The Environmental Digest is a short daily newsletter that delivers the hottest climate change news directly to your inbox.
To start the weekend off on a positive note, we decided to focus on the Good Climate News in today’s newsletter.
Safe Future
Florida Built Its First Hurricane-Proof Town
When Hurricane Ian made landfall on the southwest Florida coast, it brought 150 mph (241 km/h), 17 inches of rain within 24 hours, and storm surges up to 18 ft. It became the most expensive hurricane in Florida’s history, bringing at least 150 deaths and more than $112 billion in damages.
The category four storm, which hit Florida on 28 September 2022, knocked out power to more than four million people in the state, and caused catastrophic flooding.
However, Babcock Ranch, an 18,000 acre development just north of Fort Myers, came out relatively unscathed. Opening its doors in 2018, the ranch was built with environment and resiliency in mind.
The lakes act as retaining ponds to protect houses from floods, streets are designed to absorb excess rainfall, and the community hall is reinforced as a storm shelter. A large 870-acre solar panel farm powers the entire development, as well as surrounding communities – making Babcock Ranch America's first solar-powered town.
In the aftermath, not a single house lost power, internet, or access to clean water, and the development opened its doors to the surrounding community who had lost their homes, turning a sports hall into an emergency shelter. And when managers drove around the site the next morning to inspect the damage, they found that the community had survived – almost unscathed, bar a few upturned palm trees and street signs.
The 2023 hurricane season is expected to be even more severe than the one experienced in 2022. Atmospheric scientists at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have predicted an "above normal" season, with as many as five major hurricanes – which would bring winds of 111mph and higher.
Read more here.
Environment and Clean Energy
No Breathing in Aisles: Illinois School Districts Hope for Clean School Bus Funds
As many school districts in Illinois opened their school doors for students earlier this month, some also worked to secure funds to replace their diesel school buses with low-emission buses.
Recent research has shown that diesel production puts children at greater risk for asthma. Moreover, children riding the school bus are four times more likely to be exposed to diesel emissions than a child who is riding in a car in front of that bus according to a study of diesel exhaust inside school buses.
Last year, the EPA has awarded more than $906 million in rebates to more than 400 public school districts across all states and territories, replacing a total of more than 2,400 buses.
While Illinois received funds to replace 119 buses, only one district in Chicago received funds. Several Chicago-area school districts that do not own their own buses or have many low-income students weren’t eligible for rebates.
Critics called out the program for leaving out low-income schools last year. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated its eligibility requirements to include Chicago Public Schools and other suburban school districts, many of which are in environmental justice communities that serve thousands of low income students.
So far, the EPA made $400 million available in grants under their Clean School Bus program. However, clean transportation advocates and school leaders remain skeptical whether the changes were enough.
Environment and Science
Biden to Bar Drilling on Millions of Acres in Alaska
In its most aggressive move yet to protect federal land from oil and gas exploration, the Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it would prohibit drilling in 13 million acres of pristine wilderness in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and cancel all drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, per The New York Times.
Climate activists, particularly young environmentalists, were angered by Mr. Biden’s decision in March to allow the Willow project, an $8 billion oil drilling project calling it a “carbon bomb.” Many called the move a betrayal of Mr. Biden’s campaign promise of “no new drilling, period” on federal lands and waters.
Since then, the administration has been trying to return to their “good graces” such as promising some new protections in the Arctic when it approved the Willow project.
The policies announced on Wednesday, however, go significantly farther by canceling the refuge leases and explicitly prohibiting new oil and gas leasing in 10.6 million acres of the petroleum reserve. An additional 2.4 million acres would be subject to strict safeguards, requiring the Bureau of Land Management to show that any development would result in minimal effects on wildlife.
Yet the decision carries some political risk, because oil prices are on the rise and Republicans are accusing Mr. Biden of harming the country’s energy independence, despite the fact that United States oil production is poised to break records this year.
The move also could face opposition from some Alaska Native groups that argue that communities depend on drilling for jobs and revenue to support schools and other public services. And it is likely to face a legal challenge from the fossil fuel industry.
Read more here.
Climate Tidbits
On the 50th anniversary of Project Puffin, scientists are saying that there are now more than 1,300 breeding pairs of puffins across several Maine islands. The effort became the world’s first successful seabird restoration of its kind since puffin population has been almost eradicated by farmers in 1800s.
In an effort to transition towards electrification, Thermo King, a refrigeration and air conditioning manufacturer, contacted the University of Minnesota to co-create and pilot a 12-credit engineering electrification graduate certificate. They believe the program offers the nation’s first graduate-level certificate specifically for electrification that would help train and prepare workers for the future.
Environment and Water
Hershey and EPA Partnership to Make Dairy More Sustainable
The Pennsylvania-based chocolate producer announced a commitment with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to jointly spend $2 million to help dairy farmers that supply its milk reduce their environmental impacts.
The company’s operation in Hershey, PA, is the largest chocolate plant in the world. Part of the reason the company’s founder, Milton Hershey, chose that location in 1903 was the plentiful supply of milk nearby. Nearly all of the milk used at the plant still comes from within 90 miles, according to Brannigan.
In addition to falling milk prices that have been putting pressure on small dairy farms in recent years, as more production comes from larger operations in other parts of the country — though the density of small farms in south-central Pennsylvania has helped keep them economically viable.
While milk carton imagery pictures bucolic, small farms, more than 50% of U.S. milk is now produced by just 3% of the country’s dairies — those with more than 1,000 cows, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The very largest U.S. dairies now have 15,000 or more cows.
Still, the manure rich runoff from those farms can be a significant source of nitrogen and other water-fouling nutrients coming that reach the Bay, and dairy operations are also a significant source of methane, a major greenhouse gas.
“EPA's funding commitment to Hershey, Land O'Lakes, and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay brings $2 million of much-needed support to Pennsylvania dairy farmers to scale up conservation practices that are good for our farms, climate, local streams, and the Bay." said EPA Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz. "With this funding, we are not only investing in the current environment, but into the long-term viability of Pennsylvania farmers - our frontline environmentalists."
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