Category: Environment

Associated Press

UN says ozone layer slowly healing, hole to mend by 2066

Seth Borenstein – January 9, 2023

DENVER (AP) — Earth’s protective ozone layer is slowly but noticeably healing at a pace that would fully mend the hole over Antarctica in about 43 years, a new United Nations report says.

A once-every-four-years scientific assessment found recovery in progress, more than 35 years after every nation in the world agreed to stop producing chemicals that chomp on the layer of ozone in Earth’s atmosphere that shields the planet from harmful radiation linked to skin cancer, cataracts and crop damage.

“In the upper stratosphere and in the ozone hole we see things getting better,” said Paul Newman, co-chair of the scientific assessment.

The progress is slow, according to the report presented Monday at the American Meteorological Society convention in Denver. The global average amount of ozone 18 miles (30 kilometers) high in the atmosphere won’t be back to 1980 pre-thinning levels until about 2040, the report said. And it won’t be back to normal in the Arctic until 2045.

Antarctica, where it’s so thin there’s an annual giant gaping hole in the layer, won’t be fully fixed until 2066, the report said.

Scientists and environmental advocates across the world have long hailed the efforts to heal the ozone hole — springing out of a 1987 agreement called the Montreal Protocol that banned a class of chemicals often used in refrigerants and aerosols — as one of the biggest ecological victories for humanity.

“Ozone action sets a precedent for climate action. Our success in phasing out ozone-eating chemicals shows us what can and must be done – as a matter of urgency — to transition away from fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gases and so limit temperature increase,” World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas said in a statement.

Signs of healing were reported four years ago but were slight and more preliminary. “Those numbers of recovery have solidified a lot,” Newman said.

The two chief chemicals that munch away at ozone are in lower levels in the atmosphere, said Newman, chief Earth scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Chlorine levels are down 11.5% since they peaked in 1993 and bromine, which is more efficient at eating ozone but is at lower levels in the air, dropped 14.5% since its 1999 peak, the report said.

That bromine and chlorine levels “stopped growing and is coming down is a real testament to the effectiveness of the Montreal Protocol,” Newman said.

“There has been a sea change in the way our society deals with ozone depleting substances,” said scientific panel co-chair David W. Fahey, director of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s chemical sciences lab.

Decades ago, people could go into a store and buy a can of refrigerants that eat away at the ozone, punch a hole in it and pollute the atmosphere, Fahey said. Now, not only are the substances banned but they are no longer much in people’s homes or cars, replaced by cleaner chemicals.

Natural weather patterns in the Antarctic also affect ozone hole levels, which peak in the fall. And the past couple years, the holes have been a bit bigger because of that but the overall trend is one of healing, Newman said.

This is “saving 2 million people every year from skin cancer,” United Nations Environment Programme Director Inger Andersen told The Associated Press earlier this year in an email.

A few years ago emissions of one of the banned chemicals, chlorofluorocarbon-11 (CFC-11), stopped shrinking and was rising. Rogue emissions were spotted in part of China but now have gone back down to where they are expected, Newman said.

A third generation of those chemicals, called HFC, was banned a few years ago not because it would eat at the ozone layer but because it is a heat-trapping greenhouse gas. The new report says that the ban would avoid 0.5 to 0.9 degrees (0.3 to 0.5 degrees Celsius) of additional warming.

The report also warned that efforts to artificially cool the planet by putting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect the sunlight would thin the ozone layer by as much as 20% in Antarctica.

Yahoo! News

Federal agency considers ban on gas stoves following report linking them to childhood asthma

A study released last week found gas stoves were the cause of 12.7% of childhood asthma cases in the United States.

Davis Knowles, Senior Editor – January 9, 2023

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is considering a federal ban on gas stoves in response to a growing body of scientific research has linked them to a variety of health problems.

“This is a hidden hazard,” Richard Trumka Jr., an agency commissioner, told Bloomberg in an interview. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”

The agency will begin public comment sessions this winter as it begins weighing restrictions on emissions from gas stoves that have found to be harmful to human health.

Last week, a study in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health concluded that gas stoves, which are used in roughly 40% of U.S. homes, were responsible for 12.7% of childhood asthma cases in the country. In all, the study found, gas stoves are responsible for giving asthma to 650,000 children in the U.S.

“When the gas stove is turned on, and when it’s burning at that hot temperature, it releases a number of air pollutants,” Brady Seals, a co-author of the study and the carbon-free buildings manager at the energy policy think tank RMI, told Yahoo News. “So these are things like particulate matter, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, along with others. So, for example, nitrogen dioxide is a known respiratory irritant. And the EPA, in 2016, said that short-term exposure to NO2 causes respiratory effects like asthma attacks.”

The dangers of using gas stoves have long been known. In 2013, a meta-analysis published in the International Journal of Epidemiology found that children living in homes with gas stoves were 42% more likely to experience symptoms of asthma than those that lived with electric ranges and ovens, while 24% were more likely to be diagnosed with lifetime asthma.

“Cooking with gas stoves creates nitrogen dioxide and releases additional tiny airborne particles known as PM2.5, both of which are lung irritants. Nitrogen dioxide has been linked with childhood asthma,” Wynne Armand, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, wrote in September at Harvard Health Publishing. “During 2019 alone, almost two million cases worldwide of new childhood asthma were estimated to be due to nitrogen dioxide pollution.”

In December, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., sent a letter co-signed by 18 Democratic lawmakers to Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman Alexander Hoehn-Saric, asking the agency to take steps to limit the risks posed by gas stoves, which they said were more significant for lower-income Americans.

“These emissions can create a cumulative burden to households that are already more likely to face higher exposure to both indoor and outdoor air pollution. Statistics show that Black, Latino, and low-income households are more likely to experience disproportionate air pollution, either from being more likely to be located near a waste incinerator or coal ash site, or living in smaller homes with poor ventilation, malfunctioning appliances, mold, dust mites, secondhand smoke, lead dust, pests, and other maintenance deficiencies,” the letter stated.

Using a stove’s ventilation hood greatly reduces the health risks associated with gas ranges and ovens, but many homes don’t have them. And even using a hood doesn’t obviate the health risks. A 2022 study by researchers at Stanford University found that gas stoves regularly leak, and that approximately 40 million units in the U.S. represent problems for human health as well as the emissions that cause climate change.

“Using a 20-year timeframe for methane, annual methane emissions from all gas stoves in U.S. homes have a climate impact comparable to the annual carbon dioxide emissions of 500,000 cars,” the study stated.

Given the number of gas stoves currently in American homes, new emissions restrictions could set off a political standoff. On Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, offered a preview of that likely battle.

USA Today

‘Terrifying prospect’: Utah’s Great Salt Lake could disappear in 5 years without drastic water conservation

Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY – January 7, 2023

Scholars and conservationists released a briefing this week urging emergency water-saving measures to prevent the looming collapse of Utah’s Great Salt Lake.

Without an urgent, dramatic increase in water flow, “the lake as we know it is on track to disappear in five years,” stated the report, led by Benjamin Abbott, a professor of ecosystem ecology at Brigham Young University.

Decades of overconsumption of water throughout the region, and a mega-drought made worse by climate change, threaten to further shrink the lake and cause great harm to the region’s public health, environment and economy, Abbott told USA TODAY.

Politicians, residents, farmers and industry made great strides forward in recent years, he said, but “extraordinary, emergency measures” are needed to be better stewards.

How low is the lake?

In 2021, the lake reached its smallest point ever, 941 square miles, down from a peak of about 2,400 miles in 1986-1987, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

“We’re at a point where more than half the lake bed is exposed,” Abbott said. The lake is so low one measuring gauge has been out of use since September.

“At 19 feet below the average level the lake has maintained since 1850, the lake is in uncharted territory,” stated the report. Unsustainable water use dries out the habitat, exposes toxic dust and drives salinity higher and higher.

Salinity historically averaged between 10% and 15%, Abbott said. Today it’s at 19%, five-and-a-half times saltier than the ocean.

If the rate of decline continues, the lake’s remaining water could be depleted, he said. “It’s a terrifying prospect.”

Will there be any water left the Great Salt Lake in 5 years?

The remaining water could be gone in about 5 years if the lake keeps drying up at its current rate, the report says.

If the lake stays on that path, its food webs will collapse and “the lake as we know it will be gone,” Abbott said. “We’re not making a prediction that 5 years from now there will be no water. We are making the observation that the rate of decline if it continues is enough to deplete the remaining water in the lake.”

Over the last three years, the lake has received less than a third of its natural streamflow because of excessive water diversions.

In 2022, the lake dropped to a record elevation of 4188’ — the lowest level on the state’s contingency charts.

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Water depletion is even more severe than it appears because groundwater is not included in the estimates. While the lake has lost about 26 million acre-feet of water, twice that amount may have been lost from declining water levels in aquifers around the lake. These empty aquifers could slow the rate of rebound after runoff is increased.

Report details lake’s importance

• The Great Salt Lake lies along a critical flyway, attracting an estimated 10 million birds a year. Roughly 350 bird species depend on its ecosystems.
• It provides $2.5 billion in direct economic productivity, primarily from mineral extraction, recreation and brine shrimp harvesting, and supports 9,000 jobs.
• Evaporation from the lake increases annual snowfall in nearby mountains and ski resorts by 5-10%, supporting an additional $1.8 billion in economic activity.
• Its water suppresses heavy metals and cyanotoxins that accumulated in sediments over hundreds of years. When sediments are exposed, toxic dust can blow all over the country, Bennett said. “Already dust from the lake has been observed as far away as Wyoming and Arizona.”

Decline of the Great Salt Lake in satellite images

Steps needed for recovery

The report urges Utah Governor Spencer Cox to implement a watershed-wide emergency rescue, with financial support from the legislature. It also lists these items:

• Enough water conservation upstream to ensure that more than a million acre feet of water per year is sent to the lake.
• As much as a 30% – 50% reduction in water use in the entire watershed
• A “lake first” approach to water stewardship
• Increased trust and cooperation between farmers, cities and policy makers.

Overuse led to this point

Profligate water use for decades contributed to the crisis as the region grew more populous. Increasing demands for water have forced utilities, farmers and other water users to grapple with a shrinking water supply.

Today, more water needs to make its way all the way down through rivers and dams far upstream of the lake, Abbott said. “It’s like running a bank account. You have to make sure the income is greater than the expenses, otherwise you’re borrowing from the future.”

“We can be careful caretakers of this ecosystem and wise stewards,” he said. “Or we can say it doesn’t matter what happens in the future, and we’re just going to think about today.”

A call for unity

Tim Hawkes is among the state legislators who have worked to change Utah’s water laws and invest in lake restoration.

“There’s been an ethic on the lake for decades of stakeholders trying to work together,” said Hawkes, an outgoing Republican member of the House of Representatives. “It speaks to Utah and how we problem solve.”

Because some of the measures are still being implemented, the region is coming up short, thanks in part to the drought, and needs to “pull some emergency levers” to reverse the lake’s trajectory, he said. “We’re going to have to do a lot and do it fast, and the only way to do that is to try to keep people on the same script and working together.”