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Farmers say 'no' to cover crops; invasive cacti get an eco-friendly makeover; forest preservation & the US electrical grid; inside Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan - "the most nuked place on Earth"

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00:00Calling it quits, a Danish energy developer scraps plans to build two offshore wind farms
00:08off the coast of New Jersey. Why the company decided to ditch the project, we'll explain.
00:13Plus, some Midwest farmers are saying no to planting cover crops. We'll take a look at some
00:18of their concerns. And in Kenya, we'll explore how an invasive species of cacti
00:23is being transformed into a new eco-friendly enterprise.
00:30Hello and welcome to EarthX News, where we focus on sustainability and the environment.
00:39I'm Christina Thompson. Let's get into some of the biggest headlines facing our planet.
00:43First, to an update on a story we told you about weeks ago. New Jersey's plan to build
00:48two offshore wind farms is coming to an end. Orsted, the company behind them, announced.
00:53Now, it's a pretty big blow to the state's push to transition to renewable energy.
00:57The project had been on shaky ground for a while as it battled protesters, high inflation,
01:03and soaring interest rates, which were enough to make the planned Ocean Wind 1 and 2 projects
01:09no longer profitable. Wind farm developers are balking at the losses they face due to high
01:14inflation and rising costs. Orsted estimates it will need to write off as much as $5.6 billion
01:22as it abandons the project. Next, some troubling news for parents. The federal appeals court on
01:28Thursday is tossing out the Environmental Protection Agency's ban on a pesticide that has been linked
01:34to brain damage in children. The courts say the EPA needs to consider whether there are cases where
01:39the pesticide can be used safely. The chemical is called chlorpyrifus. It's part of a family of nerve
01:45agents developed during World War II, and it's used on plants like soybeans, broccoli, cauliflower,
01:51and fruit trees. The EPA banned it back in 2021 after multiple studies highlighted the risks not only to
01:58children, but anyone who comes in too much contact with the agent, including farm workers. Canada also
02:05initiated a three-year phase-out back in early 2021. The chemical will be fully banned by our neighbors to
02:11the north this December. Meanwhile, one environmental group is raising the alarm about pesticide drift in
02:17Iowa. Pesticide spray drift is the movement of pesticide dust or droplets through the air to any site
02:24other than the area intended. Now, the U.S. does have restrictions on how close you can spray to schools
02:29or parks where kids play, but a new report says that 22 Iowa schools are too close to farm fields and at risk
02:37of coming into contact with dangerous chemicals. The EPA says they rigorously test pesticides to ensure
02:43they're safe for people and the environment. And farmers, they're told over and over again that cover
02:50crops will help them build healthy soil, help the environment, and help fight climate change.
02:55Cover crops are grown on farmland that would otherwise be bare, helping to stabilize the soil
03:01and lessen pesticide runoff. Now, the practice is also key to government efforts to sequester carbon
03:06in farmland to help reduce climate change since planting the right off-season crops can pull
03:11carbon from the air and keep it underground in plant roots. But after years of incentives and
03:17encouragement from the government, farmers in the Midwest only planted cover crops on about 7% of
03:22their land in 2021. Their fear is the additional costs and negative impact on their cash crops. And
03:28studies indicate that those fears may be warranted. Anything in farming is based around cost. Everything
03:36you do, every move you make, every time you get into a piece of equipment, the cost is considered because
03:43none of this stuff operates for free. Researchers use satellite data to examine over 90,000 fields in six
03:51corn belt states. And they found cover crops can reduce yields of cash crops bushels per acre. Now,
03:57the smaller the yield, the less money farmers make. The U.S. Department of Agriculture paid out nearly
04:03$44 million in 2023 for cover crop programs, with additional funding coming in through the Inflation
04:09Reduction Act and other federal crop insurance coverage. USDA officials acknowledge that planting
04:15effective cover crops can take time and will require some experimentation, but believe farmers who
04:20continue their efforts should see significant benefits. The National Resource Defense Council is now
04:26encouraging Congress to give farmers more lucrative financial incentives to plant cover crops.
04:31Lack of fresh water can also create supply chain issues and disruptions in global trade.
04:36Just take a look at Panama. A drought has left the Panama Canal without enough water,
04:40which is used to raise and lower ships, forcing officials to cut back on the number of vessels they
04:46allow through on a daily basis. Now, some shipping experts say vessels may soon have to avoid the canal
04:51altogether if the problem gets worse. Less passages could take away tens of millions of dollars in
04:58annual revenue from the Panama government, push up the cost of shipping, and create the environmental
05:03impact when ships travel longer routes. Now to a story out of Kenya, where an environmentally
05:09hazardous plant is being put to some good use. A group of women in the country are taking the prickly pear
05:15cacti and transforming the cactus pulp into an eco-friendly biofuel. The solution helps eradicate the cactus while
05:22promoting environmental conservation. Harvesting the invasive species has even provided jobs for the women who
05:28dig up the plant. Local farmers say the plant, which is covered in spikes, is harmful to the livestock, which
05:34try to graze on it. They also say the plants reduce grazing areas, hamper wildlife navigation, and jeopardize
05:41community lands. And some new research finds a set of forest conservation projects are falling short
05:47of expectations. Researchers say roughly 94 percent of the carbon credits from over two dozen project
05:53sites surveyed on three continents did not represent real reductions in carbon emissions. That's according
06:00to a recent study published in the journal Science. VERA, which is the world's largest carbon credit certifier,
06:06blasted the scientists' findings, calling the process they used to arrive at that conclusion
06:11flawed. However, Vera added it was in the process of overhauling its own standards.
06:16To help me better explain just how important forests and forestry is to our planet and all who inhabit it,
06:22I want to welcome in Congressman Bruce Westerman, Chairman of the House Committee of Natural Resources and
06:28the only professionally trained forester in the House of Representatives. Chairman, thank you so much for coming in.
06:33Christina. Christina, so good to be with you and great to be able to talk about one of my favorite
06:39subjects of trees and forest and the benefits that they have to to all of us. Well, you you're the only
06:46licensed forester in Congress. That's incredibly cool. How does your background help to make
06:51our government a more well-rounded and more balanced when it comes to conservation?
06:56I've actually got a kind of a strange background to be serving in Congress, my undergraduate degrees in
07:02engineering. And I'm also the only licensed professional engineer in Congress and I went to graduate school
07:09for forestry, so I'm the only licensed forester in Congress. I joke with people and say that engineers
07:15think with logic and reason and foresters look at long-term horizons and sometimes none of that's
07:21appreciated in Congress, although I think we need a lot more of it here. What's something that you wish more
07:27people understood about forestry and just how relevant it is in society? Yeah, and trees are so
07:34important to us. When we think of the environmental benefits of trees, you know, Teddy Roosevelt called
07:41forests the lungs of the earth through photosynthesis. They breathe in carbon dioxide. They combine that with
07:47hydrogen and water molecules and they store hydrocarbons in the trunk of the tree. They breathe out oxygen that
07:55allows us to have fresh, clean oxygen to breathe. And once that hydrocarbon stored in the wood, it stays in
08:03there until that wood is either burned or decays. And if you look at the energy that we use every day, even the
08:10fossil fuels, according to what we understand about science, all carbon in the fossil fuels went through the
08:17photosynthesis process through some kind of plant that either that plant was stored underground or it was
08:25eaten by an animal that was deposited underground. So even our fossil fuels come through this photosynthesis
08:32process where we get energy from the sun. So forests play a critical role in air quality and water quality. And also for
08:42wildlife habitat. I like to say that forests are a win-win-win situation when we have healthy, vibrant
08:50forests. It's good for all of us on many different levels. I'm sure your background also offers such an
08:57immense wealth of knowledge, especially when it comes to our government. And I'm sure you're very busy. I want
09:02to know what are some bills that you're working on now that will benefit forests, forestry and conservation?
09:07We've got a bill that's called the Save Our Sequoias Act. These giant sequoia trees are
09:15they only grow on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevadas out in California. We've lost 20% of them
09:21to wildfires in just a two year span. And some of these trees are over 3000 years old. We know from a
09:28lot of scientific research that the problem was mismanagement of the forest. And it's when we
09:33started putting out the fires that would take out the low growing understory on a regular interval,
09:40we started suppressing those fires. And these white fir trees and other species grew up into the canopy
09:46of the giant sequoias. And when the fire came through, that's what we call ladder fuel. They got
09:51up and burned the crowns of these sequoias and wiped out whole groves. So we've got a bipartisan bill
09:56to go in and do the management on these sequoia groves to protect them for the future. We've also got
10:02a wildlife habitat bill that I'm working on. You know, you hear people talk about recovering wildlife
10:09or saving our wildlife or our endangered species. But really what you have to focus on is the habitat.
10:14If you fix the habitat, then you give the species the best opportunities to survive. A lot of things
10:21that we can work on when we talk about water, like in the Colorado River Basin, we have to look at
10:29forest management along that watershed to protect the water going in and to produce more water.
10:35So I think forestry affects people's lives a lot more than they realize that it does. And it's also
10:41a great solution for the future on how we manage carbon. Forests are that intermediary in the carbon
10:50cycle. And we know that when we build with wood, we're storing carbon like in a battery in a wooden
10:55building. But there's also some innovative products like biochar that can make soil
11:01more productive or have more productivity through better water retention and nutrient retention and
11:07available for plant uptake. And at the same time, biochar will last in the soil for well over a thousand
11:14years. So there's a lot of new solutions that we can have to the problems that we face today if we go
11:20back to an old friend of our forest that have benefited us for so long. An old friend of our
11:25forest. I love that. Congressman Bruce Westerman, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
11:29We appreciate it. Great to be with you. I'll come on and talk about trees anytime.
11:34I will hold you to that. We'll have you back. Coming up, the growth of clean energy is expected
11:39to put some stress on America's electric grids. Just ahead, we'll take a look at what the US
11:44Energy Department is doing to hopefully relieve that pressure. We'll be right back.
12:04Total energy consumption is on the rise. The Department of Energy is now allocating $1.3
12:10billion to three different projects to try to upgrade our outdated electrical grid,
12:16but it's not nearly enough. Current predictions vary greatly,
12:19estimating somewhere between $1 and $7 trillion is needed in upgrades to bring the grid up to date
12:25with our current load. Not to mention what is needed as energy consumption and demand
12:30inevitably increase as even more renewables come online. Renewables are currently at their highest
12:36demand and expect to see that demand doubled over the next 30 years. Here to help me dig into this
12:42topic even deeper is the former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
12:46Neil Chatterjee. Neil, thank you for coming in for talking with us today. I wanted to ask with the
12:51passing of the Inflation Reduction Act, we're seeing energy production become a popular topic of
12:57discussion, particularly renewable energy. But what gets less attention is our grid. Why should people be
13:03concerned with the state of our grid's infrastructure? Well, the reality is there's a widely cited Princeton
13:11study that showed that almost 80 percent of the projected emissions reductions that are expected to
13:19emanate from the Inflation Reduction Act would not be realized if we don't triple the pace at which we
13:25build transmission in this country. The reality is we need a lot more transmission to get clean energy onto the
13:33grid. And that's been a real challenge. I mean, if you look at those estimates, right, to get the grid
13:39modernized, they're saying it could be as high as seven trillion dollars, as low as one trillion dollars.
13:44Why is there such a large variance? And what's the difference about how renewable energy ties into our current
13:49grid infrastructure? It's just hard to build things in this country. There'll be different challenges in different
13:56regions of the country. Sighting infrastructure is a challenge because it's not political. It's not
14:03ideological. Mimbyism, not in my backyard-ism. It's across the board. Americans don't want energy
14:11infrastructure cutting across their property, whether it's a pipeline to deliver natural gas or a
14:16transmission line to deliver clean energy. The challenge with renewables is a lot of the renewable
14:23capacity, whether it's offshore wind or large solar or onshore wind. You know, our regions of the
14:29country where there's not that much demand, we need to build transmission lines to deliver that clean
14:35energy to where the demand for that power is. And that's going to take a lot of work and a lot of
14:40investment. I mean, speaking of demand, it's continuing to grow. But if you look at our grid, as it is right
14:46now, 70 percent of it is 25 years old or older, a quarter of a century, how can we ensure availability
14:54and reliability for the future? So look, our grid is old, but I still think it is, like, truly, if you
15:03look at the grid in the eastern United States in particular, it's probably the greatest invention ever
15:12made by mankind. So I'm proud of our grid. Our grid is stable, but it has challenges. One of the big
15:18challenges now is that in the energy transition and moving towards cleaner sources of energy,
15:23we are retiring the existing sources of generation that we've relied upon for decades. And in some
15:29instances, we are retiring that generation before the replacements are ready to go.
15:36And that is leading to some reliability challenges on the grid. And it's something that we need to be
15:42very cognizant. I think so, too. Despite pumping so much money into the grid, the U.S. transmission
15:48growth is actually down 0.5 percent over the last five years. Now, in order for the U.S. to reach its
15:54decarbonization ambitions, there will need to be a 5.7 percent increase annually by 2048. And the
16:01national transmission infrastructure would need to expand 60 percent by 2030. Is this possible?
16:08Sure. But it's going to take some reforms to the process. My former agency clerk is working on this.
16:15I would like to see permanent reform out of Congress to make it easier to build things in this country.
16:22It's just too hard. And the reality is Americans need this infrastructure. And we just got to find a way to
16:29to modernize the process or else we will struggle to get this infrastructure silenced.
16:35In your opinion, what's the best way to bring together both viewpoints on this, the left viewpoint
16:41and the right viewpoint? Look, I think there is an easy compromise to be had here. Yes,
16:47in the short term, modernizing our permitting process would better enable to build out of natural
16:53gas pipelines and natural gas infrastructure in the short term. But in the long term, it will better
16:58and able to build out of the transmission lines that are needed to get clean energy onto the grid.
17:03I think that's a solution that works for all Americans. We are going to need natural gas
17:09for the foreseeable future, for energy security, for reliability, for affordability. I think
17:14natural gas complements renewables well. I think there is an easy deal to be had here. We just need to
17:23cut out the hard left that wants no fossil fuels and cut out the hard right that doesn't want to
17:27acknowledge climate change. I think those of us who are, you know, thinking about this rationally in
17:33the middle, there's a definite deal to be had. Neil Chatterjee, great points. Thank you for coming on.
17:38Thank you for having me. And coming up, a nuclear testing site in Kazakhstan has been closed for
17:43decades, but efforts studying the aftermath are still underway. Stay tuned because we'll take a
17:49look at what scientists are saying about the current radiation levels in the area and the impact it's
17:54having on the environment and human health. A nuclear testing site in Kazakhstan remains a blunt
18:08reminder of Russia's arsenal as scientists continue to study the aftermath of more than 400 atomic
18:14explosions with people in the area still feeling their effects. Correspondent Alex Salvi explains.
18:21Nuclear weapons are making their way back into mainstream conversations through entertainment
18:26and real life threats. Just this week, Russia successfully testing an intercontinental ballistic missile
18:33capable of carrying nuclear warheads from a submarine. Just days after officially withdrawing
18:37from a nuclear test ban treaty. It's reminiscent of the days of the Cold War, when the world lived
18:46in fear that Armageddon was imminent, delivered by one of the most powerful weapons the world has ever
18:51known. Perhaps no one is more aware of the might of nuclear bombs than residents of the former Soviet
18:56territory of Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, known as the most nuked place on earth. The first Soviet mushroom
19:02cloud rose over the area on August 29th of 1949, a time where the United States and the USSR teetered on
19:08the brink of war. Semipalatinsk remains the only site in the world where people lived after and during
19:15nuclear testing. I saw that the explosion was in the form of a mushroom. There was a big explosion. We saw
19:21black smoke rising into the sky and we were told, don't look. The territory is home to 456 nuclear tests over 15
19:30years, 340 underground and 116 in the air, with the total power more than that of the bomb dropped
19:36on Hiroshima, Japan. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. While the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991
19:47brought an end to the nuclear tests, it was only when Kazakhstan gained independence that year that
19:52the effects of the trials came to light. Lake Shagan, the so-called atomic lake, was created by one of the
19:58tests carried out in 1965, with its water and all the products of the blast being used for livestock
20:04grazing up until 2005. The safe zone is nearly 40 miles away from the epicenter of the test site,
20:10but remains the only test site in the world used for agricultural purposes by locals.
20:16After specialists from the National Nuclear Center conducted research,
20:19it turned out that part of the territory was absolutely not subjected to radioactive contamination.
20:24Although radiation levels are no longer elevated in most areas, children continue to be born with
20:31genetic mutations more than 30 years after the cease in nuclear testing. Official data shows the number of
20:37new cancer cases in Kazakhstan increased by 30 percent in 2021, with Semi-Palatinsk taking first place in that
20:44statistic. There was an increase in cancer diseases in direct proportion to the radiation dose,
20:51as well as congenital malformations, and then children began to appear born from irradiated parents.
20:56There's no definite answer in science as to how long this negative impact will last.
21:02Life goes on for many residents in the region, knowing that there's not much they can do to
21:06change their fates largely decided in the past. This community in Central Asia offers a small glimpse
21:12into the possibility of what could be if nuclear weapons were ever used again. For EarthX, I'm Alex Salvi.
21:19And before we leave you, a touching moment from Australia's favorite wildlife family, the Irwins.
21:26This is one of the highlights of my entire life. This is the very first Alsea Irwini, Irwin's turtle,
21:34ever hatched. My dad would be stoked with that.
21:37That is 19-year-old Robert Irwin, the son of late wildlife expert Steve Irwin. Robert announcing over
21:43Instagram that a rare turtle hatched at the Australia Zoo. His late father found the rare species
21:49of turtle on a hunting trip back in 1990. That's it for this edition of EarthX News.
21:54Please join us again next week. I'm Christina Thompson.
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