Welcome to the weekend! We spent the week showcasing rural unrest and the impact of Big Pig in the United States. World leaders in Bonn fell short in producing a robust Paris rulebook.
Here's what you might have missed and what you need to know for the weekend.
The fight for the soul of rural culture
Ron Rosmann at his farm in Iowa. (Credit: Brian Bienkowski)
We ran our biggest series of the year this week, Peak Pig—a look at the serious changes in hog production over the past few decades and the effect consolidation and massive growth has had on rural communities across the U.S. When I was reporting on the series, professor and researcher Frank Mitloehner of University of California, Davis told me: "The farm of the past—you know, the red barn-type scenario, pigs out in the wild—those days are long gone."
He's right. Many of us have lost touch with our food and the people who grow and raise it. I was taken aback when I traveled to Iowa and North Carolina to see what "farms" look like nowadays.
We tried to take a fair, clear-eyed look at our modern food system, the social implications of its changes, and some solutions to the fights taking place in community centers and court rooms. I hope you enjoy it.
"Promoting coal at a climate summit is like promoting tobacco at a cancer summit"
-Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and a UN special envoy for cities and climate change, referring to the US administration's portrayal of fossil fuels as vital to reducing poverty and saving jobs during a Bonn session
The 23rd annual "Conference of Parties" (or COP23, in UN-speak) closed Friday with two key messages:
The 195 countries signing the Paris Agreement remain committed (yes, that includes the United States, albeit quietly) to a collective framework on international climate action, and
The international community still has yet to send a strong signal transitioning from fossil fuels.
True, 19 countries, headed by the UK and Canada, committed to phase out coal production (The Guardian called the move "a political watershed").
But little progress was made defining specific guidelines. Activists call for a "robust set of rules," then vented during U.S. talk about the necessity of fossil fuels. Our quick read: "Song, dance and protests at US energy talk." Ecowatch has a first-person account.
Look on the bright side: Governments agreed to integrate gender equality into climate action, and they committed to giving indigenous peoples equal footing in UN climate responses.
The Center for International Environmental Law called those developments "two rays of light:"
"The decisions related to gender and indigenous peoples are welcome developments," said Sébastien Duyck, a senior attorney for CIEL. The climate talks, he said, are "where theory becomes practice, with real consequences for communities around the globe.
Environmental health reporter, and friend of EHN, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Grossman—who passed away in July—has a co-byline in a story published this week in the Center for Investigative Reporting's Reveal.
The investigation—done with reporter Liza Gross and Lindsey Konkel—found 11 new members of the EPA's Science Advisory Board have, in the past, downplayed the health risks of secondhand smoke, air pollution and other hazards.
"I fear the protection of our environment is in grave danger," said former board member and Princeton University air pollution expert Denise Mauzerall, who was removed by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.
It's an eye-opening piece, emblematic of the industry-friendly tone we've seen from this administration.
And it's the kind of dogged, important, public health reporting that Lizzie Grossman was known for among peers and readers.
The billionaire mogul fighting to feed Venezuela's hungry masses.
He's one of Latin America's most private billionaires. But as Venezuela lurches through the worst economic, social and political crisis in its history, he's also become something of a Han Solo figure, billionaire mogul fighting to feed Venezuela's hungry masses. (Ozy)
Monsanto was in the news this week, joining with some US farm groups to sue California over the state's decision to put cancer warnings on products containing the weedkiller glyphosate.
Meanwhile the EU still hasn't decided whether or not to renew the license for glyphosate, which is due to expire on Dec. 15.
Head's up: Next week we will run translations of an investigation from the French newspaper, Le Monde. Called "Monsanto Papers," the reports examine the fallout and disinformation campaign waged after the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer deemed glyphosate a "probable human carcinogen" in 2015.
The Le Monde series, published in June in French, recently won the Prix Varenne Presse quotidienne nationale (Varenne award for the national daily press). It's important work that deserves an English translation.
As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency nears finalization of its emissions standards for power plants, potential modifications aim to tighten controls on gas-fired facilities.
The EPA is considering extending compliance deadlines for power plants needing carbon capture technology.
Discussions suggest modifications that would broaden the scope of strict emissions standards to include more gas-fired power plants.
Stakeholders including environmentalists and industry groups have influenced the ongoing revisions, seeking feasible implementation timelines.
Key quote:
"We were obviously concerned that by removing existing gas from this rule that it opens up the opportunity to rely more on existing gas, and the emissions from gas plants could increase."
— Ann Weeks, senior counsel and legal director at the Clean Air Task Force
Why this matters:
Natural gas plants, while cleaner than coal-fired plants, still emit significant amounts of carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. In addition, these plants can release pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, which can cause respiratory problems and other health issues.
Tightening emissions regulations aligns with broader efforts to reduce the United States' carbon footprint and transition towards more sustainable energy sources.
CAMERON PARISH, La. — Late into the night, John Allaire watches the facility next to his home shoot 300-foot flares from stacks.
He lives within eyesight of southwest Louisiana’s salty shores, where, for decades, he’s witnessed nearly 200 feet of land between it and his property line disappear into the sea. Two-thirds of the land was rebuilt to aid the oil and gas industry’s LNG expansion. LNG — shorthand for liquified natural gas – is natural gas that's cooled to liquid form for easier storage or transport; it equates to 1/600th the volume of natural gas in a gaseous state. It’s used to generate electricity, or fuel stove tops and home heaters, and in industrial processes like manufacturing fertilizer.
In the U.S., at least 30 new LNG terminal facilities have been constructed or proposed since 2016, according to the
Oil and Gas Watch project. Louisiana and Texas’ Gulf Coast, where five facilities are already operating, will host roughly two-thirds of the new LNG terminals – meaning at least 22 Gulf Coast LNG facilities are currently under construction, were recently approved to break ground or are under further regulatory review.
Although the U.S. didn’t ship LNG until 2016, when a freight tanker left, a few miles from where Cameron Parish’s LNG plants are today, last year the country became the global leader in LNG production and export volume, leapfrogging exporters like Qatar and Australia. The
EIA’s most recent annual outlook estimated that between the current year and 2050, U.S. LNG exports will increase by 152%.
Allaire, 68, watches how saltwater collects where rainwater once fed the area’s diminishing coastal wetlands. “We still come down here with the kids and set out the fishing rods. It's not as nice as it used to be,” he told
Environmental Health News (EHN).
That intimacy with nature drew Allaire to the area when he purchased 311 acres in 1998. An environmental engineer and 30-year oil and gas industry veteran, he helped lead environmental assessments and manage clean-ups, and although retired, he still works part-time as an environmental consultant with major petroleum companies. With a lifetime of oil and gas industry expertise, he’s watched the industry's footprint spread across Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico’s fragile shores and beyond. Now that the footprints are at the edge of his backyard, Allaire is among a cohort of organizers, residents and fisher-folk in the region mobilizing to stop LNG facility construction. For him, the industry’s expansion usurps the right-or-wrong ethics he carried across his consulting career. For anglers, oil and gas infrastructure has destroyed fishing grounds and prevented smaller vessels from accessing the seafood-rich waters of the Calcasieu River.
From the view of Allaire’s white pickup truck as he drives across his property to the ocean’s shore, he points to where a new LNG facility will replace marshlands. Commonwealth LNG intends to clear the land of trees and then backfill the remaining low-lying field.
“You see what’s happening with the environment,” Allaire said. “When the facts change, I got to change my mind about what we’re doing.”
Community bands together
John Allaire, left, purchased 311 acres in Cameron Parish in 1998, and has watched the oil and gas industry's footprint spread to his property.
Credit: John Allaire
During an Earth Day rally in April, community members gathered in the urban center of Lake Charles to demand local oil and gas industries help deliver a safer, healthier future for all. In between live acts by artists performing south Louisiana’s quintessential zydeco musical style, speakers like James Hiatt, a Calcasieu Parish native with ties to Cameron Parish and a Healthy Gulf organizer, and RISE St. James organizer Sharon Lavigne, who’s fighting against LNG development in rural Plaquemines Parish near the city of New Orleans, asked the nearly 100 in attendance to imagine a day in which the skyline isn’t dotted by oil and gas infrastructure.
Not long ago, it was hard to imagine an Earth Day rally in southwest Louisiana at all. For decades, the area has been decorated with fossil fuel infrastructure. Sunsets on some days are highlighted by the chemicals in the air; at night, thousands of facilities’ lights dot the dark sky.
“It takes a lot of balls for people to start speaking up,” Shreyas Vasudevan, a campaign researcher with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, told EHN in the days after the rally. In a region with its history and economy intertwined with oil and gas production, “you can get a lot of social criticism – or ostracization, as well – even threats to your life.”
Many are involved in local, regional and national advocacy groups, including the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Healthy Gulf, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Turtle Island Restoration Network, the Center for Biological Diversity and the National Audubon Society.
“You see what’s happening with the environment,” Allaire said. “When the facts change, I got to change my mind about what we’re doing.” - John Allaire, environmental engineer and 30-year oil and gas industry veteran
But environmental organizers are fighting a multi-billion-dollar industry with federal and state winds at its back. And LNG’s federal support is coupled with existing state initiatives.
Under outgoing Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards — a term-limited Democrat — the state pledged a goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. Natural gas, which the LNG industry markets as a cleaner-burning alternative, is cited as one of the state’s solutions. Louisiana is the only state that produces a majority of its carbon emissions through fossil fuels refining industries, like LNG, rather than energy production or transportation. Governor Edwards’ office did not return EHN’s request for comment.
This accommodating attitude towards oil and gas industries has resulted in a workforce that’s trained to work in LNG refining facilities across much of the rural Gulf region, said Steven Miles, a lawyer at Baker Botts LLP and a fellow at the Baker Institute’s Center on Energy Studies. Simultaneously, anti-industrialization pushback is lacking. It’s good news for industries like LNG.
“The bad news,” Miles added. “[LNG facilities] are all being jammed in the same areas.”
One rallying cry for opponents is local health. The Environmental Integrity Project found that LNG export terminals emit chemicals like carbon monoxide –potentially deadly– and sulfur dioxide, of which the American Lung Association says long-term exposure can lead to heart disease, cancer, and damage to internal or female reproductive organs.
An analysis of emissions monitoring reports by the advocacy group the Louisiana Bucket Brigade found that Venture Global’s existing Calcasieu Pass facility had more than 2,000 permit violations.That includes exceeding the permit’s authorized air emissions limit to release nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds 286 out of its first 343 days of operation.
The Marvel Crane, the first liquid natural gas carrier to transport natural gas from the Southwest Louisiana LNG facility, transits a channel in Hackberry, Louisiana, May 28, 2019.
“This is just one facility,” at a time when three more facilities have been proposed in the region and state, Vasudevan said. Venture Global’s operational LNG facility — also known as Calcasieu Pass — “is much smaller than the other facility they’ve proposed.”
In an area that experienced 18 feet of storm surge during Hurricane Laura in 2020 — and just weeks later, struck by Hurricane Delta — Venture Global is planning to build a second export terminal Known as “CP2,” it’s the largest of the roughly two dozen proposed Gulf LNG export terminals, and a key focal point for the region’s local organizing effort.
Residents “don’t really want LNG as much as they want Cameron [Parish] from 1990 back,” Hiatt told EHN of locals’ nostalgia for a community before storms like Rita in 2005 brought up to 15 feet of storm surge, only for Laura to repeat the damage in 2020. Throughout that time, the parish’s population dipped from roughly 10,000 to 5,000. “But the wolf knocking at the door is LNG. Folks in Cameron think that's going to bring back community, bring back the schools, bring back this time before we had all these storms — when Cameron was pretty prosperous.”
“Clearly,” for the oil and gas industry, “the idea is to transform what was once the center of commercial fishing in Louisiana to gas exports,” Cindy Robertson, an environmental activist in southwest Louisiana, told EHN.
Helping fishers’ impacted by LNG is about “actual survival of this unique culture,” Cooke said.
In a measure of organizers’ success, she pointed to a recent permit hearing for Venture Global’s CP2 proposal. Regionally, it’s the only project that’s received an environmental permit, but not its export permit, which remains under federal review. At the meeting, some spoke on the company’s behalf. As an organizer, it was a moment of clarity, Cooke explained. Venture Global officials “had obviously done a lot of coaching and organizing and getting people together in Cameron to speak out on their behalf,” Cooke said. “So, in a way, that was bad. But in another way, it shows that we really had an impact.”
“It also shows that we have a lot to do,” Cooke added.
Environmental organizers like Alyssa Portaro describe a sense of fortitude among activists — she and her husband to the region’s nearby town of Vinton near the Texas-Louisiana border. Since the families’ relocation to their farm, Portaro has worked with Cameron Parish fisher-folk.
“I’ve not witnessed ‘community’ anywhere like there is in Louisiana,” Portaro told EHN. But a New Jersey native, she understands the toll environmental pollution has on low-income communities. “This environment, it’s so at risk — and it’s currently getting sacrificed to big industries.”
“People don’t know what we’d do without oil and gas. It comes at a big price,” she added.
Southwest Louisiana’s Cameron Parish is one of the state’s most rural localities. Marine economies were the area’s economic drivers until natural disasters and LNG facilities began pushing locals out, commercial fishers claim.
Credit: Xander Peters for Environmental Health News
Residents “don’t really want LNG as much as they want Cameron [Parish] from 1990 back,” James Hiatt , a Healthy Gulf organizer, told EHN. "But the wolf knocking at the door is LNG."
Credit: Xander Peters for Environmental Health News
For the most part, Cameron Parish’s life and economy has historically taken place at sea. As new LNG facilities are operational or in planning locally, locals claim the community they once knew is nearly unrecognizable.
Credit: Xander Peters for Environmental Health News
A disappearing parish
The stakes are seemingly higher for a region like southwest Louisiana, which is the epicenter of climate change impacts.
In nearly a century, the state has lost roughly 2,000 square miles of land to coastal erosion. In part driving the state’s erosion crisis is the compounding impacts of Mississippi River infrastructure and oil and gas industry activity, such as dredging canals for shipping purposes, according to a March study published in the journal Nature Sustainability. Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority said Cameron Parish could lose more land than other coastal parishes over the next 50 years. A recent Climate Central report says the parish will be underwater within that time frame.
On top of erosion and sea level rise impacts, in August, 2023, marshland across southwest Louisiana’s Cameron Parish burned. The fires were among at least 600 across the Bayou State this year. Statewide, roughly 60,000 acres burned — a more than six-fold increase of the state’s average acres burned per year in the past decade alone.
But while the blaze avoided coastal Louisiana communities like Cameron Parish, the fires represented a warning coming from a growing chorus of locals across the region — one that’s echoes by the local commercial fishing population, who claimed to have experienced unusually low yields during the same time, according to a statement from a local environmental group. At the site of the Cameron Parish fires are locations for two proposed LNG expansion projects.
"The idea is to transform what was once the center of commercial fishing in Louisiana to gas exports.” - Cindy Robertson, an environmental activist in southwest Louisiana
It was an unusual occurrence for an area that’s more often itself underwater this time of year due to a storm surge from powerful storms. For LNG expansion’s local opposition, it was a red flag.
As the Louisiana Bucket Brigade has noted prior, the confluence of climate change’s raising of sea levels and the construction of LNG export terminals — some are proposed at the size of nearly 700 football fields — are wiping away the marshland folks like Allaire watched wither. Among their fears is that the future facilities won’t be able to withstand the power of another storm like Laura and its storm surge, which wiped away entire communities in 2020.
Amidst these regional climate impacts, LNG infrastructure has shown potential to exacerbate the accumulation of greenhouse gasses that cause global warming. For the most part, LNG is made up of methane — a greenhouse gas that’s more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Among the 22 current LNG facility proposals, the advocacy group Sierra Club described a combined climate pollution output that would roughly equal to that of about 440 coal plants.
The climate impacts prompt some of the LNG industry’s uncertainty going forward. It isn’t clear if Asian countries, key importers of U.S. LNG, will “embrace these energy transition issues,” said David Dismuke, an energy consultant and the former executive director of Louisiana State University’s Center for Energy Studies. Likewise, European nations remain skeptical of embracing LNG as a future staple fuel source.
“They really don't want to have to pull the trigger,” Dismukes added, referring to Europe’s hesitation to commit more resources to exporting LNG from the American market. “They don't want to go down that road.”
While there will be a tapering down of natural gas supply, Miles explained, “we’re going to need natural gas for a long time,” as larger battery storage for renewables is still unavailable.
“I'm not one of these futurists that can tell you where we're going to be, but I just don't see everything being extreme,” Dismukes said. “I don't see what we've already built getting stranded and going away, either.”
For now, LNG seems here to stay. From 2012 to 2022,U.S. natural gas demand — the sum of both domestic consumption and gross exports — rose by a whopping 43%, reported the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA. Meanwhile, in oil and gas hotbeds like Louisiana and Texas, natural gas demand grew by 116%.
Throughout 25 years, Allaire has witnessed southwest Louisiana’s land slowly fade, in part driven by the same industrial spread regionally. Near where the front door of his travel trailer sits underneath the aluminum awning, he points to a chenier ridge located near the end of the property. It’s disappearing, he said.
“See the sand washing over, in here?” Allaire says, as he points towards the stretches of his property. “This pond used to go down for a half mile. This is all that's left of it on this side.”
Brazil's beef industry faces a potential 25% reduction in production by 2050 if it fails to adapt to stringent climate policies and forest conservation efforts.
Brazil's beef production might decrease by a quarter by 2050 due to enhanced climate and forest conservation measures.
The cattle industry faces significant financial risks unless it adopts new technologies and sustainable practices.
Deforestation linked to cattle ranching exacerbates climate change, negatively affecting cattle health and soil productivity.
Key quote:
"The future of the Brazilian cattle sector is set to look very different to how it appears and operates today."
— Niamh McCarthy, director of Orbitas
Why this matters:
Rising temperatures, altered rainfall patterns, and increased frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods are expected to impact pasture quality and water availability, crucial for cattle grazing. These environmental changes can lead to reduced feed quality and availability, stressing cattle and potentially decreasing meat and milk production.
Technological solutions like decarbonization might not address the deeper social and political issues affecting environmental sustainability.
Emphasis on reducing carbon emissions often overshadows other environmental concerns such as biodiversity loss and pollution.
The current strategy of reducing emissions through technological means may neglect the underlying economic and political factors contributing to environmental degradation.
Key quote:
"Technology can, at best, kick conflicts down the road. Peace cannot be engineered."
— Peter Sutoris, environmental anthropologist
Why this matters:
Relying solely on decarbonization to achieve sustainability overlooks several critical aspects of environmental and societal health. Decarbonization primarily focuses on reducing carbon emissions, particularly from energy production and industrial processes, which is undoubtedly essential. However, sustainability is a broader concept that includes economic, social, and environmental balance.
Despite constituting a small fraction of their portfolios, big banks' financing of the industrial livestock industry plays a disproportionately large role in global greenhouse emissions, a recent environmental report reveals.
A new report indicates big banks' funding of the industrial livestock sector is significant for its climate impact, despite being a minor part of their loan portfolios.
Among the banks, three major ones account for 60% of financial backing to the largest animal agriculture companies, which are key in emissions.
Proposed solutions include mandatory emissions reporting and reduction plans for these companies, aligning with global climate objectives.
Key quote:
"We're saying to them, 'Look, this is something that is a very, very tiny portion of your portfolio, but could actually make massive strides towards your own stated climate commitments,'"
— Monique Mikhail, campaigns director of Friends of the Earth’s Agriculture & Climate Finance program
Why this matters:
The financing from major banks helps sustain and expand these operations, directly linking them to the environmental impact associated with industrial livestock farming. This support extends not only to the farms themselves but also to the entire supply chain, including feed production, animal breeding, meat processing, and distribution networks, all of which contribute to the carbon footprint of the industry.
Amid a high-stakes election season, the Biden administration is channeling billions into climate initiatives aimed at securing lasting reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of future political shifts.
The Biden administration is allocating billions to tackle complex climate challenges, funding innovations from zero-emissions concrete to cleaner food production.
Recent legislation enables significant investment in clean energy projects aimed at reducing emissions, particularly in low-income areas.
Experts highlight the importance of these investments in influencing global climate action and ensuring sustainability beyond current political cycles.
Key quote:
"We are seeing billions of dollars going into really tricky parts of the energy transition and if there’s momentum behind this we will be measuring the impacts many years in the future."
— Melissa Lott, professor at Columbia University's climate school
Why this matters:
Climate change remains a critical issue among Democratic voters; strong action could galvanize the base, proving President Biden’s commitment to one of his key campaign promises. With extreme weather events becoming more frequent and severe, there is a growing public urgency for action that transcends political lines, potentially helping Biden appeal to moderate and undecided voters.
A public research institute in Brazil has developed a promising single-dose vaccine offering strong protection against dengue, a timely discovery given the current severe outbreak across Latin America.
The new vaccine effectively combats all four dengue virus strains, potentially improving future outbreak responses.
Despite this breakthrough, production delays mean the vaccine won't be available in time to combat the current or possibly even the next outbreak cycle.
Brazil faces specific challenges, as the new vaccine will initially only be available domestically, leaving other Latin American countries to wait for alternative solutions.
Why this matters:
A more effective vaccine could reduce the incidence and severity of the disease, easing the burden on healthcare systems and improving public health outcomes. This is particularly crucial as climate change could expand the habitats of dengue-carrying mosquitoes, potentially increasing the risk areas for the disease.
Oregon’s Regenyx plant announced its closing in late February, with those involved calling it a success, despite never reaching planned capacity and millions of dollars lost.
