Images / Universal Images Group via Getty Images</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
2713.  
2714.  
2715.  
2716. <p class="has-default-font-family">Given this, if Western states like California, Washington, and Oregon are to meet the 2045 goals for 100 percent clean energy they&#8217;ve set, their utilities are going to have to get creative. As it is, when hydropower fails to meet demand, <a href="https://grist.org/energy/western-drought-hydropower-emissions-study/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist"><span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips3'>methane</span>, also known as natural gas, tends to fill the gap</a> — even if power companies can&#8217;t say for sure that that&#8217;s their backstop.</p>
2717.  
2718.  
2719.  
2720. <p class="has-default-font-family">Seattle City Light, for instance, which <a href="https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/CityLight/FingertipFacts.pdf">provides electricity to over 900,000 people</a> across much of the Seattle area, reportedly has been <a href="https://www.seattle.gov/city-light/environment/climate-change-response">carbon neutral since 2005</a> thanks in large part to an energy mix that is <a href="https://www.seattle.gov/city-light/energy/power-supply-and-delivery">nearly 90 percent hydropower</a> — around half of which is supplied by Bonneville Power. But with its standard fleet of hydroelectric plants generating below average, Siobhan Doherty, the utility’s director of power management, said it has had to procure new sources of energy to ensure it can comfortably meet customers&#8217; needs. A fair portion of that power comes from other dams in the area, but some of it is also provided by what Doherty called &#8220;unspecified&#8221; sources purchased from other providers.</p>
2721.  
2722.  
2723.  
2724. <p class="has-default-font-family">Across the West, when utilities like Seattle City Light purchase energy to cover hydropower shortfalls, most of it comes from gas-powered peaker plants, according to Minghao Qiu, an environmental scientist at Stanford University. As a result, emissions rise. Over the 20-year period examined in a study of how <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2300395120">droughts impact grid emissions</a>, Qiu and his colleagues found that temporary prolonged hydropower declines led to 121 million tons of carbon emissions. Qiu also found that the plants belching all that pollution often lay far from where the energy is needed.</p>
2725.  
2726.  
2727.  
2728. <p class="has-default-font-family">While the seemingly obvious solution to this challenge is to rapidly deploy wind and solar, Qiu found that this didn&#8217;t actually solve the problem.</p>
2729.  
2730.  
2731.  
2732. <p class="has-default-font-family">&#8220;So what really happened there is an implicit market that whoever can generate the electricity with the lowest costs are going to generate first,&#8221; Qiu said. This means that solar and wind will send all the energy they can because <a href="https://www.irena.org/news/pressreleases/2022/Jul/Renewable-Power-Remains-Cost-Competitive-amid-Fossil-Fuel-Crisis">they&#8217;re by far the cheapest</a>; hydropower then provides what it can, followed by fossil fuels like methane to plug any holes. &#8220;So when hydropower sort of declines,&#8221; Qiu said, &#8220;the wind power and solar power is already maxed out,&#8221; typically leaving gas plants as the remaining option.</p>
2733.  
2734.  
2735.  
2736. <p class="has-default-font-family">Nonetheless, in a bid to keep its grid carbon-free in the long term, Seattle City Light recently signed agreements to buy energy from two independent solar projects, each with at least 40 megawatts of capacity, and is negotiating other, similar arrangements. The fact Bonneville Power has seen a sharp rise in requests from renewable energy developers to connect to its transmission lines suggests other utilities in the region are exploring similar deals.</p>
2737.  
2738.  
2739.  
2740. <p class="has-default-font-family">While those solar farms, in a sense, address the demands that hydro alone can&#8217;t meet, the West&#8217;s dams help make utility-scale renewables work. Regardless of the inevitable expansion and improvement of turbine and photovoltaic technology, wind and solar will always be intermittent and weather-dependent. In those moments when the gusts stop blowing and the sun stops shining, something has to top off the grid. “Hydro does that better than anything,&#8221; Turner said.</p>
2741.  
2742.  
2743.  
2744. <p class="has-default-font-family">Many of the dams administered by Bonneville Power are already equipped to spin up or down as demand dictates, and their ability to meet these moments was perhaps no more apparent than during the <a href="https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/northwest/topic/2021-northwest-heat-dome-causes-impacts-and-future-outlook">lethal heat dome</a> that gripped the Pacific Northwest for one blistering week in June 2021. As <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/06/29/1011269025/photos-the-pacific-northwest-heatwave-is-melting-power-cables-and-buckling-roads">streets cracked and power lines melted</a>, the region&#8217;s homebound populations drove electricity demand to record levels. To keep the grid going, Bonneville Power relied on the <a href="https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article285246222.html">controversial dams</a> along the lower Snake River. The agency <a href="https://www.bpa.gov/-/media/Aep/about/publications/news-releases/20210722-pr-10-21-lower-snake-river-dams-help-region-power-through-recent-heatwave.pdf">released a statement</a> a month after the heat wave, revealing how critical the four lower Snake River dams were during that disaster. At times, they provided well over 1,000 megawatts of power, which is roughly the average draw in Seattle. And while there are <a href="https://www.popsci.com/story/environment/removing-american-dams/">credible reasons to remove the dams</a>, Bonneville Power said that without those resources it likely would have had to resort to rolling blackouts to ensure the system wasn&#8217;t pushed past its limits.</p>
2745.  
2746.  
2747.  
2748. <p class="has-default-font-family">That experience, and the many more like it that are sure to come, suggest that even as year-to-year dips impact the nation’s dams, the power they provide will long remain a critical component of a carbon-free future.</p>
2749. <script type="text/javascript"> toolTips('.classtoolTips3',' A powerful greenhouse gas that accounts for about 16% of global emissions, methane is the primary component of natural gas and is emitted into the atmosphere by landfills, oil and natural gas systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, and wastewater treatment, among other pathways. Over short periods, it is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.<br/>'); </script><p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/drought/rivers-are-the-wests-largest-source-of-clean-energy-what-happens-when-drought-strikes/">Rivers are the West’s largest source of clean energy. What happens when drought strikes?</a> on Apr 26, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
2753. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">635295</post-id><timeToRead>7</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[Water pours from the Dalles Dam on the Columbia River in Washington.]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[]]></summary> </item>
2754. <item>
2755. <title>Republican attorneys general mount a new attack on the EPA’s use of civil rights law</title>
2756. <link>https://grist.org/regulation/republican-attorneys-general-epa-civil-rights-law/</link>
2758. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Lylla Younes]]></dc:creator>
2759. <pubDate>Thu, 25 Apr 2024 08:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
2760. <category><![CDATA[Regulation]]></category>
2761. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=636102</guid>
2762.  
2763. <description><![CDATA[Twenty-three states want the Biden administration's EPA to curtail its approach to environmental justice.]]></description>
2764. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
2765. <p class="has-default-font-family">For much of its 53-year history, the Environmental Protection Agency let civil rights complaints languish. From Flint, Michigan, to the industrial corridors of the Deep South, communities attempting to use federal civil rights law to clean up the pollution in their neighborhoods were largely met with years of silence as their cases piled up in the agency’s backlog. That changed in 2020, after a federal judge ruled that the EPA must conduct timely investigations of civil rights complaints, and staffers began looking into cases where they identified potential discrimination.&nbsp;</p>
2766.  
2767.  
2768.  
2769. <p class="has-default-font-family">Now, a slate of red-state attorneys general are trying to stop the EPA from taking race into account at all. Twenty-three Republican attorneys general filed <a href="https://www.myfloridalegal.com/sites/default/files/2024-04/epa-title-vi-comment-final.pdf">a petition</a> with the Biden administration&#8217;s EPA last week asking the agency to stop using Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to regulate pollution. Advocates described the move, spearheaded by Florida’s Ashley Moody, as an attempt to strip the EPA of an avenue for tackling environmental justice, which the agency defines as “the just treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of income, race, color, national origin, tribal affiliation, or disability, in agency decision-making.” In their petition, the Republican attorneys general argued that in practice, environmental justice “asks the states to engage in racial engineering.”</p>
2770.  
2771.  
2772.  
2773. <p class="has-default-font-family">The petition “reads as the next step in a series of actions designed to undermine our civil rights laws,” said Debbie Chizewer, an attorney at Earthjustice leading the organization’s efforts on Title VI. She described petitions to the EPA as important legal mechanisms to compel the agency to act. “It’s a real tool,” she said. “This is an abuse of that tool.”</p>
2774.  
2775.  
2776.  
2777. <p class="has-default-font-family">Moody’s office told the Associated Press that the attorneys general would sue the EPA if it didn’t change its ways.&nbsp;</p>
2778.  
2779.  
2780.  
2781. <p class="has-default-font-family">The most recent high profile civil rights complaint submitted to the EPA came from residents of Cancer Alley, the stretch of land on the lower Mississippi River in southeast Louisiana home to hundreds of industrial facilities, including a notorious plant owned by the Japanese chemical giant Denka. Starting in the fall of 2022, the EPA spent months negotiating with Louisiana’s environmental and health regulators about how to ease the toxic pollution around Denka and other plants that surround the region’s predominantly Black towns. But the whole process <a href="https://grist.org/equity/civil-rights-cancer-alley-louisiana-epa/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">was called off</a> after then-Louisiana Attorney General&nbsp; Jeff Landry (now the state’s governor) filed suit in May 2023.</p>
2782.  
2783.  
2784.  
2785. <p class="has-default-font-family">Landry’s lawsuit attacked decades-old policies on environmental racism, challenging the EPA’s authority to regulate under Title VI. Even though the EPA dropped the complaint in June, the state pursued its litigation, and <a href="https://aglizmurrill.com/Article/13180?ref=floodlightnews.org">a federal judge ruled in Louisiana’s favor</a> in January. Judge James Cain said that Louisiana and its “sister states” had found themselves “at the whim of the EPA and its overreaching mandates.”&nbsp;</p>
2786.  
2787.  
2788.  
2789. <p class="has-default-font-family">Considered one of the most important provisions of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, Title VI <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/fcs/TitleVI">prohibits discrimination</a> on the basis of race, color, and national origin in any program that receives funding from the federal government. This includes state agencies, which use federal dollars to administer pollution prevention laws such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. Chizewer described the provision as vital, because “our environmental laws are not protecting all communities. ZIP codes determine your exposure to environmental harms and Title VI provides a backstop to eliminate that.”&nbsp;</p>
2790.  
2791.  
2792.  
2793. <p class="has-default-font-family">Recent attacks on the EPA’s use of Title VI can be traced back to the final days of the Trump administration, when the Department of Justice <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/civil-rights-act-disparate-impact-discrimination/2021/01/05/4f57001a-4fc1-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzEzMzI2NDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzE0NzA4Nzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MTMzMjY0MDAsImp0aSI6ImIzMGY5ODY3LWIzOGEtNDE3OS1hMzU1LTc1MGNhNTJiZWU1NSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9lZHVjYXRpb24vY2l2aWwtcmlnaHRzLWFjdC1kaXNwYXJhdGUtaW1wYWN0LWRpc2NyaW1pbmF0aW9uLzIwMjEvMDEvMDUvNGY1NzAwMWEtNGZjMS0xMWViLWJkYTQtNjE1YWFlZmQwNTU1X3N0b3J5Lmh0bWwifQ.GZPiwKP2uLs3LTAjDV1so3YnSp7Juz99OnWhmMqMTok&amp;ref=floodlightnews.org">attempted to push through</a> a rule that would have changed the interpretation of Title VI to only cover intentional discrimination. For decades, federal agencies like the EPA have interpreted Title VI to include in their definition of discrimination “disparate impacts,” the idea that a policy or an agency decision can disproportionately hurt a specific group of people, regardless of whether it&#8217;s deliberate. The legal argument underpinning the Trump administration’s rule, as well as the Louisiana lawsuit and the most recent petition, is based on the Supreme Court case Alexander v. Sandoval. The 2001 decision, written by the late Justice Antonin Scalia, said that private citizens do not have the right to sue parties under Title VI, meaning the law’s protections could only be advanced by agencies like the EPA. The Republican attorneys general now want to peel back the agency’s ability to use Title VI, too.&nbsp;</p>
2794.  
2795.  
2796.  
2797. <p class="has-default-font-family">Claire Glenn, a criminal defense attorney with a background in civil rights law, told Grist that the disparate impact interpretation of Title VI is necessary for keeping communities safe, since companies are wary of appearing discriminatory.&nbsp;</p>
2798.  
2799.  
2800.  
2801. <p class="has-default-font-family">“We&#8217;re in an era where intentional discrimination is increasingly hard to prove, but discriminatory impacts are not going away,” Glenn said.</p>
2802.  
2803.  
2804.  
2805. <p class="has-default-font-family">Title VI is one of a handful of federal regulations that can be used to protect communities from toxic pollution. The Clean Air Act requires states to regulate plants by industry, with each type of facility required to abide by certain standards that limit their emissions. But when companies try to build plants in already polluted areas, Title VI can be used to stop local governments from granting them permits. Over the past five years, the chemical industry <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/louisiana-toxic-air/">has made a concerted effort</a> to expand its footprint in Louisiana. Since the EPA dropped its Title VI case there, residents and advocates have had to find new ways to fight the expansion.&nbsp;</p>
2806.  
2807.  
2808.  
2809. <div id="wisepops-weekly-signup" class="wp-block-grist-wisepops-target-block" style="padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-bottom:0.5rem"></div>
2810.  
2811.  
2812.  
2813. <p class="has-default-font-family">The EPA has not yet acknowledged Florida’s petition publicly. Chizewer said that the agency could choose to reject it out of hand, or accept it and start a process to change its own regulations.&nbsp;</p>
2814.  
2815.  
2816.  
2817. <p class="has-default-font-family">“I think it’s a test for the EPA,” Chizewer said. “The EPA needs to stand firm and show the importance of this tool.”</p>
2818. <p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/regulation/republican-attorneys-general-epa-civil-rights-law/">Republican attorneys general mount a new attack on the EPA’s use of civil rights law</a> on Apr 25, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
2822. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">636102</post-id><timeToRead>5</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[Smoke billows from one of many chemical plants in the area of Cancer Alley in Baton Rouge, Louisiana]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[For much of its 53-year history, the Environmental Protection Agency let civil rights complaints languish. From Flint, Michigan to the industrial corridors of the Deep South, communities attempting to use federal civil rights law to clean up the pollution in their neighborhoods were largely met with years of silence as their cases piled up in the agency’s backlog. That changed in 2020, after a federal judge ruled that the EPA must conduct timely investigations of civil rights complaints, and staffers began looking into cases where they identified potential discrimination.
2823. <br><br>
2824. Now, a slate of red-state attorneys generals are trying to stop the EPA from taking race into account at all. Twenty-three Republican attorneys general filed a petition with the Biden administration’s EPA last week asking the agency to stop using Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to regulate pollution.
2825. <br><br>
2826. Considered one of the most important provisions of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in any program that receives funding from the federal government. Title VI is one of a handful of federal regulations that can be used to protect communities from toxic pollution.]]></summary> </item>
2827. <item>
2828. <title>The more plastic companies make, the more they pollute</title>
2829. <link>https://grist.org/science/the-more-plastic-companies-make-the-more-they-pollute/</link>
2831. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Winters]]></dc:creator>
2832. <pubDate>Wed, 24 Apr 2024 18:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
2833. <category><![CDATA[Accountability]]></category>
2834. <category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
2835. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://grist.org/?p=635940</guid>
2836.  
2837. <description><![CDATA[A new study, drawing on five years of data collected across 84 countries, proves what seems self-evident.]]></description>
2838. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
2839. <p class="has-default-font-family">The more plastic a company makes, the more pollution it creates.</p>
2840.  
2841.  
2842.  
2843. <p class="has-default-font-family">That seemingly obvious, yet previously unproven, point, is the main takeaway from a <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adj8275">first-of-its-kind study</a> published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. Researchers from a dozen universities around the world found that, for every 1 percent increase in the amount of plastic a company uses, there is an associated 1 percent increase in its contribution to global plastic litter.</p>
2844.  
2845.  
2846.  
2847. <p class="has-default-font-family">In other words, if Coca-Cola is producing one-tenth of the world’s plastic, the research predicts that the beverage behemoth is responsible for about a tenth of the identifiable plastic litter on beaches or in parks, rivers, and other ecosystems.</p>
2848.  
2849.  
2850.  
2851. <p class="has-default-font-family">That finding “shook me up a lot, I was really distraught,” said Win Cowger, a researcher at the Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research and the study’s lead author. It suggests that companies’ loudly proclaimed efforts to reduce their plastic footprint “aren’t doing much at all” and that more is needed to make them scale down the amount of plastic they produce.</p>
2852.  
2853.  
2854.  
2855. <p class="has-default-font-family">Significantly, it supports calls from delegates to the United Nations global plastics treaty —&nbsp;which is undergoing its <a href="https://grist.org/looking-forward/on-the-agenda-this-earth-day-a-global-treaty-to-end-plastic-pollution/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">fourth round of discussions in Ottawa, Canada</a>, through Tuesday — to restrict production as a primary means to “end plastic pollution.”</p>
2856.  
2857.  
2858.  
2859. <p class="has-default-font-family">“What the data is saying is that if the status quo doesn’t change in a huge way — if social norms around the rapid consumption and production of new materials don’t change — we won’t see what we want,” Cowger told Grist.</p>
2860.  
2861.  
2862. <div class="wp-block-in-article-recirc">
2863.  <article class="in-article-recirc">
2864.    <span class="in-article-recirc__label">Read Next</span>
2865.    <div class="in-article-recirc__content">
2866.  
2867.      
2868.      
2869.                    
2870.            <a class="in-article-recirc__art" href="https://grist.org/accountability/petrochemical-companies-have-known-for-40-years-that-plastics-recycling-wouldnt-work/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">
2871.        <figure>
2872.          <img src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/box-of-recyclables.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all" alt="Blue box full of plastic and paper"  class="js-modal-gallery__hidden" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/box-of-recyclables.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1600w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/box-of-recyclables.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/box-of-recyclables.jpg?resize=330%2C186&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/box-of-recyclables.jpg?resize=768%2C432&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/box-of-recyclables.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/box-of-recyclables.jpg?resize=160%2C90&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/box-of-recyclables.jpg?resize=150%2C84&#038;quality=75&#038;strip=all 150w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" height="900" width="1600" loading="lazy" decoding="async">
2873.        </figure>
2874.      </a>
2875.            <div class="in-article-recirc__body">
2876.        <div class="in-article-recirc__title">
2877.                    <a class="in-article-recirc__title-link" href="https://grist.org/accountability/petrochemical-companies-have-known-for-40-years-that-plastics-recycling-wouldnt-work/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grist">Petrochemical companies have known for 40 years that plastics recycling wouldn&#8217;t work</a>
2878.        </div>
2879.        <div class="in-article-recirc__meta">
2880.          
2882.  <div class="tease-meta">
2883.                            <a class="byline-link" href=https://grist.org/author/joseph-winters/>Joseph Winters</a>              </div>
2884.        </div>
2885.      </div>
2886.    </div>
2887.  </article>
2888. </div>
2889.  
2890.  
2891.  
2892. <p class="has-default-font-family">That plastic production should be correlated with plastic pollution is intuitive, but until now there has been little quantitative research to prove it — especially on a company-by-company basis. Perhaps the most significant related research in this area appeared in a 2020 paper published in Environmental Science and Technology showing that <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b04812">overall marine plastic pollution was growing alongside global plastic production</a>. Other research since then has documented the rapidly expanding “<a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0281596">plastic smog</a>” in the world’s oceans and forecasted a <a href="https://www.grida.no/resources/15041">surge in plastic production</a> over the next several decades.</p>
2893.  
2894.  
2895.  
2896. <p class="has-default-font-family">The Sciences Advances article draws on more than 1,500 “<a href="https://brandaudit.breakfreefromplastic.org/">brand audits</a>” coordinated between 2018 and 2022 by Break Free From Plastic, a coalition of more than 3,000 environmental organizations. Volunteers across 84 countries collected more than 1.8 million pieces of plastic waste and counted the number of items contributed by specific companies.&nbsp;</p>
2897.  
2898.  
2899.  
2900. <p class="has-default-font-family">About half of the litter that volunteers collected couldn’t be tied to a specific company, either because it never had a logo or because its branding had faded or worn off. Among the rest, a small handful of companies — mostly in the food and beverage sector —&nbsp;turned up most often. The top polluters were Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Danone, Altria — the parent company of Philip Morris USA — and Philip Morris International (which is a separate company that sells many of the same products).</p>
2901.  
2902.  
2903.  
2904. <p class="has-default-font-family">More than 1 in 10 of the pieces came from Coca-Cola, the top polluter by a significant margin. Overall, just 56 companies were responsible for half of the plastic bearing identifiable branding.</p>
2905.  
2906.  
2907.  
2908. <p class="has-default-font-family">The researchers plotted each company’s contribution to plastic pollution&nbsp;against its contribution to global plastic production (defined by mass, rather than the number of items). The result was the tidy, one-to-one relationship between production and pollution that caused Cowger so much distress.</p>
2909.  
2910.  
2911.  
2912. <figure class="wp-block-ups-image aligncenter"><div class="wp-block-ups-image-inner"><img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/correlation.svg?quality=75&amp;strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 342.93601px) 100vw, 342.93601px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/correlation.svg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/correlation.svg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=160&amp;h=90&amp;crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/correlation.svg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=96&amp;h=96&amp;crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/correlation.svg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/correlation.svg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 342.93601w" alt="Graph showing plastic pollution rising with plastic production" data-caption="Log-log linear regressions and point plot for the relationship between the percent of global plastic mass produced by companies (x axis) and the mean percent of the total branded plastic found in the audit events (y axis). " data-credit="Courtesy of Win Cowger"/><figcaption>Log-log linear regressions and point plot for the relationship between the percent of global plastic mass produced by companies (x axis) and the mean percent of the total branded plastic found in the audit events (y axis).  <cite>Courtesy of Win Cowger</cite></figcaption></div></figure>
2913.  
2914.  
2915.  
2916. <p class="has-default-font-family">Many of the top polluters identified in the study have made voluntary commitments to address their outsize plastic footprint. Coca-Cola, for example, says it aims to reduce its use of “<a href="https://www.coca-colacompany.com/sustainability/packaging-sustainability/design">virgin plastic derived from nonrenewable sources</a>” by 3 million metric tons over the next five years, and to sell a quarter of its beverages in <a href="https://www.coca-colacompany.com/media-center/coca-cola-announces-industry-leading-target-for-reusable-packaging">reusable or refillable containers</a> by 2030. By that date the company also aims to collect and recycle a bottle or can for each one it sells. Pepsi has a similar target to <a href="https://contact.pepsico.com/pepsico/article/pepsico-recycling-and-sustainability-initiatives">reduce virgin plastic use to 20 percent below a 2018 baseline</a> by the end of the decade. Nestlé says it had reduced virgin plastic use by 10.5 percent as of 2022, and plans to achieve further reductions by 2025.</p>
2917.  
2918.  
2919.  
2920. <p class="has-default-font-family">In response to Grist’s request for comment, a spokesperson for Coca-Cola listed several of the company’s targets to reduce plastic packaging, increased recycled content, and scale up reusable alternatives. “We care about the impact of every drink we sell and are committed to growing our business in the right way,” the spokesperson said.</p>
2921.  
2922.  
2923.  
2924. <p class="has-default-font-family">Similarly, a PepsiCo representative said the company aims to “reduce the packaging we use, scale reusable models, and partner to further develop collection and recycling systems.” They affirmed Pepsi’s support for an “ambitious and binding” U.N. treaty to “help address plastic pollution.”</p>
2925.  
2926.  
2927.  
2928. <p class="has-default-font-family">In a response provided after publication of this story, Altria said it believes the study is &#8220;fundamentally incorrect&#8221; because Phillip Morris USA operates only in the US, yet the study includes data from more than 80 countries. &#8220;So, it is impossible for Altria and PM USA to be responsible for 2% of global branded plastics pollution this study reports. In fact, for the U.S. data, Altria is not on the list of the top companies, further demonstrating this study is inaccurately attributing plastic waste found internationally to our companies.&#8221;</p>
2929.  
2930.  
2931.  
2932. <p class="has-default-font-family">Two of the other top polluting companies did not respond to a request for comment.</p>
2933.  
2934.  
2935.  
2936. <p class="has-default-font-family">It’s worth noting that many of the companies’ plans involve replacing virgin plastic with recycled material. This does not necessarily address the problem outlined in the Science Advances study, since plastic products are no less likely to become litter just because they’re made of recycled content. There’s also a limit to the number of times plastic can be recycled — experts say just <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/is-it-possible-to-recycle-plastics-an-infinite-number-of-times">two or three times</a> —&nbsp;before it must be sent to a landfill or an incinerator. Many plastic items cannot be recycled at all.</p>
2937.  
2938.  
2939.  
2940. <p class="has-default-font-family">Richard Thompson, a professor of marine biology at the University of Plymouth in the U.K., commended the researchers for making “a very useful contribution to our understanding about the link between production and pollution.” He said the findings could shape regulations to make companies financially responsible for plastic waste —&nbsp;based on the specific amount they contribute to the environment.</p>
2941.  
2942.  
2943.  
2944. <p class="has-default-font-family">The findings could also inform this week’s negotiations for the U.N. global plastics treaty, where delegates are continuing to spar over whether and how to restrict production. According to Cowger, if the treaty really aims to “end plastic pollution” —&nbsp;as it states in its mandate —&nbsp;then negotiators will need to think beyond voluntary measures and regulate big producers.&nbsp;</p>
2945.  
2946.  
2947.  
2948. <p class="has-default-font-family">“It’s not going to be Coca-Cola or some other big company saying, ‘I’m gonna reduce my plastic by 2030, you’ll see,’” Cowger told Grist. “It’s gonna be a country that says, ‘If you don’t reduce by 2030, you’re going to get hit with a huge fine.’”</p>
2949.  
2950.  
2951.  
2952. <p class="has-default-font-family"><em>This story has been updated to include responses from PepsiCo and Altria.</em></p>
2953. <p class="grist-story-credit">This story was originally published by <a href="https://grist.org">Grist</a> with the headline <a href="https://grist.org/science/the-more-plastic-companies-make-the-more-they-pollute/">The more plastic companies make, the more they pollute</a> on Apr 24, 2024.</p>]]></content:encoded>
2957. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">635940</post-id><timeToRead>6</timeToRead><imageCaption><![CDATA[Three people bend over pile of collected plastic items, with trash in background]]></imageCaption><summary><![CDATA[]]></summary> </item>
2958. </channel>
2959. </rss>
2960.