Category: Environment

Lake Powell dips to historic low amid drought

Associated Press

Lake Powell dips to historic low amid drought

The lake is facing a new set of challenges having reached a record low of 3,553 feet last week

A white band of newly exposed rock is shown along the canyon walls at Lake Powell at Antelope Point Marina on Friday, July 30, 2021, near Page, Ariz. AP PHOTO/RICK BOWMER

 

It’s a stark reminder of how far the water level has fallen at the massive reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border. Just last year, it was more than 50 feet (15 meters) higher. Now, the level at the popular destination for houseboat vacations is at a historic low amid a climate change-fueled mega-drought engulfing the U.S. West.

At Lake Powell, tents are tucked along shorelines that haven’t seen water for years. Bright-colored jet skis fly across the water, passing kayakers, water skiers and fishermen under a blistering desert sun. Closed boat ramps have forced some houseboats off the lake, leaving tourists and businesses scrambling. One ramp is so far above the water, people have to carry kayaks and stand-up paddleboards down a steep cliff face to reach the surface.

Houseboat rental companies have had to cancel their bookings through August — one of their most popular months — after the National Park Service, which manages the lake, barred people from launching the vessels in mid-July.

At the popular main launch point on Wahweap Bay, the bottom of the concrete ramp has been extended with steel pipes so boats can still get on the lake, but that solution will only last another week or two, the park service said.

“It’s really sad that they’re allowing such a beautiful, beautiful place to fall apart,” said Bob Reed, who runs touring company Up Lake Adventures.

Lake Powell is the second-largest reservoir in the United States, right behind Nevada’s Lake Mead, which also stores water from the Colorado River. Both are shrinking faster than expected, a dire concern for a seven-state region that relies on the river to supply water to 40 million people and a $5 billion-a-year agricultural industry.

They are among several large bodies of water in the U.S. West that have hit record lows this summer, including the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Lake Oroville in California is expected to reach a historic low by late August, with the state’s more than 1,500 reservoirs 50% lower than they should be this time of year.

In 1983, Lake Powell’s water exceeded its maximum level of 3,700 feet and nearly overran Glen Canyon Dam. The lake is facing a new set of challenges having reached a record low of 3,553 feet last week.

Government officials had to begin releasing water from sources upstream last month to keep the lake’s level from dropping so low it would have threatened hydropower supplied by the dam.

It comes as less snowpack flows into the Colorado River and its tributaries, and hot temperatures parch soil and cause more river water to evaporate as it streams through the drought-plagued American West. Studies have linked the region’s more than 20-year megadrought to human-caused climate change.

Fluctuating water levels have long been a staple of Lake Powell, but National Park Service officials say the usual forecasts weren’t able to predict just how bad 2021 would be.

Finger-pointing has started as boaters, local officials and the park service debate what to do now.

“The park service has failed to plan,” area homeowner Bill Schneider said. “If it gets to the point where we’re so low that you can’t put boats in the water and you can’t come up with a solution to put boats in the water, why would you come to Lake Powell?”

The 53-year-old bought a retirement home in nearby Page, Arizona, after completing 25 years of military service in February. He wanted to return to Wahweap Bay where he spent most of his childhood and teen years fishing, waterskiing and working odd jobs around the lake. But after watching how the lake has been managed, Schneider says he’s starting to regret it.

Officials say they have solutions for families and boaters who sometimes plan years ahead to explore the glassy waters that extend into narrow red rock canyons and the tourism industry that depends on them.

Once the severity of the drought became clear, federal officials began looking for options to allow boat access at low water levels, said William Shott, superintendent of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, where Lake Powell is located. The park service discovered an old ramp on Wahweap Bay that will be built out to support houseboats and smaller motorboats.

Shott says he hopes the $3 million ramp can be completed by Labor Day weekend. The project is funded by the park service and lake concessionaire Aramark.

The agency and officials from the town of Page, which relies on lake tourism, plan to open another old asphalt ramp to provide access for smaller boats while the larger one is updated.

Tom Materna, who has been visiting Lake Powell for 20 years, launched his family’s 65-foot timeshare houseboat just hours before the main ramp closed but had to cut their vacation short as water levels dropped in mid-July.

“They said no more launching out of the Wahweap ramp, so we were glad we made it out,” the Los Angeles resident said. “Then the next day I think or two days later, they called us up and told us that all launch and retrieve houseboats had to be off the lake.”

Page Mayor Bill Diak said losing boat access to the lake could have devastating financial consequences for the city of 7,500.

He said local leaders were “slow” to address dropping water levels and limited boat access but that he’s been working closer with park officials and concessionaires on solutions.

“We could have been a little bit more proactive on planning … but we’re moving in the right direction now working together,” Diak said.

He stressed that the impact of climate change needs to be addressed, noting that the U.S. West could be facing far more pressing issues than lake access if the drought continues for another 20 years.

One silver lining, Shott says, is the park service can build boat ramps that are usable even during record drought years. Over $8 million in other low-water projects also are underway.

“Even if we did have a crystal ball and we saw that these lake levels were going to get this low, we couldn’t have prevented it anyways,” Shott said. “With that said, we’re taking advantage of the low water now.”

Troy Sherman, co-owner of a business renting environmentally friendly anchors to houseboats, said the marina housing Beach Bags Anchors shut down shortly after his company launched in spring 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. It relaunched this year but had to cancel 95% of its bookings in July when ramps closed to houseboats.

“Until there’s really access to a ramp again to put houseboats in, my business is kind of in a holding pattern,” Sherman said. “But we’ll totally persevere; it’s what you have to do.”

‘Where are we going to go?’ Residents flee as fires reach Athens suburbs

‘Where are we going to go?’ Residents flee as fires reach Athens suburbs

Lefteris Papadimas                            

 

Wildfires continue in Evia

 

ATHENS (Reuters) – Yorgos Papaioannou spent four hours using a garden hose to try to save his newly-built home from a blazing wildfire, until police patrolling his suburb north of Athens ordered him and his girlfriend to leave.

By then, the fire at the foothills of Mount Parnitha had ripped through acres of lush forest, prompting the evacuation of town after town in the area and forcing thousands of people to flee with the few belongings they could save.

“Our business, our home, all of our property is there. I hope they don’t burn,” Papaioannou, 26, said on Friday, sitting in a parking lot with his girlfriend as ash fell around them from the smoke-filled sky.

“We only spent one night in our new home and then we had to abandon it,” he said. His home was in the area of Polydendri.

The wildfires https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/blaze-sweeps-through-athens-suburbs-fifth-day-greece-wildfires-2021-08-07 that have ripped through the woodlands around Athens and encroached on the city’s northern suburbs have not caused the human casualties seen three years ago when more than 100 people were killed in Greece’s deadliest fires.

But the flames and apocalyptic spirals of black smoke – visible from the centre of the capital – have spread alarm among residents forced to flee.

“We are very sad, very sad,” said a resident of the suburb of Kapandriti as she hosed her garden. “It’s not just about us, there are thousands of people who lost their homes, their fortunes,” said the woman, who asked to be identified only as Maria.

Hundreds of fires have broken out across the country as Greece swelters in its worst heatwave for 30 years, from the western Peloponnese to the island of Evia east of Athens.

The fires near Athens have burned around the main highway linking the capital to northern Greece and by early on Friday had formed a wide front threatening residential areas of Thrakomadedones, Stamata and Agios Stefanos. The area is a prosperous and tranquil zone prized for its forests.

‘EVERYTHING BURNED’

“Fire, so much fire. Everything burned, houses, factories, everything,” said Wasim Khan, an employee of a pottery workshop destroyed by the blaze. “Everybody has left, so I will leave too. What are we going to do now, where are we going to go?”

Police have been going door to door, urging people to leave their homes before it is too late.

Authorities have opened shelters and hotels have made rooms available to accommodate people forced to flee.

Many people face uncertain days before they know whether they will have a home to return to.

“I was watching TV and I could see the fire burning on the mountain opposite. I could never imagine it would reach us,” Papaioannou said.

“We’ll probably sleep in the car tonight until we find a friend to host us.”

(Writing by Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Frances Kerry)

“Colonizing the Atmosphere”: How Rich, Western Nations Drive the Climate Crisis

In These Times – Climate

“Colonizing the Atmosphere”: How Rich, Western Nations Drive the Climate Crisis

New analysis finds the Global North is responsible for 92% of all excess global carbon dioxide emissions, while the Global South bears the brunt of the devastation.

Sarah Lazare              Previously From September 14,

 

San Miguel County Firefighters battle a brush fire along Japatul Road during the Valley Fire in Jamul, California on September 6, 2020.SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES.

 

The climate disaster fueling unprecedented fires across the western United States, threatening to swallow the Marshall Islands into the ocean, and unleashing perennial hunger crises on South Sudan is a global catastrophe. But the global responsibility is not born equally. An analysis published in the September issue of The Lancet: Planetary Health shines new light on the outsized role of the United States, European Union and the Global North in creating a climate crisis that, while felt everywhere, is disproportionately harming the Global South.

As of 2015, the United States bore responsibility for 40% of ​“excess global carbon dioxide emissions,” finds the analysis, authored by Jason Hickel, an economic anthropologist, author and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. The Group of Eight (the United States, the European Union, Russia, Japan and Canada) is responsible for 85% of such emissions. And the Global North (defined as the United States, Canada, Europe, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and Japan) is responsible for 92%.

In contrast, the Global South — which is by far bearing the brunt of climate droughts, floods, famines, storms, sea level rise and deaths — is responsible for just 8% of excess global carbon dioxide emissions.

While other researchers have calculated countries’ current annual emissions, as well as cumulative historic ones, Hickel tells In These Times ​“none of this tells us how much nations have contributed to emissions in excess of the safe level.” His methodology starts from ​“the position that the atmosphere is a common resource and that all people should have equal access to it within the safe planetary boundary (defined as 350 parts per million atmospheric concentration of CO2),” he says.

Hickel calculated the ​“national fair shares of a safe global carbon budget.” Then he subtracted these fair shares from the historical emissions of countries — ​“territorial emissions from 1850 to 1969, and consumption-based emissions from 1970 to 2015.” This calculation was then used to determine ​“the extent to which each country has overshot or undershot its fair share,” states the analysis.

“In other words,” says Hickel, ​“this method allows us to answer the question: ​‘Who got us into this mess?’”

The analysis is meant to not only measure national responsibility for global emissions, but to identify those countries that are colonizing the atmosphere. ​“The results show that the countries of the Global North have ​‘stolen’ a big chunk of the atmospheric fair-shares of poorer countries, and on top of that are responsible for the vast majority of excess emissions,” Hickel explains. ​“In other words,” he adds, ​“they have effectively colonized the global atmospheric commons for the sake of their own industrial growth, and for the sake of maintaining their own high levels of energy consumption.”

The study finds that, in contrast to Global North countries, ​“most countries in the Global South were within their boundary fair shares, including India and China.” This is despite the fact that China, with more than four times the population of the United States, is presently the top overall emitter of greenhouse gases, although the United States is the top emitter per capita. According to the analysis, ​“When it comes to climate change, however, what matters is stocks of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, not annual flows; so responsibility must be measured in terms of each country’s contribution to cumulative historical emissions.” Yet, the study notes, ​“given that China’s annual emissions are roughly 9 billion tons per year, it will soon overshoot its fair share.”

The fact that the United States and Global North bear disproportionate responsibility for driving the climate crisis does not let China off the hook for cutting emissions, says Hickel. ​“If China does not reduce emissions, and fast, then we are all doomed,” he underscores. And indeed, climate activists have argued that in order to curb the climate crisis, the United States and China must overcome their confrontational footing and cooperate to dramatically cut emissions.

However, Hickel makes the moral argument that ​“clearly the countries that have contributed the most to excess emissions must cut emissions fastest, with the United States and Europe leading the way. They have a responsibility to get to zero as soon as is physically possible — in a matter of years, not decades. This can be feasibly achieved, and we should all demand it.”

Other studies and analyses have pointed to the disproportionate responsibility of the Global North, and wealthy countries, for driving the climate crisis. A study released by Oxfam International in 2015 found that the poorest half of the world’s population — roughly 3.5 billion people — are to blame for just 10% of ​“total global emissions attributed to individual consumption,” yet they ​“live overwhelmingly in the countries most vulnerable to climate change.” In contrast, the richest 10% of people in the world are responsible for roughly 50% of global emissions.

A 2015 paper published in Scientific Reports identifies ​“free rider” and ​“forced rider” countries. It explains, “‘Free rid­er’ coun­tries con­tribute dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly to glob­al [green­house gas] emis­sions with only lim­it­ed vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty to the effects of the result­ing cli­mate change, while ​’forced rid­er’ coun­tries are most vul­ner­a­ble to cli­mate change but have con­tributed lit­tle to its genesis.”

Yet, even as acute effects of the climate crisis are being felt in the United States, the Republican Party continues to embrace climate denial, and the leadership of the Democratic Party shows reluctance to curb the fossil fuel production driving the crisis — and hostility to radical solutions like the Green New Deal. The United States has contributed only $1 billion to the UN’s Green Climate Fund, meant to help ​“developing countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and enhance their ability to respond to climate change” (former President Barack Obama pledged $3 billion, but President Trump later reneged on $2 billion of it).

Whatever horrific price U.S. residents in the direct path of harmful fires are forced to pay for politicians’ inaction, the costs to the Global South will be greater in scale. ​“We know that the Global South suffers more than 90% of the costs of climate breakdown, and 98% of the deaths associated with climate breakdown, due to fires, floods, droughts, famine, disease, displacement and so on,” says Hickel. ​“So, just like under colonialism, the North is benefitting at the expense of the South.”

Sarah Lazare is web editor and reporter for In These Times.

Red tides return to Florida, leaving beaches covered in dead fish

Red tides return to Florida, leaving beaches covered in dead fish

Garin Flowers, National Reporter and Producer             August 6, 2021
Thousands of dead fish
Thousands of dead fish in Boca Ciega Bay in Madeira Beach, Fla., on July 21. (Octavio Jones/Getty Images)

 

An unwelcome visitor is once again killing fish and causing issues for beachgoers along Florida’s Gulf Coast. A red tide bloom has been spotted in several areas near the shore in recent days. Local officials say they’ve already found more than 3.4 million pounds of red tide debris since mid-July.

The organism known as Karenia brevis has caused thousands of dead fish to wash up on shores and has displaced sharks into local canals as they flee the toxins.

Red tides, which have been linked to the release of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee and which thrive in warm water, also present a threat to human health, causing respiratory issues like eye, nose and throat irritation that have landed some residents in hospital emergency rooms this year.

“The ecosystems over the millennia have figured out how to digest the natural inputs of nutrient pollution. Humans come along and they add all of these extra inputs of nutrient pollution into our receiving water bodies,” said Cris Costello, organizing manager in Florida for the environmental organization the Sierra Club, who has studied red tides for 14 years. “It gets there through fertilizer, both urban and agricultural fertilizer, undertreated or inadequately treated wastewater, whether from septic tanks or wastewater treatment plants that aren’t as high level as they need to be.”

A protest march
A protest in Tampa Bay, Fla., on July 17 to raise awareness about the red tide outbreak. (John Pendygraft/Tampa Bay Times via Zuma Press Wire)

Most recently, 56 samples of bloom concentrations were detected in multiple counties, especially Pinellas (25 samples) and Sarasota (19), according to a weekly update from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission posted Wednesday.

“While K. brevis is a naturally-occurring organism, nutrient enrichment of our coastal waters can make blooms worse and longer-lived,” Pinellas County says on a webpage dedicated to red tide.

The Sierra Club believes pollution is a part of the problem and sent a letter to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis calling for action.

“Yet another summer of slime has unfolded in Florida and we all have been horrified by the devastation to our environment, coastal economy, and quality of life,” it reads.

On Aug. 2, as complaints from residents and business leaders grew louder, DeSantis appointed a task force to further research the causes of red tide outbreaks.

“My administration will continue to press forward to find solutions and empower our brightest minds to help protect our environment,” DeSantis said in a statement. “The issues of Red Tide are complex, but with the appointments of these leading scientists and researchers, we hope to make a difference.”

Thousands of dead fish
Thousands of dead fish in Madeira Beach, Fla. (Octavio Jones/Getty Images)

This year’s outbreak is the most serious since 2018, when then-Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency as the bloom wreaked havoc on tourism.

This year’s high concentrations of red tide have again turned the Gulf waters red, dark green or brown in certain areas. While Karenia brevis has been recorded in Florida since the 1800s, it has historically been more prevalent in the Gulf of Mexico’s warmer water. In recent years, however, as more overflow from Lake Okeechobee has been released into the Atlantic, blooms that can last anywhere from days to months have erupted there too.

“At this point, our water bodies are at the tipping point,” Costello said. “We have more problems here in Florida all year round than they do up north because our water is warmer. Climate change, climate disruption, has warmed our water. So the warmer the water is and the more nitrogen and phosphorus pollution there is, the more these algae, whether they are toxic or just a nuisance, they grow. It’s a population explosion.”

A sign warns about Red Tide
A sign at Indian Rocks Beach, Fla. (Arielle Bader/Tampa Bay Times via Zuma Press Wire)

 

The Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County is warning residents and visitors to the state to avoid swimming in areas where red tides have killed fish, to refrain from eating seafood in affected locations and to keep pets away from water, sea foam and dead fish where Karenia brevis has been detected.

The guidelines underscore the impact to a state whose greatest natural attraction is its miles of coastline.

“If outdoors, residents may choose to wear paper filter masks, especially if onshore winds are blowing,” the Department of Health said on its website.

California drought forces shutdown of historic Hyatt hydropower plant

California drought forces shutdown of historic Hyatt hydropower plant

Anya van Wagtendonk                     

 

A large scale California hydropower plant was shut down on Thursday after ongoing drought conditions reduced water levels in Lake Oroville to historic lows, according to the Sacramento Bee.

 

Why it matters: It is the first time the Edward Hyatt hydroelectric power plant has ceased operations since it was constructed in 1967, at a time when California is warning about the potential for rolling blackouts.

  • The plant feeds from a reservoir at Lake Oroville in Butte County, the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas in Northern California, and has the capacity to power almost half a million households, according to the Bee.
  • But the lake is less than one-quarter full — surpassing its record lowest level set in 1977 — amid the state’s ongoing water crisis.

What they’re saying: “This is just one of many unprecedented impacts we are experiencing in California as a result of our climate-induced drought,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, in a statement.

  • “DWR anticipated this moment, and the state has planned for its loss in both water and grid management,” the statement adds.
  • “Falling reservoir levels are another example of why it is so critical that all Californians conserve water. We are calling on everyone to take action now to reduce water use by 15 percent, to preserve as much water supply in storage as possible should we experience another dry year. We are all in this together.”

Sooner or Later, Climate Change is Coming for Your Wallet

Barrons – Economy & Policy

Sooner or Later, Climate Change is Coming for Your Wallet

By Jennifer Marlon and Bianca Taylor                    August 6, 2021



Richard Van Der Spuy/Dreamstime.com

 

Last week Gary Gensler, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, made what seemed like an uncontroversial statement: “I think we can bring greater clarity to climate risk disclosures.” The SEC, he said, will begin to consider requiring public companies to tell their investors how climate change could threaten their business. That’s an important step, because for as much as we know about how the climate crisis is changing our lives, we’re only starting to get our heads around what it will truly cost you and me.

The oil and gas industry is already pushing back. Industry groups are stepping up lobbying to avoid disclosing their emissions, according to the Financial Times. These short-sighted attempts will unfortunately hurt our economy.

According to a report released in April by SwissRe, the global reinsurance company, the U.S. economy stands to lose 10% of its economic value by 2050 under a worst case scenario, where average global temperatures rise 3°C compared to pre-industrial levels. The SwissRe “worst case” scenario, however, is our current reality—one in which temperatures remain on their current trajectory, and both the Paris Agreement and 2050 net-zero emissions targets are not met.

To some, SwissRe’s projection of a 10% loss in 30 years may not sound alarming. But that datapoint can otherwise be stated as: The U.S. will suffer natural disasters such that it is not expected our economy will be able to recover from them. The prospect of suffering damage so profound that we are unable to economically recover is alarming. And it is not a distant future.

Scientists had hoped that Covid-related disruptions would produce a large reduction in carbon emissions. But the reductions were less than expected. The world produced only 6% less carbon last year than the one before. This modest response to an unprecedented synchronous global shutdown of economic activity puts the scope and scale of current emissions into perspective. To quantify the challenge, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that emission reduction ranges must be around 45% lower than present to meet a 1.5°C temperature goal.

Weather and climate disasters cost the U.S. economy $450 billion (2.1% of GDP) in 2020, the highest year on record. And we hold the No. 1 spot for the number of disasters year-to-date according to EM-DAT, a database that tracks disasters globally. We also know climate change has made most of these events worse than they would have otherwise been.

The mere 1°C temperature increase that has already occurred has contributed to new water shortages in towns across California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. Increasing evaporation has also reduced soil moisture, which helps explain the $7 billion to $13 billion cost to insurers from the 2020 wildfires. Costs that will inevitably translate into a higher price tag to you, the consumer.

The future costs of climate change on the U.S. economy are uncertain, but what is worse is that they may be underestimated. Underestimation occurs because projections are often made using an enumerative approach, where losses are valued sector by sector and then tallied to estimate the total impact on social welfare.

In other words, current approaches miss cascading risks, problems that exacerbate other disasters in unforeseen ways. Global supply-chain disruptions are an example of why cascading risks are difficult to model—because all industries can be affected when businesses of all sizes as well as national and subnational governments are interdependent. Economic disruptions from Covid-19 provide a case in point. The pandemic highlighted the vulnerabilities of complex supply chains that are now ubiquitous. As severe weather events continue to worsen, the U.S. economy will continue to suffer shortages — not only from domestic disruptions to products like orange juice, corn, and soy, but also from disasters abroad. The regions that produce most semiconductor chips and rare earth elements, critical in computers, smartphones, aerospace and defense, and medical appliances are concentrated in regions particularly vulnerable to climate hazards.

The economic consequences of climate change are countless. Under the last administration the U.S. Commodities and Futures Trade Commission released the first-ever assessment of the impact of climate change on the financial system. The 196-page report’s first sentence reads: “Climate change poses a major risk to the stability of the U.S. financial system and to its ability to sustain the American economy.”

The good news is that scientists, economists, and financial regulators agree on what needs to be done—even the oil and gas executives are on board. The key recommendation from the CFTC is that “The United States establishes a price on carbon. It must be a fair, economy-wide price… at a level that reflects the true social cost of those emissions.” The authors go further, stating that “a carbon price is the single most important step to manage climate risk and drive the appropriate allocation of capital.” The SEC’s moves toward mandatory climate risk disclosures are first steps on that path.

But if you’re not in a position to influence the risk calculus of public companies, there is something else you can do. You can buy insurance. The IMF’s researchers find that insurance penetration is a top factor in determining the resilience of a country to the impact of climate change. Yes, it might cost you a little more than you expected to spend this year. But climate change is coming for your wallet sooner or later.

Guest commentaries like this one are written by authors outside the Barron’s and MarketWatch newsroom. They reflect the perspective and opinions of the authors.

About the authors: Jennifer R. Marlon is a research scientist at Yale University’s School of the Environment. Bianca Taylor is founder of Tourmaline Group and a member of the Bretton Woods Committee. The two are public voices fellows of the OpEd Project and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

The World Has Been On Fire for the Past Month. Here’s What It Looks Like

The World Has Been On Fire for the Past Month. Here’s What It Looks Like

Ciara Nugent                        
Firefighters take a defensive stand against a home burning in Redwood Valley, Calif., ignited by an 80 acre wind whipped brush fire fed by tinder dry conditions, on July 7.

 

Firefighters take a defensive stand against a home burning in Redwood Valley, Calif., ignited by an 80 acre wind whipped brush fire fed by tinder dry conditions, on July 7.Firefighters take a defensive stand against a home burning in Redwood Valley, Calif., ignited by an 80 acre wind whipped brush fire fed by tinder dry conditions on July 7. Credit – Kent Porter—The Press Democrat/AP

Flames light up hillsides in British Columbia. Smoke swells over highways into Athens. A swimming pool in California is surrounded by charred rubble. Thick forests in Siberia lie shriveled and brown.

Countries across the northern hemisphere this summer are experiencing the worst wildfires in years of recorded history, with large swaths of land and entire towns in Europe, North America and Russia consumed by flames since the start of July.

Though many of these countries are used to summer fire seasons, climate change is making the hot, dry conditions that allow fires to catch and spread more common and more intense.

In parts of the western U.S., a summer of intense heat waves has arrived on the back of a weak rainy season, as a two-year-long drought stretches on. In mid-July, fires broke out in parts of Oregon and California, together consuming more than 230,000 hectares, part of a nationwide toll of over 1 million hectares burned so far in wildfires this year.

Firefighters battle a wildfire in Mugla, Marmaris district, Turkey, on Aug. 2. Turkey's struggles against its deadliest wildfires in decades come as a blistering heatwave grips southeastern Europe.<span class="copyright">Yasin Akgul—AFP/Getty Images</span>
Firefighters battle a wildfire in Mugla, Marmaris district, Turkey, on Aug. 2. Turkey’s struggles against its deadliest wildfires in decades come as a blistering heatwave grips southeastern Europe.Yasin Akgul—AFP/Getty Images
A couple rides a pedal boat as smoke from nearby forest fires hangs over the city of Yakutsk, in Sakha (Yakutia), Russia on July 27.<span class="copyright">Dimitar Dilkoff—AFP/Getty Images</span>
A couple rides a pedal boat as smoke from nearby forest fires hangs over the city of Yakutsk, in Sakha (Yakutia), Russia on July 27.Dimitar Dilkoff—AFP/Getty Images
Fire retardant dropped from an airplane falls to the ground near the Chuweah Creek Fire as wildfires devastate Nespelem, Wash. on July 14.<span class="copyright">David Ryder—Reuters</span>
Fire retardant dropped from an airplane falls to the ground near the Chuweah Creek Fire as wildfires devastate Nespelem, Wash. on July 14.David Ryder—Reuters

 

In early July, the Canadian province of British Columbia became an icon for the extremes of destruction that wildfires can bring: the small town of Lytton briefly became one of the hottest places on earth, obliterating Canada’s heat records with temperatures topping 49.5° C (121.1° F). Then a fierce wildfire tore through town, destroying 90% of its buildings and leaving residents minutes to escape.

This month, southern Europe’s Mediterranean countries are sweltering under one of the worst heat waves to hit the region in decades. The temperature in one town in northern Greece reached 47.1°C (116.8°F) on Aug. 4, not far below Europe’s all-time record of 48°C (118.4°F). Fires in the south of the country hit residential areas on the outskirts of the capital, Athens, forcing people to flee into the city center as huge smoke plumes followed them.

In Turkey, the most severe fires on record have burned through more than 11,000 hectares of forest, killing eight people, most of them in the southern town of Manavgat. The devastation has led to anger at Turkey’s government, which has struggled to respond to the flames, admitting it has no working firefighting planes.

Men gather sheeps to take them away from an advancing fire in Mugla, Marmaris district, Turkey on Aug. 2.<span class="copyright">Yasin Akgul—AFP/Getty Images</span>
Men gather sheeps to take them away from an advancing fire in Mugla, Marmaris district, Turkey on Aug. 2.Yasin Akgul—AFP/Getty Images
Firefighters battle the Sugar Fire, part of the Beckwourth Complex Fire, burning in Plumas National Forest, Calif., on July 8.<span class="copyright">Noah Berger—AP</span>
Firefighters battle the Sugar Fire, part of the Beckwourth Complex Fire, burning in Plumas National Forest, Calif., on July 8.Noah Berger—AP

 

In Italy, where some 800 fires burned this week across multiple regions, tourist resorts on the eastern coastal town of Pescara rushed from a resort beach as a nearby wood went up in flames on Aug. 1.

Almost 2,000 miles north of the Mediterranean Sea, in northern Finland—where wildfires are rare—flames consumed 300 hectares of forest in the remote Kalajoki River basin in the last week of July, the worst wildfire recorded in the country since 1971.

Some of the world’s most worrying fires, in terms of managing climate change, have happened a few thousand of miles east of Finland, in eastern Russia’s Siberian Yakutia region. There, more than 4.2 million hectares have burned so far this year, and scientists fear they are destroying wetlands and causing layers of permafrost to melt—which could release large amounts of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. On Aug. 4, the E.U.’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said fires in the area had unleashed 505 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere—already surpassing 2020’s record for emissions released in an entire fire season, 450 megatonnes.

All of this could put us at risk of falling into a devastating cycle: as the greenhouse gases released by fires like these—and by other human activities including the burning of fossil fuels—continue to drive up global temperatures over the coming years, conditions will likely become even more favorable for fires, which in turn could keep driving up temperatures. If we can manage to rapidly cut our emissions, set up programs to restore natural ecosystems and get much better at preventing and controlling wildfires, we could, possibly, put a stop to that cycle some day. But between now and then, there may be many more fire seasons like this.

Forest fire rages in Varybobi, north of Athens, Greece on Aug. 3. Residential areas in Athens northern suburbs were evacuated as wildfires reached the outskirts of the city.<span class="copyright">Gerasimos Koilakos—NurPhoto/Getty Images</span>
Forest fire rages in Varybobi, north of Athens, Greece on Aug. 3. Residential areas in Athens northern suburbs were evacuated as wildfires reached the outskirts of the city.Gerasimos Koilakos—NurPhoto/Getty Images
View of a beach resort as a wildfire burns on a hillside in Osoyoos, British Columbia, Canada, on July 20.<span class="copyright">Sara Mahony—Reuters</span>
View of a beach resort as a wildfire burns on a hillside in Osoyoos, British Columbia, Canada, on July 20.Sara Mahony—Reuters
Children watch a helicopter dumping water on burning peatland at Palem Raya village in Ogan Ilir district, South Sumatra, Indonesia, on July 31.<span class="copyright">M. Hatta—Xinhua/eyevine/Redux</span>
Children watch a helicopter dumping water on burning peatland at Palem Raya village in Ogan Ilir district, South Sumatra, Indonesia, on July 31.M. Hatta—Xinhua/eyevine/Redux
A dead goat lies on the ground in a burnt-out riding club after a forest fire in the Varibobi region of northern Athens, Greece on Aug. 4.<span class="copyright">Angelos Tzortzinis—DPA/picture alliance/Getty Images</span>
A dead goat lies on the ground in a burnt-out riding club after a forest fire in the Varibobi region of northern Athens, Greece on Aug. 4.Angelos Tzortzinis—DPA/picture alliance/Getty Images
In this photo taken by a drone, damaged structures are seen in Lytton, British Columbia, Canada on July 9, after a wildfire destroyed most of the village on June 30.<span class="copyright">Darryl Dyck—The Canadian Press/AP</span>
In this photo taken by a drone, damaged structures are seen in Lytton, British Columbia, Canada on July 9, after a wildfire destroyed most of the village on June 30.Darryl Dyck—The Canadian Press/AP
Civil Defense personnel monitor a wildfire burning through hills in Qobayat, Lebanon on July 28. A Lebanese teenager was killed as he joined volunteers battling to fight the fire.<span class="copyright">Ethan Swope—Getty Images</span>
Civil Defense personnel monitor a wildfire burning through hills in Qobayat, Lebanon on July 28. A Lebanese teenager was killed as he joined volunteers battling to fight the fire.Ethan Swope—Getty Images
A helicopter flies above a fire at Le Capannine beach in Catania, Sicily, Italy on July 30.<span class="copyright">Roberto Viglianisi—Reuters</span>
A helicopter flies above a fire at Le Capannine beach in Catania, Sicily, Italy on July 30.Roberto Viglianisi—Reuters

‘Running out of options’: California resorts to water cutoffs as drought worsens

‘Running out of options’: California resorts to water cutoffs as drought worsens

Julia Wick                         
EL DORADO HILLS, CALIFORNIA - MAY 10: Boat docks at the Browns Ravine Cove sit on dry earth at Folsom Lake on May 10, 2021 in El Dorado Hills, California. California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency in 41 of California&#39;s 58 counties, about 30 percent of the state&#39;s population. Folsom Lake is currently at 38 percent of normal capacity. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Boat docks at the Browns Ravine Cove sit on dry earth at Folsom Lake on May 10, when California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency in 41 of the state’s 58 counties. (Getty Images)

 

California water regulators took unprecedented action this week, passing an emergency regulation that will bar thousands of Californians from diverting stream and river water as the drought worsens.

The State Water Resources Control Board voted unanimously Tuesday to pass the “emergency curtailment” order for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed. The watershed encompasses a wide swath of the state, from the Oregon border in northeastern California down into the Central Valley.

The regulation — which gives the state water board the authority to issue emergency curtailments and require reporting on water use — will go into effect about two weeks from now, subject to approval by the state Office of Administrative Law, with the issuing of formal curtailment orders to follow.

California’s complex water rights system is designed to allocate water use during times of shortage, and such curtailments, although rare, are not unheard of. But the scope of Tuesday’s order — which will apply to thousands of senior water rights across a wide swath of the state — goes beyond anything seen in prior droughts.

“The fact remains that water supplies are extremely limited, and we are running out of options,” Ernest A. Conant, Bureau of Reclamation California-Great Basin regional director, said during the meeting, expressing his agency’s support for the emergency regulations.

Some farmers strongly criticized the move, but regulators said it was necessary given the conditions.

Who is affected by the decision?

About 5,700 Northern California and Central Valley water rights holders — who collectively hold about 12,500 water rights — will be subject to the forthcoming curtailments, according to Erik Ekdahl, deputy director of the state water board’s Division of Water Rights. Once the regulation is in place, further curtailments in the delta watershed may be issued as the situation progresses.

“It really depends on compliance with this order, climate hydrology, and what water supply conditions evolve,” Ekdahl said.

The order will largely affect rights holders using water for agricultural irrigation purposes, though some municipal, industrial and commercial entities also will be affected. The regulation carves out an exemption for health and human safety purposes, meaning that water for drinking, bathing and domestic purposes won’t be subject to the curtailment.

The water board previously released a draft version of the proposed order in mid-July, following a notice of water unavailability — which urges, but does not order, people to stop diverting water. That was sent to many rights holders in mid-June.

The curtailments will create hardships for many growers, particularly those without access to well water. But the burden may be lessened by the time of year. Irrigation needs vary widely from farm to farm and crop to crop. Generally speaking, however, the biggest demands for agricultural irrigation in the delta watershed tend to be in the late spring and summer, meaning the bulk of water use for the year is likely behind many growers.

“It’s coming toward the end of the season here. As everything’s dwindling in a very dry year, the curtailments may not make a huge difference for a lot of crop types,” said Chris Scheuring, senior counsel for the California Farm Bureau.

Scheuring said the real question is what happens if drought conditions persist next year.

What prompted the decision?

The bottom line is there isn’t enough water to meet competing demands. The curtailments are necessary, according to the state water board’s finding of emergency, “to avoid catastrophic impacts to reservoir storage needed for human health and safety and other purposes.” Essentially, regulators need to drastically reduce the amount of water being diverted from rivers and streams to ensure that enough water remains for essential purposes and that those who are diverting are doing so legally.

“It’s pretty important for the integrity of the system to curtail water rights when there’s not enough water,” said Jay Lund, co-director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis. “Otherwise, it’s just whoever gets their pump in first. And that’s not really a very fair way to do things.” In times of water shortage, rights holders are curtailed in order of seniority.

Drought conditions in the state rapidly worsened this spring, when expected snowpack runoff to the watershed decreased by almost 800,000 acre-feet — an amount nearly equivalent to the capacity of Folsom Reservoir — between April and May.

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency in 41 of California’s 58 counties on May 10. In that same month, many farmers were warned that they would receive little or nothing from two large allocation systems, the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project.

What happened to the snowpack?

“The simplest terms are the snow was kind of there and then it wasn’t,” said David Rizzardo, chief of the hydrology branch at the state’s Department of Water Resources.

Rizzardo said it’s not uncommon to lose 10%-20% of the snowpack to normal hydrological processes, particularly following a dry year. But losing just under 80% — let alone in such a short period of time?

“It’s beyond unprecedented,” Rizzardo said. The hydrologic conditions witnessed this year have been forecast in climate change models, but according to Rizzardo, such scenarios weren’t expected for decades from now.

Rizzardo characterized higher temperatures, drier soils and the effect of large-scale fires in the watershed as three of the primary factors driving the loss in projected runoff. (The effect of fires is two-fold, according to Rizzardo. The loss of tree cover and brush puts more direct sun radiation on the snow, which causes it to melt faster. Sooty debris from fires also creates dark surfaces, which absorb — rather than reflect — the sun’s radiation, causing even more melting.)

The delta itself is formed by the convergence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers in the western Central Valley, but the sprawling delta watershed stretches all the way from the Oregon border in the northeastern corner of the state to just north of Fresno, encompassing much of the Sierra Nevada, as well as cities like Redding, Chico, Sacramento and Stockton.

Broadly speaking, runoff from the Sierra snowpack, which feeds major Northern California reservoirs and dozens of rivers, travels through the watershed and into the delta, which then connects to the San Francisco Bay. Water from the delta contributes to the water supply for more than two-thirds of Californians and is also used to irrigate millions of acres of farmland.

What about the rest of the state?

In July, Newsom urged all Californians to voluntarily cut their water usage by 15%, but what exactly does that mean for the average California household?

The governor made the request as he extended a regional drought emergency to 50 counties, which comprise about 42% of the state’s population. For many, the talk of water reductions reminded them of the shriveled lawns, attenuated showers and water-bucket toilet flushing of the last devastating drought.

If achieved, a voluntary 15% water reduction statewide would save roughly 850,000 acre-feet of water, which is enough to supply 1.7 million households for a year, according to the governor’s office.

In April 2015, then-Gov. Jerry Brown ordered cities and towns across California to cut water use by 25%, marking the first mandatory statewide water restrictions in state history. Californians came close to meeting the goal, with residents reducing the amount of water they used by 24.5%. Now, a handful of years after the last drought, per-capita residential water use remains about 16% below 2013 levels.

Newsom’s request is intended to bring California water production roughly back to where it dropped to in 2015 and 2016, said Marielle Pinheiro, research data specialist at the State Water Resources Control Board. Pinheiro said the number seemed feasible to the board because the state had been able to maintain those levels during the last drought.

Household water usage varies dramatically across the state based on a number of factors, but speaking in the broadest terms, Pinheiro said a 15% reduction would equate to a cut of roughly 14 gallons a day per person.

Newsom’s drought emergency declaration excludes almost all of Southern California, where the drought picture is much less dire. That’s because the region is mostly supplied by big federal and state water systems, rather than local precipitation.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which imports water from the Colorado River and the north, says it has sufficient reserves in regional reservoirs and groundwater banks — enough to carry it through this year.

Los Angeles, which is partly supplied by the MWD, similarly doesn’t expect any shortages, officials have said.

Experts call for an active hurricane season as the tropics rumble awake

Experts call for an active hurricane season as the tropics rumble awake

Dennis Mersereau                        
Experts call for an active hurricane season as the tropics rumble awake
Experts call for an active hurricane season as the tropics rumble awake

 

We could be in for a hectic peak to the hurricane season over the next couple of months.

Experts who specialize in long-range tropical weather predictions expect more than a dozen tropical storms and hurricanes to develop in the Atlantic basin through this fall.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) still expects above-average hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the agency’s mid-summer outlook issued on Wednesday.

Forecasters with Colorado State University issued their own prediction on Thursday, concurring that the ingredients are in place for a busy peak to this year’s hurricane season.

While the Atlantic basin has been unusually quiet for the past month, the serenity won’t last long. There are already a few disturbances out near Africa, and forecasters expect plenty more to follow in the weeks and months ahead.

EXPERTS CALL FOR 15 TO 21 NAMED STORMS THIS SEASON

NOAA predicts that this year’s hurricane season could end with a final tally of 15 to 21 named storms. A system in the Atlantic basin earns a name when it strengthens into a tropical storm.

NOAA / CSU Hurricane Forecasts Aug 5 2021
NOAA / CSU Hurricane Forecasts Aug 5, 2021

 

More than half of those storms could become hurricanes, the outlook notes, and several of those hurricanes could grow into major hurricanes, packing maximum sustained winds of 178 km/h or stronger.

Colorado State University’s forecast cuts straight down the middle, calling for 18 named storms. The school’s prediction also calls for eight hurricanes, four of which could strengthen into major hurricanes.

An average Atlantic hurricane season would see 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes, which are rated category three or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

The climatological peak of the Atlantic hurricane season occurs on September 10, though heightened tropical activity is common from August through October. The season officially runs from June 1 to November 30.

THE INGREDIENTS EXIST FOR A FLURRY OF ACTIVITY

The predictions from both NOAA and Colorado State University rely on a combination of factors that include low wind shear, warm ocean temperatures, and an increase in tropical waves moving off the western coast of Africa, according to statements released by each group this week.

Atlantic Sea Surface Temps Aug 4 2021
Atlantic Sea Surface Temps Aug 4 2021

 

Tropical cyclones are powerful but fragile storms. A hurricane needs warm waters, moist air, low wind shear, and intense thunderstorms in order to develop and strengthen. Lacking any of those ingredients can spell doom for a budding storm.

WE’RE WATCHING A FEW DISTURBANCES NEAR AFRICA THIS WEEK

The outlooks couldn’t come at a better time. After the Atlantic fell unusually quiet through most of July, the tropics are growing more active as tropical waves begin to roll off the African coast.

The West African monsoon season produces complexes of thunderstorms that travel west and move over the eastern Atlantic Ocean. These clusters of storms, or waves, are the seeds from which many named storms form at the height of the hurricane season.

NHC Tropical Weather Outlook Aug 4 2021
NHC Tropical Weather Outlook Aug 4 2021

 

The U.S. National Hurricane Center’s 5-day tropical weather outlook on Thursday, August 5, noted several disturbances in the eastern Atlantic for potential tropical development through the weekend. We should expect more activity like this in the coming weeks as we approach the peak of the season in September.

WE’VE ALREADY SEEN FIVE STORMS SO FAR THIS YEAR

Despite July’s inactivity, we’ve already seen five named storms so far this year. The season’s first named storm formed in May, kicking off this year’s hurricane season before the official start date for a record seventh year in a row.

Atlantic Hurricane Tracks Through Aug 5 2021
Atlantic Hurricane Tracks Through Aug 5 2021

 

MUST SEE: Canada takes center stage in a dramatic month of global weather disasters

The Atlantic’s most recent named storm was Hurricane Elsa, which broke several records with its formation in the Caribbean Sea at the beginning of July. Elsa’s remnants produced as much as 92 mm of rain in New Brunswick.

The next name on the list is Fred, followed by Grace, Henri, and Ida.

WE COULD DIVE DEEP INTO THE LIST OF STORM NAMES AGAIN

It’s notable that the upper end of NOAA’s outlook would bring the season to the end of the list of 21 names allotted for each hurricane season. We’ve only exhausted the official list of names twice before, first in 2005 and again during last year’s historic hurricane season.

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active on record, amassing 30 named storms between May 16 and November 18. The season ran through the list of 21 names by the middle of September, requiring the use of nine Greek letters to name the remaining storms.

The World Meteorological Organization has since abolished the use of Greek letters once the list of names runs out, opting instead to establish an alternate list of names if we see 22 or more storms in a single season.

However, it’s unlikely that we’ll see more than 21 storms this year.

Stay with The Weather Network for the latest updates throughout hurricane season.

Donziger: Facing Prison for Fighting Chevron

Greg Palast – Investigative Journalism

Donziger: Facing Prison for Fighting Chevron

Rights Attorney Pays Price for Defending Indigenous in Ecuador Poisoned by Oil
Greg Palast                                

 

Look at his face. Emergildo Criollo, Chief of the Cofan people of the Amazon in Ecuador. Determined, dignified, in war paint, bare-chested.

Cofan Chief Emergildo Criollo, Ecuador

It was back in 2007, when I found him in his thatched stilt home in the rainforest. Criollo told me his 5-year-old son had jumped into a swimming hole, covered with an enticing shine. The shine was oil sludge, illegally dumped. His son came up vomiting blood, then dropped dead in the Chief’s arms.

I followed him to the courthouse in the dusty roustabout town of Lago Agrio (Bitter Lake) where, with a sheaf of papers, Criollo sought justice for his son.

Behind Criollo, the court clerks, in their white shirts and ties, were giggling and grinning at each other, nodding toward this “indio” painted up and half naked, thinking he can file a suit against a giant. A giant named Chevron.

In 2011, they stopped laughing. That’s when an Ecuadorian court ordered Chevron to pay Criollo and other indigenous co-plaintiffs $9.5 billion. The courts found that Chevron’s Texaco operation had illegally dumped 16 billion gallons of deadly oil waste.

Steven Donziger with Indigenous clients
(courtesy AmazonWatch)

What the gigglers didn’t know is that the Chief had a secret weapon: Steven Donziger, a US attorney, classmate of Barack Obama at Harvard law, who gave up everything — literally everything — to take on Criollo’s case.

It’s been a decade, and Chevron still hasn’t paid a dime. But Donziger has paid big time: For the last two years, he’s been under house arrest, longer than any American in history never convicted of a crime.

But weeks ago, he was convicted of contempt by a judge who denied him a jury. (The Constitution? Faggedaboudit.) And on October 8, this contemptible judge will sentence Donziger, and could put him behind bars.

Who was the prosecutor? Not the US government, but Chevron’s law firm. The first-ever criminal prosecution by a US corporation.

Say what?

On Friday, August 6 at 4pm Pacific, I will be speaking at the Free Donziger Rally at the Chevron Station on the corner of Laurel Canyon Blvd and Sunset Blvd. This is one of more than a dozen rallies on Friday from San Francisco to Tel Aviv. Check the list.

I can’t make this up.

Chevron set out to destroy Donziger, to make an example of a human rights lawyer that dares take on the petroleum pirates.

They filed suits against Donziger and the Cofan and found a former tobacco industry lawyer judge Lewis Kaplan to find Donziger in contempt for refusing to turn over his cell phone and computer to Chevron — an unprecedented attack on attorney-client privilege. To give Chevron the names of indigenous activists in South America can be a death sentence.

When Donziger said he’d appeal, the judge charged him with criminal contempt — that’s simply unprecedented. But a far more dangerous precedent was set. When federal prosecutors in New York laughed off and rejected Kaplan’s demand that they charge Donziger, the judge appointed Chevron’s lawyers, Gibson Dunn, to act as the prosecutors!

So far, 60 Nobel Laureates, several US Senators and Congresspeople, and a Who’s Who of human rights groups have publicly registered their horror at this new corporate prosecution. (Note: Gibson Dunn represented me. Never again. I’ve taken the trash to the curb.)

Chevron also went after journalists, in one case, filing a complaint against the BBC Television reporter that broke the story that Chevron had destroyed key evidence in the case. I was that reporter — and survived with my job after a year of hearings. But Chevron’s prosecution did a damn good job of scaring off other journalists.

Some were scared off; some bought off. PBS News Hour wouldn’t touch the death-by-oil story. The official chief sponsor of the PBS News Hour? Chevron.

Here’s the story, broadcast by BBC and, in the US, by Democracy Now!, the story you won’t find on the Petroleum Broadcast System.

****

Palast with oil sludge on stick Ecuador

I’ve gone way out of my way to get ChevronTexaco’s side of the story. I finally chased them down in Ecuador’s capital, Quito. I showed them a study of the epidemic of childhood leukemia centered on where their company dumped oil sludge. Here’s their reply:

“And it’s the only case of cancer in the world? How many cases of children with cancer do you have in the States?”

Texaco’s lawyer, Rodrigo Perez, was chuckling and snorting.

“Scientifically, nobody has proved that crude causes cancer.”

OK, then. But what about the epidemiological study about children with cancer in the Amazon traced to hydrocarbons?

The parents of the dead kids, he said, would have some big hurdles in court:

“If there is somebody with cancer there, they must prove it is caused by crude or by the petroleum industry. And, second, they have to prove that it is OUR crude.”

Perez leaned over with a huge grin.

“Which is absolutely impossible.”

He grinned even harder.

Maybe some guy eating monkeys in the jungle can’t prove it. And maybe that’s because the evidence of oil dumping was destroyed.

Deliberately, by Chevron.

Jaime Varela, Chevron Attorney, Quito, Ecuador

I passed the ChevronTexaco legal duo a document from their files labeled “Personal y confidential.” They read in silence. They stayed silent quite a while. Jaime Varela, Chevron’s lawyer, was wearing his tan golf pants and white shoes, an open shirt and bespoke blue blazer. He had a blow-dried bouffant hairdo much favored by the ruling elite of Latin America and skin whiter than mine, a color also favored by the elite.

Jaime had been grinning too. He read the memo. He stopped grinning. The key part says,

“Todos los informes previos deben ser sacados de las oficinas principales y las del campo, y ser destruidos.”

“. . . Reports . . . are to be removed from the division and field offices and be destroyed.”
It came from the company boss in the States, “R. C. Shields, Presidente de la Junta.”

Removed and destroyed. That smells an awful lot like an order to destroy evidence, which in this case means evidence of abandoned pits of deadly drilling residue. Destroying evidence that is part of a court action constitutes fraud.

In the United States, that would be a crime, a jail-time crime. OK, gents, you want to tell me about this document?

“Can we have a copy of this?” Varela asked me, pretending he’d never seen it before in his life.
I’ll pretend with them, if that gets me information. “Sure. You’ve never seen this?”

The ritual of innocence continued as they asked a secretary to make copies. “We’re sure there’s an explanation,” Varela said. I’m sure there is. “We’ll get back to you as soon as we find out what it is.”

I’m still waiting.