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Rivers are the West’s largest source of clean energy. What happens when drought strikes?

With rivers across the West running low, utilities must get creative if they are to meet demand without increasing emissions.

In Washington, a dozen dams dot the Columbia River — that mighty waterway carved through the state by a sequence of prehistoric superfloods. Between those dams and the hundreds of others that plug the rivers and tributaries that lace the region, including California and Nevada, the Western United States accounts for most of the hydroelectric energy the country generates from the waters flowing across its landscape. Washington alone captures more than a quarter of that; combined with Oregon and Idaho, the Pacific Northwest lays claim to well over two-fifths of America’s dam-derived electricity. So when a drought hits the region, the nation takes notice. That happened in 2023 when, according to a recent report, U.S. hydroelectric power hit its lowest level in 22 years. While the atmospheric rivers that poured across California provided the state with abundant energy, the Pacific Northwest endured low summer flows after a late-spring heat wave caused snowpack to melt and river levels to peak earlier than normal. Though dam turbines kept spinning throughout the year — proving that even during a drought the nation’s hydro system remains reliable — last year offered energy providers in the West a glimpse of the conditions they may need to adapt to as the world warms and seasonal weather patterns shift. While models predict climate change will plunge California and the Southwest deeper into drought, what awaits Washington and Oregon is less clear. The Pacific Northwest will get warmer. That much is certain. But in terms of the rain that places like Seattle and Portland are known for, things get fuzzier. Read Next How does climate change threaten where you live? A region-by-region guide. Grist staff “Whenever you bring in water precipitation and you’re looking at climate model results, they go in all directions,” said Sean Turner, a water resources and hydropower engineer with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Evergreen and Beaver states could get drier or wetter — or both, depending on the time of year. Nathalie Voisin, chief scientist for water-energy dynamics at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, said much of the latest research suggests an increase in total annual hydroelectric power in the region, but, as Turner noted as well, uncertainties remain. “So as a trend, we see an increase” in annual precipitation, Voisin said, “but we also see an increase in variability of very wet years and very dry years.” Even during wet years, however, the water won’t fall in a gentle mist evenly distributed from new year to year end. The bulk of it, Voisin said, is expected to come from atmospheric rivers streaming overhead between fall and spring, with rivers running low in late summer as the snow and ice in the mountains that rim the region melt ever earlier and no longer keep the waters as high as they historically have. These are things that the Bonneville Power Administration — the federal agency responsible for selling energy from the 31 federally owned dams along the Columbia and its tributaries to utilities throughout the region — has a keen eye on. In a fact sheet detailing the agency’s plans to ensure its hydropower resources remain resilient, the administration wrote, “By the 2030s, higher average fall and winter flows, earlier peak spring runoff, and longer periods of low summer flows are very likely.” Those times of lower hydroelectric generation will coincide with periods when rising temps are expected to drive people to demand more from their thermostats to keep comfortable. The Grand Coulee Dam is seen through the windows of the dam’s visitor center. Don and Melinda Crawford / Education Images / Universal Images Group via Getty Images Given this, if Western states like California, Washington, and Oregon are to meet the 2045 goals for 100 percent clean energy they’ve set, their utilities are going to have to get creative. As it is, when hydropower fails to meet demand, methane, also known as natural gas, tends to fill the gap — even if power companies can’t say for sure that that’s their backstop. Seattle City Light, for instance, which provides electricity to over 900,000 people across much of the Seattle area, reportedly has been carbon neutral since 2005 thanks in large part to an energy mix that is nearly 90 percent hydropower — around half of which is supplied by Bonneville Power. But with its standard fleet of hydroelectric plants generating below average, Siobhan Doherty, the utility’s director of power management, said it has had to procure new sources of energy to ensure it can comfortably meet customers’ needs. A fair portion of that power comes from other dams in the area, but some of it is also provided by what Doherty called “unspecified” sources purchased from other providers. Across the West, when utilities like Seattle City Light purchase energy to cover hydropower shortfalls, most of it comes from gas-powered peaker plants, according to Minghao Qiu, an environmental scientist at Stanford University. As a result, emissions rise. Over the 20-year period examined in a study of how droughts impact grid emissions, Qiu and his colleagues found that temporary prolonged hydropower declines led to 121 million tons of carbon emissions. Qiu also found that the plants belching all that pollution often lay far from where the energy is needed. While the seemingly obvious solution to this challenge is to rapidly deploy wind and solar, Qiu found that this didn’t actually solve the problem. “So what really happened there is an implicit market that whoever can generate the electricity with the lowest costs are going to generate first,” Qiu said. This means that solar and wind will send all the energy they can because they’re by far the cheapest; hydropower then provides what it can, followed by fossil fuels like methane to plug any holes. “So when hydropower sort of declines,” Qiu said, “the wind power and solar power is already maxed out,” typically leaving gas plants as the remaining option. Nonetheless, in a bid to keep its grid carbon-free in the long term, Seattle City Light recently signed agreements to buy energy from two independent solar projects, each with at least 40 megawatts of capacity, and is negotiating other, similar arrangements. The fact Bonneville Power has seen a sharp rise in requests from renewable energy developers to connect to its transmission lines suggests other utilities in the region are exploring similar deals. While those solar farms, in a sense, address the demands that hydro alone can’t meet, the West’s dams help make utility-scale renewables work. Regardless of the inevitable expansion and improvement of turbine and photovoltaic technology, wind and solar will always be intermittent and weather-dependent. In those moments when the gusts stop blowing and the sun stops shining, something has to top off the grid. “Hydro does that better than anything,” Turner said. Many of the dams administered by Bonneville Power are already equipped to spin up or down as demand dictates, and their ability to meet these moments was perhaps no more apparent than during the lethal heat dome that gripped the Pacific Northwest for one blistering week in June 2021. As streets cracked and power lines melted, the region’s homebound populations drove electricity demand to record levels. To keep the grid going, Bonneville Power relied on the controversial dams along the lower Snake River. The agency released a statement a month after the heat wave, revealing how critical the four lower Snake River dams were during that disaster. At times, they provided well over 1,000 megawatts of power, which is roughly the average draw in Seattle. And while there are credible reasons to remove the dams, Bonneville Power said that without those resources it likely would have had to resort to rolling blackouts to ensure the system wasn’t pushed past its limits. That experience, and the many more like it that are sure to come, suggest that even as year-to-year dips impact the nation’s dams, the power they provide will long remain a critical component of a carbon-free future. This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Rivers are the West’s largest source of clean energy. What happens when drought strikes? on Apr 26, 2024.

Energy
Climate
Mountains

Species living closely together in symbiosis is far older and way more common than you might think

Symbiosis is so much part of life on Earth that it has shaped the evolution and structure of cells. It’s happening almost everywhere we look, including inside our gut.

Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis. AdeJ Artventure/ShutterstockOnce known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate relationship of different species living together. It’s much more common and older than many of us might realise. One of the most common symbiotic relationships is between various species of algae and fungi, or between cyanobacteria (commonly known as blue-green algae though it’s not algae) and fungi. These paired species take the form of lichens. The term symbiosis was first used in the 19th century to describe the lichen relationship, which was thought to be highly unusual. Since then, we’ve discovered symbiosis is the norm, rather than the exception. In fact, it has shaped the evolution of most life on Earth. Clownfish and anenomes have one of the best-known symbiotic relationships between animals. melissaf84/Shutterstock Read more: More than coral: the unseen casualties of record-breaking heat on the Great Barrier Reef Symbiosis is almost everywhere we look Lichens are diverse. They grow on tree trunks, on roof tiles and on ancient rocks. The symbiosis of two different species allows both to survive in environments they might not be able to colonise otherwise. The fungus provides a suitable environment for its partnering species of algae or cyanbacteria to grow – it might otherwise be too exposed or dry, for example. In return, the fungus gets to share some of the carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis. This is an example where both partners benefit from their relationship. It’s called mutualistic symbiosis. Lichens are often very good indicators of air quality and more general ecosystem health. Their absence can indicate poor air quality. Because they absorb air pollutants such as heavy metals they can be used as biomonitors. Read more: Mosses and lichens come to the rescue in battle against air pollution In another very common example of mutualistic symbiosis, most plant species live in a close relationship with fungi in the soil. It’s known as a mycorrhizal association. The plants harness the energy in sunlight to make sugar from water and carbon dioxide in the process called photosynthesis. The plants share this food with the fungus, which relies on them for survival. In return, the fine threads of the fungus greatly increase the surface area of the plant roots for absorbing water and nutrients. A microscopic view of a rice plant root showing the threads of a mycorrhizal fungus. melissaf84/Shutterstock Read more: The ancient, intimate relationship between trees and fungi, from fairy toadstools to technicolour mushrooms Not all partners benefit Not all symbiotic relationships benefit both partners. In parasitic symbiosis, one partner benefits at the expense of the other. Examples include the fungi Phytophthora, Fusarium and Armilleria, which often kill their plant hosts. In cases of commensalism, one organism benefits and the other neither gains nor loses. Small birds, for example, sometimes perch on large herbivores, eating insects disturbed by the larger animals. As in any relationship, it’s possible things can change over time. For example, a mutualistic symbiosis between a tree and its mycorrhizal fungus might change to parasitism as the tree ages and declines, or if environmental conditions change. The relationship between mistletoe and its host plant can be complex and change with the conditions. Ken Griffiths/Shutterstock Read more: At a time of giving and receiving, our many Australian mistletoes do it too Symbiosis has driven evolution Symbiosis has played a huge role in the evolution of life. The cells that make up the bodies of animals and plants are the result of symbiotic relationships. Cells are complex. They contain structures called organelles, such as the nucleus (the control centre of the cell) and mitochondrion (involved in cellular respiration, which uses oxygen to break down food molecules to make energy available). Plant cells also contain chloroplasts, the sites of photosynthesis. These complex cells evolved from much simpler, ancient forms of life that came together symbiotically. The organelles of complex cells were once single-celled life forms that survived being engulfed by other simple cells. They formed a more complex and efficient cell, which has become the basic cell type for large multicellular life forms. All large multi-cellular organisms living on Earth – animal and plant – possess this type of cell. It’s proof of how successful this evolutionary symbiotic strategy has been. Cell respiration in both plant and animal cells involves mitochondria, which indicates they were engulfed early in evolutionary history. Later a cell type already containing mitochondria engulfed the chloroplast. This led to the evolution of complex plants. Read more: Explainer: why can't humans photosynthesise? When two become one The incorporation of one cell type into another is called endosymbiosis. It allowed cells and parts of cells to become highly specialised. This specialisation improved their efficiency and capacity to survive under a wider range of conditions. When I was a postgraduate botany student in the late ’70s, colleagues one day brought samples of common sea lettuce, Ulva latuca, to the laboratory, where I was studying photosynthetic physiology. Sea lettuce is a seaweed found in many shallow waters around the Australian coast. We noticed a little marine slug grazing on the plant, so we popped it into our system for studying photosynthesis. To our surprise the slug was photosynthesising! We discovered the slug partly digested the sea lettuce cells, but some chloroplasts passed through the lining of the slug’s gut and continued to photosynthesise. We thought we had made an important discovery, only to learn others had published similar work. After that I never doubted the validity of endosymbiosis, which was still a controversial theory at the time. Chloroplasts can continue photosynthesising inside the body of sea slugs that absorb them when grazing on algae. Sarah Frost/Shutterstock Symbiosis turns out to be the norm We now know symbiosis is the norm for most organisms, including humans. Our gut flora represent symbiosis on a massive scale. The diversity and huge numbers of bacteria living happily in our gut can have a huge impact on our general health and wellbeing. In the case of a healthy gut, both the person and the bacteria do well out of the relationship: a nice example of mutualistic symbiosis. COVID focused public attention on viruses. But not all viruses are harmful; many actually benefit the organisms they infect. Some viruses even protect us from disease-causing viruses. For example, in people who are HIV-positive the disease progresses more slowly in those who are also infected with GB virus C (GBV-C). Of course, the full range of symbiotic relationships with viruses is possible, from mutual benefit to an infected host suffering great harm. And, as with bacteria, there is accumulating evidence viruses have helped many species evolve, including our own. An organism must live within a complex set of relationships to survive and thrive in any environment. Some relationships will be more positive than others, but it should not surprise that mutualistic symbiosis is so often the key to success. Gregory Moore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Animals
CO2
Energy

PGE rate hikes: Oregon regulators say they can’t dismiss increase request

The Oregon Public Utility Commission declined to dismiss Portland General Electric’s newest rate increase proposal, rejecting a motion filed by a state nonprofit group that advocates for utility customers.

The Oregon Public Utility Commission declined to dismiss Portland General Electric’s newest rate increase proposal, rejecting a motion filed by a state nonprofit group that advocates for utility customers.The decision Thursday means PGE’s proposed 7.5% increase will go through the regular lengthy rate-setting process.The increase likely would go into effect next January if approved – though the utility may file for other increases later this year.The Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board had asked the commission to throw out PGE’s rate request, saying people are reeling from record high bills. It’s the first time the board has made such a request.PGE increased rates for its electricity by 18% on Jan. 1 and 12% in January 2023.Under Oregon law, a regulated utility may file a proposal to change general rates at any time. Typically, the Public Utilities Commission conducts an investigation that can take up to a year to determine if rate changes are warranted. Various parties, including the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board, participate in these cases.The Public Utilities Commission said it did not have the legal authority to dismiss the utility’s latest rate increase proposal.The commission also said throwing out a rate filing undermines the integrity of its rate-setting mechanism and commission deliberations.“A reactive decision could erode the value of the long-established, evidence-based process for consideration of requests for rate adjustments,” the commission said.Bob Jenks, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, said his group was disappointed with the decision.“We think there is a big problem with PGE. It is operating under an ‘all of the above’ business model,” said Jenks, referring to PGE’s strategy to invest in an array of technologies from wind farms to battery storage to decarbonize its system and meet ambitious state mandates. Oregon requires PGE to reduce its carbon emissions by 80% by 2030 and by 100% by 2040.“Strategy involves identifying the best way to deploy your resources,” Jenks told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “It requires prioritization. PGE acts as if everything is an investment opportunity and their customers have unlimited wallets.”PGE spokesperson Drew Hanson said PGE “will continue to be fully engaged in the public rate review process administered by the Oregon Public Utility Commission.”The governor-appointed three-person Public Utilities Commission evaluates costs – such as operating and maintenance expenses, asset depreciation and cost of capital – and expected revenues, then determines rates that allow for “prudent and reasonable costs” to be recovered from customers, according to state law.Typically, said Jenks, the commission approves rates at a lower level than what utilities request. But, he added, PGE has filed multiple rate increase proposals in recent years for power costs, renewable energy projects, electric vehicles, wildfire mitigation, storm recovery and energy efficiency among others and they add up throughout the year.Rate changes usually go into effect in the middle of winter when energy costs are already high, so the increase hits harder, Jenks said.The public can comment on PGE’s latest increase proposal at a virtual event on May 16, via an online form or by emailing the commission at PUC.PublicComments@puc.oregon.gov. Comments must include the docket number, UE 435.— Gosia Wozniacka covers environmental justice, climate change, the clean energy transition and other environmental issues. Reach her at gwozniacka@oregonian.com or 971-421-3154.

Business
Climate
Energy

Coral reef 100 miles off the Texas Gulf Coast is doing better than others facing global coral bleaching event

A coral reef 100 miles off the Texas Gulf Coast is doing better than others that are facing the 4th global coral bleaching event. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), coral bleaching happens when corals are stressed by changes in conditions like temperature, light, or nutrients. Bleached coral is more susceptible to […]

Flower Garden Banks National Marine SanctuaryA healthy coral community in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, located off the coast of Galveston.A coral reef 100 miles off the Texas Gulf Coast is doing better than others that are facing the 4th global coral bleaching event. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), coral bleaching happens when corals are stressed by changes in conditions like temperature, light, or nutrients. Bleached coral is more susceptible to disease. The depth of the Flower Garden Banks Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico has helped the reef avoid the extreme bleaching present in other areas in the nation. The reef is almost sixty feet deep in the shallowest parts of the reef. By comparison, reefs like the Florida Keys can be as shallow as 5 feet in some areas. Michelle Johnston is the Sanctuary Superintendent for the Flower Garden Banks. She said shallow reefs have a harder time with rising ocean temperatures. “That’s not to say that we don’t get bleaching,” she said. “We do, and we had a moderate amount of bleaching last summer, but nowhere near the extent of what was seen in the Florida Keys.” Coral bleaching was first observed in the 1980s. The NOAA has recorded and monitored significant damage to coral reefs since 2000 through the Coral Reef Watch, who then records global coral bleaching events. A coral bleaching event from 2014 to 2017 is now considered the longest, most widespread and damaging event on record. Johnston said some researchers are looking into light therapy and ways to artificially cool down water near the reefs, like bringing in a hose to manually pump cooler water near reefs. “Some ideas that maybe ten years ago seemed crazy don’t seem so crazy anymore,” she said. Aquariums like Moody Gardens are working to help coral reefs keep up with climate change. Johnston said some corals are more resistant to heat than others, and the coral lab at Moody Gardens has a small sample size of corals to study that. According to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, El Niño can increase the risk of coral bleaching. El Niño usually brings warmer, drier summers. Hurricanes on the other hand can sometimes bring benefits to reefs. Two thirds of the U.S., all of Eastern Mexico, and a small part of Canada’s watershed flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River Basin alone accounts for the largest portion, according to the NOAA. Kelly Drinnen, the Acting Education Coordinator for the Flower Garden Banks, said this can bring muddy water to the gulf. “We have seen very large storms like hurricanes that hit the Texas-Louisiana coastlines that muddy water that contains who knows what,” she said. “… even if it’s not sediments in the waters and possible pollutants, the freshwater influx changes things that are offshore every once in a while.” However, Drinnen said some storms like Hurricane Rita have actually prevented bleaching events. Michelle Johnston said smaller tropical storms can serve as a way for the ocean to clean itself. “I was told once that hurricanes are kind of like nature’s way of air conditioning, you know, it churns stuff up and cools it down,” she said. The NOAA recommends traditional environmental efforts like reducing water and electricity usage, recycling, and disposing of trash responsibly to support aquatic ecosystems. Michelle Johnston said activism, going to scuba events, and visiting local aquariums can also go a long way. “This place really is a national treasure. It is a safe haven for wild corals,” she said. “… The fact that we have such a healthy ecosystem, and a place where corals are still thriving, and fish communities are thriving, is something that’s rare in this day and age.”

Activism
Climate
Education

Unlocking New Levels of Accuracy With Advanced Timing Chips

Compact chips enhance precision timing for communication, navigation, and various applications. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and its collaborators have delivered a...

NIST researchers test a chip for converting light into microwave signals. Pictured is the chip, which is the fluorescent panel that looks like two tiny vinyl records. The gold box to the left of the chip is the semiconductor laser that emits light to the chip. Credit: K. Palubicki/NISTCompact chips enhance precision timing for communication, navigation, and various applications.The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and its collaborators have delivered a small but mighty advancement in timing technology: compact chips that seamlessly convert light into microwaves. This chip could improve GPS, the quality of phone and internet connections, the accuracy of radar and sensing systems, and other technologies that rely on high-precision timing and communication.This technology reduces something known as timing jitter, which is small, random changes in the timing of microwave signals. Similar to when a musician is trying to keep a steady beat in music, the timing of these signals can sometimes waver a bit. The researchers have reduced these timing wavers to a very small fraction of a second — 15 femtoseconds to be exact, a big improvement over traditional microwave sources — making the signals much more stable and precise in ways that could increase radar sensitivity, the accuracy of analog-to-digital converters and the clarity of astronomical images captured by groups of telescopes.The team’s results were published in Nature. Shining a Light on MicrowavesWhat sets this demonstration apart is the compact design of the components that produce these signals. For the first time, researchers have taken what was once a tabletop-size system and shrunken much of it into a compact chip, about the same size as a digital camera memory card. Reducing timing jitter on a small scale reduces power usage and makes it more usable in everyday devices.Right now, several of the components for this technology are located outside of the chip, as researchers test their effectiveness. The ultimate goal of this project is to integrate all the different parts, such as lasers, modulators, detectors, and optical amplifiers, onto a single chip.By integrating all the components onto a single chip, the team could reduce both the size and power consumption of the system. This means it could be easily incorporated into small devices without requiring lots of energy and specialized training.“The current technology takes several labs and many Ph.D.s to make microwave signals happen,” said Frank Quinlan, NIST physical scientist. “A lot of what this research is about is how we utilize the advantages of optical signals by shrinking the size of components and making everything more accessible.”To accomplish this, researchers use a semiconductor laser, which acts as a very steady flashlight. They direct the light from the laser into a tiny mirror box called a reference cavity, which is like a miniature room where light bounces around. Inside this cavity, some light frequencies are matched to the size of the cavity so that the peaks and valleys of the light waves fit perfectly between the walls. This causes the light to build up power in those frequencies, which is used to keep the laser’s frequency stable. The stable light is then converted into microwaves using a device called a frequency comb, which changes high-frequency light into lower-pitched microwave signals. These precise microwaves are crucial for technologies like navigation systems, communication networks, and radar because they provide accurate timing and synchronization.“The goal is to make all these parts work together effectively on a single platform, which would greatly reduce the loss of signals and remove the need for extra technology,” said Quinlan. “Phase one of this project was to show that all these individual pieces work together. Phase two is putting them together on the chip.”In navigation systems such as GPS, the precise timing of signals is essential for determining location. In communication networks, such as mobile phone and internet systems, accurate timing and synchronization of multiple signals ensure that data is transmitted and received correctly.For example, synchronizing signals is important for busy cell networks to handle multiple phone calls. This precise alignment of signals in time enables the cell network to organize and manage the transmission and reception of data from multiple devices, like your cellphone. This ensures that multiple phone calls can be carried over the network simultaneously without experiencing significant delays or drops.In radar, which is used for detecting objects like airplanes and weather patterns, precise timing is crucial for accurately measuring how long it takes for signals to bounce back.“There are all sorts of applications for this technology. For instance, astronomers who are imaging distant astronomical objects, like black holes, need really low-noise signals and clock synchronization,” said Quinlan. “And this project helps get those low noise signals out of the lab, and into the hands of radar technicians, of astronomers, of environmental scientists, of all these different fields, to increase their sensitivity and ability to measure new things.”Working Together Toward a Shared GoalCreating this type of technological advancement is not done alone. Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, the University of California Santa Barbara, the University of Virginia, and Yale University came together to accomplish this shared goal: to revolutionize how we harness light and microwaves for practical applications.“I like to compare our research to a construction project. There’s a lot of moving parts, and you need to make sure everyone is coordinated so the plumber and electrician are showing up at the right time in the project,” said Quinlan. “We all work together really well to keep things moving forward.”This collaborative effort underscores the importance of interdisciplinary research in driving technological progress, Quinlan said.Reference: “Photonic chip-based low-noise microwave oscillator” by Igor Kudelin, William Groman, Qing-Xin Ji, Joel Guo, Megan L. Kelleher, Dahyeon Lee, Takuma Nakamura, Charles A. McLemore, Pedram Shirmohammadi, Samin Hanifi, Haotian Cheng, Naijun Jin, Lue Wu, Samuel Halladay, Yizhi Luo, Zhaowei Dai, Warren Jin, Junwu Bai, Yifan Liu, Wei Zhang, Chao Xiang, Lin Chang, Vladimir Iltchenko, Owen Miller, Andrey Matsko, Steven M. Bowers, Peter T. Rakich, Joe C. Campbell, John E. Bowers, Kerry J. Vahala, Franklyn Quinlan and Scott A. Diddams, 6 March 2024, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07058-z

Technology
Energy
Nature

Granting legal ‘personhood’ to nature is a growing movement – can it stem biodiversity loss?

The rights-of-nature movement emerged as a response to economic pressures on ecosystems. But the success of projects depends on how well legal liability is defined.

Getty Images/Amy ToensingBiodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on giving legal rights to nature. Many Indigenous peoples have long emphasised the intrinsic value of nature. In 1972, the late University of Southern California law professor Christopher Stone proposed what then seemed like a whimsical idea: to vest legal rights in natural objects to allow a shift from an anthropocentric to an intrinsic worldview. Ecuador was the first country to enshrine rights of nature in its 2008 constitution. Since then, a growing number of countries have followed in awarding rights of nature. This includes Aotearoa New Zealand, where legal personhood was granted to the Whanganui River, the former national park Te Urewera and soon the Taranaki maunga. At its core, the rights-of-nature movement allows persons to take legal action on behalf of natural ecosystems, as opposed to on behalf of people affected by environmental degradation. Ecosystems can become separate entities with their own agency, in the same way other non-human entities such as charitable trusts and organisations can exist as separate entities in law. Read more: What if whales took us to court? A move to grant them legal personhood would include the right to sue But can the movement help stem the loss of biodiversity? There is no easy answer. Our new research shows that many rights-of-nature examples have emerged because current systems were not enough to protect nature from continued economic pressure from development. We find one of the key features of well designed rights-of-nature frameworks lies in defining who is ultimately liable, and what for. The Whanganui River in New Zealand was granted legal personhood in 2017. Shutterstock/Gabor Kovacs Photography Global case studies The design of rights-of-nature frameworks varies widely in geography, legal status, guardianship and who holds liability. We investigated 14 global rights-of-nature examples and categorised them by types of guardianship. For example, in 2008, Ecuador enshrined rights of nature in its constitution because of decades of pressure from large mining companies. This represents a type of public guardianship where every citizen has the right to take legal action on behalf of nature. In New Zealand on the other hand, the former national park Te Urewera was granted legal personhood with Tūhoe trustees as appointed guardians. A legal person is defined as an entity which has the capacity to enter into contracts, incur debts, sue and be sued in its own right, and to be accountable for illegal activities. We define rights-of-nature cases with appointed guardians as “environmental legal personhoods”. Read more: Rights for nature: How granting a river 'personhood' could help protect it We then compared these cases to explore why they emerged and how they are designed. Who advocated on behalf of the environment? What was the exploiting activity putting pressure on the ecosystem? What is the liability status of the guardians? We found that, overwhelmingly, Indigenous people and local communities acted as advocates. For example, the Whanganui River in New Zealand was granted legal personhood in 2017 as a result of hundreds of years of resistance by Indigenous Māori to aggressive colonisation. Since 1848, the Crown has introduced a steamer service, cleared forest from river banks, extracted sand and gravel, and diverted water into a power scheme. This led to ongoing conflict with Whanganui iwi who raised concerns about the river’s health and the desire to preserve the resource for future generations. Response to sustained economic pressure On the other side of the world, the Mar Menor lagoon in Spain was declared a legal person in 2022 due to strong local community advocacy against pollution from agriculture, mining and sewage. The evidence from our research points to a fundamental divide between local communities and external economic interests. The rights-of-nature movement has come as a response to sustained pressure from economic (urban, agricultural and industrial) activity. The features of design, however, vary significantly. For example, the Victorian state government in Australia established the Victorian Environmental Water Holder, an independent statutory body under the state’s Water Act 1989, as a legal person. It manages water entitlements to improve the health of rivers and wetlands. The entity acts indirectly on behalf of the ecosystems, which is not precisely the same as creating legal rights for rivers themselves. The Whanganui River, on the other hand, was itself declared a legal person. Its appointed guardians have the legal status of a charitable entity. This group includes representatives of Whanganui iwi and the government, supported by members of councils, locals, and recreational and commercial users. Liability matters The recent overturning of two rights-of-nature decisions in particular puts the spot light on the importance of liability. In the US, farming operations challenged the Lake Erie Bill of Rights in 2020, which granted Lake Erie the right to “exist, flourish and naturally evolve”. Farmers argued the bill was too vague and would expose them to liability from fertiliser runoff. In India, the Ganges and Yamuna rivers were granted living-person status, where injury to rivers was to be treated equally to injury to human beings. The decision was challenged on the grounds of uncertainty about who the custodians are and who would be liable to pay damage to the families of those who drowned in the rivers. Both these were legally overturned, meaning these natural entities no longer have rights of nature. This suggests attention to legally defining who is liability for what may be an important building block for the movement to protect biodiversity in the future. Our recommendation is that future rights-of-nature frameworks need to have well-defined legal rights and include appointed guardians, established as separate legal entities with limited liability, as well as the support of representatives from interest groups. This research was carried out in collaboration with my colleagues Claire Armstrong and Margrethe Aanesen in Norway. Viktoria Kahui does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Nature
Agriculture
Government

Longer-lasting ozone holes over Antarctica expose seal pups and penguin chicks to much more UV

Four years of persistent ozone holes have sparked concern about what more UV is doing to Antarctic ecosystems.

Andrew NetherwoodOver the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. But over the last four years, even as the hole has shrunk it has persisted for an unusually long time. Our new research found that instead of closing up during November it has stayed open well into December. This is early summer – the crucial period of new plant growth in coastal Antarctica and the peak breeding season for penguins and seals. That’s a worry. When the ozone hole forms, more ultraviolet rays get through the atmosphere. And while penguins and seals have protective covering, their young may be more vulnerable. Why does ozone matter? Over the past half century, we damaged the earth’s protective ozone layer by using chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and related chemicals. Thanks to coordinated global action these chemicals are now banned. Because CFCs have long lifetimes, it will be decades before they are completely removed from the atmosphere. As a result, we still see the ozone hole forming each year. The lion’s share of ozone damage happens over Antarctica. When the hole forms, the UV index doubles, reaching extreme levels. We might expect to see UV days over 14 in summers in Australia or California, but not in polar regions. Luckily, on land most species are dormant and protected under snow when the ozone hole opens in early spring (September to November). Marine life is protected by sea ice cover and Antarctica’s moss forests are under snow. These protective icy covers have helped to protect most life in Antarctica from ozone depletion – until now. Read more: Photos from the field: spying on Antarctic moss using drones, MossCam, smart sensors and AI Unusually long-lived ozone holes A series of unusual events between 2020 and 2023 saw the ozone hole persist into December. The record-breaking 2019–2020 Australian bushfires, the huge underwater volcanic eruption off Tonga, and three consecutive years of La Niña. Volcanoes and bushfires can inject ash and smoke into the stratosphere. Chemical reactions occurring on the surface of these tiny particulates can destroy ozone. Read more: La Niña is finishing an extremely unusual three-year cycle – here's how it affected weather around the world These longer-lasting ozone holes coincided with significant loss of sea ice, which meant many animals and plants would have had fewer places to hide. You can see how the size of the ozone hole in 2019 (top left) and 2020 (top right) differs from the mean ozone hole area between 1979 and 2018. Maps of ozone area for September to December show how the ozone hole disappeared early in 2019 (November, middle panel) but extended into December in 2020 (lower panel) NASA Ozone Watch, CC BY-NC-ND What does stronger UV radiation do to ecosystems? If ozone holes last longer, summer-breeding animals around Antarctica’s vast coastline will be exposed to high levels of reflected UV radiation. More UV can get through, and ice and snow is highly reflective, bouncing these rays around. In humans, high UV exposure increases our risk of skin cancer and cataracts. But we don’t have fur or feathers. While penguins and seals have skin protection, their eyes aren’t protected. Is it doing damage? We don’t know for sure. Very few studies report on what UV radiation does to animals in Antarctica. Most are done in zoos, where researchers study what happens when animals are kept under artificial light. Even so, it is a concern. More UV radiation in early summer could be particularly damaging to young animals, such as penguin chicks and seal pups who hatch or are born in late spring. As plants such as Antarctic hairgrass, Deschampsia antarctica, the cushion plant, Colobanthus quitensis and lots of mosses emerge from under snow in late spring, they will be exposed to maximum UV levels. Antarctic mosses actually produce their own sunscreen to protect themselves from UV radiation, but this comes at the cost of reduced growth. Trillions of tiny phytoplankton live under the sea ice. These microscopic floating algae also make sunscreen compounds, called microsporine amino acids. What about marine creatures? Krill will dive deeper into the water column if the UV radiation is too high, while fish eggs usually have melanin, the same protective compound as humans, though not all fish life stages are as well protected. Four of the past five years have seen sea ice extent reduce, a direct consequence of climate change. Less sea ice means more UV light can penetrate the ocean, where it makes it harder for Antarctic phytoplankton and krill to survive. Much relies on these tiny creatures, who form the base of the food web. If they find it harder to survive, hunger will ripple up the food chain. Antarctica’s waters are also getting warmer and more acidic due to climate change. An uncertain outlook for Antarctica We should, by rights, be celebrating the success of banning CFCS – a rare example of fixing an environmental problem. But that might be premature. Climate change may be delaying the recovery of our ozone layer by, for example, making bushfires more common and more severe. Ozone could also suffer from geoengineering proposals such as spraying sulphates into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight, as well as more frequent rocket launches. If the recent trend continues, and the ozone hole lingers into the summer, we can expect to see more damage done to plants and animals – compounded by other threats. We don’t know if the longer-lasting ozone hole will continue. But we do know climate change is causing the atmosphere to behave in unprecedented ways. To keep ozone recovery on track, we need to take immediate action to reduce the carbon we emit into the atmosphere. Read more: Antarctica's sea ice hit another low this year – understanding how ocean warming is driving the loss is key Sharon Robinson receives funding from the Australian Research Council and is a Deputy Director within the Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future program. She is Dean Researcher Development at the University of Wollongong and is a member of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Environmental Effects Assessment Panel (EEAP) which assesses how ozone depletion impacts life on Earth.Laura Revell receives New Zealand government funding from the Royal Society Te Apārangi (Marsden fund and Rutherford Discovery Fellowships), Deep South National Science Challenge and Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment. She is a member of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Environmental Effects Assessment Panel (EEAP) which assesses how ozone depletion impacts life on Earth.Rachele Ossola receives funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation. She is a member of the UN Environmental Program (UNEP) Environmental Effects Assessment Panel (EEAP), which assesses how ozone depletion affects life on Earth.

Animals
Business
Chemicals

How Temperate Forests Could Help Limit Climate Change

People understand how saving tropical forests is good for the planet, but temperate forests are equally indispensable in fighting climate change

How Temperate Forests Could Help Limit Climate ChangePeople understand how saving tropical forests is good for the planet, but temperate forests are equally indispensable in fighting climate changeBy Amanda Leland & Steven HamburgBlue Ridge Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina. Itai MinovitzGetty ImagesMuch of the conservation and climate change spotlight falls on tropical forests. Given this, people might forget that forests in the temperate areas—those found in large parts of North America, Europe and higher latitudes in Asia and Australia—also have the power to help limit climate change. As much as preserving tropical rainforests is indispensable to climate progress, policy makers cannot ignore the critical role of temperate forests. This Earth Week, we must turn our attention—and dollars—to these swaths of trees, or face the loss of an important tool in managing global warming.Temperate forests represent about 25 percent of Earth’s arboreal lands. As temperatures have changed, temperate trees face threats from of harmful invasive pests from other regions, loss of forest lands from urban sprawl and farmland expansion, and catastrophic wildfires that are becoming more common and severe. At the same time, they are some of the most well-studied and well-understood ecosystems on Earth—giving us a chance to put science into action in the service of climate progress.To save temperate forests, we need to reduce land-clearing for housing and agriculture, then allow trees to regrow where they have been removed, and thoughtfully manage each acre to promote ecological health. To understand how reforestation and better management will aid in climate restoration, look to forest lands of the eastern U.S.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Between the time of European settlement and the early 20th century, at least 300 million acres of temperate forests in the U.S. were cleared for agriculture and timber—an area three times the size of California. This loss was especially concentrated in the East. But as agriculture moved to other parts of the country, abandoned farm fields throughout the region returned to forest largely through natural regeneration. Eastern forests continue to recover and are currently removing about 34 megatonnes of CO2 per year.But efforts to restore forests won’t matter if we don’t stop harmful pests like the emerald ash borer, hemlock woody adelgid and Asian longhorn beetle—hitchhikers to the U.S. from other parts of the world. Each of them is ravaging native tree species in the eastern US. Most invasive pests arrive on U.S. shores in container ships and airplanes; the federal government needs to do much more to inspect cargo and intercept pests at our ports of entry.But we believe the greatest emerging threat to temperate forests is catastrophic wildfire— wildfires that occur outside normal historic frequency and severity. Ironically, widespread fire suppression, especially in dry forests in the West, has allowed a build-up of dangerous fuel such as deadwood and dense regeneration. These fuels, combined with climate change-induced drought, have led to increasingly frequent and severe fires that kill enormous numbers of trees and spew what we calculate is up to 230 megatonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere in bad fires years in the United States.The effects of these sorts of fires have been most stark in the western U.S., Canada, and Australia, but they are also becoming more troublesome in southern Europe and Chile. The conundrum is that fire can be beneficial and restorative, but it has to be done right. We need to thin out understory trees and strategically apply prescribed fire and cultural burns—those led by Indigenous practitioners steeped in historic fire management practices. In some cases, it involves fire managers letting wildfire burn at lower intensity and when weather conditions allow—without heavy fire suppression tactics.These treatments also reduce stress on the remaining trees. They help combat large-scale insect damage, another phenomenon in western North American forests where, for example, bark beetles kill large numbers of trees. Recent investments through President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provide an opportunity to demonstrate ecological thinning and beneficial fire at scale.We need to protect and better care for the few temperate forests that still contain stands of very old trees. These old forests are some of the most carbon-dense ecosystems, harbor unique biodiversity and offer distinctive opportunities for recreation and respite. As such, governments and landowners must make sure middle-aged forests that regrew after cutting are stewarded into the old-growth forests of tomorrow. President Biden has taken important steps in this direction as well, by instituting, for the first time, rules to protect and steward old-growth forests on federal lands across the U.S.Recent Environmental Defense Fund research shows that conserving and restoring temperate forests, alongside tropical forests, are among the most scientifically sound nature-based climate actions. The U.S. is taking important steps to capitalize on these opportunities, but more needs to be done. We need to take advantage of current public funding for forest conservation and stewardship and, at the same time, promote private investment to support restorative measures and sustainable forestry to capture the climate potential of temperate forests in the U.S. and elsewhere.This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

Climate
Forests
Conservation

Sugar in baby food: Why Nestlé needs to be held to account in Africa

"In Africa, the number of overweight children under five has increased by nearly 23% since 2000"

As the Public Eye investigation revealed, one example of this is Nestlé's biscuit-flavored cereals for babies aged six months and older: in Senegal and South Africa they contain 6g of added sugar. In Switzerland, where Nestlé is based, the same product has none. In South Africa, Nestlé promotes its wheat cereal Cerelac as a source of 12 essential vitamins and minerals under the theme "little bodies need big support". Yet all Cerelac products sold in this country contain high levels of added sugar. Obesity is increasingly a problem in low- and middle-income countries. In Africa, the number of overweight children under five has increased by nearly 23% since 2000. The World Health Organization has called for a ban on added sugar in products for babies and young children under three years of age.     Why is extra sugar particularly unhealthy for babies? Adding sugar make the foods delicious and, some argue, addictive. The same goes for adding salt and fat to products.   Children shouldn't eat any added sugar before they turn two. Studies show that adding sugar to any food for babies or small children predisposes them to having a sweet tooth. They start preferring sweet things, which is harmful in their diets throughout their lives. Unnecessary sugar contributes to obesity, which has major health effects such as diabetes, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases, cancer and joint problems among others. The rate of overweight children in South Africa is 13%, twice the global average of 6.1%. These extra sugars, fats and salt are harmful to our health throughout our lifetime, but especially to babies as they are still building their bodies. Children eat relatively small amounts of food at this stage. To ensure healthy nutrition, the food they eat must be high in nutrients.   How do multinationals influence health policies? Companies commonly influence public health through lobbying and party donations. This gives politicians and political parties an incentive to align decisions with commercial agendas. Low- and middle-income countries often have to address potential trade-offs:  potential economic growth from an expanding commercial base and potential harms from the same commercial forces.   Research into how South African food companies, particularly large transnationals, go about shaping public health policy in their favour found 107 examples of food industry practices designed to influence public health policy. In many cases companies promise financial support in areas such as funding research. In 2023 a South African food security research centre attached to a university signed a memorandum of understanding with Nestlé signaling their intent to "forge a transformative partnership" to shape "the future of food and nutrition research and education" and transform "Africa's food systems".   What happens in high-income countries? Most high-income countries have clear guidelines about baby foods. One example is the EU directive on processed cereal-based foods and baby foods for infants and young children. Another is the  Swiss Nutrition Policy, which sets out clear guidelines on healthy eating and advertising aimed at children. The global food system is coming under scrutiny not just for health reasons but for the humane treatment of animals, genetically engineered foods, and social and environmental justice.   What should governments in developing countries be doing? South Africa already has limits on salt content  but we need limits on added sugar and oil.   Taxing baby foods as we do sugary beverages is another way of discouraging these harmful additions. We need to make sure that consumers are aware of what's in their food by having large front-of-package warning labels. Take yogurt: many people assume it is healthy, but there is lots of added sugar in many brands. Consumers should be calling for front-of-pack labels that the Department of Health has proposed so that parents can easily identify unhealthy foods.   Susan Goldstein, Associate Professor in the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science - PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand   This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Food
Animals
Government

Comet Geyser Biosignature Bonanza: NASA Perseverance Mars Rover’s 21st Rock Core

The recent acquisition of Perseverance’s 21st core sample, Comet Geyser, from Bunsen Peak reveals significant geological interest due to its composition of carbonate and silica—key...

Mastcam-Z image (Sol 1088, zcam05068) of the Comet Geyser core. The partially illuminated core is visible in this image of Perseverance’s coring bit. The diameter of the core is 1.3 cm. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASUThe recent acquisition of Perseverance’s 21st core sample, Comet Geyser, from Bunsen Peak reveals significant geological interest due to its composition of carbonate and silica—key minerals for preserving biosignatures.After investigating the high-standing bedrock at the Bunsen Peak workspace deep within the Margin Unit, the unique nature and composition of this rock was deemed worthy for collection of Perseverance’s 21th rock core sample, Comet Geyser!Bunsen Peak is named after a prominent peak in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA, and the namesake for Comet Geyser is the silica-sintered cone geyser also in Yellowstone National Park. Although this rock’s origin remains under investigation and the rover team continues to explore different hypotheses, this core is particularly exciting because it appears to be composed primarily of two minerals: carbonate and silica. Carbonate and silica are both excellent minerals for preserving biosignatures (ancient signs of life). These minerals also have the potential to record the environmental conditions in which they formed, making them important minerals for understanding the habitability of Jezero crater billions of years ago.This illustration depicts NASA’s Perseverance rover studying rocks with its robotic arm. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechThe presence of carbonate within the Comet Geyser sample suggests that water, carbon dioxide, and chemical elements derived from rocks or sediments in and around the ancient Jezero crater once reacted here to form carbonate. Carbonate minerals from Earth’s rock record are often used to reconstruct ancient climate—including conditions like temperature, precipitation, and aridity—and the history of life. Similarly, silica phases form when water interacts with rocks or sediments. The composition and crystallinity of silica can reveal the extent of the interaction with water, such as the intensity or duration of weathering and the pressure/temperature conditions during formation.On Earth, biosignatures can be preserved in carbonate and silica for millions of years, or even billions of years in the case of silica. Some of the oldest evidence we have of life on Earth is from rocks that contain fragments of microbial cells that were “permineralized” by silica, a fossilization process that entombs the residues of ancient life and protects them from degradation. Thus, rocks containing these materials are considered among the highest priority samples for investigating whether Jezero crater was once host to microbial life.Perseverance’s 21th core sample at Bunsen Peak represents a significant milestone toward a collection of a scientifically diverse set of samples for eventual return to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return mission.With rock core #21 now onboard, Perseverance presses forward toward its next strategic objective of investigating a location called Bright Angel, which is a light-toned outcrop exposed in the ancient channel wall of Neretva Vallis. Challenges may arise on this journey, as the terrain ahead is littered with sharp boulders and sand that are proving difficult for the rover’s auto-navigation system. The mission’s rover planners are working hard to manually navigate this tricky terrain. In the meantime, the science team is eagerly anticipating the secrets the rocks of Bright Angel may hold!

Nature
Chemicals
CO2

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