Florida dermatologists warn about how to spot the skin cancer that killed Jimmy Buffett
Cindy Krischer Goodman – September 8, 2023
Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America/TNS
Florida dermatologists say the skin cancer that killed Jimmy Buffett is becoming more common in the Sunshine State and urge residents to look out for a few unique features.
While rare, the aggressive skin cancer pops up most often in skin areas exposed to the sun, such as the face, scalp or neck. People who are fair-skinned, older than 50, and exposed regularly to the sun are at higher risk of developing Merkel cell carcinoma. The key to survival is finding out early, and acting quickly.
People diagnosed and treated for this form of skin cancer while it is still localized have a five-year survival rate of 75%, but once it spreads to a distant organ, the survival rate plunges to only 24%.
What to look for
In Delray Beach, dermatologist Steven Hacker says he has many patients he is treating or following that have Merkel cell carcinoma.
“It looks like a very non-specific bump that is flesh-colored or reddish blue and can be the size of an eraser tip on a pencil,” he said. “It needs to be biopsied to make a diagnosis. The sooner it’s caught, the better your chances are.”
If something looks like a pimple or bug bite and doesn’t go away, get checked by a dermatologist, he said. It some cases, the original bump spawns more nearby.
Merkel cell carcinoma can be aggressive, especially when it spreads to distant parts of the body. It is the second most common cause of skin cancer-related death, after melanoma.
“While it’s rare in the U.S., in Florida we actually see a lot of it,” said Dr. Michael Kasper, director of radiation oncology with Lynn Cancer Institute, part of Baptist Health, at Boca Raton Regional Hospital. “We see it a couple of times a month.”
And, while it is more common in men, Kasper says they see women with it too. “With the population living in Florida, one of biggest things that sets us apart is the suppressed immune system that happens as we age.”
Kasper said with Merkel, the nodule below the skin’s surface tends to be hard or firm, although not at all painful. “It can grow fairly quickly. Sometimes, doctors who don’t know what it is will try to drain it and nothing will come out,” he said. “It should not be drained. If you know what you are looking at, you know not to drain it. If you find it early and it is localized, most of the time it can be cured.”
A virus called Merkel cell polyomavirus may play a role in causing most cases of the cancer, Kasper said. Just how this virus causes Merkel cell carcinoma is still unknown.
When a biopsy shows Merkel cell carcinoma, doctors will remove the nodule, but also do radiation to completely get rid of cancerous tissue and reduce the chance of recurrence. There also will be a biopsy of the nearby lymph node and a full body PET scan to see if the cancer has spread to organs. Oncologists recommend immunotherapy if the Merkel cell carcinoma has spread or is inoperable. In 2019, the federal government approved an new immunotherapy to treat people with advanced Merkel cell carcinoma.
Other skin cancers
Although skin cancer is the most common cancer diagnosis is the U.S., most Americans fail to get checked regularly, according to an online survey in January of more than 2,000 people by Prevent Cancer Foundation. The survey found 70% of Americans 21 and older have not had a skin check in the past year.
The three most common types of skin cancer are basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma. Anyone, regardless of skin color, can get these, although those with freckles, fair skin and light hair are most at risk.
Basal cell carcinomas typically grow slowly and don’t spread to other areas of the body. But if this cancer isn’t treated, the cells can expand deeper and penetrate into nerves and bones. Squamous cell cancer usually is not life-threatening, but if not treated, can grow large or spread to other parts of the body. Melanoma is the most serious type of the more common skin cancers because it is most likely to grow and spread.
Merkel cell carcinoma is is 40 times rarer than melanoma. Buffett, the “Margaritaville” singer and legendary Florida beach fan, had been battling it for four years.
About a dozen other rare types of skin cancer also exist.
Legendary Jamaican singer, musician and songwriter Bob Marley died of a rare skin cancer when he was only 36 years old. He had acral lentiginous melanoma that appeared as a dark spot under his toenail. ALM typically develops under nails, on the soles of the feet or the palms of the hands and is the most common form of melanoma found in people of color.
“If you have a spot that is evolving or changing rapidly over weeks or months have it checked out,” said Dr. Charles Dunn, a dermatology resident with ADCS Orlando Dermatology “You can get skin cancer in areas that are not even exposed to sun.”
Dunn said with all skin cancers, but particularly with Merkel, “time is of the essence.” Early detection, he said, results in better survival statistics.
Be vigilant, get checked
Dr. Rajiv Nathoo, a dermatologist and complex clinic director for Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery Clinics in Orlando, said there is a lot of misdiagnosis with skin cancer and advises Floridians to get their regular skin check with board-certified dermatologists. “The general public should be aware of red flags and seek out care, but skin cancer is complex and it’s why we exist as field.” Nathoo said he has a patient in hospice with Merkel who was misdiagnosed, and the skin cancer has now spread. “It’s a big deal because of the mortality statistics. A third of the time with Merkel it has metastasized by the time it’s diagnosed.”
Although genetics and an individual’s immune system play a role, dermatologists recommend wearing sunscreen, avoiding sunburns, and staying indoors during the hottest times of the day. In addition, Nicotinamide, a form of vitamin B3, has been shown to reduce the number of skin cancers when taken orally, but the benefits are lost once you stop taking it, according to a report in Harvard Health Publishing.
“Talk with your dermatologist to see if you are a candidate for Nicotinamide,” Hacker said.
While dermatologists recommend annual skin checks, those over 65 might consider twice a year.
“It’s really crucial to now what’s normal for you and your skin,” said Heather Macky, senior director of cancer prevention and early detection at the Prevent Cancer Foundation. “If you notice a mole, freckle or bump that’s changing in size, shape or color, bring it to the attention of your provider, and don’t wait.”
‘The Old Farmer’s Almanac’ Predicts That Winter Will Be Frigid and Snowy Everywhere But Here
Karla Walsh – September 1, 2023
‘The Old Farmer’s Almanac’ Predicts That Winter Will Be Frigid and Snowy Everywhere But Here
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Since 1792, when Robert B. Thomas founded his publication The Old Farmer’s Almanac, the brand has been releasing long-long-term seasonal forecasts.
These conjectures are based on a formula that combines old methods like solar science and the study of sunspots (magnetic storms on the sun’s surface, which were once thought to affect conditions on Earth), with new ones, such as climatology and the study of weather patterns, meteorology, and the atmosphere.
Admittedly, many meteorologists believe that you can’t reliably trust a forecast beyond 10 days. However, with a self-reported 80 percent accuracy average, there’s something tempting about taking a peek about the Almanac’s predictions to see if we can tell the meteorological future.
So what’s ahead for around the next solstice, December 21, 2023? The Old Farmer’s Almanac 2023-2024 Winter Forecast claims to have our answers. Apparently, it’s a wise idea to have your coat and mittens ready, because “the 2024 Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts snow, seasonable cold, and all of winter’s delights,” the authors explain. “This winter’s forecast is sure to excite snow bunnies and sweater lovers alike, promising a whole lot of cold and snow across North America!”
In nearly all snow-prone parts of the country, expect higher-than-usual rates of snowfall, with an early start and late end to flurry season. Alongside the frosty scenery, you can anticipate colder-than-common temps. Central and Eastern states might be blasted with another frigid polar vortex this winter. In fact, “only snowy New England and the Atlantic Corridor will enjoy winter temperatures which are milder than what’s typical for their regions,” the Almanac says.
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In the Deep South, Texas, and California, rain will prevail, and residents along the majority of the Eastern coastline may experience a mix of mild and cool temps. The Pacific Northwest is one region that’s expected to remain “relatively dry and cold throughout the season.”
If you’re curious about what the crystal ball says about your particular locale, check out this region-by-number map to determine where you land. Then check out your specific weather prediction below. (Psst…we’ve called out all the spots where you may be able to look forward to a white Christmas, in case sledding, snowball fights, or simply feeling like you’re sitting inside a snowglobe are treasured parts of your holiday traditions.)
Region 1: Northeast — “The snowiest stretches occur in mid-to late November, mid-December and early to mid-January,” the Almanac says. Overall, the temps appear to be tracking above normal, with chilly spurts in mid- to late November, early to mid-January, and early to mid-February.
Region 2: Atlantic Corridor — Snowfall is expected to be 2 to 3 inches above monthly averages, with the snowiest parts of the season at the tail end of December, late January, and mid-February. Temperatures should be above normal, except for a cold spell from late January to the middle of February.
Region 3: Appalachians — You may notice above-normal overall precipitation and snowfall, however. As far as the mercury levels, they are on track to be just below average.
Region 4: Southeast — While it’s unlikely to be a white Christmas, it might be a wet one, folks! Overall precipitation rates seem higher than usual, as do temps, which are expected to be mild and slightly above normal.
Region 5: Florida — Wet and mild rules the day for most of the state (except the dryer south). Snowbirds will be happy to hear that Florida’s winter temps are anticipated to be milder than usual this year.
Region 6: Lower Lakes — North of I-90, Santa might bring you a white Christmas! Beyond that, the snowy, colder-than-average periods are expected for late January through mid-February.
Region 7: Ohio Valley — With a wetter and colder than usual winter on the horizon, residents can look forward to a snowy week around Hanukkah and Christmas. “The coldest spells will occur in late December, early January, and late January through mid-February,” the authors say.
Region 8: Deep South — Get your rain boots ready; you’ll need them for much of the wet and mild yet colder-than-common season. The chilliest times are forecasted for late December, early and late January, as well as early February.
Region 9: Upper Midwest — Go ahead and start dreaming of a white Christmas, because the authors claim that this is one of the few regions that is expected to entirely be treated to a fluffy, white gift on December 25. Winter temps are anticipated to be below normal, especially during the second half of November, the majority of December, the start and end of January, and early February. Snowfall is also expected to be above normal rates.
Region 10: Heartland — Keep that scarf handy. The forecast for this region includes colder than normal climate. You can also anticipate a white Christmas, with winter’s snowy peak from late December to mid-January.
Region 11: Texas-Oklahoma — With just a bit more precipitation and temps leaning ever so colder in the north but warmer in the south, conditions are looking about on par for the course in these states.
Region 12: High Plains — Precipitation and snowfall will be a bit higher than most years, and “it will be extra cold,” the Almanac explains, with the glacial temps foreshadowed for late November, late December, and early to mid-January.
Region 13: Intermountain — Who’s ready for some soup? Temps are prophesied to be an estimated 4° F below average, and “we’re looking at above-normal snowfall. The snowiest periods will be in mid- to late November, early and late January, and mid-February,” the authors claim. “Expect a white Christmas!”
Region 14: DesertSouthwest — In parts of this region that typically receive snow, folks can await more flakes than normal, with the snowiest times during the second half of January and mid-February. Temps will be cooler than usual, especially in late November, at the start and end of December, and throughout late January.
Region 15: Pacific Northwest — Although this region is known for its frequently dreary conditions, residents can look forward to a colder yet drier-than-normal winter. The coldest weeks will fall in mid-November, late December, and mid-January.
Region 16: Pacific Southwest — It’s going to be a wet, stormy, and cold season, with the most precip predicted during early and late January, early to mid-February, and mid-March.
Region 17: Alaska — With a white Christmas and snowier-than-usual season ahead, you may guess that it will also be a frigid season. But the Almanac claims that temps should be about 4° F above average.
Region 18: Hawaii — Rainy and mild is the M.O. for the islands, the Almanac predicts. “Expect the stormiest periods in early November in the east and early January and mid-February.”
This all-new tiny but powerful truck proves that bigger isn’t always better: ‘A truck that actually makes sense’
Jeremiah Budin – August 27, 2023
We don’t normally think of trucks as being adorable, but one brand-new electric mini-truck from a Texas-based company is exactly that — and it’s great for the environment.
The Vanish, made by Texas-based company AYRO, is set to hit the market soon with a price of $33,990, and it’s about to embark on a statewide tour to prove its functionality and efficiency.
The AYRO Vanish most closely resembles a version of a Japanese kei truck, a type of small vehicle that is popular throughout Asia and is growing in popularity in the United States. While American-made pickup trucks currently subscribe to the “bigger is better” maxim, the increasing popularity of kei trucks shows that that is not always the case globally.
The Vanish has a hauling capacity of 1,200 pounds, nearly identical to that of a new Ford F-150 with an even longer bed. Meanwhile, AYRO says that it should have a 50% lower operating cost compared to a gas-powered pickup truck.
The truck can be configured into a flatbed, pickup bed, or food box. It will only be able to travel up to 25 miles per hour, so using it for long-distance hauls is out, but it should be more than capable of performing urban and utility work.
Electrek’s commenters were highly impressed by the tiny truck.
“Pickup trucks have gotten too big. This is a nice change,” wrote one commenter. “Those big monsters use too much fuel and are hard to maneuver and park. The trucks from the 1990s were a much better size than offerings from GM, Ford, and RAM today.”
“If the bed can carry the same loads (if not more), then hopefully it’ll make some people rethink the whole oversized pickup scenario,” wrote another. “Years ago I drove an Isuzu diesel pickup not too dissimilar to this and it could handle the loads quite nicely. Served its purpose with nothing to complain about.”
“Wow, a truck that actually makes sense!” wrote a third.
Viral video shows the shocking technique used to clear poison ivy from hiking trails: ‘[This is] really innovative’
Roberto Guerra – August 27, 2023
An Instagram Reel shows how goats are helping get rid of poison ivy along a popular forested trail.
The video was posted on the page Kut Austin (@kut_austin), which is “a community-supported public media newsroom sharing news and information on-air at 90.5 FM and online at KUT.org.”
“An army of goats is clearing poison ivy from the trails around Austin’s Lady Bird Lake,” the caption on the opening scene reads.https://www.instagram.com/p/CuupPjvpo95/embed/captioned?cr=1&v=12
The video shows an array of goats inside a forest, eating away at bushes and plants which are described in the captions as poison ivy and invasive plants.
This can apparently be an effective way of getting rid of poisonous and invasive plants, which can have adverse effects on ecosystems, like reducing biodiversity.
Herbicides are commonly used to deal with invasive and poisonous plant species, but these bring about their own problems and can be even worse for the environment than the invasive species.
There are also other natural, non-toxic ways to get rid of unwanted plants, either for your garden or for an entire forest. Among these methods are bringing in other plant species to combat the unwanted ones or simply pulling them out manually by the roots.
Bringing in animals to eat them is among the most efficient ways of taking care of the problem since they end up doing most of the work and benefit from it as well, resulting in a mutually beneficial relationship.
The Trail Conservancy, the nonprofit organization that maintains the forested trail, came up with the idea of bringing in animals to take care of the problem.
“It’s a really innovative and creative alternative to some of the other tactics we could use to eradicate poison ivy, like controlled burns, which affect air quality, or chemicals, which affect water quality in the lake,” The Trail Conservancy’s CEO Heidi Anderson said.
Viewers of the Reel also had plenty to say.
“Through careful rotational grazing with multiple animals, it’s amazing how well an area can be maintained,” one person wrote in the comments.
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Mystery land buyers around California Air Force base revealed
Tom Palmer – August 26, 2023
(NewsNation) – New reports shed light on nearly $1 billion in land purchases by a mysterious company near a California Air Force base that raised national security concerns.
Since 2018, a group called “Flannery Associates” invested more than $800 million on almost 54,000 acres of agriculture-zoned land surrounding the Travis Air Force base in Solano County, California, public records show.
Despite early speculation China was behind the purchases — amid concerns that companies with ties to China have been ramping up efforts to buy American farmland — legal representation for Flannery has maintained the group is controlled by U.S. citizens, with 97% of its capital coming from U.S.-based investors.
However, after eight months of investigation, federal officials were not able to confirm or deny this to be true, and were not able to determine exactly who was backing the company.
Now, reports from The New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle reveal Flannery is comprised of a group of ultra-wealthy Silicon Valley investors acquiring vast parcels of land northeast of San Francisco with the mission to build a new California city “from scratch.”
According to the reports, the investors’ plan for the land involves creating a new urban center that could accommodate the growing demands of the tech industry and provide a fresh environment for innovation and economic growth.
The goal, according to the reports, is to establish a new city that caters to the needs of Silicon Valley tech companies and professionals, potentially alleviating some of the challenges posed by congestion, housing shortages and high costs of living in the Bay Area.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that these land acquisitions have been met with a mix of excitement and concern from local communities and government officials.
Democratic California Rep. John Garamendi called developments around Travis Air Force Base a critical national security issue.
“The fact they chose to buy all three sides of the Travis Air Force Base even raises immediate questions about national security,” Garamendi said.
To pull off the project, according to the Times, the company will have to use the state’s initiative system to get Solano County residents to vote on it.
Garamendi said utilizing an initiative means they’re going to override the local protections that are in place for Travis Air Force Base.
According to Garamendi, the area is “heavily impacted by some very severe restrictions that prevent development and other kinds of activities that would somehow degrade or harm Travis Air Force Base.”
The Air Force’s Foreign Investment Risk Review office is currently investigating Flannery Associates. Garamendi says there are valid concerns that Flannery’s land acquisitions could be tied to foreign enemies.
“Wherever the money is coming from,” he said, “the underlying problem of securing Travis Air Force Base remains.”
Garamendi also said the “organization has been just playing nasty,” referring to farmers in the area being targeted in a lawsuit from the group.
“Please understand that this group spent five years secretly and in my estimation, using strong-arm techniques that would best be associated with monsters to acquire the land,” he said.
Garamendi said he’s been in contact with the families of farmers who handed over their land to Flannery, saying they didn’t want to sell in the first place.
Since no California laws require them to sell, the land was bargained for by both parties at a much higher price. But now, Flannery is suing those families for $510 million, accusing them of conspiring together to inflate the value of the land.
“It’s a suit designed to force the farmers to lawyer up, spend tens of thousands of dollars on lawyering and maybe at the end of the day, bankrupt themselves,” Garamendi said. “In fact, that has happened to at least one family that I know of and I’ve heard rumors that another family simply said, ‘We can’t afford the lawyers.’”
NewsNation correspondent Emily Finn contributed to this article.
Andrew Putnam, superintendent of urban forestry and landscapes for the city of Cambridge, Mass., in Danehy Park, near Harvard University, July 26, 2023. (Cassandra Klos/The New York Times)
The tiny forest lives atop an old landfill in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Although it is still a baby, it’s already acting quite a bit older than its actual age, which is just shy of 2.
Its aspens are growing at twice the speed normally expected, with fragrant sumac and tulip trees racing to catch up. It has absorbed stormwater without washing out, suppressed many weeds and stayed lush throughout last year’s drought. The little forest managed all this because of its enriched soil and density, and despite its diminutive size: 1,400 native shrubs and saplings, thriving in an area roughly the size of a basketball court.
It is part of a sweeping movement that is transforming dusty highway shoulders, parking lots, schoolyards and junkyards worldwide. Tiny forests have been planted across Europe, in Africa, throughout Asia and in South America, Russia and the Middle East. India has hundreds, and Japan, where it all began, has thousands.
Now tiny forests are slowly but steadily appearing in the United States. In recent years, they’ve been planted alongside a corrections facility on the Yakama reservation in Washington state, in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park and in Cambridge, where the forest is one of the first of its kind in the Northeast.
“It’s just phenomenal,” Andrew Putnam, superintendent of urban forestry and landscapes for the city of Cambridge, said on a recent visit to the forest, which was planted in fall 2021 in Danehy Park, a green space built atop the former city landfill. As dragonflies and white butterflies floated about, Putnam noted that within a few years, many of the now 14-foot saplings would be as tall as telephone poles and the forest would be self-sufficient.
Healthy woodlands absorb carbon dioxide, clean the air and provide for wildlife. But these tiny forests promise even more.
They can grow as quickly as 10 times the speed of conventional tree plantations, enabling them to support more birds, animals and insects and to sequester more carbon, while requiring no weeding or watering after the first three years, their creators said.
Perhaps more important for urban areas, tiny forests can help lower temperatures in places where pavement, buildings and concrete surfaces absorb and retain heat from the sun.
“This isn’t just a simple tree-planting method,” said Katherine Pakradouni, a native plant horticulturist who oversaw the forest planting in Griffith Park. “This is about a whole system of ecology that supports all manner of life, both above and below ground.”
The Griffith Park forest occupies 1,000 square feet and has drawn all manner of insects, lizards, birds and ground squirrels, along with western toads that journeyed from the Los Angeles River, Pakradouni said. To get to the forest, the toads had to clamber up a concrete embankment, traverse a bike trail, venture down another dirt embankment and cross a horse trail.
“It has all the food they need to survive and reproduce, and the shelter they need as a refuge,” Pakradouni said. “We need habitat refuges, and even a tiny one can, in a year, be life or death for an entire species.”
Known variously as tiny forests, miniforests, pocket forests and, in the United Kingdom, “wee” forests, they trace their lineage to Japanese botanist and plant ecologist Akira Miyawaki, who in 2006 won the Blue Planet Prize, considered the environmental equivalent of a Nobel award, for his method of creating fast-growing native forests.
Miyawaki, who died in 2021 at the age of 93, developed his technique in the 1970s, after observing that thickets of indigenous trees around Japan’s temples and shrines were healthier and more resilient than those in single-crop plantations or forests grown in the aftermath of logging. He wanted to protect old-growth forests and encourage the planting of native species, arguing that they provided vital resilience amid climate change while also reconnecting people with nature.
“The forest is the root of all life; it is the womb that revives our biological instincts, that deepens our intelligence and increases our sensitivity as human beings,” he wrote.
Miyawaki’s prescription involves intense soil restoration and planting many native flora close together. Multiple layers are sown — from shrub to canopy — in a dense arrangement of about three to five plantings per square meter. The plants compete for resources as they race toward the sun, while underground bacteria and fungal communities thrive. Where a natural forest could take at least a century to mature, Miyawaki forests take just a few decades, proponents say.
Crucially, the method requires that local residents do the planting, in order to forge connections with young woodlands. In Cambridge, where a second tiny forest, less than half the size of the first one, was planted in late 2022, Putnam said residents had embraced the small forest with fervor. A third forest is in the works, he said, and all three were planned and organized in conjunction with the nonprofit Biodiversity for a Livable Climate.
“This has, by far and away, gotten the most positive feedback from the public and residents than we’ve had for any project, and we do a lot,” Putnam said.
Still, there are skeptics. Because a Miyawaki forest requires intense site and soil preparation, and exact sourcing of many native plants, it can be expensive. The Danehy Park forest cost $18,000 for the plants and soil amendments, Putnam said, while the pocket forest company, SUGi, covered the forest creators’ consulting fees of roughly $9,500. By way of comparison, a Cambridge street tree costs $1,800.
“A massive impact for a pretty small dollar amount in the grand scheme of the urban forestry program,” Putnam said.
Doug Tallamy, an American entomologist and author of “Nature’s Best Hope,” said that while he applauded efforts to restore degraded habitat, particularly in urban areas, many of the plants would eventually get crowded out and die. Better to plant fewer and save more, he said.
“I don’t want to throw a wet blanket on it; the concept is great, and we have to put the plants back in the ground,” Tallamy said. “But the ecological concept of a tiny forest packed with dozens of species doesn’t make any sense.”
Kazue Fujiwara, a longtime Miyawaki collaborator at Yokohama National University, said survival rates are between 85% and 90% in the first three years, and then, as the canopy grows, drop to 45% after 20 years, with dead trees falling and feeding the soil. The initial density is crucial to stimulating rapid growth, said Hannah Lewis, author of “Mini-Forest Revolution.” It quickly creates a canopy that shades out weeds and shelters the microclimate underneath from wind and direct sun, she said.
Throughout his life, Miyawaki planted forests at industrial sites globally, including at an automotive parts plant in southern Indiana. A turning point came when an engineer named Shubhendu Sharma took part in a Miyawaki planting in India. Enthralled, Sharma turned his own backyard into a miniforest, started a planting company called Afforestt and, in 2014, delivered a TED Talk that, along with a 2016 follow-up, ended up drawing millions of views.
Around the world, conservationists took notice.
In the Netherlands, Daan Bleichrodt, an environmental educator, plants tiny forests to bring nature closer to urban dwellers, especially city children. In 2015, he spearheaded the country’s first Miyawaki forest, in a community north of Amsterdam, and has overseen the planting of nearly 200 forests since.
Four years later, Elise van Middelem started SUGi, which has planted more than 160 pocket forests worldwide. The company’s first forest was planted on a dumping ground alongside the Beirut River in Lebanon; others were sown later near a power plant in the country’s most polluted city and in several playgrounds badly damaged by the 2020 blast at Beirut’s port.
And Earthwatch Europe, an environmental nonprofit, has planted more than 200 forests, most of them the size of a tennis court, throughout the United Kingdom and mainland Europe in the past three years.
Although many of the forests are still very young, their creators say there have already been outsize benefits.
The woodlands in Lebanon have drawn lizards, geckos, birds and tons of insects and fungi, according to Adib Dada, an architect and environmentalist and the main forest creator there. In the West African country of Cameroon, where eight Miyawaki forests have been planted since 2019, there are improved groundwater conditions and higher water tables around the forest sites, according to Limbi Blessing Tata, who has led the reforestation there. Crabs and frogs have also returned, she said, along with birds that were thought to be extinct.
According to Bleichrodt, a 2021 university study of 11 Dutch miniforests found more than 1,100 types of plants and animals at the sites — kingfishers, foxes, hedgehogs, spider beetles, ants, earthworms and wood lice.
“A Miyawaki forest may be like a drop of rain falling into the ocean,” Fujiwara wrote in an email, “but if Miyawaki forests regenerated urban deserts and degraded areas around the world, it will create a river.”
“Doing nothing,” she added “is the most pointless thing.”
Republican activist says party ‘deserves to lose’ if it fails to address climate crisis
Oliver Milman – August 24, 2023
Photograph: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images
Republicans “deserve to lose” electorally if they can’t show they care about the climate crisis, according to the head of a conservative climate organization that put forward a rare question on the issue to GOP candidates in Wednesday’s televised debate.
The Republican presidential hopefuls, minus Donald Trump, were asked at the Fox News debate what they would do to improve the party’s standing on climate policy by Alexander Diaz, a young conservative who is part of the American Conservation Coalition (ACC), a youth conservative group that pushes for action on the climate crisis.
Asked by the moderators for a show of hands over whether climate change is real, none of the candidates did so, with one, Vivek Ramaswamy, the far-right businessman, declaring that the “climate agenda is a hoax”. Two other candidates, Tim Scott and Nikki Haley, accepted the well-established scientific reality of global heating but looked to shift the blame to other major carbon polluters, such as China, and even, in Scott’s case, to Africa, which is responsible for about 3% of the world’s emissions.
Benji Backer, founder and executive chairman of ACC, said the question on climate was “historic” and highlighted the desire among young Republicans for their leaders to take the threat of global heating seriously.
“That we didn’t get an immediate hand raise speaks to how much work we have left to do; young people will never vote for a candidate that doesn’t believe in climate change,” he said after the debate. “We’re not going away, we are normalizing this as part of the Republican conversation. Republicans deserve to lose if they are climate deniers and don’t have a plan.”
Backer said that Ramaswamy “has always been wrong on this issue” and that Haley’s answer was a “winning one” for young people. He noted how Ramaswamy, who he said an ACC colleague confronted about his remarks after the debate, was booed by the audience for his dismissal of climate science.
“Republicans are environmentalists, we are the original conservationists,” Backer told a debate after-party attended by campaign staffers, some Republican members of Congress and Ramaswamy, a video shared with the Guardian shows. “And by sitting on the sidelines and letting the Democrats take this issue and run with it over the last few decades we’ve not only lost an entire generation of young voters we’ve also ceded the ground to really, really bad policy that is impacting our day-to-day lives in so many ways.”
Polling shows there is growing concern among all Americans over the impacts of the climate crisis, which have been on vivid display this summer, with devastating fires in Hawaii, floods in California and Vermont and a series of punishing heatwaves that have broken temperature records across the US.
There remains a partisan divide, however, with far more Democrats considering climate a priority than Republicans. Among GOP voters, younger people are more likely to see the climate crisis as a threat that requires action than the party’s older voters, polls suggest.
Few Republican leaders have backed strong climate action in recent years, however, with Trump, the dominant force in the party, calling the climate crisis a “hoax” and “bullshit”. During Trump’s presidency, the US withdrew from the Paris climate agreement and scrapped various regulations designed to reduce carbon pollution. Republicans in Congress have since attempted to demolish key aspects of Joe Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act, which provides enormous incentives to proliferate renewable energy and electric vehicles.
The specter of Trump, the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination despite his various criminal indictments, still haunts Republicans when it comes to dealing with the climate crisis, according to Bob Inglis, a former Republican congressman who now advocates for conservative action on climate.
“At the debate last night the future called to the present and the present seized up in fear – the candidates couldn’t answer the future’s call because they are in fear of a certain constituency in the party and the person who leads that,” Inglis said.
“It’s an abysmal failure of vision. The smart money is moving towards innovation to deal with climate change. But that guy [Trump] is an angel of death. He can’t get you elected, but he can kill you in the primary.”
Environmental groups were scathing of the Republican candidate’s responses. “Republicans are stuck between a hoax and a hard place,” said Lori Lodes, executive director of Climate Power. “Their Maga base demands a rigid stance against the obvious reality of climate change, which requires that they ignore what we’re all experiencing – extreme weather that disrupts lives and destroys communities week in and week out.”
How Centuries of Extractive Agriculture Helped Set the Stage for the Maui Fires
The sugar and pineapple plantations that dominate the Hawaiian island changed the landscape, how the water flows, and contributed to the devastation of the fire.
By Katie Rodriguez – August 23, 2023
A sugarcane field in Pu’unene, Maui, with a sugar mill in the background. (Photo credit: John Elk, Getty Images)
Lahaina, the former capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom, was once a thriving, ecologically diverse landscape full of fish ponds and diverse crops that included sweet potatoes, kalo (taro), and ‘ulu (breadfruit). But colonization, and the extractive agricultural systems that came with it, had a devastating impact on reshaping the landscape ecologically, culturally, and economically—not only depleting soils of fertility but making much of the island more fire-prone.
As these maps of historic sugarcane lands and pineapple lands illustrate, the two crops covered vast portions of West Maui.
A map showing the 1937 area of pineapple and sugarcane lands. (Map credit: Hawaii Statewide GIS Program)
The sugarcane and pineapple industries reigned for nearly two centuries, with monocropping farming methods made exceptionally profitable with indentured servitude. This process transformed natural ecosystems, as the companies diverted water from wet areas of the island to irrigate the fields in the drier parts.
As workers slowly gained rights, profits plummeted, and Brazil and India became competitors of cheap sugar production. Maui’s last sugar mill, the 36,000-acre Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar, Co. (HC&S), shut down in 2016, and the land was left in the hands of management company Alexander & Baldwin.
Now, tens of thousands of acres that had been used for sugarcane and pineapple production sit untended, much lying fallow, some overrun with non-native grass species, or in the hands of development companies who aim to offset the economic loss of agricultural production with tourism. Meanwhile, local communities are engaged in an ongoing battle for water rights as the residents of Hawaii look toward rebuilding.
Civil Eats spoke with Noa Lincoln, an assistant professor of Indigenous crops and cropping systems at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, about water diversion, deforestation, and Big Ag’s impact on Maui.
Will you briefly describe the history of sugarcane? When did it get to Hawaii and what were some of its benefits?
Sugarcane was introduced to Hawaii probably about a millennia ago by Polynesians. It played a pivotal role in a broad range of traditional cropping systems before Europeans’ arrival.
We have very recent work that shows that it has high nitrogen fixation potential, and it was probably critical in the long-term sustainability of our dryland systems for nitrogen dynamics. It plays really important hydrologic functions in certain systems, acting as a windbreak. It’s one of the world’s highest biomass producers, so it was critical for mulching and labor maintenance in terms of weeds and covering the soil.
And sugarcane itself is actually a tremendously powerful tool, when applied properly, and it enhances soil health and ecosystem function within agricultural systems. Which then, of course, becomes very ironic in terms of how the plantations then [put] a horrible, detrimental end to our soil quality.
What conditions did the sugarcane thrive in originally?
Pretty diverse conditions. [Many] varieties of sugarcane tend to be much more grass-like, much more acclimated to dry habitats. When you look at the wild occurrence of these sugarcane ancestors, they occupy everything from inundated bogs, all the way to pretty dry mesic habitats. Polynesians, as they traveled across the islands, occupied a broad range of habitats, and selected varieties that performed across a broad spectrum of habitats.
Chinese contract laborers on a sugar plantation in 19th century Hawaii. (Photo credit: Hawaii State Archives)
While everyone always thinks of sugarcane as a very thirsty crop [that] can take up a lot of water, it is also actually drought adapted. It’s coated in wax to reduce water loss. It has amazing stomatal control, so it can really close itself up and reduce its water loss. So, yes, if you pump them full of water, you are going to get more production. But, actually, sugarcane can perform and produce across a range of habitats, including pretty dry habitats.
Can you describe the diversion of water for sugarcane?
You could grow sugarcane without irrigation in the wet areas of Hawaii, but you had lower sunlight, so you got lower yields. A lot of the plantations wanted to exploit the drier, mesic areas of Hawaii, which have better sunlight and significantly better soil. A lot of the big water diversions are to move water from these wet areas out into the mesic areas that don’t have flowing surface streams. It’s not that they needed irrigation everywhere, but they did need irrigation to establish these plantations in areas that probably shouldn’t have been supporting plantations.
On Maui, most of the sugarcane cultivation is in the Central Valley, which is largely a mesic habitat. Alexander & Baldwin, one of the early, large sugar plantations, created a really extensive irrigation ditch that cut across 27 windward valleys; they completely de-watered those streams and took all 27 and diverted them into this canal that went into the Central Valley so they could irrigate an area that was not wet enough for sugarcane cultivation.
Where do those water diversions stand today?
It’s fascinating and unprecedented in our country, because [at the time the plantations were planted] Hawaii was an independent monarchy. The monarchy eventually got overthrown, and Hawaii became a territory, and eventually a state. There’s really not a parallel in U.S. law or U.S. history. It’s a unique case study.
There have been very long fights over the water in East Maui, because obviously when they took all the water from the stream, that displaced the ability for the downstream Native communities to cultivate, for instance, the flooded irrigated Kalo, which was their main production and food staple. This has gone through a lot of legal fights.
One of the big culminating cases that went to the Hawaii Supreme Court and is actually taught in a lot of water law courses today is the Waiahole Ditch case, in which the Supreme Court affirmed that cultural applications of water are protected under the public trust doctrine for governing water law.
That opened the door for a lot of other traditional users to fight for these water returns. And so on that East Maui irrigation ditch, there have been some victories over the last decade in terms of reestablishing inflow streams standards and guaranteeing a certain amount of water for downstream users.
How much land in Maui is currently fallow?
It’s pretty high. Maui has probably one of the lower percentages [when compared to other islands across the state], but more than 50 percent of our agriculturally zoned lands are fallow. It’s estimated that only something like 15 percent of our ag lands are actually used to grow active crops.
How are farmers working to regenerate the soil on former sugarcane land?
Unfortunately, it’s hardly on the radar, because there are so many larger struggles just to operate in agriculture in Hawaii today. The biggest is that our state does nothing to protect or value land for agriculture. And therefore, the land value of ag land is tied to its development potential.
On the north shore of Oahu, if you want to get an acre of land, you’re talking like half a million dollars. And the costs of land, water, and labor in Hawaii are so high, it’s very, very challenging to just exist as a farmer. Because of that, if you’re thinking about regenerative agricultural practices, that is a further investment on the farmers’ behalf; it’s taking a longer time horizon. [Organic] amendments are more expensive than industrial fertilizers. If you’re doing tree crops, that takes longer [than annual] crops. All these things amount to additional economic investment on the farmer’s behalf in an already extremely challenging economic landscape.
An aerial view of a sugarcane field next to the community of Paia, Maui. (Photo CC-licensed by Forest and Kim Starr)
Because of that, the vast majority of people who are engaging in regenerative agricultural practices are not strictly farmers. There’s a lot of nonprofit education or social enterprises that subsidize farming through youth engagement or cultural education, and that allows them to engage in more regenerative practices without being beholden to the bottom line.
You have a lot of retirees or people who work other jobs to support themselves. That farming is more of a passion and, in some cases, a hobby. And they have the luxury, I would say, of engaging in regenerative practices. But in terms of where the food production is coming from in Hawaii, there are very few food-producing farmers who can do that. It’s just economically restricted.
How much of the former sugar ag land is going toward development?
Since the 1950s, we’ve lost about 1 percent of our farmlands annually. That’s being rezoned for residential or other development purposes. There are no restrictions, really, of what you can do with agricultural lands in Hawaii. There’s a tremendous amount of ag lands that are supporting gentleman’s farms where people come in and buy 20 acres. They put up a mansion; they have a horse.
How did the history of the sugarcane industry lead to this month’s wildfire?
In some of the old Hawaiian language newspapers, Lahaina used to have significant wetlands and lowland flats. They would say, “Lahaina sits in the house of the Ulu trees,” or the ancient breadfruit grove Malaulumulele.
“Our state does nothing to protect or value land for agriculture. And therefore, the land value of ag land is tied to its development potential.”
People just describe almost the entirety of Lahaina town as this forested area filled with breadfruit. And as the plantations came in, they were cutting down a lot of these trees. It got to the point where they passed a law that made it illegal to cut down an ulu tree. And so plantation owners started to pile their bagasse, their spent sugarcane pressings, around the base of the tree and burn it.
After three or four burnings, it would kill the tree. They weren’t breaking the law. They weren’t cutting it down, but they were very systematically and deliberately eliminating the trees from this region.
Those trees probably had a very significant effect in terms of the region’s moisture. Deep-rooted trees are able to tap into the water table. If you look at the rainfall, Lahaina was always way too dry to grow breadfruit. But the fact that you had this huge breadfruit growth and all these wetlands essentially speaks to the fact that the trees were tapping into this subterranean water table, lifting moisture up to the surface, redepositing some of that moisture through leaf litter, allowing for additional rain capture, for reduced evaporation, increased carbon in the soil, and holding additional moisture.
You basically just had an entirely different ecology of that region for two reasons: the undisturbed flow of the river, which allowed the recharge of the subterranean water sources; and these extensive treed landscapes in that area. The plantations removed both of those. They diverted the river in its entirety and eliminated the tree cover. I think the long-term ecological implications of those changes were a huge factor in [the conditions that led to] the fire.
Is there anything you’d like to add?
It’s not a new concept, but it’s important to recognize that agriculture provides a lot of different services, most of which are not valued. Our country has, over the last century, become increasingly aware of the negative externalities of agriculture, in terms of soil loss, groundwater poisoning, and eutrophication and dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico. As a country, we’ve started to acknowledge and at least begin to address the negative externalities of agriculture.
I would like to see the conversation shift to focus on agriculture’s positive impacts. Basically everything that can be done negatively, agriculture can also do it positively. Agriculture can contribute to soil remediation, improved water quality, and biodiversity. How do we encourage those activities? That work really needs to be accelerated and expanded. In Hawaiian culture, really any Indigenous culture, agriculture is the fundamental way that people interact with their environment. To me, it really sets the tone for our entire society.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Katie Rodriguez is a U.C. Berkeley-11th Hour Food and Farming Journalism Intern spending the summer working for Civil Eats. She is a 2023 graduate of U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and a reporter from the Investigative Reporting Program. She is passionate about telling stories of environmental health, climate policy, agriculture, and marine food systems. Her work has appeared in Inside Climate News, USA Today, Outside, and more. She is based in San Francisco and very excited about the Yucatán banana leaf tamales she recently discovered in her neighborhood.
Should Biden be getting more credit for his massive climate bill?
Mike Bebernes, Senior Editor – August 21, 2023
“The 360” shows you diverse perspectives on the day’s top stories and debates.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images
What’s happening
President Biden held a press conference last week to celebrate the first anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act — a bill he called the “the largest investment in clean energy and climate action ever” — becoming law.
The IRA passed through the Senate last August by the narrowest possible margin after months of negotiations among Democrats. Although the bill’s name targeted the soaring inflation of the time, the legislation was essentially a sprawling collection of programs designed to supercharge the country’s green energy transition through investments and tax incentives. It also included a handful of non-climate provisions, including rules to lower the cost of prescription drugs and billions in extra funding for the Internal Revenue Service.
While even the president concedes that the IRA shouldn’t be credited for falling inflation, the bill has already helped drive more than $100 billion into green energy production and created more than 170,000 clean energy jobs — many of them in Republican parts of the country. The White House argues that this is just a preview of the IRA’s full impact, which won’t be realized for several years. One estimate predicted that the bill could result in as much as $1.2 trillion in green energy spending over the next 10 years.
Yet despite these massive investments, voters aren’t giving Biden credit for leading the effort to make the bill a reality. More than half of Americans disapprove of his handling of climate change, and a strong majority say they know little or nothing about what the Inflation Reduction Act has done, according to a recent Washington Post-University of Maryland poll.
Why there’s debate
Many political analysts say that stuffing a bunch of individually popular initiatives into a single bill created a piece of legislation too complicated for voters to wrap their heads around. The slow process of launching major energy projects also means that many Americans haven’t yet seen the impact of the IRA in their communities.
But others say Biden’s real problem is that he’s taking the wrong approach to climate change in the first place. Republicans argue that the IRA is far too large and will end up wasting extraordinary amounts of taxpayer money by imposing the Democrats’ green agenda on the country. Many progressives, on the other hand, say climate-minded voters are disappointed that the bill isn’t nearly big enough and that Biden has undermined his own case by approving fossil fuel projects throughout his presidency.
What’s next
Biden’s effort to draw more attention to the IRA’s benefits is part of a larger effort to change voters’ minds about his stewardship of the economy, which have remained stubbornly low despite persistent growth and tumbling inflation. Convincing Americans that “Bidenomics” is working will likely be a core focus for the president throughout his reelection campaign.
Perspectives
Most Americans can’t make sense of such a massive and complex bill
“I think part of the issue is they have to cram so many things in these giant bills, to get everybody on board and something for everyone to get passed. So it’s really hard for the public to wrap their head around. … It’s very, very tricky when it’s hard to know what’s in it.” — Nova Safo, Marketplace
Americans aren’t seeing the effects in their everyday lives
“While the Inflation Reduction Act is bringing dramatic savings to Medicare recipients, and offers rebates and tax credits to consumers for energy-saving home improvements and electric vehicle purchases, nothing in it really addresses the day-to-day expenses most Americans incur, like groceries and gas.” — Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, to HuffPost
The IRA isn’t remotely enough to change our climate trajectory
“It left the U.S. with no realistic path toward meeting its stated goal of zeroing carbon emissions by 2050. At the rate we’re still pumping planet-heating carbon into the atmosphere, today’s heat waves could come to seem downright pleasant.” — Mark Gongloff, Bloomberg
The IRA is bad policy and voters know it
“Even if you give the bill the most charitable take possible, it’s just throwing money at failed programs and wasted resources.” — Alex Salter, economist at Texas Tech University, to Washington Times
The president has repeatedly undercut his own climate message
“Biden has also faced the ire of climate progressives for somewhat undercutting his landmark moment with an aggressive giveaway of oil and gas drilling leases on public land … and for incentivizing the use of technologies such as carbon capture that have been criticized as an unproven distraction at a time when the world is baking under record heatwaves.” — Oliver Milman, Guardian
Voters will begin to appreciate the IRA once the projects it’s funding get off the ground
“I think, over the long run, a lot of these Republican skeptics, they’re going to start to see jobs in their district, investments. And I think they’re going to come along with the clean energy technologies of the 21st century.” — Leah Stokes, UC Santa Barbara professor of environmental politics, to PBS NewsHour
The media has mostly ignored the actual impact of the IRA
“I’ve covered a lot of policy fights, and a huge problem in how policy coverage is done is there is all this attention to the fight to pass a bill — the Affordable Care Act, the Trump tax cuts, the Inflation Reduction Act. And then the bill passes. And if the fight stops, attention just drops off a cliff.” — Ezra Klein, New York Times.
Hurricane Hilary threatens ‘catastrophic and life-threatening’ flooding in Mexico and California
Ignacio Martinez and Julie Watson – August 19, 2023
This Friday, Aug. 18, 2023, 1:10 p.m. EDT satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Hilary, right, off Mexico’s Pacific coast. It grew rapidly to Category 4 strength and could reach Southern California as the first tropical storm there in 84 years, causing “significant and rare impacts” including extensive flooding. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said a tropical storm watch has been issued for Southern California, the first time it has ever done that. (NOAA via AP)Seal Beach resident Tom Ostrom, walks past a home protected with sandbags in Seal Beach, Calif., Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. Hurricane Hilary is churning off Mexico’s Pacific coast as a powerful Category 4 storm threatening to unleash torrential rains on the mudslide-prone border city of Tijuana before heading into Southern California as the first tropical storm there in 84 years. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)Cal Fire Firefighter-Paramedic Capt. Tyler Williams checks the sandbags set outside of his garage in Seal Beach, Calif., Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. Hurricane Hilary is churning off Mexico’s Pacific coast as a powerful Category 4 storm threatening to unleash torrential rains on the mudslide-prone border city of Tijuana before heading into Southern California as the first tropical storm there in 84 years. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)Seal Beach resident Tom Ostrom, right, sits along an empty water-pipe to be used to pump sea water back to the Pacific Ocean as homes are protected by sand berms in Seal Beach, Calif., Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. Hurricane Hilary is churning off Mexico’s Pacific coast as a powerful Category 4 storm threatening to unleash torrential rains on the mudslide-prone border city of Tijuana before heading into Southern California as the first tropical storm there in 84 years. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)A couple walks along berms in Seal Beach, Calif., Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. Officials in Southern California were also re-enforcing sand berms, built to protect low-lying coastal communities against winter surf. Hurricane Hilary is churning off Mexico’s Pacific coast as a powerful Category 4 storm threatening to unleash torrential rains on the mudslide-prone border city of Tijuana before heading into Southern California as the first tropical storm there in 84 years. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Hilary headed for Mexico’s Baja California on Saturday as the U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding” for the peninsula and for the southwestern United States, where it was forecast to cross the border as a tropical storm on Sunday.
Officials as far north as Los Angeles scrambled to get the homeless off the streets, set up shelters and prepare for evacuations.
Hilary is expected to plow into Mexico’s Baja peninsula on Saturday night and then surge northward and enter the history books as the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center issued tropical storm and potential flood warnings for a wide swath of Southern California from the Pacific coast to interior mountains and deserts. Officials talked of evacuation plans for California’s Catalina Island.
“I don’t think any of us — I know me particularly — never thought I’d be standing here talking about a hurricane or a tropical storm,” said Janice Hahn, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
After rapidly gaining power early Friday, Hilary slowed some later in the day but remained a major Category 3 hurricane early Saturday with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (205 kph), down from 145 mph (230 kph).
Early on Saturday, the storm was centered about 235 miles (375 kilometers) west of the southern tip of the Baja peninsula. It was moving north-northwest at 16 mph (26 kph) and was expected to turn more toward the north and pick up speed.
The latest forecast track pointed to Hilary making landfall along a sparsely populated area of the Baja peninsula at a point about 200 miles (330 kilometers) south of the Pacific port city of Ensenada.
It is then expected to continue northward up the peninsula, raising fears that its heavy rains could cause dangerous flooding in the border city of Tijuana, where many homes in the city of 1.9 million cling precariously to steep hillsides.
Mayor Montserrat Caballero Ramirez said the city was setting up four shelters in high-risk zones and warning people in risky zones.
“We are a vulnerable city being on one of the most visited borders in the world and because of our landscape,” she said.
Concern was rising in the U.S., too.
The National Park Service closed Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve to keep people from becoming stranded amid flooding. Cities across the region, including in Arizona, were offering sandbags to safeguard properties against floodwaters. Major League Baseball rescheduled three Sunday games in Southern California, moving them to Saturday as part of split-doubleheaders,
Deputies with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department took to the road to urge homeless people living in riverbeds to seek shelter. Authorities in the city were arranging food, cots and shelters for people who needed them.
SpaceX delayed the launch of a satellite-carrying rocket from a base on California’s central coast until at least Monday. The company said conditions in the Pacific could make it difficult for a ship to recover the rocket booster.
President Joe Biden said the Federal Emergency Management Agency had pre-positioned staff and supplies in the region.
“I urge everyone, everyone in the path of this storm, to take precautions and listen to the guidance of state and local officials,” Biden told reporters Friday at Camp David, where he is meeting with the leaders of Japan and South Korea.
Officials in Southern California were re-enforcing sand berms, built to protect low-lying coastal communities against winter surf, like in Huntington Beach, which dubs itself as “Surf City USA.”
In nearby Newport Beach, Tanner Atkinson waited in a line of vehicles for free sandbags at a city distribution point.
“I mean a lot of people here are excited because the waves are gonna get pretty heavy,” Atkinson said. “But I mean, it’s gonna be some rain, so usually there’s some flooding and the landslides and things like that.”
Some schools in Cabo San Lucas were being prepared as temporary shelters, and in La Paz, the picturesque capital of Baja California Sur state on the Sea of Cortez, police patrolled closed beaches to keep swimmers out of the whipped-up surf. Schools were shut down in five municipalities.
It was increasingly likely that Hilary would reach California on Sunday while still at tropical storm strength, though widespread rain was expected to begin as early as Saturday, the National Weather Service’s San Diego office said.
Hurricane officials said the storm could bring heavy rainfall to the southwestern United States, dumping 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 centimeters) in places, with isolated amounts of up to 10 inches (25 centimeters), in portions of southern California and southern Nevada.
“Two to three inches of rainfall in Southern California is unheard of” for this time of year, said Kristen Corbosiero, a University at Albany atmospheric scientist who specializes in Pacific hurricanes. “That’s a whole summer and fall amount of rain coming in probably 6 to 12 hours.”
The region could face once-in-a-century rains and there is a good chance Nevada will break its all-time rainfall record, said meteorologist Jeff Masters of Yale Climate Connections and a former government in-flight hurricane meteorologist.
Watson reported from San Diego. Associated Press writers Seth Borenstein in Washington, Maria Verza and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City, John Antczak in Los Angeles, and Eugene Garcia in Newport Beach, California, contributed to this report.
