 Air
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Remembering President George H.W. Bush's Clean Air Legacy
President George Bush, who died late on Friday, will be remembered for many things, but at the top of the list of his accomplishments should be the passage of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. This sweeping law has both cleaned the air in this country and at the same time given the government the authority it needs to deal with climate change. Since their passage, the Amendments have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, made the U.S. much more productive, and helped us to be the leader in the development of clean air technology. According to an EPA study in 2011, in its first 20 years, the Act:
- Avoided more than 160,000 premature deaths, 130,000 heart attacks, millions of cases of respiratory problems such as acute bronchitis and asthma attacks, and 86,000 hospital admissions;
- Prevented 13 million lost workdays, improving worker productivity that contributes to a stronger economy; and
- Kept kids healthy and in school, avoiding 3.2 million lost school days due to respiratory illness and other diseases caused or exacerbated by air pollution.
What’s more, by 2020, the law will have prevented 240,000 adult deaths from air pollution, 5.4 million lost school days, and 17,000,000 lost workdays. The Act has also been quite good for jobs and the economy -- contrary to what President Trump argues. For example, the Clean Air Act Amendments' clean car rule -- which the President is trying to roll back -- has led to the development and application of a range of automotive technologies and the vehicle emissions control industry employs approximately 65,000 Americans with domestic annual sales of $26 billion. In 2008, the EPA found that air pollution control equipment alone generated revenues of $18 billion, including exports of approximately $3 billion.
Why This Matters: President Bush's passing, and the discussion of his environmental legacy, is a painful reminder that until the mid-90's, Republicans and Democrats were able to largely agree on the importance of environmental laws -- and find common ground to pass them. Thank goodness they did. It is hard to imagine a law that has done more to boost our health and safety, and our productivity and prosperity. We would be much farther behind dealing with climate change but for the leadership of Bush 41. He well understood that conservation of the environment and a strong economy are not at odds, but rather go hand in hand.
To Go Deeper: Read my (Monica's) op/ed in The Washington Post here. And for a bit of nostalgia, take a look at this video from President Bush's announcement early in his Presidency of his intention to get the Clean Air Act Amendments passed. Those were the days.
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 Land
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An Anchorage road cracks and caves as a result of the quakes. Photo: AP
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Back-to-Back Earthquakes in Alaska
Multiple earthquakes that measured 7.0 and 5.7 on the Richter scale rocked buildings and shattered roads Friday morning in Anchorage, sending people running into the streets and briefly triggering a warning to residents in Kodiak to flee to higher ground for fear of a tsunami, according to AP. Since Friday's big quakes, thousands of aftershocks continue to occur and as the Anchorage Daily News reported, as of Sunday evening, there had been nearly 1,400 recorded aftershocks of any magnitude; 593 of magnitude 2.0 or greater; 17 that registered at least 4.0; and five that were at least 5.0. All the aftershocks have been clustered around the epicenter across Knik Arm from Anchorage.
Rafael Abreu, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Science Center told the publication that “You can expect earthquakes in magnitude 5 or 4 to continue for the next couple of weeks, and as time goes on it tapers off."
Why This Matters: Alaskans take tsunami warning very seriously after the massive 9.2 magnitude earthquake (and the largest recorded quake in American history) of 1964 triggered a major tsunami that killed hundreds of people. While damage occurred in this quake, earthquake preparedness has come a long was since 1964 and buildings are built to stand up to quakes in the most seismically-active parts of the state. As the New York Times wrote, despite sunken streets and power outages damage could have been a lot worse. Anchorage's ports did not close and there have been no reported casualties, despite the fact that the aftershocks are incredibly unnerving.
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 Climate Change
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UN Climate Conference of the Parties 24 Opens Photo: UN News
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UN Climate Meeting Begins -- Coal and Gender Top the Agenda
by Cate Calogero and Monica Medina
With 40 heads of State and heads of Government in attendance, as well as UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, the United Nations' annual Climate Change Conference of the Parties two-week negotiating session kicked off on Sunday. The meeting will focus this year on carbon neutrality and gender equality. It comes on the heels of two reports showing that urging drastic action by the group -- the U.S. Fourth National Climate Assessment Report and the World Meteorological Organization Report, the latter of which painted a dire picture that greenhouse gasses trapped in the atmosphere continue to rise with no sign of stopping.
The key question concerns global dependence on coal for fuel. According to the Associated Press, Poland, which is hosting the meeting in a former coal mining town, is planning to use the opening event to promote a declaration calling for a “just transition” for fossil fuel industries that face cuts and closures. The New York Times took a hard look at why coal won't go away, and the answer, in a word, is Asia, which is responsible for three-fourths of global coal consumption today. Large players in Asia, such as China and India, have continued building coal plants, with 1,200 plants under construction, leaving their economies and the neighborhoods surrounding these new plants in dirty, black ash. Coal is viewed as the “safe” option, giving politicians an easy way to use existing infrastructure to deliver energy to areas that suffer from widespread power outages, such as rural areas in Vietnam, India, and Japan.
Why This Matters: Leaders at the meeting will need to be creative to find ways to hold all countries to their commitments. The negotiations will center on reporting and accountability -- the so-called Paris rulebook, which will determine how governments record and report their greenhouse emissions and efforts to cut them. But it seems they are at least willing to try to stick with it. At the G-20 meeting in Argentina, all the leaders of the leading economic powers in the world signed a document reaffirming their commitment to the Paris Accord -- except one. MAGA? Not! Sigh.
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Gender Equality and Climate Change Will Also Be On the Agenda at COP24
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 Health
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Asian Longhorned Tick Spreads To Ninth State
A new tick species that "invaded" the U.S. from Asia is causing alarm in the public health community. Officials fear that the tick will spread a serious illness called "severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus" (SFTSV), whose symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and anemia, and can be fatal. The tick has turned up so far in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia -- on domestic animals and wildlife, and at least two people. It can also cause Japanese spotted fever in humans, another potentially fatal illness that brings very high fever and a red rash, as well as being a carrier of a number of other viruses, parasites, and bacteria.
Thus far, no one in the U.S. had fallen ill because of them. The main threat is to livestock for now. Interestingly, the ticks can reproduce up to 2,000 offspring at once, and according to Popular Science, the "female adults make viable eggs on their own, spreading thousands of baby ticks out into the world without a tick man to help them." But as a result, hundreds or even thousands of ticks can be found on a single carrier. Yuck!
Why This Matters: The Washington Post reports that diseases spread by ticks and mosquitos are on the rise -- they have more than tripled in the United States from 2004 to 2016, according to the CDC. This can be chalked up to many modern issues such as expanding travel and trade, urbanization, and population growth. But another certain contributor is that warming temperatures associated with climate change make the environment more favorable for ticks or mosquitoes and they also increase the length of the season when ticks are active. This is the first new tick species to be introduced into the U.S. in eighty years, but it is likely there will be more in the future. Which is why a team of representatives from several federal agencies, including the Defense Department, is getting together this week to come up with a nationally coordinated strategy for fighting these vector-borne diseases.
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 Sustainability
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Monica and Miro along with #FriendsOfThePlanet Megan and Mona dump their 3rd round of trash after Sunday's plog.
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Getting Trashy
We talk about our addiction to single-use plastics here a lot but we can't emphasize enough just how toxic it is for our planet. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a full 32% of the 78 million tons of plastic packaging produced annually is left to flow into our oceans; the equivalent of pouring one garbage truck of plastic into the ocean every minute. If we carry on as usual, this is expected to increase to two per minute by 2030 and four per minute by 2050. By 2050, this could mean there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans.
This weekend Monica and I wanted to take a small step to help clean up our DC community and hosted a plogging run along the Capital Crescent Trail. We were astonished by how many stray Starbucks cups, cigarette butts, and empty plastic water bottles we found littering the ground on this beautiful trail that runs along the Potomac River. Runners threw snack bar wrappers and empty running goo packets on the ground and it was really shocking how many people readily litter without thinking twice. If you live locally and are interested in joining our next plog, shoot us a note!
Why This Matters: Plogging wasn't just good exercise (4 miles went by really quickly!) but it was a great social activity as well. We challenge you to give it a try when you're home for the holidays this month, just grab your running shoes a glove and a trash bag and drag your relatives along. We often don't think about our trash as we throw it in a bin and call it a day but plogging opens your eyes to how pervasive plastic pollution is even in a perfectly manicured neighborhood like Georgetown.
Go Deeper: Evidently, Monica and I aren't the only women in DC who care about plastic pollution. Woman-managed bar DC9 will soon get a trashy new theme and be decorated with existing trash and recyclables turned into underwater creatures, including sea urchins made out of straws and jellyfish made out of coffee filters. Six-pack rings and La Croix cans will also be incorporated into the decor—and disposed of properly at the end of the pop-up. Beverage manager Lauren McGrath explained to the Washingtonian that “I’m pretty into the concept of sea creatures reclaiming their ocean from the garbage.” If you live in the area check out DC9's new getup from Dec. 17-30.
*a big thanks to The Wing for hosting our plog and to Equinox DC for sending us an awesome trainer to lead our stretches!
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 Holidays
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12 Days of Earthmas Holiday Gift Guide
Still trying to find the perfect gifts this holiday season? Then look no further than ODP's official holiday gift guide! We'll be bringing you 12 days of Earth-friendly gifts so follow us on Instagram to get that day's guide as soon as it comes out as well as some special discount codes that we're offering.
Zero Waste Living Starter Pack:
- Metal straw carrier because once you buy your metal straw you don't want it floating around the bottom of your purse do you? Check out these adorable carriers by Wendy Barnes Design that also donate money to the animal featured on the design (that's hand-drawn by Wendy!).
- Beeswax food wrappers are an eco-friendly way to get rid of single-use plastic wrap once and for all! Check out these adorable, reusable wrappers from Bee's Wrap.
- A reusable water bottle is a must! We love Klean Kanteen because they're a family-owned business with a top-notch product!
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