When canec, Hawaii’s building material, is damaged, it can release toxic dust like asbestos – requiring special cleanup
When fire engulfed Lahaina last year, some of the older structures that burned contained canec, a historic Hawaiian-made building material made of solid sugarcane waste and potentially harmful inorganic arsenic.
To date, the US army corps of engineers (USACE) has hauled off an estimated 14,000 tons of ash suspected of arsenic contamination from the drywall-like material once manufactured in Hilo.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/16/2024 - 12:00
08/16/2024 - 11:00
Group finds elusive deep sea fish that has washed up in California only 20 times since 1901
A group of people kayaking and snorkeling off the San Diego coast made an unusual discovery when they came across an oarfish, a rarely seen deep sea fish that has washed up in California only 20 times in over a century.
The 12ft-long silvery fish was found floating dead in the water last weekend. The group, along with marine experts, helped bring the creature ashore for study.
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08/16/2024 - 10:00
Dr Adi Paterson’s statements are apparently at odds with the group’s official position, which says nuclear is needed to tackle the climate crisis
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The chair of a leading Australian nuclear advocacy group has called concerns that carbon dioxide emissions are driving a climate crisis an “irrational fear of a trace gas which is plant food” and has rejected links between worsening extreme weather and global heating.
Several statements from Dr Adi Paterson, reviewed by the Guardian, appear at odds with statements from the group he chairs, Nuclear for Australia, which is hosting a petition saying nuclear is needed to tackle an “energy and climate crisis”.
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08/16/2024 - 10:00
While the intention behind buying preloved is often rooted in sustainability, I’m uncomfortable enabling our culture’s shopping addiction
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I once fancied myself a savvy secondhand shopper, diving into thrift stores and online marketplaces with a sense of purpose. Armed with the goal of being eco-friendly, I was determined to give preloved clothes a new lease on life. It seemed like a win-win: unique pieces and a reduced environmental footprint. But after a few years of this pursuit, I faced an inconvenient truth: secondhand shopping wasn’t working for me.
First, let’s talk about the wardrobe explosion. My closet became a museum of mismatched pieces, each with a quirky backstory but collectively forming a chaotic narrative. The dream of a curated wardrobe quickly turned into clutter. Many of the clothes I bought were impulse buys, driven by the thrill of a bargain or the admirable notion of repurposing something old.
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08/16/2024 - 10:00
Pilot whale that beached itself in 1973 was infested with thousands of parasitic nematodes that may have eaten away at its blowhole
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A vial of white parasitic worms left for decades in a Tasmanian museum may help solve a timeless mystery: why do whales strand themselves on beaches?
The worms were collected from the blowhole of a pilot whale that beached itself in 1973 and then stored in Launceston’s Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.
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08/16/2024 - 09:00
DLA Piper seeking to recover costs in relation to injunctions it secured for National Highways and HS2, records show
Britain’s biggest law firm has sought more than £1m from climate protesters to cover the cost of court orders banning them from protesting, an investigation has found.
The multibillion-pound City law firm DLA Piper has been trying to recover costs from activists for work done on behalf of National Highways Limited (NHL) and HS2 Ltd – both public bodies – obtaining injunctions banning protests on their sites.
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08/16/2024 - 08:41
Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio accused by fellow billionaire of using public beach as ‘personal sandbox’
In the posh city of Malibu, Barbie and Ken rollerblade, homes sell for up to $210m – and a billionaire is digging up the beach.
In a lawsuit filed last week, the local resident James Kohlberg alleges that his neighbor, the billionaire businessman and baseball team owner Mark Attanasio, has been using construction equipment to excavate Malibu’s Broad Beach and move sand on to his private property.
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08/16/2024 - 07:00
Analysis of Inflation Reduction Act suggests working-class Americans missing out on renewable energy transition
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed exactly two years ago, was pitched as a policy that puts the “middle class first”. But the spending bill’s residential tax credits have so far disproportionately benefited wealthy families, new data indicates.
That’s a major challenge for the efforts to decarbonize the US economy in time to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis.
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08/16/2024 - 07:00
Friederike Otto of World Weather Attribution says poor people and outdoor workers are dying around the world
Heat inequality is causing thousands of unreported deaths in poor countries and communities across the world, a leading analyst of climate impacts has warned, following global temperature records that may not have been seen in 120,000 years.
Sweltering conditions act as a stealthy killer that preys on the most economically fragile, said Friederike Otto, co-founder of World Weather Attribution, in an appeal for the media and authorities to pay more attention to the dangers.
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08/16/2024 - 06:54
People say they are determined and that prevention will be key to mitigating the effects of the climate crisis
“I used to talk to them every day.” Dimitris Petrou takes in the creatures that were once his fluffy chicks but now look like coals. The buckled cage with its carbonised birds is part of the cataclysmic scenery left behind by the fire that bore down on Athens after raging across the Attica plains consuming everything in its path.
The 72-year-old retiree and his wife, Frosso, though red-eyed and fatigued, are “somehow still going” but are profoundly shocked.
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