Weekly Climate News

December 10, 2020

• Malaysian bank CIMB announced a coal exit strategy that outlined complete withdrawal by 2040, the first major bank to do so. 

• Denmark will end production of fossil fuels by 2050 and is no longer issuing oil and gas exploration licences. 

• In Brazil, climate campaigners are taking accusations against the Bolsonaro administration to the Supreme Court, claiming that deforestation of the Amazon breaches constitutional protections and international commitments.

• Aware of the link between dirty air and COVID-19 death rates, the Trump administration has declined to tighten industrial soot emissions. Many health experts say this decision goes against significant scientific research which proves that particulate pollution contributes to tens of thousands of premature deaths every year. 

• The Red Cross recently announced that in 2020, American families have spent more time in emergency housing than any other year on record. Read more here. 

• U.N. Secretary General António Guterres spoke at Columbia University on Dec. 2, where he stated that the world is nearing a “breaking point” unless leaders collaborate and begin to initiate necessary changes. “The way we are moving is a suicide in relation to the future and to all future generations,” Guterres said. 

• The U.S. Navy is working with Hawaii to explore renewable energy technologies. 

• As global ocean temperatures rise, falling oxygen levels in seas will leave many fish species struggling to breathe. 

• A recent study has found that noise and light pollution from humans is affecting birds, most notably altering reproductive patterns.

Year in Review: Natural Disasters

Image courtesy of Flickr.

By Casey Roepke ’21

News Editor

The past year has brought a pandemic, political unrest and other chaotic events into the public experience. 2020 has also included record-breaking natural disasters that many say will only worsen with the ongoing impacts of climate change.

The Mount Holyoke News reported on 2020’s worst natural disasters and environmental catastrophes, from wildfires and floods to heatwaves and cyclones. Here is 2020 in review:

Australia Wildfires

In January 2020, wildfires burning through the Australian bush since late 2019 converged into one of the worst recorded fire seasons. The New York Times called it “calamitous,” citing drought, high winds and a heatwave — including Australia’s hottest day on record with average high temperatures of 107.4 degrees Fahrenheit — for the heightened impact. Tens of millions of acres burned throughout the continent, and 33 people died due to the fires, according to the Australian Parliament. 

The United Nations Association of Australia has stated that Australia is high on the list of developed countries most vulnerable to climate change. While Australia typically experiences wildfires, this season was especially destructive because climate change has already begun to increase drought and heat intensity, leading to more dangerous fire conditions. 

“I had anticipated the whole landscape to be blackened, but instead the line of the fire front snaked along, dividing the land,” Yasmin Andrews ’22 said in their January on-location coverage of the fires in the Mount Holyoke News. “We saw trees burning from the inside out, small flames peeking out of fallen leaves and dried out stream beds. Most alarmingly, the fire had come within 30 feet of the house, after leaving the nearby shearing shed a twisted pile of metal.”

California Wildfires

Residents of California and much of the Pacific Northwest also experienced record-breaking destruction from wildfires in 2020, starting in August and extending into October. In California, the August Complex wildfire was the first to burn 1 million acres in the state’s history, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, earning it the title of California’s first “gigafire.” 

Stanford University researchers estimated that exposure to air pollution from the smoke caused by the fires may have indirectly led to thousands of more deaths in California alone and link the higher risk of burning to climate change. This came in the wake of a Southern California heatwave which reached a high of 121 degrees Fahrenheit, a new record, according to The New York Times.

“You can barely see the sun,” Alexa Harbury ’24, who lives in Oregon, said to the Mount Holyoke News in September. “For the whole of last week, it was hard to tell what time of day it was, because everything just looked yellow or orange.”

Philippines Floods

In November 2020, areas in the Philippines within Cagayan province were exposed to flash floods that submerged whole villages underwater. 

The New York Times reported that rain and typhoons caused the flooding and subsequent landslides. Typhoon Goni hit the Philippines in late October with winds as high as 165 miles per hour, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, which categorized it as a super typhoon. Around 70 people died as a result of the floods, and the government was compelled to deliver supplies and reinforcements to residents by air.  

Vietnam Typhoons

2020 has been Vietnam’s worst season for tropical storms in decades. The Mount Holyoke News previously reported that Typhoon Molave marked the fourth storm in an intense typhoon season that had already killed 130 people and destroyed over 300,000 homes.

Hurricanes

Hurricane Eta made landfall in Nicaragua in November as a Category 4 hurricane. With Eta, 2020 ties with 2005 for the record of having the most storms that have grown strong enough to be named, as recorded by the National Hurricane Center and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. According to The New York Times, climate scientists have drawn a connection between global warming and more intense hurricanes.

With less than a month until the end of the year, it is hard to predict what natural disasters 2020 will bring next.

Black Carbon Particles and Microplastic Fibers Pollute Glaciers

By Helen Gloege ’23

Staff Writer

Across remote regions of the world, microplastic fibers and polymer fragments have been found in ocean sediments, beaches around the Antarctic islands, in Arctic ice and in the tissues of living things. Microplastics have been found on Mount Everest, considered one of the most remote and pristine places in the world. Along with the discovery of microplastics, black carbon levels have been spiking, covering glaciers and snow-capped mountains in the Himalayas with fine black particles.

Microplastics generally refer to pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters that derive from plastic products and plastic waste. Microplastics found in the snow of Mount Everest in 2019 have set an altitude record for identification at 8,440 meters, nearly the height of the summit, which stands at 8,848 meters.

In One Earth, an environmental research journal, researchers reported that they had identified 12 fibrous plastic particles in each liter of snow from the highest measurement taken at the balcony area of Everest. Particles were also found in stream water at higher altitudes and at the Everest Base Camp where 79 plastic particles were identified per liter of snow. The samples were taken by a National Geographic research team as an investigation into the impact of climate change on the world’s highest peak. The collected samples were then studied by Imogen Napper, a National Geographic expedition scientist based at University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom, which was the first time microplastics from a mountain had ever been studied. Napper was surprised to find microplastics in every single snow sample analyzed.

It is theorized that the microplastics made it to Mount Everest through a climber’s gear or were blown by the wind. These microplastics were found to be mainly made of polyester followed by acrylic, nylon and polypropylene. These materials are commonly found in outdoor gear made from synthetic fibers that tend to shed trace amounts of fibers while they are worn.

Visitors to Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal and the slopes of Mount Everest have steadily increased over the decades, increasing the potential for forms of plastic waste. In 1979, the region hosted around 3,600 trekkers and climbers. In 2016, that number rose to 45,000, and by 2019, the amount of climbers had increased to the point that queues formed to take turns to reach the summit. 

There has also been a significant increase in the plastic products manufactured since climbers began taking to the slopes. About 70 years ago, companies manufactured plastic products at a rate of 5 million tons a year, and it is estimated that in 2020, the world has already purchased 330 million tons, most of which in the form of single-use plastic. It is also estimated that between 93,000 and 236,000 tons of plastic are floating on ocean surfaces. With this massive amount of plastic waste, it almost seems inevitable for microplastics to make their way to even the most remote spaces of the world. 

The presence of microplastics on Mount Everest doesn’t pose an immediate environmental threat. The biggest concern facing Mount Everest and other Himalayan glaciers is an accelerating rate of ice loss. Surface ice at base camp in Nepal is 150 feet lower today than it was 35 years ago. Losing these glaciers will significantly impact local communities. Millions downstream depend on the glaciers for freshwater, and they play a role in agriculture and the vital mountain tourism industry. 

As part of a Mount Everest expedition in 2019 by National Geographic in collaboration with other researchers, surveys were taken at the base camp and surrounding area of the Khumbu Glacier. The team used LIDAR, a type of laser scanning and photogrammetry to create a 3D model of the area. Based on digital reconstructions of the surface of the Khumbu Glacier and 78 other glaciers nearby Everest dating back to 1962, the collected data showed that the glaciers have been consistently melting since 1962 and are dwindling at rates over 50 percent faster than six decades ago. Scientists have also found ice melting at altitudes over 20,000 feet, levels where it was assumed ice should remain frozen solid throughout the year. This has been explained as the glaciers thinning due to decreased snowfall caused by rising temperatures. In addition to the Himalayas, glaciers are found to be melting in the Andes, the Rocky Mountains, the Canadian Rockies and the Alps, among others.

Another concern for glacial melting is the increased prominence of black carbon, more commonly known as soot. The process of burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, other organic compounds and black carbon particles.  Most of the black carbon in the U.S. comes from diesel engines, biomass burning, wildfires, residential heating and industrial processes. Diesel vehicles and open biomass burning contribute significant emissions. In other countries, black carbon emissions tend to come from brick kilns, ovens, cookstoves and diesel vehicles. The pollutant is potentially dangerous to human health because of its small size. Black carbon is linked with decreased visibility over a distance, harming ecosystems and causing a reduction in agricultural productivity. It also negatively impacts people’s overall health. 

Black carbon remains in the atmosphere for days to weeks before descending as rain or snow. When it falls as precipitation, the black carbon darkens the surface of the snow and ice. This reduces the albedo, the reflecting power of a surface, and warms the snow, therefore hastening to melt. Black carbon has fine particles that absorb light and about a million times more energy than carbon dioxide.

It is estimated that black carbon is the second-largest contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide. Black carbon interacts with other components of particulate matter, so it is hard to know exactly how much black carbon directly contributes to global warming.

A report that came out this year from a study done in 2016 by scientists at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology measured variations in black carbon in Chirbasa, near the Gangotri Glacier in the Indian Himalayas. The study found that the monthly mean concentration of black carbon was at a maximum in May and a minimum in August. The concentrations varied between 0.01 ug/cubic meter in the winter to 4.62 ug/cubic meter during the summer, showing an increase of 400 times during the summer. The zone of measurement was far from sources of pollution, so the measurements are critical for establishing a baseline for pollution loads and estimating the contribution of various sources to pollution. The study was conducted in India which is the second largest emitter of black carbon in the world. 

Another study led by the University of Alaska Southeast’s Assistant Professor of Geology and Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center collaborator Sonia Nagorski, along with others, studied the Juneau Icefield, the fifth-largest icefield in North America. It is estimated that two-thirds of the area will be lost by the end of the century, and by 2200, the icefield will be gone entirely. Natural mineral dust is exposed by the retreating glaciers and collects on the surface. The glacier snow begins to melt faster as light-absorbing particles collect throughout the summer melt season. This creates a cycle in which the particles on the snow’s surface speed up melting, causing the particles to become more concentrated and the snow to become less effective at reflecting light. The study found 40 times more light-absorbing particles in July compared to May at some sites. In the case of the Juneau Icefield, it is likely that the wind blows black carbon from forest fires to the glaciers.

There is a lack of research and information about black carbon and microplastics that prohibits a full understanding of the environmental impacts of the pollutant. Until a time of greater comprehension, other negative impacts on areas like agriculture and health will continue to be discovered.

Chaokoh Coconut Milk Faces Allegations of Unethical Use of Monkey Labor

Photo courtesy of Pexels.

By Catelyn Fitzgerald ’23

Staff Writer

In recent months, multiple grocery chains, including Costco and Wegmans, have stopped selling Thailand-based Chaokoh brand coconut milk following a PETA investigation that found the use of monkey labor in several farms that supply the company. The use of monkey labor is not limited to one company but may be a widespread issue across Thailand’s coconut industry. Issues of transparency and accuracy of information lie at the heart of the controversy, as reports of the treatment of monkeys and the companies that rely on their labor vary widely.

As the world’s second-largest coconut exporter — Thailand exported around 70,000 tons of coconuts in 2018 — animal abuse allegations have significant implications for the future of the coconut industry. According to NPR, training pig-tailed macaques to pick coconuts is a practice that has existed in Thailand for around 400 years. The fruit is the main part of the macaques’ diet, and they are able to climb tall coconut trees with ease and drop coconuts to the ground where a farmer can collect them. For humans, coconut harvesting can be dangerous, as farmers must poke a pole with a sharp blade on the end up into the air to cut coconuts down. Multiple coconuts fall from the tree at one time and can hurt or even kill the farmer standing below.

Claims regarding the scale of monkey labor vary, making the issue difficult to navigate. On one account, conservationist Edwin Wiek stated in a Public Radio International article that the use of monkey labor has declined and now makes up the smallest fraction of coconut industry production. The article also states that monkey labor is an outdated method and, as such, is mostly used on small, independent farms rather than in large operations. Yet in another account, Arjen Schroevers, who runs a school that trains monkeys to pick coconuts using nonviolent methods, told NPR that “it would be difficult to find a coconut product made in Thailand that wasn’t picked by a monkey.” There is no exact data on the prevalence of the use of monkey labor on coconut farms. 

The additional debate over the treatment of coconut-picking monkeys makes monkey labor a murky issue. A PETA investigation into eight coconut farms found monkeys “fitted with rigid metal collars and kept chained or tethered for extended periods” and that the social animals are kept in isolation. The fangs that macaques have for self-defense are also allegedly removed in some cases to protect the monkey’s owner. In a contrasting claim, Leslie Sponsel, an anthropology professor at the University of Hawaii who studies monkey-human relationships in Thailand, told NPR that he had never observed any mistreatment of monkeys, and instead likened them to the family pets of farmers. The training of animals to perform jobs, such as service animals and drug-sniffing dogs, is practiced throughout the globe, and in many cases, without controversy. PETA’s findings suggest that monkey abuse does occur in Thailand’s coconut industry, but it remains unclear whether the mistreatment of monkeys lies under the responsibility of a handful of farmers or if monkey labor itself is indicative of maltreatment.

In other coconut-producing countries, such as Brazil and India, other methods of harvest are used, including platform systems, ladders and the planting of dwarf coconut trees. These strategies make the human harvesting of coconuts more efficient than the use of monkeys. PETA has developed a list of brands that do not source from coconut farms that use monkey labor for those looking to buy coconut products ethically.