Legends about a boiling, scalding river that roasts anything that falls inside may sound like fiction. Yet nestled in the Peruvian rainforest, a curious waterway <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/andres_ruzo_the_boiling_river_of_the_amazon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proves</a> these stories are far from mythical.



Its waters can reach 210°F, a temperature that can cause severe burns within seconds. For decades, local communities spoke of a place so hot that small <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cold-shocks-in-the-amazon-how-do-wild-animals-respond/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">animals perish</a> upon touching its surface.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-boiling-river-in-peru">The "Boiling River" in Peru</h2>



The "Boiling River" is located in the Mayantuyacu region of central Peru. The river’s length is around 4 miles, and it can be up to about 20 feet wide in some sections.



A team of scientists led by <a href="https://www.rileyfortier.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Riley Fortier</a>, a graduate student at the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Miami</a>, surveyed 70 sites along this tributary. 



"It really provides us a window into the future because the Amazon will get hotter whether we like it or not, so this allows us to understand what increases in temperature will do to the forest composition," said Riley Fortier, lead author on a study of the site published in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gcb.17555" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Global Change Biology</a>, and a graduate student in professor Kenneth Feeley's <a href="https://www.junglebiology.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jungle Biology lab</a>.



The team wanted to see how extreme heat shapes the surrounding forest.



By mapping the tree and plant species from cooler upstream areas down to the scalding heart of the river, they discovered a startling drop in biological variety. 



Findings <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gcb.17555" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">showed</a> an 11% decline in biodiversity for each 1.8°F rise in average temperature.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-the-boiling-river-boils">Why the boiling river boils</h2>



Geoscientists attribute the heat to fault-fed activity, where underground water channels meet Earth’s geothermal energy. 



A fault is a <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-a-fault-and-what-are-different-types" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">large fracture</a> in the crust that provides a direct path for scorching fluid to surge toward the surface.



Researchers believe that rainwater infiltrating sedimentary rock becomes superheated below ground. It then emerges as a system of hot springs converging with the main watercourse, creating a natural cauldron.



“You stick your hand in, and you will see second or third degree burns in a matter of seconds,” said Ruzo, who first measured the river’s peak heat. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-signs-of-changing-forests">Signs of changing forests</h2>



Many local inhabitants regard the site with deep respect because anything that wanders too close risks a painful encounter.



Certain plants thrive on the fringes, but most large creatures struggle with the sweltering <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tiny-microbes-in-amazon-peatlands-help-balance-the-global-climate/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">environment</a>. Adaptations are limited for organisms facing water that can reach coffee-brewing temperatures.



"Overall, the tree community is less diverse, so we see fewer species in hotter spots," Fortier said. "And forest composition was also more homogenous in the warmest locations, whereas in cooler forest plots, there was more plant diversity."



Botanical surveys from cooler sections toward the hotter stretches revealed how tree diversity narrows. In place of thick canopies, the research team documented more scrubby <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rainforest-trees-use-rivers-as-highways-for-migration/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">vegetation</a>.



"Over the course of dozens of miles, you might expect to see dramatic changes like that, but in the small sampling area that we had, you typically wouldn't see such a clear change in composition," Fortier added.



Small species adapted to drought-like conditions gained ground as the mercury rose. Larger, slower-growing trees faded away, reflecting how intense heat reshapes even lush ecosystems.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-boiling-rivers-and-future-climate">Boiling rivers and future climate</h2>



Fortier’s data suggest that as worldwide temperatures climb, similar shifts could spread across other <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-amazon-rainforest-is-approaching-widespread-collapse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lowland rainforests</a>.



Changes may include declines in species that cannot handle additional heat and a rise in those more comfortable with higher temperatures.



Scientists note that an environment featuring fewer tree varieties will likely support fewer types of animals too. The loss of one group often sends ripples through the entire food web.



The boiling tributary, known locally as <a href="https://shanaytimpishka.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Shanay-Timpishka</a>, meaning “boiled with the heat of the sun,” stands as a stark example of what could happen if average temperatures continue to climb. 



Areas that were once rich in wildlife may morph into simpler, drier landscapes. Observers hope that studying this natural hotspot will inspire careful planning to protect sensitive habitats. 



Even though the river is unique, it signals what may lie ahead for places currently seen as safe havens for biodiversity.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ongoing-investigations">Ongoing investigations</h2>



Researchers plan to gather long-term data and explore whether <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nearly-40-of-climate-critical-amazon-rainforest-is-unprotected/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">flora and fauna</a> can adapt to persistently higher temperatures. They will also watch for signs of any species shifting to cooler pockets.



Some scientists are examining whether the warming patterns near this location might parallel broader trends in tropical zones. 



They predict that more forests around the globe could face intense thermal stress, forcing communities to adapt or relocate.



Feeley's lab will continue its research of the boiling river, since it is such a unique place that could portend much about our natural world.



"You can't heat a whole forest, at least not artificially, which is one of the coolest aspects of the boiling river," Fortier added.



The study is published in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gcb.17555" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Global Change Biology</a>.



-----



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One river in the Amazon rainforest is so hot that it literally boils, destroying nearby biodiversity

Legends about a boiling, scalding river that roasts anything that falls inside may sound like fiction. Yet nestled in the Peruvian rainforest, a curious waterway proves these stories are far from mythical. Its waters can reach 210°F, a temperature that can cause severe burns within seconds. For decades, local communities spoke of a place so hot that small animals perish upon touching its surface. The "Boiling River" in Peru The "Boiling River" is located in the Mayantuyacu region of central Peru. The river’s length is around 4...

Arctic Sea Ice Levels Shrink To Fourth Lowest Levels. Summer Arctic sea ice shrank to its fourth lowest level on record this month, dispelling faint hopes of a recovery, federal scientists said.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center announced Tuesday that the Arctic hit its summer minimum last week with 1.7 million square miles of sea ice, down 240,000 square miles from 2014. That's a difference the size of<a href="http://www.earth.com/image/tule-fog-across-californias-central-valley/"> California,</a> New York and Maryland combined. Arctic Sea Ice Levels Shrink To Fourth Lowest Levels
"The ice is decreasing over time, which you would expect because the Arctic is warming," data center scientist Julienne Stroeve said.
Summer minimum sea ice has shrunk since satellites started measuring in 1979. It reached a peak of 2.91 million square miles in 1980 and hit an all-time low of 1.3 million square miles in 2012. It went back up to 1.95 in 2013 and hovered near there in 2014.
Variations in weather mean sea ice levels drift a bit year to year, but Stroeve said there's a long term trend that is best seen when looking at averages of five years or more.
The five years between 1979 and 1983 averaged 2.76 million square miles during the summer minimum. The last five years average 1.72 million square miles, a decrease of 38 percent and more than a million square miles.
That means there's no recovery in Arctic sea ice, despite claims of some climate change doubters, said Stroeve and Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann, who wasn't part of the government measurement team.
The world overall so far this year is easily the hottest it has been in more than a century of record keeping, according to NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. However, the El Nino that has been helping push temperatures even warmer isn't having as much an effect up north, which is farther away from the tropical Pacific Ocean, Stroeve said. It has been hot, but not near record breaking in the Arctic this summer.
With human-caused warming continuing, computer simulations show on average that around the year 2040, sea ice will disappear from the Arctic during some summers, Stroeve said.
"We remain on a trajectory that is actually ahead of model predictions," Mann said. "Arctic sea ice is one of several aspects of climate change that his happening even faster than originally predicted."
Sea ice in Antarctica, which had been at record high levels in recent years, are about average, Stroeve said.
---
Online:
National Snow and Ice Data Center: <a href="http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/</a>
--
Seth Borenstein can be followed at <a href="http://twitter.com/borenbears" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://twitter.com/borenbears</a>
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Arctic Sea Ice Levels Shrink To Fourth Lowest Levels

Arctic Sea Ice Levels Shrink To Fourth Lowest Levels. Summer...

Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Site

Debate Resumes Over Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dump. The debate resumed Tuesday in Nevada about the possibility of radioactive contamination of the underground water supply from a proposed national nuclear waste repository in the desert near where nuclear weapons tests were conducted for decades.
Familiar faces and arguments in the decades-long long battle over the <a href="http://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/how-to-get-your-yucca-plant-to-flower/">Yucca</a> Mountain repository turned out for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission meeting in Las Vegas, ahead of another NRC hearing scheduled Thursday in a farm community in the shadow of the site itself.
"The only question to be answered is, `Can waste emplaced in Yucca Mountain be isolated and not contaminate groundwater?'" said Judy Treichel, an opponent since the 1980s of project who heads an entity called the <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=nevada&amp;cvid=4c3a30eff47e45b38655e41bf540ea68&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Nevada</a> Nuclear Waste Task Force. "The answer is, `No.'"Debate Resumes Over Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dump
Current Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman recalled her husband, former Mayor Oscar Goodman, threatening a decade ago to lie across a highway to stop trucks hauling radioactive waste through Sin City. She said she hoped not to have to make a similar pledge.
Former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, who was governor when Yucca Mountain site studies began in 1982 and now heads the state agency dedicated to stopping the project, spoke against it.
U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, a Nevada Democrat who studied, wrote and taught about nuclear issues as a college professor before she was elected to public office, called the product of "bad politics, not good policy."
But the once-united public front against the repository has eroded in the years since work stopped after Barack Obama was elected president, Harry Reid of Nevada became U.S. Senate Democratic majority leader, and Congress shut off funding.
That led the NRC to halt licensing proceedings and the Energy Department to withdraw all but maintenance staff from the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Dan Schinhofen, an elected commissioner in Nye County, where the repository would be built, said it was time to consider economic benefits Nevada could reap in return for entombing more than 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel currently piling up at nuclear reactors around the country.
"It's a national security issue. It's in our county. There's support for it. We should talk about it," Schinhofen said.
Reid has called the Yucca Mountain project dead. But a federal appeals court ruled in 2013 that the NRC has to either approve or reject the Energy Department license application. Officials have said a full slate of licensing hearings could take at least three years.
The focus of meetings this week is on an environmental study about the likelihood of radioactivity leaking from the site into groundwater in an ancient aquifer that flows beneath Amargosa Valley farms toward Death Valley National Park.
A report released in August by the NRC acknowledged a small chance of contamination, but said someone drinking two liters of groundwater a day would still not accumulate as much radiation as they do from natural and background sources.
"They say they're just here to talk about groundwater," said Robert Halstead, the Nevada official heading state opposition to the project. "The larger issue is the scope of all of this."
As proposed, tens of thousands of truck and trainloads of waste would be shipped to Nevada to be entombed in casks in tunnels drilled beneath the ancient volcanic ridge.
Nevada state and federal officials have long opposed the nuclear repository, which was first proposed in 1982. The site was approved by Congress in 2002.
However, like Schinhofen, some more recently elected county, state and federal elected representatives, including congressmen Cresent Hardy and Mark Amodei, have indicated a willingness to negotiate for benefits in return for accepting the nation's most dangerous waste.
Opponents contend that technology for entombing nuclear waste is unproven, and the threat of poisoning air, water and soil is too great to allow the repository to be built.
State officials also argue that moving highly radioactive waste from more than 70 sites in 34 states poses a greater risk than leaving the material where it is.
The states of Washington and South Carolina, plus Aiken County, South Carolina, the Prairie Island Indian Community of Minnesota and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners won the restart of the discussion with their lawsuit saying the federal government was breaking its promise to take their spent nuclear fuel.
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Debate Resumes Over Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dump

Debate Resumes Over Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dump. The debate resumed...

Debate Resumes Over Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dump. The debate resumed Tuesday in Nevada about the possibility of <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=radioactive&amp;cvid=54a1e625c46741eb827cd5c1457dd1c8&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">radioactive</a> contamination of the underground water supply from a proposed national nuclear waste repository in the desert near where nuclear weapons tests were conducted for decades.
Familiar faces and arguments in the decades-long long battle over the Yucca Mountain repository turned out for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission meeting in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/sustainable-street-lights-las-vegas/">Las Vegas</a>, ahead of another NRC hearing scheduled Thursday in a farm community in the shadow of the site itself.
"The only question to be answered is, `Can waste emplaced in Yucca Mountain be isolated and not contaminate groundwater?'" said Judy Treichel, an opponent since the 1980s of project who heads an entity called the Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force. "The answer is, `No.'" Debate Resumes Over Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dump
Current Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman recalled her husband, former Mayor Oscar Goodman, threatening a decade ago to lie across a highway to stop trucks hauling radioactive waste through Sin City. She said she hoped not to have to make a similar pledge.
Former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, who was governor when Yucca Mountain site studies began in 1982 and now heads the state agency dedicated to stopping the project, spoke against it.
U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, a Nevada Democrat who studied, wrote and taught about nuclear issues as a college professor before she was elected to public office, called the product of "bad politics, not good policy."
But the once-united public front against the repository has eroded in the years since work stopped after Barack Obama was elected president, Harry Reid of Nevada became U.S. Senate Democratic majority leader, and Congress shut off funding.
That led the NRC to halt licensing proceedings and the Energy Department to withdraw all but maintenance staff from the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Dan Schinhofen, an elected commissioner in Nye County, where the repository would be built, said it was time to consider economic benefits Nevada could reap in return for entombing more than 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel currently piling up at nuclear reactors around the country.
"It's a national security issue. It's in our county. There's support for it. We should talk about it," Schinhofen said.
Reid has called the Yucca Mountain project dead. But a federal appeals court ruled in 2013 that the NRC has to either approve or reject the Energy Department license application. Officials have said a full slate of licensing hearings could take at least three years.
The focus of meetings this week is on an environmental study about the likelihood of radioactivity leaking from the site into groundwater in an ancient aquifer that flows beneath Amargosa Valley farms toward Death Valley National Park.
A report released in August by the NRC acknowledged a small chance of contamination, but said someone drinking two liters of groundwater a day would still not accumulate as much radiation as they do from natural and background sources.
"They say they're just here to talk about groundwater," said Robert Halstead, the Nevada official heading state opposition to the project. "The larger issue is the scope of all of this."
As proposed, tens of thousands of truck and trainloads of waste would be shipped to Nevada to be entombed in casks in tunnels drilled beneath the ancient volcanic ridge.
Nevada state and federal officials have long opposed the nuclear repository, which was first proposed in 1982. The site was approved by Congress in 2002.
However, like Schinhofen, some more recently elected county, state and federal elected representatives, including congressmen Cresent Hardy and Mark Amodei, have indicated a willingness to negotiate for benefits in return for accepting the nation's most dangerous waste.
Opponents contend that technology for entombing nuclear waste is unproven, and the threat of poisoning air, water and soil is too great to allow the repository to be built.
State officials also argue that moving highly radioactive waste from more than 70 sites in 34 states poses a greater risk than leaving the material where it is.
The states of Washington and South Carolina, plus Aiken County, South Carolina, the Prairie Island Indian Community of Minnesota and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners won the restart of the discussion with their lawsuit saying the federal government was breaking its promise to take their spent nuclear fuel.
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Republicans Oppose New Offshore Drilling Safety Rules. Republican lawmakers on Tuesday criticized an Obama administration move to toughen standards for offshore drilling, saying the new rules would be costly for drillers and threaten to shut down oil and <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/giant-animals-vanished-from-madagascar-after-humans-arrived/">gas</a> exploration off the nation's coasts.
The Interior Department is preparing to issue standards to close what it says are gaps in blowout preventer rules. A blowout preventer is a piece of equipment designed to shut an out-of-control well. Such a device failed catastrophically when a BP well blew out in 2010, causing a massive oil spill.
But the Republicans blasted the new rules at a field hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources in New Orleans. No <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=Democratic&amp;cvid=c1fd763dbb454f089dfb4dbfa45dd636&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Democratic</a> members showed up.Republicans Oppose New Offshore Drilling Safety Rules
The Republicans complained the rules are too government-driven and costly to industry. The Republicans also questioned whether the new rules would make drilling safer. They also argued that drillers have proven they're safe under current regulations.
Besides aiming to strengthen blowout preventers, the rules require more record keeping by drillers, force companies to do real-time monitoring of drilling operations and take steps to dig safer wells. The rules are expected to be phased in over years.
The new drilling rules - which critics say have been slow to be handed down - grew out of calls for increased safety in offshore drilling following the massive BP spill in 2010. The blowout destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killed 11 workers and sent millions of gallons of crude oil spilling into the Gulf.
The committee's chairman, U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said the proposed rules add "complexity without putting proven methods in place that reduce risk."
Unless the rules are changed to meet industry demands, he said they could effectively close down oil and gas exploration and production in the Gulf.
Bishop cited an analysis commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, that found implementing the rules would cost the industry $32 billion over 10 years. By contrast, the Obama administration has calculated the rules will cost the industry about $1 billion to implement.
In a statement, Raul Grijalva, the ranking Democrat on the committee, called the hearing "part of a public relations campaign that isn't dealing with the substance of the issue."
"The Republicans seem to have forgotten about the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the other oil spills we continue to see offshore," Grijalva of Arizona said. "The industry can't regulate itself any longer. That time is past."
Lars Herbst, regional director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, testified that the new rules are needed to prevent future spills. He pointed out an increasing number of incidents where operators have lost control of wells in the Gulf in the past two years, and said the rate of such incidents now is similar to what was seen before BP's catastrophic spill in 2010.
Herbst also cited a 2013 Gulf blowout in which a rig with 44 workers on it caught fire. The fire lasted for more than 72 hours. All the workers were evacuated.
"Blowouts like these can easily lead to much larger incidents," Herbst testified.
He said regulators were meeting this week with the industry to discuss the regulations in detail before they become final.
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Republicans Oppose New Offshore Drilling Safety Rules

Republicans Oppose New Offshore Drilling Safety Rules. Republican lawmakers on...

Republicans Oppose New Offshore Drilling Safety Rules. Republicans Oppose New Offshore Drilling Safety Rules. Republican lawmakers on Tuesday criticized an <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/coal-plants-closed-trump/">Obama</a> administration move to toughen standards for offshore <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/summer-meltwater-is-drilling-giant-holes-through-greenlands-ice/">drilling</a>, saying the new rules would be costly for drillers and threaten to shut down oil and gas exploration off the nation's coasts.
The Interior Department is preparing to issue standards to close what it says are gaps in blowout preventer rules. A blowout preventer is a piece of equipment designed to shut an out-of-control well. Such a device failed catastrophically when a BP well blew out in 2010, causing a massive oil spill.
But the Republicans blasted the new rules at a field hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources in <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/eastern-side-new-orleans/">New Orleans</a>. No Democratic members showed up. Republicans Oppose New Offshore Drilling Safety Rules
The <a href="http://www.earth.com/video/the-republic-of-maldives-in-the-indian-ocean/">Republicans</a> complained the rules are too government-driven and costly to industry. The Republicans also questioned whether the new rules would make drilling safer. They also argued that drillers have proven they're safe under current regulations.
Besides aiming to strengthen blowout preventers, the rules require more record keeping by drillers, force companies to do real-time monitoring of drilling operations and take steps to dig safer wells. The rules are expected to be phased in over years.
The new drilling rules - which critics say have been slow to be handed down - grew out of calls for increased safety in <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=offshore&amp;cvid=850784420f5c446bb8beb1af02777d3e&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">offshore</a> drilling following the massive BP spill in 2010. The blowout destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killed 11 workers and sent millions of gallons of crude <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/fruit-eating-mammals-fertilize-the-soil-in-tropical-forests/">oil</a> spilling into the Gulf.
The committee's chairman, U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said the proposed rules add "complexity without putting proven methods in place that reduce risk."
Unless the rules are changed to meet industry demands, he said they could effectively close down oil and gas exploration and production in the Gulf.
Bishop cited an analysis commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, that found implementing the rules would cost the industry $32 billion over 10 years. By contrast, the Obama administration has calculated the rules will cost the industry about $1 billion to implement.
In a statement, Raul Grijalva, the ranking Democrat on the committee, called the hearing "part of a public relations campaign that isn't dealing with the substance of the issue."
"The Republicans seem to have forgotten about the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the other oil spills we continue to see offshore," Grijalva of Arizona said. "The industry can't regulate itself any longer. That time is past."
Lars Herbst, regional director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, testified that the new rules are needed to prevent future spills. He pointed out an increasing number of incidents where operators have lost control of wells in the Gulf in the past two years, and said the rate of such incidents now is similar to what was seen before BP's catastrophic spill in 2010.
Herbst also cited a 2013 Gulf blowout in which a rig with 44 workers on it caught fire. The fire lasted for more than 72 hours. All the workers were evacuated.
"Blowouts like these can easily lead to much larger incidents," Herbst testified.
He said regulators were meeting this week with the industry to discuss the regulations in detail before they become final.
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Republicans Oppose New Offshore Drilling Safety Rules. Republicans Oppose New...

Feds: No Resources For High-Risk Drilling Inspections. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management lacks sufficient resources to inspect high-risk drilling on federal land as a drilling boom continues in Wyoming, Colorado and other states, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Tuesday.
The <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=obama&amp;cvid=79c86ca91c1c495891b2ee85f78ae86d&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Obama</a> administration has proposed a fee on oil and gas drillers that would allow the land management agency to hire more than 60 inspectors, but the proposal has not gained traction in Congress.
The land bureau faces a "major backlog of inspections" as it tries to keep pace with a drilling boom that has sharply increased U.S. <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/life-in-deep-ocean-sediments-can-survive-boiling-hot-temperatures/">oil</a> and gas production in recent years, Jewell said.
"We do not have the resources necessary to do the job," Jewell said at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. The inspectors are needed to protect the environment and prevent potential health hazards caused by leaking wells, she said. Feds: No Resources For High-Risk Drilling Inspections
The Associated Press reported last year that 40 percent of new wells on federal and Indian land with a higher pollution risk were not inspected from 2009 to 2012.
Asked if the situation had improved since then, Jewell said no, adding: "We are under-resourced."
While the proposed fee has stalled in Congress, Jewell said it remains the agency's best option to whittle its inspections backlog.
"It makes no sense not to match supply and demand," she said, adding that if the drilling boom slows or fizzles, the need to charge a fee would go away.
Jewell also lamented a practice in which energy companies "flare" or burn off vast supplies of natural gas as they drill for oil. A report by the Government Accountability Office said 40 percent of the gas being burned or vented could be captured economically and sold.
The bureau has not completed new guidelines on flaring, but Jewell said a proposed rule could be released for public comment later this year. But even without new federal rules, Jewell urged energy companies to rethink their practice of flaring natural gas in the pursuit of higher-priced oil.
"It's crazy to vent natural gas into the atmosphere when natural gas is a fuel that can produce electricity at a much lower carbon footprint than other (energy) sources like coal," Jewell said.
On a related topic, Jewell said she is confident that new rules for oil and gas drilling on federal lands nationwide will be upheld, despite a court challenge by four states and two industry groups. The Bureau of Land Management has delayed implementing the rules until a federal judge in Wyoming decides on the case.
Jewell said the rules "are based on common sense and science," although she acknowledged some changes may be required.
The rules, announced in March, would require oil and gas developers to report the chemicals they pump underground during hydraulic fracturing. The drilling procedure, also known as fracking, involves pumping huge volumes of water mixed with fine sand and chemicals underground to crack open deposits and boost flows of oil and gas.
The federal rules also would require pressure testing of newly installed wells.
The petroleum industry argues the rules would be costly to oil and gas developers. Officials in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and North Dakota claim the rules would damage their economies by causing energy companies to move off federal lands to regions where oil and gas reserves can be exploited from private land, where the federal government has less oversight. Two industry groups, the Western Energy Alliance and Independent Petroleum Association of America, joined the lawsuit.
Six environmental groups have sided with the Obama administration, saying the government needs strong rules for oil and gas drilling to protect water, wildlife and other resources on federal land.
Jewell also said she is optimistic the administration can avoid a proposal to list the greater sage grouse as endangered, even while working to protect the bird's habitat and stave off further declines in grouse populations.
Jewell said she has "stayed completely at arm's length" as the Fish and Wildlife Service decides what to do. The agency is part of the Interior Department.
The bird's fate has become a potential political liability for Democrats heading into the 2016 election. Federal protections could prompt limits on energy drilling, grazing and other activities across the grouse's range in 11 Western states.
Republicans have seized on the issue as evidence of wildlife protection laws run amok and say it underscores an urgent need to scale back the federal Endangered Species Act.
But Jewell said the act is working as intended, citing efforts by a variety of Western states and interest groups to collaborate on measures to protect the sage grouse while allowing energy development and grazing.
---
Follow Matthew Daly: <a href="http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC</a>
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Feds: No Resources For High-Risk Drilling Inspections

Feds: No Resources For High-Risk Drilling Inspections. The U.S. Bureau...

Republicans Oppose New Offshore Drilling Safety Rules. Republican lawmakers on Tuesday criticized an Obama administration move to toughen standards for offshore drilling, saying the new rules would be costly for drillers and threaten to shut down oil and gas exploration off the nation's coasts.
The Interior Department is preparing to issue standards to close what it says are gaps in blowout preventer rules. A blowout preventer is a piece of equipment designed to shut an out-of-control well. Such a device failed catastrophically when a BP well blew out in 2010, causing a massive oil spill.
But the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/young-republicans-climate-change-2/">Republicans</a> blasted the new rules at a field hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources in New Orleans. No Democratic members showed up. Republican lawmakers on Tuesday criticized an Obama administration move to toughen standards for offshore drilling
The Republicans complained the rules are too government-driven and costly to industry. The Republicans also questioned whether the new rules would make drilling safer. They also argued that drillers have proven they're safe under current regulations.
Besides aiming to strengthen blowout preventers, the rules require more record keeping by drillers, force companies to do real-time monitoring of drilling operations and take steps to dig safer wells. The rules are expected to be phased in over years. Republicans Oppose New Offshore Drilling Safety Rules
The new drilling rules - which critics say have been slow to be handed down - grew out of calls for increased safety in offshore drilling following the massive BP spill in 2010. The blowout destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killed 11 workers and sent millions of gallons of crude <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=oil&amp;cvid=de8cada1851640f184f7777fd4051706&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">oil</a> spilling into the Gulf.
The committee's chairman, U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said the proposed rules add "complexity without putting proven methods in place that reduce risk."
Unless the rules are changed to meet industry demands, he said they could effectively close down oil and gas exploration and production in the Gulf.
Bishop cited an analysis commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, that found implementing the rules would cost the industry $32 billion over 10 years. By contrast, the Obama administration has calculated the rules will cost the industry about $1 billion to implement.
In a statement, Raul Grijalva, the ranking Democrat on the committee, called the hearing "part of a public relations campaign that isn't dealing with the substance of the issue."
"The Republicans seem to have forgotten about the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the other oil spills we continue to see offshore," Grijalva of Arizona said. "The industry can't regulate itself any longer. That time is past."
Lars Herbst, regional director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, testified that the new rules are needed to prevent future spills. He pointed out an increasing number of incidents where operators have lost control of wells in the Gulf in the past two years, and said the rate of such incidents now is similar to what was seen before BP's catastrophic spill in 2010.
Herbst also cited a 2013 Gulf blowout in which a rig with 44 workers on it caught fire. The fire lasted for more than 72 hours. All the workers were evacuated.
"Blowouts like these can easily lead to much larger incidents," Herbst testified.
He said regulators were meeting this week with the industry to discuss the regulations in detail before they become final.
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Feds: No Resources For High-Risk Drilling Inspections. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management lacks sufficient resources to inspect high-risk drilling on federal land as a drilling boom continues in Wyoming, Colorado and other states, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Tuesday.
The <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=obama&amp;cvid=85cfcae80c8b458a8bacefff2adba087&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Obama</a> administration has proposed a fee on oil and gas drillers that would allow the land management agency to hire more than 60 inspectors, but the proposal has not gained traction in Congress. Feds: No Resources For High-Risk Drilling Inspections.
The land bureau faces a "major backlog of inspections" as it tries to keep pace with a drilling boom that has sharply increased U.S. oil and<a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=gas&amp;cvid=c23e4745d2b54f179e4ad086fce224e6&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS"> gas</a> production in recent years, Jewell said.
"We do not have the resources necessary to do the job," Jewell said at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. The inspectors are needed to protect the environment and prevent potential health hazards caused by leaking wells, she said.
The Associated Press reported last year that 40 percent of new wells on federal and Indian land with a higher pollution risk were not inspected from 2009 to 2012.
Asked if the situation had improved since then, Jewell said no, adding: "We are under-resourced."
While the proposed fee has stalled in Congress, Jewell said it remains the agency's best option to whittle its inspections backlog.
"It makes no sense not to match supply and demand," she said, adding that if the drilling boom slows or fizzles, the need to charge a fee would go away.
Jewell also lamented a practice in which energy companies "flare" or burn off vast supplies of natural gas as they drill for oil. A report by the Government Accountability Office said 40 percent of the gas being burned or vented could be captured economically and sold.
The bureau has not completed new guidelines on flaring, but Jewell said a proposed rule could be released for public comment later this year. But even without new federal rules, Jewell urged energy companies to rethink their practice of flaring natural gas in the pursuit of higher-priced oil.
"It's crazy to vent natural gas into the atmosphere when natural gas is a fuel that can produce electricity at a much lower carbon footprint than other (energy) sources like coal," Jewell said.
On a related topic, Jewell said she is confident that new rules for oil and gas drilling on federal lands nationwide will be upheld, despite a court challenge by four states and two industry groups. The Bureau of Land Management has delayed implementing the rules until a federal judge in Wyoming decides on the case.
Jewell said the rules "are based on common sense and science," although she acknowledged some changes may be required.
The rules, announced in March, would require oil and gas developers to report the chemicals they pump underground during hydraulic fracturing. The drilling procedure, also known as fracking, involves pumping huge volumes of water mixed with fine sand and chemicals underground to crack open deposits and boost flows of oil and gas.
The federal rules also would require pressure testing of newly installed wells.
The petroleum industry argues the rules would be costly to oil and gas developers. Officials in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and North Dakota claim the rules would damage their economies by causing energy companies to move off federal lands to regions where oil and gas reserves can be exploited from private land, where the federal government has less oversight. Two industry groups, the Western Energy Alliance and Independent Petroleum Association of America, joined the lawsuit.
Six environmental groups have sided with the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/coal-plants-closed-trump/">Obama</a> administration, saying the government needs strong rules for oil and gas drilling to protect water, wildlife and other resources on federal land.
Jewell also said she is optimistic the administration can avoid a proposal to list the greater sage grouse as endangered, even while working to protect the bird's habitat and stave off further declines in grouse populations.
Jewell said she has "stayed completely at arm's length" as the <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=fish&amp;cvid=d29f88ee3bc14f31a46a2e7295277b2b&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Fish</a> and Wildlife Service decides what to do. The agency is part of the Interior Department. Feds: No Resources For High-Risk Drilling Inspections
The bird's fate has become a potential political liability for Democrats heading into the 2016 election. Federal protections could prompt limits on energy drilling, grazing and other activities across the grouse's range in 11 Western states.
Republicans have seized on the issue as evidence of wildlife protection laws run amok and say it underscores an urgent need to scale back the federal Endangered Species Act.
But Jewell said the act is working as intended, citing efforts by a variety of Western states and interest groups to collaborate on measures to protect the sage grouse while allowing energy development and grazing.
---
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Study: Air Pollution Kills Over Three Million Per Year.Air pollution is killing 3.3 million people a year worldwide, according to a new study that includes this surprise: Farming plays a large role in smog and soot deaths in industrial nations.
Scientists in Germany, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/5-years-mitigate-climate-change/">Harvard</a> University calculated the most detailed estimates yet of the toll of air pollution, looking at what caused it. The study also projects that if trends don't change, the yearly death total will double to about 6.6 billion a year by 2050. Study: <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=air+pollution&amp;cvid=888f6269490c4418ae49baa6fe50baba&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Air Pollution</a> Kills Over Three Million Per Year
The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, used health statistics and computer models. About three quarters of the deaths are from strokes and heart attacks, said lead author Jos Lelieveld at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany.
The findings are similar to other less detailed pollution death estimates, outside experts said.
"About 6 percent of all global deaths each occur prematurely due to exposure to ambient air pollution. This number is higher than most experts would have expected, say, 10 years ago," said Jason West, a University of North Carolina environmental sciences professor who wasn't part of the study but praised it.
Air pollution kills more than HIV and malaria combined, Lelieveld said.
With nearly 1.4 million deaths a year, China has the most air pollution fatalities, followed by India with 645,000 and Pakistan with 110,000.
The United States, with 54,905 deaths in 2010 from soot and smog, ranks seventh highest for air pollution deaths. What's unusual is that the study says that agriculture caused 16,221 of those deaths, second only to 16,929 deaths blamed on power plants.
In the U.S. Northeast, all of Europe, Russia, Japan and South Korea, agriculture is the No. 1 cause of the soot and smog deaths, according to the study. Worldwide, agriculture is the No. 2 cause with 664,100 deaths, behind the more than 1 million deaths from in-home heating and cooking done with wood and other biofuels in developing world.
The problem with farms is ammonia from fertilizer and animal waste, Lelieveld said. That ammonia then combines with sulfates from coal-fired power plants and nitrates from car exhaust to form the soot particles that are the big air pollution killers, he said. In London, for example, the pollution from traffic takes time to be converted into soot, and then it is mixed with ammonia and transported downwind to the next city, he said.
"We were very surprised, but in the end it makes sense," Lelieveld said. He said the scientists had assumed that traffic and power plants would be the biggest cause of deadly soot and smog.
Agricultural emissions are becoming increasingly important but are not regulated, said Allen Robinson, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who wasn't part of the study but praised it.
Ammonia air pollution from farms can be reduced "at relatively low costs," Robinson said. "Maybe this will help bring more attention to the issue."
In the central United States, the main cause of soot and smog premature deaths is power plants; in much of the West, it's traffic emissions.
Jason West and other outside scientists did dispute the study's projections that deaths would double by 2050. That's based on no change in air pollution. West and others said it's likely that some places, such as China, will dramatically cut their air pollution by 2050.
And Lelieveld said that if the world reduces a different air pollutant - carbon dioxide, the main gas causing global warming - soot and smog levels will be reduced as well, in a "win-win situation in both directions."
---
Online:
Nature: <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://www.nature.com/nature</a>
---
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Study: Air Pollution Kills Over Three Million Per Year

Study: Air Pollution Kills Over Three Million Per Year.Air pollution...

Apple Touts Environmental Upgrades In Latest iPhones. Apple Touts Environmental Upgrades In Latest iPhones. Apple has given its latest iPhones an environmental upgrade to go along with a better camera and a few new features.
The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have reduced their carbon emissions by 14 to 16 percent from last year's models, according to Apple measurements that quantify how much pollution is caused during the production, distribution, consumer usage and recycling of the devices.
Most of the improvements reflected changes made in the purchasing and manufacturing of the aluminum used in the iPhone enclosures. Lisa Jackson, Apple's top environmental executive, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=carbon&amp;cvid=e7d2386906e640aa8c7c43737d25e9fe&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">carbon</a> emissions tied to the production of those iPhone enclosures have been cut in half from last year.
Although those gains won't be highlighted in any of Apple's ads leading up to the Sept. 25 release of the last iPhones, the company is hoping its faithful customers will appreciate the progress.
"We feel it's really important to tell folks what we did," Jackson said. "We shouldn't keep these kinds of ideas in a box because we believe other folks should be doing exactly the same thing."
Other major technology companies also have been trying to reduce the pollution caused by their digital services and products, usually by investing heavily in hydroelectricity and renewable energy such as solar and wind power, to run the millions of computers that store and process data for their users.
By some estimates, technology products and services account for as much of the world's carbon emissions as the airline industry. Apple Touts Environmental Upgrades In Latest iPhones
Besides Apple Inc., both Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. have also been praised by environmental groups for reducing their reliance on power plants that burn coal and natural gas.
Apple boasts that all its data centers, offices and stores in the U.S. are now powered by renewable energy. On a worldwide basis, about 13 percent of Apple's operations still draw on power generated from fossil figures. The Cupertino, California, company has pledged to eliminate all fossil fuels from its energy mix.
Apple is also pressuring the hundreds of suppliers of that make and assemble parts for its gadgets to become more environmentally friendly. As part of that resolve, Apple put a higher priority on equipping its latest iPhones with aluminum produced with hydroelectric power.
"It's a first step, but it's the kind of work you have to do to turn the corner," Jackson said. "At the end of the day, if environment is one of our values, then also want it to show up in our products."
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Apple Touts Environmental Upgrades In Latest iPhones

Apple Touts Environmental Upgrades In Latest iPhones. Apple Touts Environmental...

Yellow mine waste water is seen at the entrance to the Gold King Mine in San Juan County, Colorado

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency dismissed complaints Wednesday by Republican lawmakers that her agency downplayed the seriousness of a toxic Colorado mine spill that fouled rivers in three Western states.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy called the spill caused by her agency "tragic and unfortunate" and said the EPA has taken responsibility to ensure that 3 million gallons of rust-colored sludge released into Colorado's Animas River is cleaned up. The Aug. 5 spill occurred during excavation work at an inactive gold mine near Silverton, Colorado.
Republican senators charged at a hearing Wednesday that EPA is treating itself more gingerly than if a private company were responsible for the spill, which sent lead, arsenic and other heavy metals rushing toward downstream communities. The spill contaminated rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, as well as in the Navajo Nation and Southern Ute Reservation.
Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said the EPA employed a "double standard" in responding to the Colorado spill. While the agency at times adopts an aggressive, even "heavy-handed" approach to regulating companies, Boozman told McCarthy, "your initial reaction (to the Colorado spill) was to downplay the severity of it."
The EPA initially said the accident spilled 1 million gallons before revising it to three times that amount. State and tribal officials also have complained that EPA was slow to notify them of the accident.
Boozman said he was appalled at McCarthy's comment, during an Aug. 13 visit to New Mexico, that the Animas River was "restoring itself."
"That was done very, very poorly," he told McCarthy at a hearing conducted by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
"There's no way EPA should have downplayed this. I certainly did not," McCarthy replied.
Russell Begaye, president of the Navajo Nation, said the spill has been devastating to the tribe. Testifying at a separate hearing Wednesday before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Begaye said three tribal members have committed suicide since the spill. The deaths were due at least in part to uncertainty and stress caused by the spill, he said.
"Our Navajo Nation has suffered greatly and we continue to suffer," Begaye said. He urged the EPA to resume offering fresh water to the Navajo for farming and personal use and to create an emergency fund to pay Navajo farmers.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said it was "shameful" that six weeks after the spill, the Navajo "are still reeling from EPA's calamitous failure." McCain told McCarthy he was outraged that no one at EPA had been fired or disciplined as a result of the spill.
"You think no one did anything wrong. It was no one's fault," he told McCarthy.
"I'm not suggesting this wasn't a disaster. It clearly was," she said.
McCarthy disputed comments by Republican Sens. Dan Sullivan of Alaska and John Barrasso of Wyoming that a private company responsible for the spill would face stiff fines from the EPA.
"I think EPA ought to be held to an even higher standard" than a private company, Barrasso said.
McCarthy said a private company would likely not face fines for an accident that occurred during a cleanup similar to the one at the former Gold King Mine. The only exceptions would be if the company's actions went "against a settlement" or an administrative order by the EPA, she said.
The EPA's inspector general and the U.S. Interior Department are reviewing the incident, and EPA officials and contractors will be held accountable for any wrongdoing, McCarthy said.
McCarthy defended the independence of the Interior Department review, which comes at her request. While several GOP lawmakers asked for paperwork outlining the scope of the investigation, McCarthy said she did not have documentation, adding that it was up to Interior to decide what to look at and how the inquiry will unfold.
"We are hands-off on this issue," she said, adding that EPA is "going to live with whatever scope" Interior decides is appropriate.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress have announced a variety of bills to respond to the spill, including a measure sponsored by Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., to establish a Hardrock Reclamation Fund, funded by new royalties on minerals extracted from public lands, as well as so-called Good Samaritan authority to allow third parties to cleanup mine sites they had no role in creating.
The EPA has suspended cleanup work and site investigations at 10 polluted mining complexes in four states because of conditions similar to those that led to the Colorado spill. Four sites are in Colorado, three in California, two in Montana and one in Missouri.
---
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EPA Chief: Agency Did Nothing Wrong With Colorado Mine Spill

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency dismissed complaints Wednesday...

EPA Chief: Agency Did Nothing Wrong With Colorado Mine Spill. The head of the Environmental Protection Agency dismissed complaints Wednesday by Republican lawmakers that her agency downplayed the seriousness of a toxic Colorado mine spill that fouled rivers in three Western states.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy called the spill caused by her agency "tragic and unfortunate" and said the EPA has taken responsibility to ensure that 3 million gallons of rust-colored sludge released into <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=colorado&amp;cvid=27fa94ce0e0f4b949a289a23c654d0d0&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Colorado's</a> Animas River is cleaned up. The Aug. 5 spill occurred during excavation work at an inactive gold mine near Silverton, Colorado. EPA Chief: Agency Did Nothing Wrong With Colorado Mine Spill
Republican senators charged at a hearing Wednesday that <a href="http://www.earth.com/video/gentoo-penguins-are-not-one-species-but-four/">EPA</a> is treating itself more gingerly than if a private company were responsible for the spill, which sent lead, arsenic and other heavy metals rushing toward downstream communities. The spill contaminated rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, as well as in the Navajo Nation and Southern Ute Reservation.
Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said the EPA employed a "double standard" in responding to the Colorado spill. While the agency at times adopts an aggressive, even "heavy-handed" approach to regulating companies, Boozman told McCarthy, "your initial reaction (to the Colorado spill) was to downplay the severity of it."
The EPA initially said the accident spilled 1 million gallons before revising it to three times that amount. State and tribal officials also have complained that EPA was slow to notify them of the accident.
Boozman said he was appalled at McCarthy's comment, during an Aug. 13 visit to New Mexico, that the Animas River was "restoring itself."
"That was done very, very poorly," he told McCarthy at a hearing conducted by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
"There's no way EPA should have downplayed this. I certainly did not," McCarthy replied.
Russell Begaye, president of the Navajo Nation, said the spill has been devastating to the tribe. Testifying at a separate hearing Wednesday before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Begaye said three tribal members have committed suicide since the spill. The deaths were due at least in part to uncertainty and stress caused by the spill, he said.
"Our Navajo Nation has suffered greatly and we continue to suffer," Begaye said. He urged the EPA to resume offering fresh water to the Navajo for farming and personal use and to create an emergency fund to pay Navajo farmers.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said it was "shameful" that six weeks after the spill, the Navajo "are still reeling from EPA's calamitous failure." McCain told McCarthy he was outraged that no one at EPA had been fired or disciplined as a result of the spill.
"You think no one did anything wrong. It was no one's fault," he told McCarthy.
"I'm not suggesting this wasn't a disaster. It clearly was," she said.
McCarthy disputed comments by Republican Sens. Dan Sullivan of Alaska and John Barrasso of Wyoming that a private company responsible for the spill would face stiff fines from the EPA.
"I think EPA ought to be held to an even higher standard" than a private company, Barrasso said.
McCarthy said a private company would likely not face fines for an accident that occurred during a cleanup similar to the one at the former Gold King Mine. The only exceptions would be if the company's actions went "against a settlement" or an administrative order by the EPA, she said.
The EPA's inspector general and the U.S. Interior Department are reviewing the incident, and EPA officials and contractors will be held accountable for any wrongdoing, McCarthy said.
McCarthy defended the independence of the Interior Department review, which comes at her request. While several GOP lawmakers asked for paperwork outlining the scope of the investigation, McCarthy said she did not have documentation, adding that it was up to Interior to decide what to look at and how the inquiry will unfold.
"We are hands-off on this issue," she said, adding that EPA is "going to live with whatever scope" Interior decides is appropriate.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress have announced a variety of bills to respond to the spill, including a measure sponsored by Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., to establish a Hardrock Reclamation Fund, funded by new royalties on minerals extracted from public lands, as well as so-called Good Samaritan authority to allow third parties to cleanup mine sites they had no role in creating.
The EPA has suspended cleanup work and site investigations at 10 polluted mining complexes in four states because of conditions similar to those that led to the Colorado spill. Four sites are in Colorado, three in California, two in Montana and one in Missouri.
---
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EPA Chief: Agency Did Nothing Wrong With Colorado Mine Spill....

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Designing crops that can beat the heat

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 



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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

[sendtonews key="uV9Lh2fQbV-1760058-12187" type="single"] Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

[sendtonews key="3UUsNkFOuS-2487333-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes how Earth is unique in our solar system for its ability to sustain liquid water on its surface. But now, the water cycle is shifting as the climate warms, and scientists must find ways to predict how these changes will affect water availability.



Overall, 96 percent of Earth's water is saltwater, and nearly all of freshwater is found in ice and groundwater. These sources of water are linked as it passes through solid, liquid and gas phases.



In a warmer climate, the water cycle will be transformed. It will be easier for water to evaporate and form clouds, and storms will become more frequent and intense. Some regions will get too much water, while others will be left without enough water. In addition, soil moisture will be lost - which threatens food security.



Scientists are using satellite data from over the last 40 years to track changes that are happening in the water cycle. This will ultimately help us prepare for extreme events and better manage our water resources, according to ESA.



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

[sendtonews key="fxH3eJHEkQ-2010196-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

Saturn,-,High,Resolution,3d,Images,Presents,Planets,Of,The

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a> features images of Saturn from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The photographs capture the start of the mysterious "spoke season" on Saturn - when unexplained features appear on its rings. 



According to NASA, both the cause of the spokes and their seasonal variability have yet to be fully explained by planetary scientists.



"Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis and therefore has four seasons, though because of Saturn's much larger orbit, each season lasts approximately seven Earth years. Equinox occurs when the rings are tilted edge-on to the Sun," explains NASA.



"The spokes disappear when it is near summer or winter solstice on Saturn. (When the Sun appears to reach either its highest or lowest latitude in the northern or southern hemisphere of a planet.) As the autumnal equinox of Saturn's northern hemisphere on May 6, 2025, draws near, the spokes are expected to become increasingly prominent and observable."



Experts believe that the spokes may be a product of the planet's variable magnetic field. When magnetic fields interact with solar wind, an electrically charged environment is created. This phenomenon is visible on Earth as the northern lights.&nbsp;



"Scientists think that the smallest, dust-sized icy ring particles can become charged as well, which temporarily levitates those particles above the rest of the larger icy particles and boulders in the rings," says NASA.



The spokes were first observed in the early 1980s by NASA's Voyager mission. Depending on the angle of the rings, the spokes can appear dark or light.



"Thanks to Hubble's OPAL program, which is building an archive of data on the outer solar system planets, we will have longer dedicated time to study Saturn’s spokes this season than ever before," said NASA senior planetary scientist Amy Simon, head of the Hubble Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program.



"Despite years of excellent observations by the Cassini mission, the precise beginning and duration of the spoke season is still unpredictable, rather like predicting the first storm during hurricane season."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Mysterious "spoke season" captured on Saturn

[sendtonews key="Ccjk8KEMzv-2550719-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

Closeup,Of,Fresh,Green,The,Napier,Bush,Grass,As,Animal

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="http://www.ntu.edu.sg/">NTU Singapore</a> reveals that some plants can remove toxic heavy metals from soil.&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed samples of various tropical plant species to test for levels of heavy metals and metalloids. The study showed that there are existing plants with high levels of these contaminants, which means that these species are great candidates for drawing pollutants out of the soil.&nbsp;



Among the plants examined in the study, 12 species had accumulated several types of heavy metals and metalloids. These plants are widely available, including species that are native to Singapore.



“In a small nation like Singapore, land may be repurposed to support new development plans, so it is important that we have a green and sustainable way to remediate land that is contaminated," said Professor Lam Yeng Ming.



"We set out to uncover how to better make use of tropical plants to do phytoremediation and through advanced characterization techniques, we showed how some of these tropical plant species can be an environmentally friendly and literally a 'green' way to remove contaminants in soil."&nbsp;



"Phytoremediation also has benefits of cost effectiveness, simplicity of management, aesthetic advantages, and long-term applicability and sustainability. The strategy prevents erosion and metal leaching by stabilizing or accumulating heavy metals, so that helps reduce the risk of contaminant spread.”



Video Credit: NTU Singapore



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

[sendtonews key="6SdlLLbt0t-1988946-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NTU...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes why herbicides are not as effective in killing weeds anymore. In the 20th century, chemical companies developed thousands of herbicides. The most commonly used herbicide was glyphosate, which was introduced in 1974.



Over the past few decades, dozens of species of weeds have evolved resistance to glyphosate. Depending on the site of action, the part of the plant that an herbicide interacts with, weeds may even be resistant to herbicides that have not been developed yet.&nbsp;



With increasing resistance to glyphosate and other herbicides, weeds are - once again - becoming a major concern for farmers.&nbsp;



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides

[sendtonews key="gRpsplpwpe-2251464-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/">NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> (JPL) describes a dust storm on Mars that was nearly twice the size of the United States. As the storm covered the southern hemisphere of the planet, some of NASA’s explorers had to delay their normal activities.



NASA’s Insight lander put itself in a "safe mode" for 11 days to conserve battery power because solar power was disrupted by the dust. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter postponed flights until conditions improved.



"A fleet of NASA orbiters monitor Martian dust storms like this one and serve as lifelines to Earth by relaying data from the rovers and lander on the ground back to the team. This includes the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, and Odyssey," reports JPL.



"Dust storms like this recent one start close to the ground and are spread by wind as they rise – warming the cold Martian atmosphere."



The images in the video were captured by NASA’s Curiosity as the dust rolled in. A fleet of orbiters monitored the dust storm from above, relaying data from Mars’ explorers back to scientists on Earth.



Video &amp; Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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NASA monitors giant dust storms on Mars

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="http://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. This strait provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.



Qeshm is separated from the Iranian coast by the Clarence Strait, also known as Khuran.&nbsp;The Hara Forest Protected Area is a network of shallow waterways and forest located between the island and the mainland. This protected region is home to sea turtles, snakes, and more than 150 species of migrating birds.



Qeshm is famous for its wide range of&nbsp;ecotourist&nbsp;attractions, such as the&nbsp;Hara marine forests. According to environmentalists, about 1.5 percent of the world birds and 25 percent of Iran's native <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/female-hummingbirds-avoid-sexual-harassment-by-looking-like-males/">birds</a> annually migrate to the forests, which are the first national geo park in Iran.



Tourists are also drawn to the island to see an age-old Portuguese&nbsp;fort, historic mosques, the&nbsp;Seyyed Mozaffar&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bibi Maryam&nbsp;shrines, and the "Valley of Stars."



The average temperature on the island is 81 degress and the region is often hot and humid. From June to August, the island is described as being oppressively hot. The ideal time to visit is during the winter season. 



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique.&nbsp;



"Inhambane Bay is a deep inlet into which the small Mutamba River flows," says ESA. "On one side of the bay lies the historical city of Inhambane, capital of the Inhambane Province, while the sister city of Maxixe, the economic capital of Inhambane, sits across from it. The province is the second largest grower of cashews, after Nampula, and it also produces coconut and citrus fruits."



The beaches of Barra and Tofo are popular with tourists. There are also coral reefs along the long coastline of Inhambane, making it an ideal destination for scuba diving and snorkeling.



"Mozambique’s extensive coastline heightens the country’s vulnerability to tropical cyclones that develop in the Indian Ocean as well as storm surge flooding," says ESA.



"More than half of the population lives in low lying coastal areas, putting communities at risk. Inhambane Bay was dangerously close to where Cyclone Idai made landfall in 2019 causing widespread destruction to the country."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency </a>&nbsp;features the Kangerlussuaq Glacier, one of the largest tidewater outlet glaciers in Greenland. The glacier is located on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet.



As human-induced climate change continues to drive up temperatures, global ice loss is accelerating at an alarming rate. ESA reports that, over the past decade alone, 3.5 trillion tons of ice have melted from the Greenland ice sheet. This is enough to cover the UK with meltwater 15 meters deep.



Based on satellite imagery, researchers determined that Kangerlussuaq entered a new phase of rapid retreat and acceleration in 2017. In their study, published in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2019.00123/full">Frontiers in Earth Science</a>,&nbsp; the experts report that the glacier's ice front is now at its most retreated position since the early 20th century.



"Given Kangerlussuaq’s previous impacts on both the magnitude and pattern of ice sheet wide mass loss, we predict that its new phase of retreat, acceleration and thinning will markedly enhance the south-east region’s contribution to increasing discharge from the ice sheet," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;&nbsp;



"More broadly, accurate forecasting of the ice sheet’s contribution to sea level rise will require a deeper understanding of, and responses to, these non-linear ice dynamic processes."



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Kangerlussuaq Glacier on the Greenland ice sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the complex relationship between ocean and climate. ESA's Climate Change Initiative will help us understand how oceans influence the climate and how climate change is impacting the oceans.&nbsp;



"Earth’s oceans are huge heat stores, soaking up 93% of the excess heat from human activity over the past 70 years. Ocean currents redistribute heat around the planet, from the Equator to the poles. Where this ocean heat goes influences weather patterns and regional climate," explains ESA.



"As well as absorbing heat, oceans are a natural carbon sink, absorbing a quarter of carbon dioxide emissions from human activity. This has led to the acidification of ocean water, threating marine life."



The amount of heat and carbon dioxide soaked up by the ocean depends on specific variables, including phytoplankton, temperatures, waves, salinity, and ice cover. Satellites can be used to measure these variables from space.



"From their unique vantage point, satellites provide key information for understanding the complexities of our planet and monitoring environmental issues," says ESA.



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Ocean heat influences regional climate

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the importance of monitoring the shape of the sea surface, which is constantly changing. These observations have many applications, such as ship routing, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-modem-ocean-is-a-tough-place-for-whales-to-survive/">ocean</a> current forecasting, and debris tracking.



"A project supported by the Discovery element of ESA’s Basic Activities recently investigated a new technique to measure sea surface topography very precisely," reports ESA.



"The technique involves looking at satellite navigation (GNSS) signals that have been reflected off of the sea surface at very low angles. At these so-called grazing angles, waves and surface roughness have very little impact on the reflection process; the sea surface acts as a very smooth mirror."



Estel Cardellach is the principal investigator at the Institute for Space Studies of Catalonia, who first submitted the idea for the project.



“In a mirror-like reflection the phase of the signal can be tracked – it is continuous," said Cardellach. "Different surface heights result in different phase measurements. It gives a very precise measurement of the surface altitude at a few centimetres’ precision.”



The researchers developed a GNSS receiver and set up an experiment in the Balaeric Islands to collect signals from the receiver that were reflected off the sea surface. Ultimately, these signals will provide improved measurements of the shape of the sea surface.



Image/ Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Monitoring the dynamic shape of the sea surface

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Aerial,Photo,Of,River,In,Amazon,Rainforest,Jungle,In,Peru

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center</a> describes how scientists are using autonomous sound sensors to monitor deforestation in the Amazon. By recording soundscapes, the experts can determine which animals are present through their distinct sounds.&nbsp;



Using this method, sounds can be used as scientific measurements to analyze the effects of deforestation. The researchers will gain a better understanding of how the acoustics of a forest can be used to measure its health.&nbsp;



"From space, parts of the Amazon rainforest that have previously been logged or burned may look lush and green, like a place buzzing with activity and full of sounds. But inside the rainforest, the animal life may tell a different story, of a harsh environment and a quieter soundscape," says NASA.



Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Monitoring deforestation in the Amazon through sounds

[sendtonews key="u0TYxxqfF7-2186404-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA’s...