|
LONG-TIME COKE LOBBYIST PASSES - Connell Stafford, who served as Vice President for International Governmental Relations, died of kidney failure last week. He was 75. Connell had a 25-year career at Coke working on local, state, federal and international issues and was known for his keen political instincts, warmth and self-deprecating humor. He worked for former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn before his career at The Coca-Cola Company and represented clients at Troutman Sanders after leaving Coke.
Connell was originally from Macon, Georgia, where his father worked for the local bottler. He graduated from Georgia Southern and earned a Master’s Degree from American University in Public Administration. He leaves behind his wife Shay, and daughters Ali and Jenna, along with his two “grandboys,” Stafford and Lyles, in addition to countless friends and colleagues.
A Memorial Service is set for Thursday, Sept. 7, at 2 p.m. at St. James Episcopal Church, 766 N. Main St., Hendersonville, NC, Shay’s hometown. A celebration of life for family and friends will be held Thursday, Aug. 10, 4 to 6 p.m. at the Capital City Club at Brookhaven in Atlanta. https://bit.ly/3DCRgt3
A personal note on Connell. I reported directly to Connell Stafford for several years. Connell was an insightful, strategic, kind and humorous leader. He skillfully lead a wide range of characters and was an extraordinary representative of The Coca-Cola Company, locally and nationally. He provided me with sage advice and several opportunities that significantly enhanced my career. He helped make Coca-Cola a fun place to work. The world is a better place as a result of Connell's life and work.
Blessings to his family during this difficult time.
- Jeff
Challenges & Opportunities
Monster Beverage Corporation issues 2022 Interim Sustainability Report - The report outlines the company's progress in addressing the pressing concerns of climate change, water and packaging stewardship; and announces plans for setting new long-term goals. On or before December 1, 2023, Monster will submit an official commitment letter to join the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which provides a framework for companies to set science-based emissions reduction targets in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Water stewardship targets across Monster's enterprise will also be announced by the end of this year.
https://www.monsterbevcorp.com/monster-sustainability-report-2023.php
DOE recently launched the Energy Savings Hub—an online one-stop shop for American families and consumers to access the savings tools that President Biden’s Investing in America agenda has made available to drastically cut utility bills. To learn how to upgrade to cleaner and more efficient appliances and keep money in your pocket, visit www.Energy.gov/Save.
Half of US Corn and Soybean Acreages Are in Drought - As of late July, approximately 55% of US corn production and 50% of soybean production areas were experiencing drought conditions. Without a letup in the current Midwest heatwave, the potential size of the upcoming crop is getting smaller by the day. What is the potential impact on final yields? https://bit.ly/456xqTb
Scientists detect sign that a crucial ocean current is near collapse - The Atlantic Ocean’s sensitive circulation system has become slower and less resilient, according to a new analysis of 150 years of temperature data — raising the possibility that this crucial element of the climate system could collapse within the next few decades. Scientists have long seen the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, as one of the planet’s most vulnerable “tipping elements” — meaning the system could undergo an abrupt and irreversible change, with dramatic consequences for the rest of the globe. Under Earth’s current climate, this aquatic conveyor belt transports warm, salty water from the tropics to the North Atlantic, and then sends colder water back south along the ocean floor. But as rising global temperatures melt Arctic ice, the resulting influx of cold freshwater has thrown a wrench in the system — and could shut it down entirely. The study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications suggests that continued warming will push the AMOC over its “tipping point” around the middle of this century. The shift would be as abrupt and irreversible as turning off a light switch, and it could lead to dramatic changes in weather on either side of the Atlantic. “This is a really worrying result,” said Peter Ditlevsen, a climate physicist at the University of Copenhagen and lead author of the new study. “This is really showing we need a hard foot on the brake” of greenhouse gas emissions. Ditlevsen’s analysis is at odds with the most recent report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which drew on multiple climate models and concluded with “medium confidence” that the AMOC will not fully collapse this century.
Other experts on the AMOC also cautioned that because the new study doesn’t present new observations of the entire ocean system — instead, it is extrapolating about the future based on past data from a limited region of the Atlantic — its conclusions should be taken with a grain of salt.
“The qualitative statement that AMOC has been losing stability in the last century remains true even taking all uncertainties into account,” said Niklas Boers, a scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “But the uncertainties are too high for a reliable estimate of the time of AMOC tipping.” https://bit.ly/3DFVG2d
Switching The World To Renewable Energy Will Cost $62 Trillion, But The Payback Would Take Just 6 Years - Mark Jacobson and his colleagues at Stanford University have published a new study in the journal Energy & Environmental Science that claims 145 of the world’s nations could switch to 100% renewable energy in a few years using renewable energy technologies available today. They recommend the world make the switchover by 2035, but in no event later than 2050. Their goal is to have 80% operating on renewable energy by 2030. The researchers looked at onshore and offshore wind energy, solar power, solar heat, geothermal electricity and heat, hydroelectricity, and small amounts of tidal and wave electricity. Batteries were the most common electricity storage solution, with the team finding that no batteries with more than four hours of storage were necessary. The researchers say switching to renewable energy would avoid utility grid blackouts and save consumers trillions of dollars. One of the main reasons for that finding is that the combustion-based energy systems most countries rely require a lot of energy just to function. In switching to a clean, renewable energy system, Jacobson states that worldwide energy usage would go down by 56% immediately. A typical internal combustion engine is 20 to 25% efficient, which means three-quarters of what you pay for is wasted as friction or heat. An electric car is 80 to 95% efficient. The cost of making the changeover to 100% renewable energy would be a staggering $62 trillion. Wow! That is a ton of money, people. But here’s the thing. Jacobson and his team say the savings from switching the world to 100% renewable energy would be $11 trillion a year. In other words, the initial investment would be paid back in just 6 years! Wind and sunshine are free. Once the systems to harvest energy from them are completed, the cost of fuel is zero. Yes, those resources will need to be updated, refurbished or replaced over time, just the way utility grids and thermal generating stations need to be as well. But the cost of fuel remains at zero while the price of fossil fuels gyrates radically over time. In the conclusion to their study, Jacobson and his research colleagues say, “Transitioning to 100% [renewable energy] in 145 countries decreases energy requirements and annual private and social costs while creating about 28.4 million more long term, full time jobs than lost. A 100% [renewable energy] economy uses only about 0.53% of the 145 country land area, with 0.17% for footprint and 0.36% for spacing.” https://bit.ly/3rWeWWH
DEVICE HITS 20% SOLAR-TO-HYDROGEN CONVERSION EFFICIENCY - The lab of chemical and biomolecular engineer Aditya Mohite, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Rice University, built the integrated photoreactor using an anticorrosion barrier that insulates the semiconductor from water without impeding the transfer of electrons. According to a study in Nature Communications, the device achieved a 20.8% solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency. “Using sunlight as an energy source to manufacture chemicals is one of the largest hurdles to a clean energy economy,” says Austin Fehr, a chemical and biomolecular engineering doctoral student and one of the study’s lead authors. “Our goal is to build economically feasible platforms that can generate solar-derived fuels. Here, we designed a system that absorbs light and completes electrochemical water-splitting chemistry on its surface.” Original Study
https://bit.ly/3DD7n9S
10 key things to know about the new EU Deforestation Regulation - The EU's new Deforestation Regulation requires companies trading in cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood, as well as products derived from these commodities, to conduct extensive diligence on the value chain to ensure the goods do not result from recent (post 31 December 2020) deforestation, forest degradation or breaches of local environmental and social laws. Companies should consider now the impact of the EUDR on their supply chain due diligence to prepare for the new obligations that apply from 30 December 2024. https://bit.ly/3Ogpbwt
Court Blocks EPA's Water System Cybersecurity Improvement Plan - Following pushback from local legislators, the U.S. EPA’s plans to bolster public water system resiliency in the face of rising cyber threats has hit a roadblock.
“A U.S. appeals court … temporarily blocked a Biden administration plan to improve cybersecurity for public water systems, after Republican-led states complained it would thrust burdensome costs on small and rural water suppliers,” Reuters reported. “The EPA’s plan announced on March 3, which it called ‘guidance,’ meaning it was non-binding, recommended a series of novel rules placing more responsibility for securing water facilities at the state level. The agency issued the plan following several high-profile hacking incidents in recent years.”
Following these high-profile digital compromises at drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities, the Biden administration announced its plans to fortify systems with a monitoring pilot program and suggested new rules to increase security. But a legal challenge from attorneys general in Missouri, Arkansas, and Iowa has now motivated an appeals court in St. Louis to suspend the plan. To read more about how treatment operations manage their cybersecurity visit Water Online’s Resiliency Solutions Center. https://bit.ly/43ESzlz
Climate Change Is Increasing Stress On Thousands Of Aging Dams Across The U.S. There are more than 91,000 dams across the U.S., in all 50 states, with diverse designs and purposes. The average dam age is 60 years, and more than 8,000 dams are over 90 years old. Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers produces a report card for the nation’s infrastructure that assigns grades based on the condition of structures like roads, bridges, and dams, and the investments that they need. The most recent report card estimates that 70% of U.S. dams will be more than 50 years old by 2030.
Overall, the report gave U.S. dams a “D” grade and estimated that more than 2,300 high hazard potential dams — those that could cause loss of life or serious property damage if they fail, based on the level of development around them — lacked emergency action plans. The Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimates that it would cost US$157.7 billion to rehabilitate all nonfederal dams in the U.S. Of this amount, about one-fifth ($34.1 billion) is for rehabilitating high hazard potential dams. The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes approximately $3 billion for dam safety projects, focusing on rehabilitation, retrofitting and removal. https://bit.ly/3QfOqBv
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced three new energy efficiency actions that will save Americans more than $1 billion in utility bills every year. The Congressionally-mandated final standards for commercial water heaters and dedicated-purpose pool pump motors along with the proposed standards for residential boilers will each conserve energy and water while cutting harmful carbon pollution. DOE expects the final standards for commercial water heaters will save American businesses approximately $149 million per year on energy costs, while the final standards for dedicated-purpose pool pumps and proposed standards for residential boilers will save American consumers approximately $926 million per year on their utility bills. These actions represent DOE’s latest steps—together with the private-sector—to promote innovation and reduce costs for American families and businesses through appliance efficiency, as directed by Congress. The efficiency standards being adopted today for commercial water heaters, which have not been revised since 2003, will result in significant gains in energy efficiency and savings for American businesses. For commercial gas-fired storage, instantaneous, and hot water supply boilers, DOE is adopting a performance standard that will require condensing technology for new models starting in 2026. The energy savings over 30 years of shipments is 0.7 quadrillion British thermal units, which represents a savings of 5.6% relative to the energy use of products currently on the market. DOE estimates that the standards would result in cumulative emission reductions of 38 million metric tons of carbon dioxide—an amount roughly equivalent to the combined annual emissions of 4.8 million homes. https://bit.ly/3OdJAlJ
Adding clean energy to the US power grid just got a lot easier - Federal regulators overhauled the process for connecting new energy projects to the power grid. It’s supposed to clear a backlog that bogged down renewable energy growth. “This is a watershed moment for our nation’s transmission grid,” FERC Chair Willie Phillips said in a press release. As it is now, it takes an average of five years for a new energy project to connect to the grid. There’s a huge backlog of more than 2,000 gigawatts of clean energy generation and storage that’s just waiting in line for approval. That’s about as much capacity as the nation’s existing power plants have for generating electricity today. To clear the backlog, the new federal rule will require grid managers to assess projects in clusters instead of one at a time. They’ll also face firm deadlines and penalties for failing to finish interconnection studies on time. The new rule prioritizes projects that are the farthest along in development and also includes new requirements for project developers, like financial deposits to discourage them from proposing projects that might not pull through. https://bit.ly/3KlhvYG
Converting wastewater into a product that would simultaneously irrigate and fertilize crops - Researchers in the Oregon State University College of Engineering are developing technology to convert wastewater into a product that would simultaneously irrigate and fertilize crops. The three-year project led by Xue Jin, assistant professor of environmental engineering, will be supported by $750,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and will involve partnerships with farmers, wastewater treatment plants and USDA scientists. The researchers are developing a two-stage, hybrid membrane filtration technology to treat the murky liquid discharge from anaerobic digesters, a type of bioreactor used in water treatment plants and on some larger farms. The digesters rely on bacteria to break down organic matter in the absence of oxygen. In the first stage, an electrically charged membrane attracts ions such as ammonium, phosphorus and potassium and concentrates them into a fertilizer-rich brine. In the second stage, a forward-osmosis membrane removes contaminants such as bacteria, and the bacteria-free water is then recombined with the brine to produce a nutrient-enhanced solution that can be applied to crops. “In laboratory-scale testing, we were able to recover 80% of the water,” said Quang Ngoc Tran, a graduate student who has been a key participant in the research. “When the technology is scaled up with optimal operating conditions, that number could go even higher. The output is basically pure water, with a little bit of dissolved salts that are the plant nutrients.” Tala Navab-Daneshmand, an associate professor of environmental engineering at Oregon State, and David Bryla, a research horticulturist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Corvallis, will conduct greenhouse studies to evaluate both the effectiveness of the treated water in plant growth and the biosafety of the resulting crops. https://bit.ly/43Pu8SJ
Water Use and Stress - by Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser. First published in 2015; most recent substantial revision in July 2018. This article previously covered aspects of clean water and sanitation access; you now find this material in our entries on Clean Water Access and Sanitation Access. https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-stress
| 
