Marine Renewable Energy

 

Coastal Residents Raise Concerns About North Carolina Offshore Wind Farms. According to WUNC-Radio, “Thomas Myers lives in a three story home in Holden Beach that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. Myers and his wife bought the house in 1998 and moved to Holden Beach in Brunswick County permanently in 2013. Myers said he and his wife planned their entire lives around retiring in an oceanside home. ‘When you go to the shore, stand on the beach and you look out, it’s like you’re looking into infinity,’ Myers said. ‘You can’t see the other side. You’re just looking out, and that’s special.’ The couple remodeled their home in 2017, and it’s now complete with an elevator and private access to the shore. Family photos are proudly adorned in their picturesque living room. As a retired consultant to the energy industry and the current president of the Holden Beach Property Owners Association, Myers explained that he’s all for renewable energy. He just doesn’t want it to cut off his view. ‘I don’t want to see wind turbines flashing. They’ll have lights on them... and [they’ll] flash at night,’ Myers said. ‘You [would] lose that feeling. It’s like you would be standing on the beach looking out at a wind farm. You [wouldn’t be] standing on the beach looking out to sea.’” [WUNC-Radio, 2/19/22 (=)]

 

Fisheries & Marine Life

 

A Big Climate Warning From One Of The Gulf Of Maine’s Smallest Marine Creatures. According to Inside Climate News, “Given the rate at which the waters in the Gulf of Maine are heating up, Mainers may need to swap out the lobsters on their license plates for squid. All of New England could issue new specialty plates featuring creatures threatened by the speed climate change is slamming the gulf: a critically endangered right whale, a cute puffin or a vanishing cod. For all the escalating climate-related threats to iconic and commercially valuable marine life in the Gulf of Maine, though, scientists say there is one creature we should especially keep our eye on—a barely visible creature that helps those whales, puffins and cod survive: the zooplankton Calanus finmarchicus. Often likened to a grain of rice, this ‘copepod’—or microscopic crustacean—is the keystone of the sub-polar food web that makes the Gulf of Maine one of Earth’s richest marine ecosystems. By munching on phytoplankton and microzooplankton invisible to the naked eye, Calanus pack themselves so densely with fatty acids that researchers call them ‘butterballs’ of the sea. Species that directly eat Calanus at some point in their lives include herring, mackerel, cod, basking sharks, haddock, redfish, sand lance, shrimp, lobster and right whales. The tiny crustaceans fuel the vast North Atlantic food web, where bigger fish forage on smaller fish until the bigger fish end up in the bellies of seabirds, seals, tuna, other flesh-eating sharks and whales—or on our dinner plates.” [Inside Climate News, 2/20/22 (=)]

 

Antarctic Climate

 

Antarctica Will Likely Set An Alarming New Record This Year, New Data Shows. According to CNN, “As surging global temperatures alter the landscape of the Arctic, scientists are observing what’s shaping up to be a new record at the other end of the globe. Preliminary data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center suggests Antarctica will likely set a record this year for the lowest sea ice extent – the area of ocean covered by sea ice. On Wednesday, sea ice around the continent dropped lower than the previous record minimum set in March 2017. ‘What’s going on in the Antarctic is an extreme event,’ Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado Boulder and lead scientist at NSIDC, told CNN. ‘But we’ve been through this a bit.’ What he means by ‘this’ is a roller coaster of sea ice extent over the past couple of decades, swinging wildly from record highs to record lows. Unlike the Arctic, where scientists say climate change is accelerating its impacts, Antarctica’s sea ice extent is highly variable. ‘There’s a link between what’s going on in Antarctica and the general warming trend around the rest of the world, but it’s different from what we see in mountain glaciers and what we see in the Arctic,’ he added. Satellite data that stretches back to 1978 shows that the region was still producing record-high sea ice extent as recently as 2014 and 2015. Then it suddenly plunged in 2016 and has stayed lower-than-average since.” [CNN, 2/18/22 (=)]

 

Clues To Future Of Antarctic Fish Found In Museum Collection. According to Politico, “Small, sleek and unassuming, the Antarctic silverfish is a keystone species at the bottom of the world. It’s an important food source for penguins, seals and other predators — composing up to 90 percent of the total fish mass swimming through some regions of the Southern Ocean. For a little fish, it’s a big deal. But it could be in trouble. The silverfish depends on sea ice that floats around Antarctica — that’s the habitat where it lays its eggs. If sea ice declines while the world warms, the silverfish could go with it. That’s the takeaway of a new study out this month in the journal Communications Biology, which finds that silverfish produce fewer babies when sea ice is on the decline. According to the researchers, it’s the first study to report a significant relationship between sea ice and the abundance of any Antarctic fish species known to science. Remarkably, it’s a finding that almost went unnoticed. The research relies on a special dataset from the waters surrounding the western Antarctic Peninsula, a large tongue of land jutting out from the Antarctic continent. Scientists have been collecting data on fish caught in this region since 1993 as part of a long-term continuous Antarctic research program. They’ve been sending the fish specimens to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) to be preserved and stored in its natural history collection.” [Politico, 2/22/22 (=)]

 

Sea-Level Rise

 

Beach Erosion, Bluff Collapse, Flooding: What A Foot Of Sea-Level Rise Could Mean For San Diego. According to Politico, “Perhaps the most pressing concern when it comes to rising tides in the San Diego region are the crumbling cliffs along Del Mar, atop which are precariously perched railroad tracks that service both freight and passenger trains. Experts say, if something isn’t done to address the issue, another foot of sea-level rise will spell doom for the only rail connection between San Diego and Los Angeles. Erosion from waves, coupled with urban runoff, chews away at San Diego’s coastal bluffs at a rate of six inches a year on average, according to local researchers. However, coastal retreat can also happen suddenly, up to 20 feet at once in some cases. … The San Diego International Airport and the surrounding Midway District will be particularly vulnerable to flooding as tides rise, according to researchers. The area is bordered by not only San Diego Bay to the southwest but San Diego River to the north.” [Politico, 2/18/22 (=)]

 

Rising Seas Could Raise Insurance Rates Of Those Living Near Water. According to KNTV-TV, “In one of the biggest changes in the history of flood insurance, climate change will now likely drive homeowner rates for higher flood insurance. FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has now updated a program that first started in 1968, which does away with a one-size-fits-all model for gauging the threat of flooding in communities. Using new modeling, the agency developed ‘Risk Rating System 2.0,’ which will assess individual homeowners who live near water higher premiums based on their actual risk, and climate change will be a factor. Meanwhile, new data from graduate researcher engineers at UC Davis show Californians paid more than $5 Billion into flood insurance than those homeowners received back in payments for claims. That has prompted one researcher to suggest the state should walk away from the National Flood Insurance Program. ‘It’s a landmark change in the whole history of the National Flood Insurance Program,’ said Edie Lohmann, Director of Flood Insurance of FEMA region 9, in describing the new rating system the agency has developed for determining flood risk for homeowners. FEMA officials tell NBC Bay Area that the new Risk Rating 2.0 also takes into consideration sea level rise and climate change.” [KNTV-TV, 2/20/22 (=)]

 

Sans Proof, Hysterical Politico Warns Of Major Sea Level Rise By 2050. According to Newsbusters, “Paging former president Barack Obama! Did you know that not only your island home on Martha’s Vineyard but your new beachfront home currently being built on Oahu are in imminent danger of being flooded out? And the millions of dollars you spent on both will also be washed away! At least that is according to Zack Coleman who covers climate change for Politico. However, the good news for Obama is that Coleman offers zero proof to back up his apocalyptic assertion on Monday in ‘Seas could rise up to a foot by 2050, posing ‘a clear and present risk’ to U.S.’ Although that headline doesn’t sound all that certain with that ‘could’ bit, the first sentence of Coleman’s article shifts to total certainty: ‘Sea levels along U.S. coasts will rise by as much as a foot in the next 30 years as climate change accelerates, leading to a ‘dramatic increase’ in millions of Americans’ exposure to flooding, scientists warned in a federal report published Tuesday.’” [Newsbusters, 2/19/22 (-)]

 

Editorial: Sea Levels Are Rising At A Staggering Rate. We’re Running Out Of Time To Act. According to The Washington Post, “Over the past century, sea levels in the United States rose by approximately a foot. That is a staggering amount — and one that could be matched in just the next three decades, according to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA and five other agencies. By 2050, U.S. sea levels could rise between 10 and 12 inches. In the East and the Gulf Coast, the figure could be even higher. Opinions to start the day, in your inbox. Sign up. The impacts would be devastating. Coastal flooding has already become more frequent and harmful in areas such as Maryland’s Eastern Shore. By the middle of the century, ‘moderate’ flooding events — ones that involve some damage to roads or structures and potentially require flood warnings and evacuations — could become 10 times more common than they are today. The report, which also maps flooding projections across the country, provides a blueprint for local, state and federal authorities trying to adapt. It’s clear that deep structural changes must be made to the nation’s infrastructure, particularly in coastal areas — and soon. Nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population lives in counties on the coast. If NOAA’s projection materializes by 2050, the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates 140,000 homes would be at risk of flooding on average once every two weeks. Ports and other commercial infrastructure along the coasts could also see serious damage, affecting supply chains and raising costs even for those living inland. Then there are the harms to coastal ecosystems, which are already reeling from erosion, flooding and lost habitats.” [The Washington Post, 2/21/22 (+)]

 

Op-Ed: Color In The Climate Crisis. According to an op-ed by Antjuan Seawright in The Hill, “Lately I’ve found myself thinking about one of the last conversations I had with the late Congressman John R. Lewis. It was a normal chat, touching on all kinds of things, but I remember him clearly saying, in that way that only he could: ‘As custodians of this piece of real estate called America, we have an obligation and responsibility to leave it a little greener, a little cleaner and a little better than we found it, especially for our children and grandchildren.’ That moment has stuck with me for the better part of two years, and now I see it, or at least its core sentiment, echoing across much of America. You see, something interesting is happening right now. Whether it’s the political pushback from Trump-era deregulation, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publishing a report that outlines climate change’s disproportionate impacts on communities of color, or the rolling blackouts like those that have occurred in California or that happened in Texas this month, which hit Black and brown families first, and hardest, literally leaving them out in the cold, folks are beginning to see the environmental justice movement in a new and more urgent light. It’s time for politicians to understand that climate change isn’t some fringe issue owned by activists and intellectuals anymore. People care — particularly people who look like me and end up bearing the brunt of rising sea levels and stronger, more frequent storms.” [The Hill, 2/22/22 (+)]

 

Ocean Health & Management

 

A Sewage Spill Again Shuts Down Beach Swimming In Orange County, Near Newport Bay. According to Los Angeles Times, “Orange County officials have closed a portion of the ocean near the west end of Newport Bay from 8th Street following yet another sewage spill. The Orange County Health Care Agency said Monday that a blocked sewer line at a restaurant in Newport Bay leaked about 35,000 to 50,000 gallons of untreated sewage into nearby waters. This spill comes less than two months after a 48-inch sewage main in Carson failed, spewing millions of gallons of waste into the Los Angeles Harbor and fouling beaches in Long Beach and elsewhere in L.A. and Orange counties. Before that, a massive spill from the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant in Playa del Rey dumped 17 million gallons of waste into the Santa Monica Bay last July, closing beaches and prompting outrage and closer scrutiny of management of the plant. Several months before that, Orange County health officials closed a roughly half-mile section of the Newport Beach coast to ocean sports due to a 1,000-gallon sewage spill. Beaches potentially contaminated by the latest spill will remain closed to swimming, surfing and diving until the results of follow-up water quality monitoring meet acceptable standards, the Orange County Health Care Agency said.” [Los Angeles Times, 2/18/22 (=)]

 

IAEA Reviews Water Release From Damaged Japan Nuclear Plant. According to Associated Press, “A team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency visited the site at Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant where more than a million tons of treated radioactive waste water are to be released into the ocean, as they seek to determine how to make the decades-long project safe. Japan has sought the IAEA’s assistance to ensure the release meets international safety standards and to gain the understanding of neighboring countries that have sharply criticized the plan. The water is being stored in about 1,000 tanks at the damaged plant which must be removed so that facilities can be built for its decommissioning, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings says. The tanks are expected to reach their capacity of 1.37 million tons later this year. A massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 destroyed the Fukushima plant’s cooling systems, causing the meltdown of three reactors and the release of large amounts of radiation. Water used since the accident to cool the damaged reactor cores, which remain highly radioactive, has leaked extensively.” [Associated Press, 2/18/22 (=)]

 

 

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