Equilibrium/Sustainability — The fishing village at risk from falling seas

For the Icelandic fishing village of Höfn — “pronounced hup, as if you have the hiccups” — climate change has meant a dangerous drop in sea levels, in contrast to the surges in the rest of the world, according to CNN.

As sea levels rise worldwide, local tides off the coast of Iceland are passing back and forth through sea lagoons with less force — meaning there isn’t enough pressure to wash the channels clear of the sediment that is clogging them, CNN reported.  

“The big ships, when they’re coming fully laden with capelin or herring, the keels of the ships are going to be quite close to the bottom,” increasing the risk of a shipwreck, Þorvarður Árnason of University of Alabama told the outlet.

As Iceland’s glaciers melt, the slacking-off of their considerable weight also allows the land to rise out of the sea — directing much-needed freshwater to the other side of the island and drying out the sea lagoons further, CNN reported. 

Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. We’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Send us tips and feedback. Subscribe here.

Today we have an exclusive look at legislation seeking to protect firefighters from toxic chemicals. Then we’ll study how damage from pesticides is disproportionately impacting communities of color and examine the cities leading the U.S. solar race.

Bill seeks to protect firefighters from toxic chemicals

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) will be introducing bicameral legislation next week that seeks to ban firefighting foam that contains toxic forever chemicals. 

The PFAS Firefighter Protection Act would prohibit the manufacturing, import and sale of all firefighting foam that includes these chemicals — also called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — within two years of enactment, according to an exclusive copy of the bill obtained by The Hill. 

PFAS refresher: Known as “forever chemicals” — due to their propensity to linger in the human body and in the environment — PFAS are most notorious for their presence in aqueous film forming foam (AFFF),  which is used to fight jet fuel fires on military bases and at civilian airports. 

Also present in industrial discharge and a variety of household products, PFAS are linked to kidney cancer, thyroid disease, testicular cancer and other illnesses. 

Protecting those on the frontline: “PFAS chemicals in firefighting foam jeopardize the health, safety, and well-being of firefighters who have put their lives on the line to protect our communities,” Gillibrand said in a statement. 

Firefighters who work on jet fuel blazes — and therefore endure prolonged exposure to PFAS-based foams — face a greater risk of developing associated cancers and diseases, the lawmakers noted. 

“Our firefighters put themselves in harm’s way to protect us––and we must protect them by getting rid of PFAS chemicals in firefighting foam,” Kildee added.   

A strict prohibition: If passed by Congress, the legislation would ensure that “no person may manufacture, import, process, or distribute in commerce any aqueous film forming foam for use in training and firefighting that contains a per- or polyfluoroalkyl substance,” according to the bill’s text. 

Any violation to that ban would be considered a violation of a section of the Toxic Substances Control Act, which makes it unlawful for any individual to fail or refuse to comply with such a rule. 

Setting deadlines: The bill would also set firm deadlines for prohibiting the use of AFFF firefighting foams at airports, with a goal of doing so by 2024. 

Read more here.

Pesticide harms hit communities of color hardest

The manufacture and use of pesticides exerts a disproportionate harm on both communities of color and low-income communities, a new study has found.  

First words: “The cost of these chemicals isn’t just paid for at the cash register, it’s also being paid for by communities that have been marginalized for centuries,” co-author Robert Bullard of Texas Southern University, said in a statement.  
 
What the study found: Twelve harmful pesticides — or the traces they left behind — turned up in the blood and urine of Black and Mexican American at levels up to five times those of whites, according to the study, led by researchers at several Historically Black Colleges and Universities. 
 
Where did those toxins come from? Fields, factories and people’s government-fumigated homes. 
 
In the fields: The study found that 10,000 to 20,000 Latino farmworkers fall sick from pesticide exposure every year.  
 
Ninety percent of U.S. pesticide use is linked to agriculture — and with 83 percent of farmworkers identifying as Hispanic or Latino, those communities are at disproportionate risk, according to the report. 
 
But U.S. society has a double-standard for pesticides, where those whose occupations require exposure to pesticides get a lower level of legal protection, the researchers observed. 
 
From the factories: The U.S. also allows the manufacture and export of neurotoxic pesticides banned for use in the U.S. to other countries, the report found. 
 
In six states — Louisiana, California, Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas and Missouri — people of color make up 63 percent of the population living in dangerous proximity to pesticide-producing facilities.  
 
That’s twice what it should be, given that people of color make up just 38 percent of the population in those states, according to the study. 
 
In people’s homes: Eighty percent of New York City public housing facilities regularly spray pesticides and 30 percent of pregnant Black and Dominican women had detectable levels of pesticides in their apartments, the report found. 
 
What can government do? Policymakers should focus on ensuring legal protections for workers and children and focus on establishing national monitoring systems for pesticide exposure, according the Center for Biological Diversity, which was also involved in the study. Giving professional pesticide users like farmworkers the same level of legal protection as everyone else is also crucial, the researchers added.

Los Angeles, Honolulu leading US in solar: report 

Los Angeles continues to lead the nation’s cities in total installed solar power capacity, but Honolulu far surpasses any other contender in terms of power generated per capita, a new report has found. 

The results of the Shining Cities survey, published by the Environment California Research & Policy Center, show the breakdown:

Cities with the most installed solar capacity, in megawatts: 

• Los Angeles: 649.9 
• San Diego: 468.0 
• Las Vegas: 442.8 
• Honolulu: 397.8 
• San Antonio: 354.9 

“Solar Superstars” leading in per-capita solar production, in watts per person:

• Honolulu: 1,133.5 
• Las Vegas: 689.9 
• San Diego: 337.4 
• Albuquerque: 295.5 
• San Jose: 287.1 

The survey, now in its eight edition, found solar power is expanding rapidly across the U.S. The country now has a total of 121.4 gigawatts of solar photovoltaic capacity — or enough to power more than 23 million homes, the survey found.

U.S. solar is surging: The amount of solar power installed in just nine U.S. cities now exceeds the total amount installed in the entire country a decade ago, the report found. And of the 56 cities included, 15 demonstrated a tenfold increase in their solar capacities between 2014 and 2022. 

How far we’ve come: “As Earth Day approaches, I’m struck by how far we’ve come toward tapping the sun’s immense power since this environmental holiday first began back in 1970,” Laura Deehan, state director for Environment California Research & Policy Center, said in a statement.   

Strong policy is as important as sunshine: The authors attributed much of the nation’s successes — and setbacks — to state government and utility commission policies, which they said “can be as important as abundant sunshine.” 
 
The best policies, they argued, are those that “ensure a fair value for the energy that rooftop solar feeds back into the grid.” 

To read the full story, please click here. 

Supply chain shortage coming for electric trucks

Ford and other electric truck manufacturers are looking down the barrel of a battery supply shortfall that threatens to throttle their roaring ambitions — even as the Department of Energy (DOE) ramps up lending for domestic battery production. 

A big loan for domestic batteries: On Monday, Australian lithium manufacturer Syrah Technologies received a $107 million loan for a graphite processing plant from a branch of the DOE, according to Reuters. 

Why graphite? It’s one of the most difficult elements of a lithium-ion battery to replace with other elements — and currently China controls virtually all of global processing capacity, according to nonprofit clean energy new site Canary Media. 

“Even if we had graphite ore, we’d have to send it to China for processing to get the anode material here,” said Jigar Shah, head of the loan program at DOE. 

“This is the first stage of being able to process it here,” Shah added. 

EV CEO forecasts a shortage: “Put very simply, all the world’s cell production combined represents well under 10 percent of what we will need in 10 years,” RJ Scaringe, CEO of electric truck manufacturer Rivian, said last week, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Demand for lithium ion batteries rose almost eightfold between 2015 and 2021, and is expected to increase by another 50 percent in 2022, the Journal reported. 

Enjoying the taster: The current semiconductor shortage signals a broader shortage in battery cells, Scaringe added, according to the Journal. 

A hard road for Ford: The company has a relatively cheap, well-reviewed and popular product in its forthcoming F-150, which is set to start hitting driveways next week — but it has struggled with supplying its existing fleet with semiconductors, according to The New York Times.  

A critical time: Ford is “betting the company” on the launch, as Ford executive chairman — and Henry Ford heir — William C. Ford Jr. told the Times. 

“If this launch doesn’t go well, we can tarnish the entire franchise,” Ford added. 

Tech Tuesday

Plant-tending robots, fire-watching satellites and a new energy initiative spans the Pacific.  
  

Robots tend the plants in this high-tech indoor farm 

• Iron Ox, a Silicon-Valley based farm startup, is betting that moving farming indoors — where plants’ water and nutrient needs can be meticulously tended by robots — will cut waste and costs, allowing the company to outcompete the “spray and pray” approach of traditional agriculture, according to CNBC. 

Satellites show how fires are changing Pacific Northwest pollution patterns 

• Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research used satellite-based observations of atmospheric chemistry alongside computer models to analyze Pacific Northwest wildfire emissions over the past two decades — ultimately determining that increasingly intense wildfires in the region are altering seasonal patterns of air pollution. 

California, China renew climate innovation partnership

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and China’s Minister of Ecology and Environment renewed a partnership on Monday for continued collaboration on clean energy initiatives, the governor’s office said. Among the agreement’s focuses are market expansion for zero-emissions vehicles and the establishment of emissions trading systems. 

Please visit The Hill’s Sustainability section online for the web version of this newsletter and more stories. We’ll see you tomorrow.

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