Some communities would have to relocate to higher ground under New Zealand’s first climate adaptation plan, in a warning signal to low-lying coastal communities worldwide.
About 70,000 homes along New Zealand’s coasts are at risk from rising seas — with far more at risk from inland flooding along rivers, The Associated Press reported.
“I am frustrated that for the last three decades, successive governments have not paid any attention in any real form to the challenges that we face from the effects of climate change,” Climate Change Minister James Shaw told reporters, according to the AP.
“We had to start somewhere,” Shaw added.
New Zealand’s announcement comes the same day that researchers released findings that U.S. communities in regions vulnerable to sea-level rise have developed faster than inland districts. Seaside neighborhoods also tend to be more densely populated, according to the study, published in the journal PLOS One.
“These patterns are particularly prominent in locations affected by hurricanes,” the scientists wrote.
New Zealand’s climate adaptation plan addresses the possibility that conditions — or simply risk — in some coastal communities may become “intolerable.”
“Inundation of buildings and infrastructure will start to occur, leading to direct damage and loss of some facilities like roads or other lifeline services, and public open space,” the architects of the plan wrote.
New Zealand is dealing with its version of this problem by considering the possibility of “managed retreat,” in which communities relocate in good times before they are forced to do so under conditions of crisis, the AP reported.
Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. We’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Send us tips and feedback. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.
Today we’ll start with a United Nations warning about the dwindling water reserves in the U.S. West, followed by OPEC+’s decision to slightly increase oil output. Then we’ll in look at why heat waves can be bad news for nuclear power.
The United Nations warned on Tuesday that the two biggest water reservoirs in the United States have dwindled to “dangerously low levels” due to the impacts of climate change.
Approaching ‘dead pool’: The situation has become so severe that these reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are on the verge of reaching a so-called “dead pool status,” according to the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP).
A new normal: “The conditions in the American West, which we’re seeing around the Colorado River basin, have been so dry for more than 20 years that we’re no longer speaking of a drought,” said Lis Mullin Bernhardt, an ecosystems expert at UNEP.
“We refer to it as ‘aridification’ — a new very dry normal,” Bernhardt added.
Massive system under threat: The Colorado River system supplies water to more than 40 million people and irrigates about 5.7 million acres of agriculture, as we previously reported.
Cuts may not be enough: As the Western water crisis continues to deepen, water cuts will be introduced throughout the region, but experts warn that these actions may not be enough, according to UNEP.
“While regulating and managing water supply and demand are essential in both the short and long term, climate change is at the heart of this issue,” Maria Morgado, UNEP’s ecosystems officer in North America, said in a statement.
“In the long term we need to address the root causes of climate change as well as water demands,” Morgado added.
To read the full story, please click here.
The OPEC+ consortium of oil producing countries announced plans on Wednesday to slightly boost output by 100,000 barrels per day for the month of September.
But don’t expect that to cut gasoline prices: The increase, which experts consider largely a “political gesture” to the West, is equivalent to just 0.1 percent of global oil demand, according to Reuters.
An anticipated announcement: Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their allies — collectively called OPEC+ — gathered to set oil production policy for September, as we previously reported.
Pressure from the U.S.: The “symbolic move” follows calls by the U.S. and other major oil consumers to boost global stockpiles, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Political rather than financial gains: The agreement is “more a diplomatic move than an economic one that would have a noticeable impact on world oil markets,” The Washington Post reported.
OPEC+ nations were already failing to meet production quotas prior to the announcement, so doubt remains as to whether the consortium can deliver on its promises, according to the Post.
Setback to Biden: Analysts told Reuters that the OPEC+ announcement constitutes a setback to Biden, as it is one of the smallest increases since the consortium introduced its quota system in 1982.
“That is so little as to be meaningless,” Read Alkadiri, a managing director at the Eurasia Group, told Reuters.
“From a physical standpoint, it is a marginal blip,” Alkadiri added. “As a political gesture, it is almost insulting.”
U.S.-based nuclear manufacturer Last Energy recently signed a billion-dollar deal to supply Poland with 10 small modular reactors (SMR) — a cutting-edge form of nuclear power that just received an important approval from federal regulators.
Shipping out: Last Energy will develop 10 of the reactors for an industrial region in southwest Poland, according to Nuclear Engineering International Magazine.
New approval: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday approved its first SMR design — from Oregon-based reactor manufacturer NuScale.
NuScale’s reactors offer significant advantages to existing nuclear power, according to science news site New Atlas.
Tough questions remain: But while SMRs may be safer than their predecessors, they risk becoming expensive boondoggles, public policy scholar M.V. Ramana of University of British Columbia wrote in left-leaning magazine Counterpunch.
The heat wave broiling Europe has throttled down the power supplied by French nuclear plants in a blow to Europe’s already jumpy energy markets.
That’s a sign of the engineering challenges climate change poses to the low-carbon technology — even as longtime opponents to nuclear power in the European Union like Germany consider prolonging its use.
Too hot for nuclear: Heat waves in France have driven up water temperatures to the point that rivers can no longer be used to cool nuclear reactors, The Guardian reported.
In hot water: Nuclear reactors make use of local water resources to cool off their steam turbines — a system which the combined heat wave and drought are putting at risk, according to Reuters.
Long term trends: Climate change is making this risk worse, Energy News Network reported.
WAR IN UKRAINE MEANS COMPLEX ROLE FOR NUCLEAR ACROSS EUROPE
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday made the unprecedented announcement that Berlin might postpone the long-planned closure of its nuclear reactors, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A very dangerous situation: Conditions at the major nuclear plant of Zaporizhya in Eastern Ukraine are “completely out of control” and getting worse, Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told The Associated Press.
These conditions include Russian artillery units firing missiles from the cover of the nuclear plant — while Ukrainian techs attempt to work within, The New York Times reported.
Fire and flood combine in Northern California, a lost puppy proves a small bundle of consolation and a strong contender for the “Most Embarrassing Way to Start a Wildfire” Awards.
Deadly fire, combined with floods, persists in Northern California
Puppy reunited with owner amid McKinney Fire inferno
Man tries to burn spider, causes wildfire
Stay cool out there, be careful with fires — and be kind to spiders, who tend to eat more troublesome pests, as North Carolina entomologist Matt Bertone wrote in the Conversation.
Please visit The Hill’s Sustainability section online for the web version of this newsletter and more stories. We’ll see you tomorrow.
THE HILL 1625 K STREET, NW SUITE 900 WASHINGTON DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 TEL | 202-628-8503 FAX
© 1998 - 2022 Nexstar Inc. | All Rights Reserved.