What's New List Serve Post Display
Below is the List Serve Post you selected to display.
newsclips -- ARB Newsclips for June 6, 2016
Posted: 06 Jun 2016 11:23:07
This is a service of the California Air Resources Board’s Office of Communications. You may need to sign in or register with individual websites to view some of the following news articles. AIR POLLUTION NASA Found 39 Unreported Man-Made Sources of Toxic Air Pollution. NASA's satellites also function as an observatory for climate change and weather behavior on Earth. These satellites were proven to be helpful in the recent findings by NASA scientists in partnership with the Environment and Climate Change Canada, who discovered that there are 39 unreported sources of toxic air pollution on Earth. http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/23293/20160606/nasa-found-39-unreported-man-made-sources-of-toxic-air-pollution.htm EU dilutes proposal to halve air pollution deaths after UK lobbying. EU states have agreed to water down a proposed law aimed at halving the number of deaths from air pollution within 15 years, after intense lobbying from the UK that cross-party MEPs have condemned as “appalling”. Some 14,000 people will die prematurely every year across Europe from 2030 as a result, if the weakened proposal is implemented, according to figures cited by the environment commissioner, Karmenu Vella. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/03/eu-dilutes-proposal-halve-air-pollution-deaths-uk-lobbying EPA: Coal-fired power plants need new pollution controls. Federal regulators are requiring new pollution controls at Utah's oldest coal-fired power plants to reduce haze near national parks. The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday it would require new equipment to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions at Rocky Mountain Power's Hunter and Huntington power plants in Emery County. http://www.latimes.com/travel/cruises/sns-bc-ut--coal-plants-pollution-rules-20160602-story.html Air Pollution May Increase The Risk Of High Blood Pressure. Exposure to air pollutants like vehicle exhaust and burning of fossil fuels may increase the risk of high blood pressure in humans, reports a recent study. Researchers noted that both long and short term exposure to air pollution have roles to play in increasing blood pressure. The Chinese researchers analyzed 17 different studies conducted earlier to find the association between air pollution and hypertension. The findings were published in the American Heart Association's journal Hypertension. http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/41278/20160603/air-pollution-increase-risk-high-blood-pressure.htm Many SoCal Gas wells leak, but air quality cops have little recourse. The agency that enforces air quality laws in the Los Angeles Basin has determined that many natural gas storage wells operated by Southern California Gas Company are leaking some amount of methane. But inspectors with the South Coast Air Quality Management District currently don't have the authority to cite the company for violating air pollution laws. http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/06/03/61296/many-socal-gas-wells-leak-but-air-quality-cops-hav/ Calabasas fire that burned 516 acres is mostly contained. The Old Fire is 75 percent contained, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. And it turns out that only two buildings — one home and one commercial building — were destroyed in the blaze. The L.A. County Department of Public Health has issued an air quality advisory for the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley and surrounding areas. In areas where there is visible smoke or the odor of smoke, all people should avoid unnecessary outdoor exposure and limit physical exertion (whether indoor or outdoor), such as exercise. This is especially true for people with heart disease, asthma or other respiratory disease, who should stay indoors as much as possible even in areas where smoke, soot or ash cannot be seen. Schools and non-school related sports organizations have been advised to suspend outside physical activities in these areas. http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/06/05/61342/calabasas-fire-burns-200-acres-evacuations-ordered/ Thanks To These Fort Collins 5th-Graders Wearable Air Quality Sensors May Be In Our Future. Colorado State University researchers are working on finding new ways to measure air quality. To help pilot a new wearable air quality monitor, they’ve turned to people like Katherine Steger. The thing is, Steger is a fifth-grader. “Eventually the hissing noise it would make when it would suck in the air became kind of soothing to me, helped me go to sleep at night, it really sort of helped me,” she told a CSU asthma researcher in a focus group at the end of the study. “I didn’t notice it was there.” http://www.kunc.org/post/thanks-these-fort-collins-5th-graders-wearable-air-quality-sensors-may-be-our-future#stream/0 CLIMATE CHANGE China Prods U.S. to Do More on Climate Change for Poorer Nations. China said the U.S. should do more to help developing nations to cope with climate change and bring the Paris deal on greenhouse gases into force, raising an issue that has divided the main presidential contenders. Speaking in Beijing, one of China’s top climate envoys also praised the U.S. for its efforts to rein in emissions damaging the Earth’s atmosphere and noted that both countries worked together to seal the agreement in Paris in December. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-06/china-prods-u-s-to-do-more-on-climate-change-for-poorer-nations Statue of Liberty washed away. A sunken Venice. New climate change report suggests it’s possible. The catastrophes seem like the stuff Roland Emmerich’s dreams are made of: In the United States, Yellowstone National Park morphs from thick woods to sparser brushland in the aftermath of frequent and furious forest fires. In Italy, Venice sinks beneath a swelling Adriatic Sea. In England, Stonehenge tumbles to the ground when the local mole and badger populations explode, and their burrows weaken the earth beneath the 5,000-year-old rock monuments. http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article80334832.html ENERGY Energy bill prospects dim in dispute over drilling, drought Congressional efforts to approve the first major energy bill in nearly a decade are in jeopardy amid a partisan dispute over oil drilling, water for drought-stricken California and potential rollback of protections for the gray wolf and other wildlife. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/APFN_US_CONGRESS_ENERGY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT FUELS Fertilizer use could reduce climate benefit of cellulosic biofuels. According to a new, three-year study from the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and Michigan State University (MSU), the use of nitrogen fertilizer on switchgrass crops can produce a sharp increase in emissions of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas up to 300 times more harmful than carbon dioxide and a significant driver of global climate change. Switchgrass is one of several crops poised to become a feedstock for the production of "cellulosic biofuels" – i.e., fuels derived from grasses, wood, or the non-food portion of plants. Though touted for being a clean energy alternative to both fossil fuels and corn ethanol, cellulosic biofuel comes with its share of complexities. A lot of its environmental benefit depends, for starters, on how its crops are grown. http://phys.org/news/2016-06-fertilizer-climate-benefit-cellulosic-biofuels.html MISCELLANEOUS AQMD board opposes bill to add 'environmental justice' members and urges feds to clean up truck emissions. Southern California’s air quality board has come under criticism for a political shift that critics say has made it too friendly to polluting industries. Earlier this week, the state Senate approved a bill aimed at changing the balance. On Friday, the South Coast Air Quality Management District board pushed back with an attempt to defeat the legislation, which would add three state-appointed “environmental justice” members to its ranks. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-aqmd-bill-20160603-snap-story.html Was There an Ice Age in the Southern Hemisphere? Yes, the most recent ice age affected the Southern Hemisphere as well, saidJoerg M. Schaefer, a climate scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. But there were big differences between hemispheres in this and other glacial periods. The effects of ice ages in the Northern Hemisphere are more extensive because it is “land-dominated, with lots of continents, whereas the south is mostly ocean,” Dr. Schaefer said. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/07/science/was-there-an-ice-age-in-the-southern-hemisphere.html OPINIONS Green energy won't bring about oil's doom: Bloomberg View. For hydrocarbon doomsayers, there's good news and bad news. In 2015, there were record investments in renewable energy, and record capacity was added, much of it in emerging economies. Yet despite the huge investment, the global share of fossil fuels is not shrinking very fast. Renewables such as wind, solar and geothermal still account for a tiny share of energy production, and there are factors that may inhibit their growth in the next few years. http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/06/green_energy_wont_bring_about.html BLOGS The Louvre's closure proves art cannot survive climate change. One of the oldest human illusions is that culture is a conquest of, or an escape from, nature. It is an illusion we need to abandon fast. We might nurture some desperate dream that, as the benign post-ice age climate that has made civilisation possible is destroyed by our own folly and greed, our own creations will survive. That in some no longer distant future the Mona Lisa and the Arnolfini portrait, the works of Shakespeare and the scores of Beethoven’s operas will still be safe in museums and archives and great libraries. In short, that civilisation’s treasures will survive the flood. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2016/jun/06/louvre-closure-flooding-paris-climate-change California is in a drought emergency. Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.