New Jersey has become the first state to mandate climate change education in its kindergarten through 12th-grade curriculum. The state will implement that requirement in September of 2021. New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy partnered with 130 educators and led the push to incorporate climate change into the state’s education standards.

The adoption of these standards is much more than an added educational requirement; it is a symbol of a partnership between generations…Decades of short-sighted decision-making has fueled this crisis and now we must do all we can to help our children solve it. This generation of students will feel the effects of climate change more than any other, and it is critical that every student is provided an opportunity to study and understand the climate crisis through a comprehensive, interdisciplinary lens.”

Tammy Murphy, First Lady of New Jersey

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Climate change education is woefully unaddressed in the United States. Despite the effects climate change has on people worldwide, a 2019 NPR/Ipsos poll found that only 42% of teachers are teaching climate change. The demand is there, with 4 in 5 teachers and parents saying that students need to be taught this information. Climate change is here and continuing to escalate. States will do their students a grave disservice if they fail to adequately confront this issue.

Sources:

• New Jersey Is Now the 1st US State to Require Schools to Teach Climate Change – Global Citizen
• Most Teachers Don’t Teach Climate Change; 4 In 5 Parents Wish They Did – NPR

President Trump has opened the only national marine monument in the Atlantic to commercial fishing. The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument was established in 2016 by President Obama and includes nearly 5,000 acres of the coast of New England. The monument is noted for its biodiversity, and opening up the area to commercial fishing will have a devastating effect on that ecosystem.

Opening up the nation’s only marine national monument in the Atlantic will help no one but a handful of fishers while risking irreparable damage to the marine wildlife that have no other fully protected areas off our eastern seaboard…Ancient and slow-growing deep sea corals, endangered large whales and sea turtles, and an incredible array of fish, seabirds, sharks, dolphins, and other wildlife—these are the species and habitats that will pay the price.”

Bob Dreher, senior vice president of Conservation Programs at Defenders of Wildlife

The area is home to four seamounts, 3 underwater canyons, more than 54 species of deep-sea corals, and is a frequent feeding ground for whales, sharks, seabirds, dolphins, turtles, and other species. Many of the corals are more than 1,000 years old.

President Trump’s decision comes a day after he signed an executive order removing the need for environmental review before going forward with projects like pipelines and highways. The opening of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing, leaving more than 1,000 species open to the damage caused by the industry, is only the latest of the President’s systemic dismantling of environmental protections in the United States.

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Sources:

• Trump Illegally Eliminates Protections for First and Only Monument in the Atlantic Ocean – NRDC
• Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument – NOAA Fisheries

At the start of the pandemic, scientists were widely talking about a silver lining in a shut down of the economy: the massive drop in emissions. Emission decreases peaked in early April, showing a 17% decline in global greenhouse gas emissions.

China Nantong Energy’s coal-fired power station in Jiangsu Province, China /BARCROFT MEDIA VIA GETTY IMAGES

The continuing rise in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere may sound surprising in light of recent findings that the pandemic, and the associated lockdowns, had led to a steep drop in global greenhouse gas emissions, peaking at a 17 percent decline in early April.

Earth’s carbon dioxide levels hit record high, despite coronavirus-related emissions drop

Despite the drop in emissions, CO2 levels are the highest they’ve ever been in human history. Until we reach zero emissions CO2 levels will continue to rise. Our annual growth of greenhouse gas levels was around 0.8ppm per year in the 1960s. The growth rate doubled in the 1980s and has reached 2.4ppm within the last decade’

“The buildup of CO2 is a bit like trash in a landfill. As we keep emitting, it keeps piling up,” said Ralph Keeling, who directs Scripps’s carbon dioxide monitoring program, and whose late father, Charles David Keeling, began measurements at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii in 1958.

Earth’s carbon dioxide levels hit record high, despite coronavirus-related emissions drop

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The Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broke the law when they approved Bayer’s XtendiMax dicamba-based herbicide system and revoked the approval of that product. They also canceled registrations for the additional dicamba-based herbicides, like BASF’s Engenia and Corteva Agriscience’s FeXapan. Sales of the herbicide have been stopped, and farmers planning to use the system this year will now be unable to.

Dicamba has been the subject of several lawsuits, including a $265 million verdict against Bayer earlier this year, due to the herbicide drifting onto nd damaging other plants when it’s applied. The decision by the federal court determined that the EPA underestimated the extent of dicamba’s drift when they approved Bayer’s (then Monsanto) XtendiMax.

We hold that the EPA substantially understated risks that it acknowledged and failed entirely to acknowledge other risks.”

Judge William Fletcher

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The petition was brought to the Court of Appeals by the National Family Farm Coalition, Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Pesticide Action Network North America. The court’s verdict is a big win for environmental groups and farmers with pending cases against Bayer.

This is a massive victory that will protect people and wildlife from uses of a highly toxic pesticide that never should have been approved by the EPA. The fact that the Trump EPA approved these uses of dicamba despite its well-documented record of damaging millions of acres of farmland, tree groves and gardens highlights how tightly the pesticide industry controls EPA’s pesticide-approval process.”

Lori Ann Burd, Center for Biological Diversity

The decision also comes at a time that the current administration is strategically dismantling EPA policies designed to protect citizens and the environment from big business pollution.

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Sources:

• U.S. court blocks sales of Bayer weed killer in United States – Reuters
• Court overturns EPA approval of popular herbicide made by Monsanto – The Guardian

Midland, Michigan was recently heavily flooded as the result of a dam failure. Reports from Dow Chemical Facility have said that floodwaters were “commingling with on-site containment ponds” at Dow facilities. Floodwaters had the potential to release chemicals onto farmland and residential areas downstream, however, Dow reported that there were no product releases as a result of the flooding.

This May 28, 2008 photo shows the Dow Chemical Co. industrial site in Midland, Michigan

This is another example of the Trump administration putting vulnerable communities in harms way by sidelining science” said Carter. There was an Executive Order that called for Superfund sites to update their infrastructure to protect them from future extreme floods, but it was trashed by the Trump administration a week before Hurricane Harvey hit.

After Dams Fail, Dow Admits Floodwaters in Midland, Michigan ‘Commingling’ With Toxic Chemical Storage Ponds

The flooding poses risks a large risk of spreading pollution throughout Midland county. The Tittabawassee River, which has long been subject to illegal dumping by Dow, is one of the most contaminated rivers in Michigan.

‘The catastrophic flooding we are seeing in Midland is a culmination of the impacts of the increased strange and severe weather events that are amplified by climate change,’ said Lisa Wozniak, Michigan League of Conservation Voters executive director ‘and this latest event highlights the importance of big thinking right now from leaders around how to plan properly with our changing climate to keep our families safe.’

After Dams Fail, Dow Admits Floodwaters in Midland, Michigan ‘Commingling’ With Toxic Chemical Storage Ponds

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In a recent podcast, Alberta’s energy minister stated that “Now is a great time to be building a pipeline because you can’t have protests of more than 15 people.” Sonya Savage made the statement on Friday during a podcast hosted by the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors in response to a question she was asked about the progress of the Trans Mountain Expansion project. 

Environment Minister Jason Nixon and Energy Minister Sonya Savage announce the review of the Alberta Energy Regulator at the McDougall Centre in Calgary. Credit: Tom Ross

Savage later went on to imply that the pandemic will favor the pipeline construction saying:

“People are not going to have tolerance or patience for protests that get in the way of people working. People need jobs and those types of ideological protests that get in the way are not going to be tolerated by ordinary Canadians.” 

Alberta minister says it’s a ‘great time’ to build a pipeline because COVID-19 restrictions limit protests against them

Savage’s spokesperson later clarified that they “respect the right to lawful protests” additionally saying “I would note that the limitations to public gatherings have benefited no one, including project proponents and any opposition groups”.

In news that should surprise no one, the Trump Administration’s decision to walk back the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) enforcement of environmental regulations has resulted in a significant increase in Great Lakes pollution from corporations. The Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC) recently released a report that examined clean water regulation enforcement and found that there was a decrease in compliance cases initiated, civil penalties for violations, and the staff needed to properly protect the Great Lakes. The EPA has also been subject to significant yearly budget cuts, though the agency isn’t even spending all the money congress has given it for enforcement.

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As enforcement has trended downward, compliance has worsened. In 2019, there were 62% more facilities in significant noncompliance with the Clean Water Act, when compared to the average number of facilities in significant noncompliance between FY (fiscal year) 2012 to FY 2017.

Environmental Law and Policy Center

The numbers from FY 2012 to FY 2019 are incredibly upsetting. The number of major facilities in serious non-compliance with environmental regulations has risen from 122 to 211. That increase is the direct inverse of compliance enforcement. As non-compliance has risen, compliance enforcement has floundered.

• The number of compliance cases opened has gone from 340 to 208, while case closures have gone from 351 to 205.
• The amount of penalties assessed has gone from a high of $1.4 million (2013) to a low of $303,000 (2018).
• The compliance enforcement budget has shrunk from $257,000 to $240,000.
• The staff assigned to the Great Lakes region has declined from 1,249 employees to 940.

Government officials continually claim companies will follow the environmental regulations on their own, but the numbers are clear. Corporations aren’t following the rules, and they have no incentive to do so as long as it’s cheaper to pay someone to look the other way than it is to do clean up after themselves.

Sources:

• Report: As EPA pulls back under Trump, serious pollution rises on Great Lakes – Detroit Free Press
• Under Trump, the EPA has cut back on enforcement of clean water laws in the Great Lakes Region – Chicago Tribune