A federal appeals court rejects challenge by environmental groups to the Housatonic River cleanup plan, including a landfill in Lee. Activists say they'll keep fighting

Heather Bellow | The Berkhire Eagle

Fungi stores a third of carbon from fossil fuel emissions and could be essential to reaching net zero, new study reveals

University of Sheffield | Science Daily

"Mycorrhizal fungi are responsible for holding up to 36 percent of yearly global fossil fuel emissions below ground - more than China emits each year. [...] The fungi make up a vast underground network all over the planet underneath grasslands and forests, as well as roads, gardens, and houses on every continent on Earth. [...] It is not only crucial to storing carbon and keeping the planet cooler, but are also essential to global biodiversity. [...] Researchers are now calling for fungi to be considered more heavily in conservation and biodiversity policies, and are investigating whether we can increase how much carbon the soil underneath us can hold." READ MORE

Opinion: Look at a moth — and find a wonder that's been waiting all along

Akito Kawahara & Carla Rhodes | The Washington Post

"Think of a monarch butterfly flying near flowers in your backyard on a summer day. Now think of a moth circling a lamp. Which caught your attention? If you said the butterfly, you’re probably not alone. But you’re missing out. [...] One in 10 described species of organisms on Earth is a moth, and a recent study from the University of Sussex in Britain showed that moths are more efficient pollinators than bees. They serve as main dietary sources for bats (when moths aren’t jamming their sonar) and birds (96 percent of songbirds rely on them for food). Moths also contribute directly to our lives; they produce silk that we use for our clothing, for example. Did you know that the worm in a bottle of tequila is also a moth caterpillar? With more than 160,000 species, these enigmatic creatures far outnumber the 19,500 species we call butterflies, and they can be as diminutive as a pinhead or as large as an adult’s palm. (In fact, butterflies are now classified by scientists as day-flying moths.) Moths are found in terrestrial plant communities from subpolar regions to the equator. Their kaleidoscope of colors and patterns range from dazzling to cryptic, epitomizing the art of camouflage." READ MORE

Bats are driven away by solar farms, but fossil fuels are still far more harmful: study

Elizabeth Hlavinka | Salon

"...In 2010, scientists discovered some water insects like to lay eggs around [solar panels], perhaps because solar panels mirror the reflective nature of water where they normally spawn. But other animals, like bats, seem to not want to touch solar farms with a 10-foot pole, at least according to a study published this week in the Journal of Applied Ecology. Among 19 solar farms studied in southwest England, bat activity for six out of eight species observed was halved among farms' peripheries and reduced by two-thirds at their center compared to control farms without solar panels, said study author Gareth Jones, Ph.D., a professor of biological sciences at the University of Bristol in England. [...] Solar photovoltaic energy, which was the type of solar energy measured in the study, is the 'fastest-growing source of renewable energy globally,' predicted to overtake natural gas by 2026 and coal by 2027, Jones said. As a cheaper and more efficient energy source, renewables can offset global warming — but they aren't without their own environmental impacts. None of the bat species in this study were endangered or threatened. But concerns have been raised about negative environmental impacts associated with renewable energy... [...] Estimates vary, with one 2009 study projecting that fossil fuels are responsible for roughly 17 times more bird and bat deaths than wind farms. Another report estimated fossil fuel power stations were to blame for 34 times more avian deaths than wind facilities. Overall, the fossil fuel industry has been widely blamed for the climate crisis, with a 2017 report estimating 100 industry players were responsible for 70% of greenhouse gas emissions released since 1988. [...] When it comes to solar farms, however, the consequences are much less deadly. The Applied Ecology study shows that habitat disturbance rather than mortality seems to be the bigger challenge for bats and solar farms. Importantly, there are also ways to reduce the environmental impacts of renewable energy." READ MORE

Five Weekends of Free, Guided Regional Interpretive Tours

Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area | Press Release

"The public is invited to participate in these family-oriented, interpretive walks, offered in partnership with our region’s historic, cultural, and outdoor recreation organizations and the National Park Service. The Heritage Walks are the ideal opportunity to experience and learn about our region’s rich and varied local history. Historians, naturalists, and environmentalists will lead participants on explorations through historic estate gardens and town districts, behind-the-scenes cultural site tours, nature walks, trail hikes, and tours of many of the industrial-site ruins that were once thriving local industries. There will be Native-American and African American history walks & a bike tour on scenic country roads. Detailed Heritage Walks brochures are available at libraries, post offices, restaurants, and grocery stores in the region. To request a brochure by mail, email programs@housatonicheritage.org." LEARN MORE

The Laurel Hill Association to Feature Noted Forester Starling Childs at Laurel Hill Day

Laurel Hill Association | Press Release

"For the past 170 years, local Stockbridge residents and other friends have gathered in front of a rock outcropping in Laurel Hill Park, located behind the Stockbridge Town Offices. This year the keynote address will be delivered by Starling (Star) Childs. Childs has spent a lifetime managing forest lands and teaching young people about the challenges facing them. 'We are delighted to have Star speak at Laurel Hill Day' said association president Hilary Somers Deely. 'He has had a distinguished career as a hands on forester and as an advisor to his alma mater’s Yale Forest School. Star’s expertise, insight, and easy, humorous manner guarantees that our program will be especially engaging this year.' Childs has worked with state and local governments as well as many private clients to assess and administer their lands for ecologically sensitive development, forestry and wildlife management, recreation, natural resource extraction, bio-energy, and land conservation strategies." READ MORE

You could have 'recycling bias' — here's what that means

Kate Yoder/Grist | Popular Science

"...A decades-long effort to educate people about recycling has mostly backfired, according to new research. The study, published last week in Nature Sustainability, found that an overemphasis on recycling has distracted us from better options for preventing waste. In open-ended surveys, Americans overwhelmingly named recycling as the most effective thing they could do to reduce trash in landfills, overlooking more successful strategies—such as generating less waste in the first place. [...] The study revealed widespread confusion about the relative usefulness of recycling. When asked to rank the Three Rs—“reduce, reuse, recycle”—in order of effectiveness, nearly half of people got the answer wrong. (The phrase is already in the correct order.) They fared better when asked to choose between just two options, waste prevention and recycling, with 80 percent understanding that prevention was more beneficial. [...] [Barnett] attributes the phenomenon [of recycling bias] to a long-running messaging campaign aimed at getting Americans to take responsibility for their trash. For decades, Keep America Beautiful, a nonprofit backed by corporations including Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, has been running anti-litter and pro-recycling advertisements. The campaign had the effect of shifting the blame for trash pollution to individuals, rather than the companies that designed products to be disposable. [...] So how should we think about recycling? For Barnett, it’s a useful tool, but its usefulness has been blown out of proportion. 'Recycling is not a scam, but also not a "get out of jail free" card,' she said. 'We really need to be a lot more intentional with the goods we consume and the actions we take, while also putting that onus back on the producers for whom it really belongs.'" READ MORE

Coastal biomedical labs are bleeding more horseshow crabs with little accountability

Chiara Eiser | NPR

"Horseshoe crabs used to be everywhere. Millions of years before dinosaurs roamed the planet, each spring, the hard-shelled creatures gathered to mate in massive mounds along the beaches of the Atlantic coast. Later, migratory shorebirds like the robin-size red knot learned to fly up from South America to join them for a feast. The crabs' eggs gave the birds the energy they needed to keep flying north to breed in the Arctic. But humans began to want something from the crabs, too — their blood. In the 1960s, scientists discovered that the sky blue blood inside horseshoe crabs would clot when it detected bacterial toxins. Vaccines, drugs and medical devices have to be sterile before they're put inside people. A better toxin-detection system meant less contamination risk for patients, so fishermen soon started collecting and selling the prehistoric animals to be bled. A synthetic alternative was later invented and has since been approved in Europe as an equivalent to the ingredient that requires horseshoe crabs. But in the U.S., the blood harvest isn't shrinking. It's growing. Five companies along the East Coast — with operations in South Carolina, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Virginia and Maryland — drained over 700,000 crabs in 2021.[...] As the industry has expanded, coast-wide regulation has been limited and the companies have become increasingly secretive. Records obtained by NPR indicate that in some states, fishermen paid by the bleeding companies have handled crabs in ways that research has shown to cause harm or have violated harvest laws without punishment. Meanwhile, the process of approving the alternative in the U.S. has stalled even as the number of birds in the sky has plummeted. The federal government designated one of the migratory shorebird species that depends on horseshoe crab eggs, the red knot, as threatened. About 94% of red knots have disappeared over the past 40 years." READ MORE