By Quentin Foster

The California Legislature is in the midst of a critically important discussion right now: how can the state do more to clean the air for all residents and address climate change?

As a native of South Los Angeles with deep roots in the environmental justice community, I’ve seen first-hand that there’s still more that needs to be done to improve our air quality. At the same time, California is a longtime leader on climate issues, in large part due to its cap-and-trade program that’s successfully limited climate pollution.

Assemblymember Cristina Garcia’s bill, AB 378, though still a work in progress, would provide incentives for major greenhouse gas emitters to reduce localized air pollution, on top of extending a key tool to keep their carbon emissions below a certain limit.

Right now, AB 378 is the only bill in the California Legislature that is seeking to both improve air quality in the most impacted local communities and fight climate change globally. Here’s why we think the Legislature must pass it as soon as possible.

 How we should extend cap and trade

The question we must ask ourselves is not whether we should extend cap and trade – we should, as I explain next – but rather how we can extend it. Three things need to happen for California’s cap-and-trade program to be successfully extended beyond 2020:

1. The cap-and-trade program itself, which is succeeding in its goal of reducing carbon emissions, should be strengthened. This includes ensuring jobs are created across California neighborhoods – an issue the Legislature is working to address in other proposals – as well as better meeting the needs of rural communities.
2. Air quality concerns in California’s environmental justice communities must be addressed. There are many suggestions of how this can be done, but this public health issue cannot be ignored.
3. Cap-and-trade should be passed with a supermajority of votes (2/3 of both the state Assembly and the Senate) this session. That will provide it the greatest legal certainty in a post-2020 program, and inoculate cap and trade from further “illegal tax”-type challenges.

Why we should extend cap and trade now

The best way to continue California’s climate leadership and successful climate policies, is for the Legislature to extend cap and trade beyond 2020 this year with a 2/3 vote.

EDF is advocating for this extension because California’s cap-and-trade program:

• Provides the certainty needed for a strong and stable climate program. Eliminating post-2020 uncertainty by voting on a cap-and-trade extension this year limits market volatility and creates greater price and revenue predictability. This in turn helps local businesses plan investments, hire new employees, and adopt the next groundbreaking technology.
• Demonstrates that protecting the environment need not come at the expense of economic growth. California has added over a million jobs since cap and trade launched in 2013, far surpassing the national average. This includes blue-collar jobs in parts of the state plagued by high unemployment. California has also grown to be the sixth largest economy in the world.
• Reduces greenhouse gas emissions. California is on track to meet its 2020 target of reducing these emissions to 1990 levels. Our 2030 goal is even more ambitious – 40% below 1990 levels – and to be successful we need to start aiming for that target now.

Remember why clean air and a healthy climate matter

There will be important policy to discuss in the coming weeks, but for now let us remember why we are pressing forward on climate and clean air legislation in the first place.

California has many communities that suffer disproportionately from poor air quality caused by major emitters. As someone who grew up in South Los Angeles, I understand the impact dangerous air pollution has on daily life. Like much of San Joaquin Valley, many of California’s most vulnerable communities struggle with some of the worst air quality in the country. More must urgently be done to deal with this public health crisis.

At the same time, all of California, and indeed the world, are facing the unprecedented threat of global climate change. This demands immediate and prolonged action, especially now.

That’s why we must continue California’s renowned climate leadership and pass – as soon as possible – legislation like AB 378 that can provide solutions for both local air pollution and global climate change.

Written by Moms Clean Air Force

This was written by By Scott Weaver. It first appeared on EDF Voices:

At a time when storms are getting more destructive, floods more devastating and people and property more vulnerable, accurate weather forecasting is more critical than ever.

Which is why the Trump administration’s brazen proposal to slash funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s most important forecasting and storm prediction programs has set off alarms in recent days. In all, the president wants to slash the agency’s budget by 16 percent.

Having spent more than six years as a NOAA scientist, I know there are ways to become more efficient and make government work better. Many dedicated professionals within the agency would be eager to partner with the administration to develop that kind of action plan.

Except, efficiency is not what this proposal is about. Rather, it blatantly disregards science and how it protects lives and property.

Here are a few of the NOAA budget lowlights, and why they could matter to you:

1. Delays hurricane forecast improvements

Several NOAA programs are developing advanced modeling to make weather and storm forecasts more accurate and reliable. But the same week NOAA called for an above-average season of hurricane activity, the Trump administration requested a $5 million funding cut for these important programs.

It would slow the transition of such advanced forecasting models into real-life warning systems – directly affecting families and business owners who must prepare for severe storms. It would also make the accuracy of American weather forecasts fall farther behind its European and Japanese peers.

2. Eliminates critical tornado warning program

Vortex-Southeast – a $5 million program used to detect, respond to and warn against tornadoes in Southeastern United States – would be terminated. The program studies the intensity and path of twisters in a region with more tornado deaths than any other, and how to best communicate forecasts to the public.

3. Terminates Arctic research protecting fishermen

The president wants to cut a total of $6 million from two NOAA programs that support improvements to sea ice modeling and predictions, along with a program that models vulnerabilities among ecosystems and fisheries.

These programs, among other things, help predict where potentially hazardous floating sea ice may be present, supporting the safety and business of fishermen, commer­cial shippers, cruise ships and local commu­nities in Alaska.

4. Closes lab tracking mercury pollution, fallout

NOAA’s Air Resources Laboratory researches how mercury and other harmful materials travel through the atmosphere and fall to Earth. The lab’s models also help emergency agencies and the aviation industry minimize and respond to pollution disasters such as radioactive fallout or anthrax attacks.

And yet, the administration has requested a $4.7 million decrease to close the entire lab.

5. Slows flood forecasting improvements

A $3.1 million cut would slow upgrades to the National Water Model, an initiative hailed as a “game changer” for flood prediction when it launched in 2016. The model offers hourly forecasts for the nation’s entire river network – information that helps emergency agencies, farmers, barge operators and others respond faster and more efficiently to floods.

6. Scales back forecasts of El Niño

A $26 million cut targets programs that monitor the tropical Pacific Ocean and help forecasters predict El Niño and other global environmental weather patterns. Such cuts would make it much harder to anticipate short-term climate events such as drought, excessive flooding and other extreme weather.

These are just a few of the highlights of the administration’s proposed budget for NOAA, but should give you an idea of just how severe they are. These program cuts are not in America’s best interest.

TELL CONGRESS: NOBODY VOTED TO MAKE AMERICA DIRTY AGAIN

By Phoebe Higgins

Kyle Pemberton is a 29-year old fisherman from El Granada, California.  He grew up fishing and crabbing with his father and uncle out of Half Moon Bay, at the southern edge of the San Francisco Bay Area, where he currently resides.  He always showed strong math and mechanical skills, and considered studying engineering, but fishing proved too strong a pull.  He crewed for several years, working his way up to alternate captain on Steve Fitz’s boat, the F/V Mr. Morgan, using the unique and light-touch Scottish seine gear.

With a California Fisheries Fund loan, Kyle purchased the successful trawler F/V Moriah Lee, and is soon pulling up roots to move a four-hour drive down the coast to Morro Bay to trawl for West Coast groundfish, including Dover sole, Chilipepper rockfish, Petrale sole, and thornyheads.  He is leasing quota from the Morro Bay Community Quota Fund, a nonprofit created to prevent historic trawl fishing activity from consolidating into larger fishing vessels and ports, securing rights to the groundfish resource locally.  Anchoring groundfish access in small scale fishing ports such as Morro Bay is critical to the economic viability of these communities.

“I am excited for the opportunity to work with the Morro Bay Community Quota Fund and become part of the groundfish fleet,” he told CFF. “I am very thrilled to establish my new home and become part of the Morro Bay community.”

Hard work and a love of fishing run in Kyle’s family.  His brother is a successful fisherman too, and their mom has been very supportive of their decision to pursue a career in fishing. Kyle’s father is now the deputy harbormaster at Pillar Point Harbor, and he continues a career of fishing for salmon and crab.  When not fishing, Kyle spends time with friends and family (often comparing pounds caught or wages earned with his brother), or surfing in spots from California to Nicaragua.

Kyle is juggling a busy spring crewing, outfitting the F/V Moriah Lee, and learning a new gear type and fishing grounds.  The arrival of a new, young fisherman is welcome news for the port of Morro Bay, where every boat contributes to the economy.  He’s already received the support of several established locals in the Morro Bay fishing community, and should be an integral member of the port in no time.  The California Fisheries Fund is proud to support this new business, especially in light of the impressive recovery of the West Coast groundfish fishery, thanks to years of hard work to implement science-based conservation and management practices.

 

Kyle Pemberton is a 29-year old fisherman from El Granada, California.  He grew up fishing and crabbing with his father and uncle out of Half Moon Bay, at the southern edge of the San Francisco Bay Area, where he currently resides.  He always showed strong math and mechanical skills, and considered studying engineering, but fishing […]

Kyle Pemberton is a 29-year old fisherman from El Granada, California.  He grew up fishing and crabbing with his father and uncle out of Half Moon Bay, at the southern edge of the San Francisco Bay Area, where he currently resides.  He always showed strong math and mechanical skills, and considered studying engineering, but fishing […]

By Phoebe Higgins

Kyle Pemberton is a 29-year old fisherman from El Granada, California.  He grew up fishing and crabbing with his father and uncle out of Half Moon Bay, at the southern edge of the San Francisco Bay Area, where he currently resides.  He always showed strong math and mechanical skills, and considered studying engineering, but fishing proved too strong a pull.  He crewed for several years, working his way up to alternate captain on Steve Fitz’s boat, the F/V Mr. Morgan, using the unique and light-touch Scottish seine gear.

With a California Fisheries Fund loan, Kyle purchased the successful trawler F/V Moriah Lee, and is soon pulling up roots to move a four-hour drive down the coast to Morro Bay to trawl for West Coast groundfish, including Dover sole, Chilipepper rockfish, Petrale sole, and thornyheads.  He is leasing quota from the Morro Bay Community Quota Fund, a nonprofit created to prevent historic trawl fishing activity from consolidating into larger fishing vessels and ports, securing rights to the groundfish resource locally.  Anchoring groundfish access in small scale fishing ports such as Morro Bay is critical to the economic viability of these communities.

“I am excited for the opportunity to work with the Morro Bay Community Quota Fund and become part of the groundfish fleet,” he told CFF. “I am very thrilled to establish my new home and become part of the Morro Bay community.”

Hard work and a love of fishing run in Kyle’s family.  His brother is a successful fisherman too, and their mom has been very supportive of their decision to pursue a career in fishing. Kyle’s father is now the deputy harbormaster at Pillar Point Harbor, and he continues a career of fishing for salmon and crab.  When not fishing, Kyle spends time with friends and family (often comparing pounds caught or wages earned with his brother), or surfing in spots from California to Nicaragua.

Kyle is juggling a busy spring crewing, outfitting the F/V Moriah Lee, and learning a new gear type and fishing grounds.  The arrival of a new, young fisherman is welcome news for the port of Morro Bay, where every boat contributes to the economy.  He’s already received the support of several established locals in the Morro Bay fishing community, and should be an integral member of the port in no time.  The California Fisheries Fund is proud to support this new business, especially in light of the impressive recovery of the West Coast groundfish fishery, thanks to years of hard work to implement science-based conservation and management practices.

 

By Jenny Ahlen

My relationship with Walmart started over six years ago, working towards their 20 MMT greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goal. After some trial and error, and an exhaustive scan of greenhouse gas hotspots, it became clear that we would need to attack every point of the product lifecycle (including things like fertilizer optimization for crops and factory energy efficiency). Little did we know at the time that promoting energy-efficient products to Walmart shoppers–particularly LED lightbulbs–would prove to be so important to reach the goal in 2015.

As Walmart sets out on its next ambitious goal to remove 1 gigaton (aka 1 billion tons) of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) from the supply chain, I can’t help but wonder what the next game-changing product will be?

I don’t think the solution will be as easy as another LED lightbulb, but rather a series of disruptive innovations around how products are designed, sold and treated at the end of use.

Design: how to reduce impacts from the start 

Last month’s event focused on climate impacts, which largely come from the materials and processes used to manufacture and transport products.  Design changes can play a big role in reducing those impacts. It can also transform products into circular products, with their materials being recaptured by the economy or the planet to live another life as a component of a new product.

Point of Sale: how products are sold

The face of retail is shifting – not just from brick-and-mortar stores to online retail, but from an economy dominated by retail-to-customer relationships to one with more peer-to-peer transactions – just look at Airbnb and Lyft. This “sharing economy” has the potential to displace the number of new items needed as people increasingly use what has already been manufactured, sold and used. This can have big environmental benefits – sort of like eliminating food waste, but for general merchandise.

How products are designed, sold and treated at the end-of-life can be a huge opportunity for…
Click To Tweet

It hasn’t really taken off yet for retail, but companies like POSHMARK and ThredUp – where you can buy and sell fashion – and Spinlister – where you can rent someone’s bike – are working to change that. This will become more prevalent over time, especially as millennials have shown a preference for owning less things.

End of life: how to extend the life of a product

The sharing economy has the potential to delay a product from coming to its end of life as quickly, but once it does, innovative companies like Stuffstr can help consumers better manage what they do with their products by making resale, donations, recycling just as easy as throwing things away.

And, Stuffstr isn’t just an innovation that benefits end-consumers, but one that can help retailers understand how consumers use, and part with, the products they buy – creating opportunities to stay relevant as the sharing economy continues to grow.

What Now?

It’s clear that Walmart’s goal will catalyze innovation in how we think about products and their use. The GHGs that go into creating, selling and disposing of products is too great to ignore. I look forward to seeing which Walmart suppliers step up to the challenge.

 

Follow Jenny on Twitter, @JennyKAhlen

Additional Resources: Supply Chain Solutions Center

 

By Jenny Ahlen

My relationship with Walmart started over six years ago, working towards their 20 MMT greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goal. After some trial and error, and an exhaustive scan of greenhouse gas hotspots, it became clear that we would need to attack every point of the product lifecycle (including things like fertilizer optimization for crops and factory energy efficiency). Little did we know at the time that promoting energy-efficient products to Walmart shoppers–particularly LED lightbulbs–would prove to be so important to reach the goal in 2015.

As Walmart sets out on its next ambitious goal to remove 1 gigaton (aka 1 billion tons) of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) from the supply chain, I can’t help but wonder what the next game-changing product will be?

I don’t think the solution will be as easy as another LED lightbulb, but rather a series of disruptive innovations around how products are designed, sold and treated at the end of use.

Design: how to reduce impacts from the start 

Last month’s event focused on climate impacts, which largely come from the materials and processes used to manufacture and transport products.  Design changes can play a big role in reducing those impacts. It can also transform products into circular products, with their materials being recaptured by the economy or the planet to live another life as a component of a new product.

Point of Sale: how products are sold

The face of retail is shifting – not just from brick-and-mortar stores to online retail, but from an economy dominated by retail-to-customer relationships to one with more peer-to-peer transactions – just look at Airbnb and Lyft. This “sharing economy” has the potential to displace the number of new items needed as people increasingly use what has already been manufactured, sold and used. This can have big environmental benefits – sort of like eliminating food waste, but for general merchandise.

How products are designed, sold and treated at the end-of-life can be a huge opportunity for…
Click To Tweet

It hasn’t really taken off yet for retail, but companies like POSHMARK and ThredUp – where you can buy and sell fashion – and Spinlister – where you can rent someone’s bike – are working to change that. This will become more prevalent over time, especially as millennials have shown a preference for owning less things.

End of life: how to extend the life of a product

The sharing economy has the potential to delay a product from coming to its end of life as quickly, but once it does, innovative companies like Stuffstr can help consumers better manage what they do with their products by making resale, donations, recycling just as easy as throwing things away.

And, Stuffstr isn’t just an innovation that benefits end-consumers, but one that can help retailers understand how consumers use, and part with, the products they buy – creating opportunities to stay relevant as the sharing economy continues to grow.

What Now?

It’s clear that Walmart’s goal will catalyze innovation in how we think about products and their use. The GHGs that go into creating, selling and disposing of products is too great to ignore. I look forward to seeing which Walmart suppliers step up to the challenge.

 

Follow Jenny on Twitter, @JennyKAhlen

Additional Resources: Supply Chain Solutions Center

 

For this month’s episode of You Make Me Sick, we broke from our usual discussion of things that might harm your health to talk about an exposure that might help your health. Specifically we talked with journalist and advocate Richard Louv about the ways in which exposure to green spaces can affect your health. Mr. […]

By Jonathan Choi

For this month’s episode of You Make Me Sick, we broke from our usual discussion of things that might harm your health to talk about an exposure that might help your health. Specifically we talked with journalist and advocate Richard Louv about the ways in which exposure to green spaces can affect your health. Mr. Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods and The Nature Principle and founder of the non-profit Children and Nature Network, sat down with us to discuss the need to design nature rich lives and the future of environmentalism.

Want more? Subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play, or check out our SoundCloud to listen via desktop! [Image credit Francisco Anzola]

Welcome to Delta Dispatches with hosts, Jacques Hebert & Simone Maloz. On today’s show James F. Barnett Jr. joins the program to talk with Jacques & Simone about his fascinating book, Beyond Control: The Mississippi River’s New Channel to the Gulf of Mexico. Beyond Control reveals the Mississippi as a waterway of change, unnaturally confined by ever-larger levees and control structures. Our second guest is Alisha Renfro, Staff Scientist from the National Wildlife Federation, who stops by to talk with ...

Read The Full Story

The post Delta Dispatches: Engineering of the Mississippi River appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

Welcome to Delta Dispatches with hosts, Jacques Hebert & Simone Maloz. On today’s show James F. Barnett Jr. joins the program to talk with Jacques & Simone about his fascinating book, Beyond Control: The Mississippi River’s New Channel to the Gulf of Mexico. Beyond Control reveals the Mississippi as a waterway of change, unnaturally confined by ever-larger levees and control structures. Our second guest is Alisha Renfro, Staff Scientist from the National Wildlife Federation, who stops by to talk with ...

Read The Full Story

The post Delta Dispatches: Engineering of the Mississippi River appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

Welcome to Delta Dispatches with hosts, Jacques Hebert & Simone Maloz. On today’s show James F. Barnett Jr. joins the program to talk with Jacques & Simone about his fascinating book, Beyond Control: The Mississippi River’s New Channel to the Gulf of Mexico. Beyond Control reveals the Mississippi as a waterway of change, unnaturally confined by ever-larger levees and control structures. Our second guest is Alisha Renfro, Staff Scientist from the National Wildlife Federation, who stops by to talk with ...

Read The Full Story

The post Delta Dispatches: Engineering of the Mississippi River appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

Written by Molly Rauch

Asthma is a major problem in the US. More than 6 million children have the disease.

It is terrifying to watch a child struggle to take a breath. Breathing is the ultimate sign of life – when that is curtailed, it is a mother’s worst nightmare.

But asthma is more than a physical threat. It also has very real impact on our children’s education. Each day, 77,000 US children miss school due to asthma. Every single day.

What happens when kids stay home from school? They miss opportunities to learn. Their parents often have to miss work to take them to the doctor or the ER, or to pick up and administer prescriptions. And, kids miss school lunch. In fact, 40% of US children rely on free or reduced price school lunches. For many children, missing school means missing the most important meal of the day.

In honor of World Asthma Day, on May 2, 2017, we partnered with Allergy & Asthma Network, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, Breathe DC, Children’s Environmental Health Network, Dear Tomorrow, and others to highlight the impact of asthma on our kids, and to make it real. We installed 770 lunch boxes and lunch trays outside of Union Station in Washington, DC. Each lunch box or lunch tray represented 100 children who stayed home from school that day and every day because of asthma.

Asthma is a complex disease, but we know that air pollution makes it worse. As the Trump Administration and their allies in Congress roll back public health protections and cut funding to protect our air, our children’s lungs will suffer the consequences. So will their education.

According to the American Lung Association, 4 in 10 Americans, or 125 million people, live in areas with unhealthy levels of particle or ozone pollution. Crippling bedrock pollution protections will make the air dirtier. We don’t want to Make America Dirty Again.

TELL CONGRESS: NOBODY VOTED TO MAKE AMERICA DIRTY AGAIN

By Scott Weaver

 

(This post first appeared on EDF Voices)

At a time when storms are getting more destructive, floods more devastating and people and property more vulnerable, accurate weather forecasting is more critical than ever.

Which is why the Trump administration’s brazen proposal to slash funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s most important forecasting and storm prediction programs has set off alarms in recent days. In all, the president wants to slash the agency’s budget by 16 percent.

Having spent more than six years as a NOAA scientist, I know there are ways to become more efficient and make government work better. Many dedicated professionals within the agency would be eager to partner with the administration to develop that kind of action plan.

Except, efficiency is not what this proposal is about. Rather, it blatantly disregards science and how it protects lives and property.

Here are a few of the NOAA budget lowlights, and why they could matter to you:

1. Delays hurricane forecast improvements

Several NOAA programs are developing advanced modeling to make weather and storm forecasts more accurate and reliable. But the same week NOAA called for an above-average season of hurricane activity, the Trump administration requested a $5 million funding cut for these important programs.

It would slow the transition of such advanced forecasting models into real-life warning systems – directly affecting families and business owners who must prepare for severe storms. It would also make the accuracy of American weather forecasts fall farther behind its European and Japanese peers.

2. Eliminates critical tornado warning program

Vortex-Southeast – a $5 million program used to detect, respond to and warn against tornadoes in Southeastern United States – would be terminated. The program studies the intensity and path of twisters in a region with more tornado deaths than any other, and how to best communicate forecasts to the public.

3. Terminates Arctic research protecting fishermen

The president wants to cut a total of $6 million from two NOAA programs that support improvements to sea ice modeling and predictions, along with a program that models vulnerabilities among ecosystems and fisheries.

These programs, among other things, help predict where potentially hazardous floating sea ice may be present, supporting the safety and business of fishermen, commer­cial shippers, cruise ships and local commu­nities in Alaska.

4. Closes lab tracking mercury pollution, fallout

NOAA’s Air Resources Laboratory researches how mercury and other harmful materials travel through the atmosphere and fall to Earth. The lab’s models also help emergency agencies and the aviation industry minimize and respond to pollution disasters such as radioactive fallout or anthrax attacks.

And yet, the administration has requested a $4.7 million decrease to close the entire lab.

5. Slows flood forecasting improvements

A $3.1 million cut would slow upgrades to the National Water Model, an initiative hailed as a “game changer” for flood prediction when it launched in 2016. The model offers hourly forecasts for the nation’s entire river network – information that helps emergency agencies, farmers, barge operators and others respond faster and more efficiently to floods.

6. Scales back forecasts of El Niño

A $26 million cut targets programs that monitor the tropical Pacific Ocean and help forecasters predict El Niño and other global environmental weather patterns. Such cuts would make it much harder to anticipate short-term climate events such as drought, excessive flooding and other extreme weather.

These are just a few of the highlights of the administration’s proposed budget for NOAA, but should give you an idea of just how severe they are. These program cuts are not in America’s best interest.

By Scott Weaver

 

(This post first appeared on EDF Voices)

At a time when storms are getting more destructive, floods more devastating and people and property more vulnerable, accurate weather forecasting is more critical than ever.

Which is why the Trump administration’s brazen proposal to slash funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s most important forecasting and storm prediction programs has set off alarms in recent days. In all, the president wants to slash the agency’s budget by 16 percent.

Having spent more than six years as a NOAA scientist, I know there are ways to become more efficient and make government work better. Many dedicated professionals within the agency would be eager to partner with the administration to develop that kind of action plan.

Except, efficiency is not what this proposal is about. Rather, it blatantly disregards science and how it protects lives and property.

Here are a few of the NOAA budget lowlights, and why they could matter to you:

1. Delays hurricane forecast improvements

Several NOAA programs are developing advanced modeling to make weather and storm forecasts more accurate and reliable. But the same week NOAA called for an above-average season of hurricane activity, the Trump administration requested a $5 million funding cut for these important programs.

It would slow the transition of such advanced forecasting models into real-life warning systems – directly affecting families and business owners who must prepare for severe storms. It would also make the accuracy of American weather forecasts fall farther behind its European and Japanese peers.

2. Eliminates critical tornado warning program

Vortex-Southeast – a $5 million program used to detect, respond to and warn against tornadoes in Southeastern United States – would be terminated. The program studies the intensity and path of twisters in a region with more tornado deaths than any other, and how to best communicate forecasts to the public.

3. Terminates Arctic research protecting fishermen

The president wants to cut a total of $6 million from two NOAA programs that support improvements to sea ice modeling and predictions, along with a program that models vulnerabilities among ecosystems and fisheries.

These programs, among other things, help predict where potentially hazardous floating sea ice may be present, supporting the safety and business of fishermen, commer­cial shippers, cruise ships and local commu­nities in Alaska.

4. Closes lab tracking mercury pollution, fallout

NOAA’s Air Resources Laboratory researches how mercury and other harmful materials travel through the atmosphere and fall to Earth. The lab’s models also help emergency agencies and the aviation industry minimize and respond to pollution disasters such as radioactive fallout or anthrax attacks.

And yet, the administration has requested a $4.7 million decrease to close the entire lab.

5. Slows flood forecasting improvements

A $3.1 million cut would slow upgrades to the National Water Model, an initiative hailed as a “game changer” for flood prediction when it launched in 2016. The model offers hourly forecasts for the nation’s entire river network – information that helps emergency agencies, farmers, barge operators and others respond faster and more efficiently to floods.

6. Scales back forecasts of El Niño

A $26 million cut targets programs that monitor the tropical Pacific Ocean and help forecasters predict El Niño and other global environmental weather patterns. Such cuts would make it much harder to anticipate short-term climate events such as drought, excessive flooding and other extreme weather.

These are just a few of the highlights of the administration’s proposed budget for NOAA, but should give you an idea of just how severe they are. These program cuts are not in America’s best interest.

  (This post first appeared on EDF Voices) At a time when storms are getting more destructive, floods more devastating and people and property more vulnerable, accurate weather forecasting is more critical than ever. Which is why the Trump administration’s brazen proposal to slash funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s most important forecasting […]