Though 2,300 people in the US died from heat-related illness in 2023, workers await robust protection laws
On 23 June, Shae Parker had to leave her shift early at a gas station in Columbia, South Carolina, to go to the emergency room due to heat exhaustion; she wasn’t paid for missing the rest of her shift. The air conditioning at her work has been on the fritz for weeks, she said, and her station heats up easily as the sun beams through its large windows.
“I got nauseated, overheated, lightheaded,” she said. “We don’t have free water, we don’t have a water level on the soda machine, the ice machine is broken, so we have to buy water. The last few weeks it’s been extremely hot. It’s very hard to breathe when you’re lightheaded and experiencing dizziness. The fatigue is like 10 times worse because your body is completely drained. I had to get two bags of fluid from being dehydrated even though I was drinking water.”
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/29/2024 - 10:00
07/29/2024 - 07:31
Regulator for Great Britain also appoints Elexon to lead local flexibility markets
Business live – latest updates
Ofgem is pushing ahead with plans to make it easier for British homeowners to reap the benefits of using electric car chargers and heat pumps at non-peak times, as the grid becomes more reliant on wind and solar power.
The energy regulator for Great Britain has put forward proposals to encourage flexible electricity use in the home by creating a single register in which flexibility service providers (FSPs) can access more markets and better rates for owners of energy assets such as EV chargers and battery storage systems.
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07/29/2024 - 05:00
Corporations and politicians are pushing carbon capture despite big questions over its value as residents in the southern ‘petrostate’ fear the worst
It was a muggy morning in late April when a handful of local residents and grassroots organizers huddled in a church parking lot to strategize, before knocking on doors with information about the latest environmental threat facing St Rose, a predominantly Black community in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”.
It was not the first time Kimbrelle Eugene Kyereh had campaigned for better regulation of the choking sprawl of fossil fuel and petrochemical facilities that surround St Rose – and countless other communities up and down the Mississippi River.
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07/29/2024 - 04:31
Conservation charity raises alarm over climate crisis after wet spring and summer dampen mating chances
Butterfly numbers are the lowest on record in the UK after a wet spring and summer dampened their chances of mating.
Butterfly Conservation, which runs the Big Butterfly Count, sounded the alarm after this year’s count revealed the worst numbers since it began 14 years ago.
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07/29/2024 - 04:00
Marking a pivotal moment for the fate of the barely known ecosystems on the ocean floor, 168 nations will decide this week who will head the International Seabed Authority
Leticia Carvalho is clear what the problem is with the body she hopes to be elected to run: “Trust is broken and leadership is missing.” Later this week, at the headquarters of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston, Jamaica, nations negotiating rules governing deep-sea mining face a critical vote that could impact the nascent industry for years: who should be the next leader of the regulatory body?
Carvalho, sponsored by Brazil, is in the running against the current secretary general, Michael Lodge, a British lawyer, who is being sponsored by Kiribati, a small Pacific state.
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07/29/2024 - 00:00
Civil society organisations demand home secretary protects the ‘safety valve’ of democracy
Environmental groups are among 92 civil society organisations who have warned Yvette Cooper against “the steady erosion of the right to protest” in the UK, and called on her to reverse the previous government’s crackdown on peaceful protest.
“The right to protest is a vital safety valve for our democracy and an engine of social progress,” the letter, delivered on Friday, said. “The achievements of peaceful protest are written on the labour movement’s own birth certificate.”
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07/28/2024 - 18:01
Hailing the success of carrier bag laws, the Marine Conservation Society urges nations to push forward with plans for other single-use items
The number of plastic bags washed up on UK beaches has fallen by 80% over a decade, since a mandatory fee was imposed on shoppers who opt to pick up single-use carrier bags at the checkout.
According to the Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS) annual litter survey, volunteers found an average of one plastic bag every 100 metres of coastline surveyed last year, compared to an average of five carrier bags every 100 metres in 2014.
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07/28/2024 - 06:00
Ex-president’s allies and Project 2025 propose restrictions to EPA’s ability to protect public from toxins like PFAS
A second Donald Trump presidency would represent a serious threat to dealing with the toxic impact of PFAS “forever chemicals”, as well as other toxins, and could be a danger to the health of millions of Americans, experts and environmental campaigners warn.
For example, over the last year, the Environmental Protection Agency developed groundbreaking drinking water limits for highly toxic PFAS compounds, and designated several of the “forever chemicals” as hazardous substances, a move that will force industry to clean up its pollution. The steps represent a major win for the water quality and taxpayers, but a new Trump administration would likely shred the rules.
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07/27/2024 - 07:00
Residents face tough choices on whether to shelter in place or flee – ‘There’s risks associated with each’, experts say
Hurricane Beryl was unusual in many ways before it struck Texas on 8 July – it sped up more than 35mph in a 24-hour period twice, and it became the first category 5 storm to form as early as it did in the hurricane season. And as the world increasingly warms because of the burning of fossil fuels, research suggests that storms like Hurricane Beryl will become more common – concerning coastal residents who will have less time to evacuate.
While residents are more likely to leave when directed to do so by their local government, emergency managers are shying away from enacting community-wide mandatory evacuations because of how much time they take to put in place.
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07/27/2024 - 06:00
State’s wildfires have already torched more than 1m acres, and experts say heat, dryness and lightning are to blame
Oregon’s wildfire season is off to an explosive start with more than 1m acres (405,000 hectares) charred in less than a month, as experts warn that extreme heat and unusual lightning strikes are creating “catastrophic conditions” for fires to ignite and spread.
The state is currently home to the largest wildfire burning in the US. By Friday afternoon, the Durkee fire had burned nearly 290,000 acres (117,000 hectares) and was only 20% contained. The fire had forced evacuations, shut down a major interstate highway and even produced its own weather system.
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