Bohemian waxwings Dining on Bald-faced Hornet Larvae

Steve LeBlanc | AP News

"We think of Bohemian Waxwings, colorful winter visitors, as primarily consumers of sugary fruits, but their diet is not exclusively frugivorous. They (and Cedar Waxwings) eat sap drips in the spring and aerial insects, especially emergent aquatic species, in the summer. During the winter, in addition to fruits, Bohemian Waxwings also feed on protein-rich foods when they are available. Pictured is one of many Bohemian Waxwings that found a goldmine of protein — dead Bald-faced Hornet larvae. While the hornet queen overwinters under loose bark or a similarly protected area, the larvae that are developing within the nest when a hard frost hits are killed. Bohemian Waxwings apparently recognize this rich source of protein. Scale insects and tree buds (American Elm and ash species) are also consumed in the winter and spring. (Photograph by Terry Marron)" Read More

The EPA is helping school districts purchase clean-energy school buses, but some districts have been blocked from participating

Christina van Waasbergen | Inside Climate New

"The Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program has hit a speed bump. Part of the bipartisan infrastructure law passed last year, the program will provide $5 billion over the next five years to help school districts switch to clean energy school buses. However, some districts are blocked from participating due to the EPA’s requirement that they scrap their old buses. Critics say this requirement is an unnecessary barrier to school districts getting funding for clean-energy buses, which can reduce health risks from air pollution and help combat climate change. For the first round of funding, districts could apply for grants to replace up to 25 diesel school buses with electric buses or low-emission buses that run on propane or compressed natural gas. However, they had to identify diesel buses that they would be replacing with these clean-energy buses. This was a barrier for districts that don’t own their own buses. [...] The scrappage requirement also prevents districts from using program funds to transition to owning their own buses. Thomas said the requirement disproportionately impacts low-income school districts like District 227 that don’t have the funds to buy their own buses. He said the district was hoping to use funds from the program to purchase their own buses." Read More

Exxon knew just how much fossil fuels could warm the planet as early as the 1970s, study says

Dharna Noor | The Boston Globe

"Scientists at Exxon predicted future global warming with stunning accuracy as early as the 1970s, even as the firm has publicly contradicted its own findings and sowed doubt about climate change, according to a new analysis that puts a number on exactly how much the oil and gas giant knew. The report from Harvard University and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, published in the journal Science on Thursday, marks the first quantitative review of Exxon’s climate science from the past four and a half decades. The findings show that Exxon did not merely have a vague idea that using its products would heat the planet; rather, it had the very specific knowledge that fossil fuel burning would lead to about 0.20 degrees Celsius of global warming per decade, plus or minus 0.04 degrees. [...] Long before climate change became a public issue, Exxon not only knew about the threat of global warming, but also employed teams of researchers to probe that threat, even launching its own ambitious program to build rigorous climate models, investigative journalists found eight years ago. The reporting sparked a rallying cry — “Exxon knew” — and kicked off protest movements, Congressional hearings, and more than a dozen lawsuits. One of those lawsuits was waged in 2019 by current Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, then the state’s attorney general, in a bitter saga that saw Exxon slinging allegations of political motives. After a three-year probe into the company’s actions, Healey alleged Exxon knew its products were contributing to dangerous changes in the climate yet hid that information. In May 2022, Massachusetts’ Supreme Court rejected Exxon Mobil’s bid to dismiss that lawsuit, which is ongoing today. Two months before that, the company also lost a bid to revive a lawsuit claiming that both Massachusetts and New York’s attorneys general had political motivations for opening such investigations into the company. The new study could have massive practical implications for ongoing attempts to hold Exxon accountable for its history of climate deception, said the paper’s lead author Geoffrey Supran, associate professor of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science." Read More

If this Egremont dam fails, it could destroy the town's water system. Officials are looking at options for this and a slew of problems

Heather Bellow | The Berkshire Eagle

"It’s a water system on the brink — so much so that the town is thinking of selling it. The system is linked to the Karner Brook Dam, which is rated 'unsafe,' by the state Office of Dam Safety. A dam break would deliver a 'catastrophic' blow to the water system and the roughly 650 people it serves. While the Egremont Water Department and Water Commission continue to address problems state regulators say need fixing and attention, the town will also soon replace the water pipes that run through Main Street. [...] Meantime, Egremont taxpayers face the likelihood of $9 million in system upgrades over the next 10 years. The work will begin with water main replacements scheduled to happen in concert with the state Department of Transportation’s 'Complete Streets' Main Street/Route 23/41 overhaul in the spring. Aquarion, an Eversource subsidiary, is said to be considering buying the Water Department." Read More

U.S. Carbon Emissions Grew in 2022

Elena Shao | The New York Times

"America’s greenhouse gas emissions from energy and industry rose last year, moving the nation in the opposite direction from its climate goals, according to preliminary estimates published Tuesday by the Rhodium Group, a nonpartisan research firm. Emissions ticked up 1.3 percent even as renewable energy surpassed coal power nationwide for the first time in over six decades, with wind, solar and hydropower generating 22 percent of the country’s electricity compared with 20 percent from coal. Growth in natural gas power generation also compensated for coal’s decline. The new estimate puts nationwide emissions back in line with their long-term trajectory after nearly two years of Covid-related disruptions, said Ben King, an associate director at the Rhodium Group and an author of the report. “We are essentially on the same trajectory that we’ve been on since the mid 2000s,” he said, calling it a “long-term structural decline,” but one that’s “not happening fast enough.' Two years ago, President Biden promised to accelerate the pace, setting a goal of reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions at least 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, an amount that is thought to be consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. [...] The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark climate and tax law, is supposed to help bend the emissions curve closer to the 2030 goal, but even it is likely to fall short." Read More

Why your recycling doesn't always get recycled

Sarah Gibens | Natioinal Geographic

". . . Recycling can be complicated, and the rules outlining how to do it vary from city to city, which might be one reason why only about 32 percent of our trash gets recycled. Only about six percent of the plastic—everything from plastic bottles to IV drips—produced in the U.S. in 2021 was recycled, according to a Greenpeace report. Some plastic items are designed in ways that make them difficult to recycle or recyclers struggle to find people who want to buy recycled material. That’s an issue for the environment and human health—all that plastic breaks down into microscopic pieces and contaminates everything from the ocean to our bodies. We do best with paper—68 percent of that gets recycled. But experts say there are changes you can make to improve recycling at home, in your community, and with your vote. [...] Don’t be fooled by the triangle made of interlocking arrows imprinted on plastic. Those triangles don’t necessarily mean that an item is recyclable—they simply indicate its “resin code,” one of seven categories that denote the type of plastic it’s made of. Only some of these categories are fit for the recycling bin. (Find more details on each resin here.) […] Experts say you should research which plastics your local recycler accepts, but as a general rule, plastics labeled with a number one or two are most likely to be recycled. Those are the rigid plastics like water bottles and milk jugs, and recycling plants have machines designed to clean, shred, and melt down this type of plastic. Plastic labeled with a five, found in certain types of food and medicine bottles, could potentially be recycled in your community, but its acceptance varies. The other plastics—three, four, six, and seven—are more likely to be dumped in a landfill if tossed in your household recycling bin. These types of items include bubble wrap, shopping bags, and flexible food packaging. 'One of the biggest problems is called ‘wish-cycling,’ where we wish something could be recycled so we put it in the recycling bin and cross our fingers,' says Hoover. But it’s a waste of time, she notes. At best, it simply finds its way to a landfill. At worst, it jams up recycling machinery and has to be removed by hand, a process that slows down operations. […] One solution, say environmental policy experts, are more 'bottle bills.' If you live in one of the 10 states where these laws are in effect, you may have noticed soda bottles with anywhere from five to 15 cents printed on the label. This creates a set value for a bottle and incentivizes consumers to bring them to a participating recycling container. A 2020 report on litter found that states with bottle bills have half as much litter as those without them. Drop-off sites are also helpful for collecting plastic bags. Some grocery stores offer plastic bag drop-off sites where bags are more likely to be kept clean and can be taken to specialty recycling centers." Read More