Watch 1PM Weekly News - September 04, 2023
This week Shelby covers 8 breaking news stories--from the growing trend of Mariculture, or farming sea plants, to the Nature Rights Movement spreading in new countries all over the globe.
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Alaska’s New Gold Rush: Seaweed
For our first story, farming sea plants, or what is called mariculture, is becoming a growing trend throughout the world in response to the impact of climate change on traditional land-grown crops and fisheries. In the U.S., Alaska is emerging as a leader in the mariculture industry due in part to its cold water and extensive coastline. Alaska also has the largest active seaweed farm in the U.S. with almost a dozen applications pending with each farm to be at least a hundred acres in size. Once a practice limited to Asia, mariculture has a much smaller carbon footprint than traditional farming. Mariculture doesn’t require fertilizer or added nutrients and is rich in dietary fiber, omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins A, B, C and E. Unlike some Asian cultures, however, Americans have not traditionally eaten seaweed, so new food product development and marketing will be critical to expanding mariculture as an alternative food source in the U.S.
Biden Administration Not Protecting Wetlands
This past May the Supreme Court ruled that the E.P.A. and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can no longer oversee wetlands near bodies of water unless they have “a continuous surface connection” to those waters. Now, without the authority to regulate them, the Biden administration has lifted protections for millions of acres of wetlands. Environmental experts are now concerned that there will be no penalties for when developers, farmers and fossil fuel companies pollute waterways and jeopardize sources of drinking water that communities rely on. The League of Conservation Voters’ deputy legislative director Madeleine Foote said the regulation reflected “the Court’s disregard of science, the law, and basic common sense to put the profits of polluters ahead of the health of our communities.”
Reducing Greenhouse Gases with Dietary Supplements for Cows
The Bay Journal reports that approximately 89 million cows and some sheep in the US are responsible for twenty-five percent of the country’s annual methane emissions due to burping and flatulence. To put it in perspective, that represents the same amount of greenhouse gas as emitted by six hundred and fifty million cars. Scientists have been experimenting with synthetic feed supplements that alter the fermentation process in a cow’s four-chambered stomach with results that range from twenty-five to sixty-three percent less methane emissions. These and other methane-reducing options are being explored with grants from the and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
America is Losing Water
The New York Times recently conducted extensive research of America’s groundwater at tens of thousands of sites that revealed a crisis in the making. Data collection and interviews with scientists, policymakers and hydrological experts show that there has been a significant decline in water levels over the past forty years that could pose irreversible harm to America’s economy and society. One example is the heavy groundwater loss in the breadbasket state of Kansas, where the major aquifer can no longer support industrial-scale agriculture that has left corn yields to plummet. Arkansas produces approximately half of the nation’s rice, which is a water-intensive crop, but the state’s aquifers have fallen in some places to less than ten percent of capacity. Phoenix is one of the fastest growing cities in the country, but the State of Arizona has said that in some parts of Phoenix there is not enough groundwater to build new homes.The article suggests that this water crisis is due in part to lack of regulation of water usage by the states, with the federal government playing almost no role.
Nuclear Wastewater Dumped into the Sea
Despite fierce objections from other countries, Japan began releasing treated radioactive wastewater from its Fukushima nuclear plant two weeks ago. Some governments have strongly opposed the wastewater release, and are hoarding salt and seafood in fear of future contamination. The Tokyo Electric Power Company has stated that the wastewater has been continually treated by removing most of the harmful elements and diluting the water with clean water to low concentrations. Meanwhile tensions are soaring between Japan and China, with China reacting with rage in response to the wastewater release through calls, emails and social media.
EU Used 27% Less Fossil Fuels to Make Electricity
According to a report from energy think tank, Ember, the European Union burned seventeen percent less fossil fuel to make electricity in the first half of 2023. Made up of 27 member states, some of the countries broke records for their share of power that came from renewable sources. In the case of Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Poland and Slovenia, the burning of fossil fuels was at its lowest levels since the year two thousand. Petras Katinas, an energy analyst at the Center for Research and Clean Energy pointed out that a large portion of the EU’s fossil fuel needs are provided by imports from other countries like Russia that create vulnerabilities to price hikes and energy shortages. The Ember report also challenges the governments in the EU to expand the electricity grid, build more batteries and streamline the process for clean energy infrastructure.
Rights of Nature Movement
Wild animals are starting to get legal rights in countries throughout the world as part of the Rights of Nature movement, which aims to grant wildlife a similar legal status to that of companies and individuals.Traditionally the strategy has been to protect whole ecosystems like forests and rivers. Now advocates of wild animals are deploying it as well, and calling it essential to combatting the biodiversity crisis because animal species are disappearing at an alarming rate despite environmental protections. Ecuador was the first country to recognize nature’s rights in its constitution in 2008. Since then, at least 30 other countries have implemented rights of nature laws to block copper and gold mining projects and halt road construction projects among many examples. Applying these same principles to wild animals is becoming a powerful weapon to fight species extinction.
Fighting Species Extinction
Finally, geothermal energy represents only 0.4 percent of America’s electricity at this time, but new innovations could be expanded to compliment wind and solar energy as America’s primary renewable energy sources in the future.Dozens of new companies are betting on techniques that have been used for oil and gas drilling to tap natural water reservoirs underground that would power turbines that generate electricity around the clock. The same innovative techniques that have brought oil and gas production to record highs, like horizontal drilling and magnetic sensing, can now be applied to scaling geothermal capabilities. One vision is to drill six miles underground where water temperatures exceed seven hundred and fifty degrees Fahrenheit. At that temperature water holds 5-10 times more energy than steam, and could be a source of abundant clean energy in most locations.The upside is huge, but there are concerns by investors such as earthquakes from drilling, permitting issues and not getting the required support from lawmakers and the federal government.