| By Alexander Battle Abdelal Beating the heat in the US is a little harder this summer than it used to be: E. coli and cyanobacteria are causing widespread beach closures at lakes and rivers. It turns out that climate change-fueled warmer waters — and more prolific downpours — are amazing vibes for bacteria. Between 1985 and 2009, lakes and ponds warmed at a rate of roughly 0.6F (0.3C) per decade, a trajectory that is increasing the risk of bacteria blooms in historically cold places. The bacteria can cause a host of symptoms, including blisters, rashes, diarrhea, muscle weakness, and liver damage, to name a few. Outbreaks can also tax ecosystems; plus, they're expensive. Heavy rain often provides the "fuel and supplies" for bacterial spikes, says Kaitlin Reinl, a limnologist with NOAA. Stormwater drives bacterial growth by washing phosphorus and nitrogen into lakes and rivers, where heat waves can drive bacteria and algae growth. "Basically, temperature speeds up everything," says Hans-Peter Grossart, a professor of aquatic microbial ecology at Potsdam University.  Bilingual health alert signs warming visitors to the algae toxin at Cameron Wight Park in Sanford, Florida. Photographer: Jeff Greenberg/Getty Images One of the most common bacterial threats to water quality is diarrheagenic E. coli, which thrives in warmer conditions: Each 1C increase in monthly average temperature raises its incidence by 8%. Cyanobacteria — dubbed blue-green algae — also blooms in the high heat. When the algae decomposes, it releases toxins that can cause respiratory and gastrointestinal issues, eye and skin irritation, and in extreme cases seizures and liver damage. The algae can even kill pets and wildlife, In historically hot climates like Florida, precipitation is the largest factor driving cyanobacterial blooms. But rising temperatures are impacting waterways in cooler climates. As of Friday, Massachusetts had reached a season record with 55 beach closures, 87% of them due to bacterial spikes. Vermont's cyanobacteria tracker lists more than 40 active alerts. The risk of an outbreak even hangs over Lake Tahoe, famous for its pristine waters. Algal blooms have become a growing issue in recent years, and dangerous toxins were detected in a pond on Lake Tahoe's Nevada shores, though it wasn't connected to the lake. "The 1.4 degree annual rise in water temperature is having an impact on parts of the lake we thought would never be a problem," says Jeff Cowen, a public information officer at the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. That's also threatening Tahoe's $5.1 billion in yearly tourism revenue, which makes up 60% of the area's economy, according to Cowen. When Lake Elsinore, the largest freshwater lake in Southern California, shut down for six months in 2022 due to a dangerous bacterial bloom, the city lost $300,000 in lake use fees alone.  Tourism makes up 60% of Tahoe's yearly revenue. Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images To avert a repeat, Lake Elsinore in February kickstarted a $2 million investment to pilot what's known as nanobubble technology, from Moleaer Inc. By injecting the lake with pure oxygen, Moleaer's nanobubble barges limit the release of phosphorus that allows bacteria to thrive. But technological solutions for large bodies of water remain few and far between. Adam Gufarotti, community support manager for the city of Lake Elsinore, says he is constantly being pitched on water-quality innovations, but many can't handle a lake of Elsinore's size. "A lot of the time, the largest body of water they've cleaned up is one acre or 50 acres. Lake Elsinore is 3,000 acres," he says. The cost of using these technologies at that scale can reach into the tens of millions of dollars. Ultimately, the best strategies for reducing the risk of harmful bacterial blooms are reducing nitrogen and phosphorus pollution to cut off the fuel algae need, and lowering emissions. Failing to do so could leave tourism-dependent communities up a creek. "The lake's beauty, scenic quality, blueness and clarity are what attract people in the first place," Cowen says. "But it goes beyond that: Here, the economy is the environment and the environment is the economy." Read and share a full version of this story on Bloomberg.com. For unlimited access to climate and energy news and original data and graphics reporting, please subscribe. -
Experts are fighting about heat wave names. Several organizations have called on meteorologists to give heat waves monikers, a la hurricanes. But meteorologists aren't convinced it would help. -
Mining under extreme heat is like working in an oven. In Australia's Pilbara region, 60,000 people work outdoors in open pits, process plants, railroads and ports, mining iron ore in 40C (104F) heat. -
Heat could be causing branches to fall off trees. "Sudden limb drop" is a phenomenon in which seemingly healthy trees suddenly lose their limbs. One theory holds that they're hot and trying to self-prune. -
Opening the perfect cooling center is harder than it looks. Cities are increasingly embracing cooling centers to help people beat the heat. But getting those people to actually show up is a whole other hurdle. -
Heat waves are already reshaping daily life. From 6 a.m. errands and rejiggered commutes to new hydration tactics and a boom in air conditioning, heat wave workarounds are becoming the new normal. -
Record temperatures are testing ketchup. California, where all of the tomatoes for Heinz ketchup sold in the US are grown, just got its hottest July ever. What that means for this year's yield is still an open question.  Tomatoes at the Morning Star Packing Company. Photographer: Jason Henry/Bloomberg -
Europe's rivers have a sewage problem. It's not just the Seine. Across the continent, untreated waste that flows directly into rivers and lakes is making people sick and harming wildlife. -
Singapore's new wooden building has a mold problem. The Gaia building uses mass-engineered timber made mostly from Austrian spruce, which has lower mold resistance than many other species. -
Pennsylvania is still salty at Kamala Harris. While her campaign insists she no longer wants to ban fracking, the presidential nominee will need to spell out how she plans to treat the oil and gas industry. -
Almost nobody is buying green hydrogen. Most of the existing fuel purchase agreements are vague and non-binding, which means many of the projects now touted with great fanfare will likely never get built. -
Home buyers are YOLOing in Cape Cod. House hunters may soon be able to find more steeply discounted deals as owners in prime US beach towns seek to cut their losses before the sea is at their doorstep. -
Surf breaks are a hidden weapon in the climate fight. Forests, marshes and mangroves adjacent to surf breaks store 88.3 million metric tons of CO2 that would be impossible to re-sequester before 2050. -
Emissions-tracking apps are on the rise. There are now more than a dozen apps for keeping tabs on your carbon footprint, straddling a tricky line between highlighting and overemphasizing individuals' impact.  The Commons app tracks the carbon footprint of users' spending and offers cash back for sustainable choices. Photo: Commons Weeks after a busted wind turbine washed onto Nantucket shores, residents of the wealthy Massachusetts enclave are still angry. Their ire belies the fleeting nature of the event — waters were re-opened for swimming within 24 hours — but the sense of harm felt by the community is poised to cast a long shadow. What happens in Nantucket could have implications for a raft of other projects planned off Martha's Vineyard, Atlantic City and elsewhere on the US East Coast. "The great Nantucket experiment gets an F-minus," says Kevin O'Leary, chairman of O'Leary Ventures and an investor on Shark Tank. "It's not a golden example of success in wind turbines, that's for sure."  Vineyard Wind's turbine blade splintered into pieces, sending debris onto Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard beaches. Photographer: Steve Heaslip /Cape Cod Times/USA Today Network The intersection of health and climate change is a growing area of research, and an increasingly urgent one: Heat deaths among seniors, for example, are projected to increase 370% by mid-century. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi sits down with Renee Salas, an emergency medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and a leading expert on the health impacts of global warming. "The take-home I want everyone to go away with is that we all are at risk for this," Salas says, "especially as we get into more extreme conditions." We're burning more coal than ever. Why? Coal is both the dirtiest fossil fuel and the biggest source of electricity, accounting for 35% of the world's generation last year. That figure represents progress, too: From 2006 through 2014, it was 40%-plus. But even as scientists sound the alarm on dangerous climate tipping points, coal consumption is still growing. It's expected to hit a record in 2024, and is on track to be higher in 2050 than it was in 2000. The basic problem is simple: Whenever the security of electricity supply is in doubt, the imperative to contain global warming slips down the agenda. But the specifics vary by region. Developing countries value coal as a cheap and convenient source of power they can use to modernize their economies, just as Western nations did before them. In many Western countries, meanwhile, coal remains resilient. Russia's choking off of gas supplies to Europe, plus expectations for continued growth in power demand, are delaying plans to retire coal plants. Still, the coal bill is coming due. To reach net zero by 2050, global coal use would need to fall by more than 90%, and what's left would need to be handled by plants capable of capturing and storing emissions. Need help understanding net zero? Send climate questions our way. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment