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US limits 'forever chemicals' in tap water; March set a new global heat record; brace for cicada apocalypse; NOAA declares a mass coral bleaching event; volunteers work to revitalize the Tees River.
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US limits 'forever chemicals' in tap water; March set a new global heat record; brace for cicada apocalypse; NOAA declares a mass coral bleaching event; volunteers work to revitalize the Tees River.
About EarthxNews:
A weekly program dedicated to covering the stories that shape the planet. Featuring the latest updates in energy, environment, tech, climate, and more.
EarthX & EarthXtra
Love Our Planet.
The Official Network of Earth Day.
About Us:
At EarthX, we believe our planet is a pretty special place. The people, landscapes, and critters are likely unique to the entire universe, so we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We are committed to protecting the environment by inspiring conservation and sustainability, and our programming along with our range of expert hosts support this mission. We’re glad you’re with us.
EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.
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TVTranscript
00:00The U.S. announces new federal limits on forever chemicals in drinking water.
00:07We'll have more on the steps water providers will have to take in order to meet those new standards.
00:13Plus, the Biden administration is taking steps to restore wildlife protections for endangered plants and animals in the U.S.
00:20But some industry groups are pushing back. We'll tell you why.
00:24And the month of March sets a new record for global heat.
00:27We have a look at the numbers and what scientists say could be causing the thermometer to spike.
00:40The U.S. is cracking down on the amount of forever chemicals found in tap water.
00:45The Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized the first drinking water limit on toxic PFAS, which are a broad family of chemical substances.
00:54EPA officials say the strict new policy will require utilities to reduce the harmful compounds to the lowest level that can be reliably measured.
01:04The new limits will reduce exposure for 100 million people, helping to prevent thousands of illnesses.
01:11Speaking about the new rule, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said,
01:15The result is a comprehensive and life-changing rule, one that will improve the health and vitality of so many communities across our country.
01:24Scientists say that PFAS chemicals are harmful because they don't break down in the environment,
01:31and they are linked to serious health issues like certain cancers.
01:35Health advocates are cheering the Environmental Protection Agency over its recent move to finalize the policy.
01:41But water utilities took issue with the rule, saying treatment systems are expensive to install,
01:47and that customers will end up paying more for water.
01:51EPA officials said water providers would have three years to perform tests on the quality of their water.
01:57If those tests exceed the limits, they'll have two more years to install new treatment systems.
02:02Joining us now to discuss is former Chief of Staff at the Environmental Protection Agency, Mandy Gunisakara.
02:10Mandy, thank you so much for coming on.
02:12Yeah, great to be with you.
02:13First off, can you explain for us what a forever chemical is, and where do they come from?
02:20Yeah, well, these are synthetic chemicals.
02:23So they're created as a byproduct of various industrial combustion.
02:28And it's used in everyday appliances and applications, mostly for water-resistant material or for nonstick applications.
02:37So they're in pots and pans.
02:39They're on carpets, on walls.
02:41And so the chemical, when it was discovered, it solved a lot of everyday problems.
02:47So PFAS are in our everyday lives.
02:50They're in our homes.
02:51But how do they end up in our drinking water?
02:53So when they, they, the chemicals themselves don't break down, but the things that they are bonded to do.
03:00So let's say if you've ever had a nonstick pan and you're scraping it and eventually a piece of that bottom area, the bonded area, sorry, it breaks off.
03:10Well, then that gets into the drinking water and those bits and pieces break down.
03:14So PFAS has been around since the 1940s.
03:17So you think about the conglomeration of those everyday uses in households, and then you just rinse it off and you wash it down the drain.
03:27So that's one way.
03:28Also through industrial uses, through the application, it's released through the emissions.
03:32It gets in the air.
03:34And when it's in the air, it eventually falls down, gets into the soil.
03:36And then when it rains, the PFAS that's present in the soil trickles down into drinking water.
03:42And you aptly called it the forever chemical, what made it really great for solving industrial problems, makes it a problem once it gets released into the environment.
03:53It doesn't break down.
03:55So it's resilient from an industrial application, but it becomes a problem when this synthetic chemical doesn't actually break down and degrade once released into the environment.
04:04Can you tell us a little bit about these new limits that the Environmental Production Agency just put on PFAS?
04:10Yeah, so they set a water standard, essentially, that limits the amount of PFAS that can be detected to four parts per trillion.
04:18And so ultimately what that means is if you have levels of PFAS in water systems that are above that, your entity, and it's mostly utilities, there is a multi-year, I think it's four to six years compliance path.
04:33The hardest thing with EPA is getting the balance right.
04:36Nobody wants PFAS in the environment.
04:38We know it's a problem.
04:38We want to get it out, but there is a cost element and going to be a challenge for certain areas to implement the type of technologies that are available to get PFAS out of the water systems.
04:49Rural citizens, they're going to see an uptick in their water bill because of PFAS requirements that do a good thing but come at a high cost.
04:57There were some water utility companies who weren't so happy with this rule being passed.
05:02They said it's going to be incredibly expensive to them to be able to purchase this infrastructure, and it could end up being very expensive for the customer who's trying to get this clean water.
05:13Are there any ways right now that we are able to combat the cost falling back on the customer who lives in small-town America who's going to be footing the bill?
05:21Yeah, and this is where, obviously, Congress has appropriated a lot of additional funds to EPA.
05:27You've seen a massive uptick.
05:29If I were there calling the shots, I would make sure that a lot of these extra funds go towards helping these small, rural—and it's not just rural.
05:38It's metropolitan areas where they just don't have a great financial system put in place.
05:44I would divert a lot of those resources to go to supporting the areas that need support for implementing this latest, greatest technology that comes with a very real cost.
05:54Mandy Gunas-Sakara, great insights. Thank you so much for coming on.
05:59Yeah, thanks for having me.
06:00The Biden administration finalized rules in the Endangered Species Act that restore protections for endangered plants and animals that were relaxed during the Trump administration.
06:09These rules say that decisions regarding species protection must be made without considering economic factors.
06:17The finalized rules are expected to face some criticism from Republicans, industry groups, and certain states.
06:24It has already received mixed responses from many, saying that although they support the conservation goals of the Endangered Species Act,
06:32the law adds unnecessary restrictions on development and creates regulatory uncertainty.
06:37Critics argue that these protections restrict economic activities like farming, ranching, mining, and oil and gas operations,
06:46impacting livelihoods and economic development.
06:49Environmental groups, including the National Wildlife Federation, are happy with this new law,
06:53but are disappointed that some provisions remain unchanged,
06:57emphasizing the need for stronger protections, especially for critical habitats.
07:01In other wildlife news, the federal government is planning to kill half a million owls along the West Coast.
07:09It's granting hunters the freedom to go after the invasive barred owl,
07:13which competes with the threatened northern spotted owl for habitat and food.
07:18According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
07:20spotted owl numbers have plummeted by about 75 percent over the last two decades,
07:25while barred owls seem to be thriving.
07:27This proposal has upset dozens of animal rights groups who say the plan is reckless,
07:33saying killing barred owls is not the answer.
07:36Instead, they advocate for non-lethal means to protect the spotted owls,
07:41such as safeguarding their habitat.
07:43A representative with the Environmental Protection Information Center said
07:47if nothing is done to control the barred owls,
07:50the northern spotted owl will go extinct in our lifetime.
07:53It's a cicada-pocalypse.
07:56We are talking billions of these bugs,
07:58as two different types of cicadas will swarm across the U.S. for the first time since 1803.
08:04The last time these two species of cicadas shared the skies
08:07was when Thomas Jefferson was president,
08:10and it probably won't happen again until 2244.
08:14This event is rare because these two types emerge on different cycles,
08:17only co-emerging every 221 years.
08:21And despite the term cicada-pocalypse,
08:23the two kinds only overlap in a small area of Illinois and sometimes in Indiana.
08:28Now, while cicadas can make a whole lot of noise,
08:30the Environmental Protection Agency says there's no reason to be alarmed about them,
08:35since they're not harmful to humans, pets, household gardens, or crops.
08:39Cicadas even serve as a valuable food source for birds and mammals,
08:42and they aerate lawns and improve water filtration into the ground
08:46while they add nutrients to the soil as they decompose.
08:50But that sounds pretty gross if their decomposing bodies are added to your water.
08:55Endangered small-toothed sawfish are performing a weird spinning behavior,
09:00and they're dying in unusual numbers in Florida waters.
09:03This caused leading federal and state wildlife agencies
09:06to launch an effort to rescue and rehabilitate the aquatic species,
09:10and to figure out why this is happening.
09:13Experts have not been able to figure out the cause for the behavior or the deaths,
09:18but water testing is ongoing.
09:20In the meantime, NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
09:24and several partners are working in the Florida Keys
09:27to rescue and rehabilitate sawfish affected by the event.
09:30Rescued sawfish will be taken to quarantine facilities for observation.
09:34Now a tip line and an email address have been set up
09:37for the public to report dead or distressed sawfish.
09:40Turning now to international news,
09:43Ethiopia announces plans to ban gas-powered cars.
09:46The African nation confirmed the blockade earlier this year
09:49with the country's Minister for Transport and Logistics, saying,
09:53A decision has been made that automobiles cannot enter Ethiopia unless they are electric ones.
09:59Officials say the resolution serves as a win for the nation's environmental impact and economy.
10:04However, critics are raising concerns over the high costs associated with buying EVs,
10:09plus the lack of charging infrastructure.
10:11The scrutiny comes as data from the World Bank reveals that little more than half of people in Ethiopia
10:17have access to electricity.
10:20The Minister for Transport and Logistics said addressing the latter point remained a high priority.
10:25The month of March came in hot, literally.
10:28According to the European climate agency Copernicus,
10:31March 2024 was the 10th straight month to set a new record for global heat,
10:37both in terms of air and ocean surface temperatures.
10:40The agency found the global average temperature was 57.9 degrees Fahrenheit,
10:45the highest ever for the month,
10:47and exceeding the previous record from 2016 by a tenth of a degree.
10:51The report also found that March saw a global average sea surface temperature
10:55of almost 70 degrees Fahrenheit, which was the highest monthly temperature on record.
11:01Scientists also said higher than normal temperatures could partly be attributed to the El Niño weather pattern.
11:07Jennifer Francis, a scientist with the Woodwell Climate Research Center,
11:11said that with El Niño waning, these temperatures should go back down.
11:15However, she said that man-made global warming was also likely a contributor to the high temperatures,
11:20and added, quote,
11:21the trajectory will not change until concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop rising.
11:28Coming up, scientists make an announcement about the world's coral reefs.
11:32Stay tuned. That story is just ahead on EarthX News.
11:50Significant severe coral bleaching has been reported in at least 54 countries and territories
12:13around the globe since February 2023.
12:18So it's spatially extensive, occurring, again, in all ocean basins across multiple, multiple countries.
12:25NOAA is declaring that the world is indeed, in fact, experiencing its fourth global coral bleaching event.
12:33It is unfortunately official.
12:36Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
12:39and the International Coral Reef Initiative have formally announced wide swaths of tropical reefs
12:45have started to expel the colorful algae living in their tissue.
12:48The joint statement comes just weeks after NOAA issued a dire warning about the risk of a mass coral bleaching event
12:55following months of record-breaking ocean heat
12:58and documenting extensive bleaching-level heat stress on reefs across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.
13:05Joining us now is the man you just heard from, the coordinator of NOAA's Coral Reef Watch, Derek Manzello.
13:12Derek, thank you so much for coming on.
13:13So for those who might not be familiar with the term coral bleaching, what exactly is it and what causes it?
13:21So corals are an animal very similar to a jellyfish or something like that.
13:27They're very simple animals.
13:28They're only about four cell layers thick, but they live in a symbiotic relationship with a type of algae.
13:36And this algae provides upwards of 95% of the nutritional requirements of the coral animal.
13:42However, the symbiotic relationship is highly sensitive to elevated temperatures.
13:48And this is because photosynthesis essentially goes haywire in the algae at high temperatures and high light,
13:54causing the coral animal to expel these symbionts.
13:58So when they expel their symbionts, they turn stark bone white, and they just have the coral tissue and no algae.
14:05And essentially what this means is that the coral is in a state of starvation.
14:10So if water temperatures don't decline and things don't cool off quick enough,
14:15the coral may eventually die from this bleach condition.
14:18So this is now the fourth worldwide mass bleaching event.
14:21When was the last one, and why is this so significant?
14:24So there have been three previous global coral bleaching events on record.
14:28The first was 1998.
14:30The second was 2010.
14:31And the third was from 2014 to 2017.
14:34So this is the second global-scale mass coral bleaching event we've experienced in the last 10 years.
14:41And the coral reefs are significant for multiple reasons.
14:44So one of the big things they do is they provide coastal protection from storms.
14:48Now, healthy coral reefs can block more than 90% of the wave energy during things like hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones.
14:56Coral reefs are also the rainforests of the sea.
15:00Now, what that means is about 25% of every living thing in the ocean depends on coral reefs at some point in its lifetime.
15:07So what that means is one in four of every organism that's alive in the ocean is dependent on functional, healthy coral reefs.
15:15So how does weather play a role in this?
15:18I assume that El Nino and La Nina both play a part.
15:22But what exactly is it?
15:25So El Nino definitely plays a part.
15:28Now, the first mass coral bleaching event that ever occurred on record due to elevated ocean temperatures happened actually 40 years ago now.
15:36So this occurred throughout the eastern tropical Pacific over 1982-1983.
15:42Now, that was, at that time, the strongest El Nino on record.
15:46Now, of course, we've broken that record now two times since.
15:50Now, the reason this is so severe and that, you know, these mass coral bleaching events are happening more frequently is because the ocean is warming significantly and rapidly.
16:01And it's outpacing the ability of corals to keep track with these rising ocean temperatures.
16:06Is there any hope?
16:07Can coral reefs rebound?
16:11Absolutely.
16:11So there's absolutely hope.
16:13You know, one of the things I want to make clear is that all is not lost, right?
16:16This should be viewed as a global warning.
16:19The fact that we're seeing this synchronous bleaching happening in all three ocean basins.
16:24I mean, it's so severe you can see coral bleaching from satellites, right?
16:28So if temperatures cool off quickly enough, corals can recover and they can rebound.
16:34Now, the issue is coral bleaching events are becoming more severe and they're becoming more frequent.
16:40So even in the best case circumstance, it can take a reef maybe 7 to 15 years to start recovering coral from upstream sources.
16:50You know, coral larvae come in from other reefs.
16:52Now, the issue is we're seeing bleaching events happen with much greater frequency than 7 to 15 years.
16:57So what this means is that reefs are now entering a state of chronic stress.
17:02And this is why it's so important that, you know, we continue to engage in this assisted evolution process using cutting edge science and restoration to try to breed corals that have higher heat tolerance that we can then utilize to restore places that have been impacted like the Florida Keys.
17:21Derek Manzielo, thank you so much for coming on and for sharing your knowledge with us.
17:27My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
17:29Coming up, a restoration project aims to enrich the ecosystem of the Tees River in the UK.
17:35Stay tuned. We have more on that story when EarthX News returns.
17:38We have more on that story when EarthX News returns.
18:08And the UK are praising an underwater plant for its ability to absorb pollutants from the water.
18:15And now an effort is underway to restore it in the Tees River, as volunteers hope the plant will improve the habitat and water quality of the body of water on England's northeastern coast.
18:26Leonardo Feldman has more.
18:28The United Kingdom is planting seagrass meadow in an effort to combat climate change.
18:33The Tees River Trust says this project will benefit not only the species living in the area, but also it will help clean out pollutants from the water.
18:42A meadow seagrass can provide habitat for all sorts of species of small fish, marine invertebrates.
18:48It can actually work towards improving water quality and maybe also in keeping carbon locked into the sediment rather than releasing it into the marine environment.
18:58It is worth noting that the seagrass will first be grown onshore in tanks with seawater,
19:03given that the survival rate is a lot better that way rather than planting the seeds already in the location where they'll eventually be.
19:10The idea is we'll keep half here at the terrestrial nursery, but the other half will go out into the estuary later in the summer.
19:19So that then becomes that self-sustaining meadow.
19:22The same group is also working on another project.
19:24They plan on reintroducing oysters to the estuary.
19:27And in this location we've got 17 baskets, so about 600 just under oysters in this area.
19:34A single oyster can filter up to 200 liters of water a day.
19:38So if you get them in enough volume, they can actually clear up the water in your local area,
19:43which means more light for plants such as seagrass to flourish.
19:47For EarthX, I'm Leonardo Feldman.
19:49Leonardo Feldman, thank you.
19:52A new baby giraffe was spotted enjoying the outdoors at a zoo in England.
19:57Officials at the Chester Zoo recently shared this footage of the calf named Edie roaming outside in her habitat for the first time since she was born.
20:05Zoo officials say the little one already stands over 6 feet tall and weighs about 220 pounds.
20:13Staffers there say there are only approximately 2,500 Rothschilds giraffes left in the wild.
20:19And the zoo works with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and Ugandan Wildlife Authority to help protect them.
20:25And before we leave you, a gorilla at the Berlin Zoo is celebrating a big birthday.
20:31Fatou, a female western lowland gorilla living at the zoo since the late 50s, recently turned 67.
20:38To mark the special occasion, zookeepers prepared a basket of fruit, which included goodies like strawberries.
20:44Wildlife officials at the zoo say this is a special treat because fruit contains too much sugar for the primates,
20:51so they are usually kept on a vegetable diet.
20:54Scientists say in the wild gorillas can live between 35 and 40 years,
20:58which leads some people, including the zoo's veterinarian, to believe Fatou may likely be the oldest gorilla alive.
21:07So there's no gorilla in the world that has reached such an advanced age.
21:11We know for sure from gorillas kept in zoos.
21:13And we have to assume that in the wild, where the animals never reach such an old age as they do in zoos,
21:18that there is no animal older than her.
21:20We are therefore proud to say that this is the oldest gorilla in the world.
21:24Western lowland gorillas usually live in a group of several female gorillas and one male gorilla, or the silverback.
21:31But at the zoo, Fatou has her own private enclosure.
21:35Not to worry, though.
21:36She can't have contact with her fellow gorillas anytime she wants.
21:39That's it for this edition of EarthX News.
21:41Please join us again next week.
21:43I'm Christina Thompson.
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