In a historic first, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force — a panel of health experts — recommended routine anxiety screenings for all adults under the age of 65, according to The New York Times. The task force explained that their declaration is in an effort to detect and treat mental health disorders earlier, and follows a similar advisory released earlier this year for children and young adults, reported The New York Times.
On Sept. 22, 2022, town residents gathered in the Hadley Senior Center to review the newest draft of the town’s proposed Climate Emergency Declaration. The meeting — a “climate change public input forum,” per the Hadley, Massachusetts, town website — included presentations from local experts on the potential impacts of climate change on the town and gave opportunities for residents to voice concerns and make comments on the emergency declaration before it is acted upon by the Hadley Select Board .
Photo courtesy of Alexxx1979 via Flickr.
This historic lawsuit against the Russian state demands reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions.
By Lily Benn ’24
Staff Writer
Earlier this month, Russian activists filed the first climate-related lawsuit against the Russian government. According to The Guardian, these activists are “demanding that the government take stronger action over the climate crisis.”
The New Climate Institute’s Climate Change Performance Index rates Russia’s climate change performance in the “very low” category. This index compares how countries are working to mitigate climate change in categories including renewable energy, greenhouse gas emissions, climate policy and energy use. Excerpts of the lawsuit published in a U.S. News article states that Russia’s average temperature has risen by 2.5 degrees celsius over the past 50 years while the world average is one degree Celsius. The article goes on to explain that this fails to meet the goal set by the Paris Agreement to keep the average temperature increase below two degrees celsius “in hopes of averting the worst consequences of climate change.”
Individuals behind the lawsuit include Arshak Makichyan and Pavel Sulyandziga, according to U.S. News. Makichyan is an anti-war climate activist known to be Russia’s “lone climate activist,” according to The Guardian. Sulyandziga is the chairperson of the Board of the International Development Fund of Indigenous Peoples in Russia. According to U.S. News, they are among the 18 individuals listed as plaintiffs, as well as Ekozashita, an eco-defense organization, and Moscow Helsinki Group, Russia’s oldest human-rights organization.
The current pledges made by the Russian government are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 70 percent of 1990 levels by 2030 and 20 percent of 1990 levels by 2050, according to U.S. News. Activist groups filing the lawsuit believe this will not be enough to reduce Russia’s impact on climate change.
In an interview with The Guardian, the plaintiffs’ spokesperson Grigory Vaypan expressed that there is a need for “the court to recognise that these [climate] targets are manifestly insufficient to fulfill Russia’s obligation to mitigate climate change, and order the government to set new, Paris-compliant targets.” U.S. News reported that the activists declared that emissions should instead be reduced to 31 percent of 1990 levels by 2030 and five percent of 1990 levels by 2050.
It is historically significant for the Russian government to be involved with this high-level court case, a U.S. News article said. The article states that this lawsuit was the first of its kind to be accepted by a Russian court. This is especially notable with their past reviews from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which state they have “one of the worst climate change mitigation efforts in the world.”
The CSIS remarked in the March 2021 article that Russia is resistant to “internal policy changes related to climate change.” It is also dangerous for many of these activists to be speaking out against the Russian government, The Guardian said. Arshak Makichyan told The Guardian that this is more than a case for climate policy — it is also a lawsuit directly contradicting the Russian government. Makichyan and many other activists filing this case are also anti-war activists, and the Russian government has recently been monitoring and eliminating opposition movements in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the article said. Makichyan himself has since moved to Germany, as he believes the country has become dangerous and called it a dictatorship.
According to The Guardian, Russia faces deadly and widespread consequences of climate change, “ranging from severe health impacts due to recent heatwaves and outbreaks of vector-borne diseases, to increased exposure to anthrax disease and infrastructure damage due to melting permafrost.” According to an NPR interview with Joshua Yaffa, two-thirds of Russia sits atop a layer of permafrost, which is melting at an extreme rate. Yaffa explains that permafrost melting can destabilize land which cities and communities build on. It is also a global issue, he said, as the melting releases more carbon dioxide and methane. For The Guardian, Makichyan remarked, “I don’t understand how Russia will negotiate any climate deals … they have been lying to people about the climate crisis.” He also stated that by pushing this lawsuit through the government, more people will be able to see the truth about the Russian government and how they have been neglecting the suffering caused by climate change.
By Yuyang Wang ’24
Staff Writer
On Aug. 1, the Mount Holyoke College Miller Worley Center for the Environment welcomed Dr. Angelica Patterson as the new curator of education and outreach.
According to Christian Feuerstein, director of news and media relations at Mount Holyoke, “Patterson received her bachelor’s in natural resources from Cornell University and her masters, master of philosophy and doctorate degrees from Columbia University in plant ecophysiology.” According to a recent interview with Dr. Patterson for Mount Holyoke News, she worked at Barnard College as a research assistant in a plant lab and as an administrator in its Environmental Science Department for seven years before coming to Mount Holyoke. Patterson said she loved this work and was inspired by the feeling of being immersed in a community of passionate students eager to lead progressive changes in their fields. “When I saw the opportunity to once again work and collaborate amongst inspiring young leaders again, I leaped at the chance,” Patterson said.
“When I saw the opportunity to once again work and collaborate amongst inspiring young leaders again, I leaped at the chance.”
When discussing her main responsibilities as the curator of education and outreach, Patterson said, “I will be responsible for the development and implementation of curricular opportunities for the Center, including the Campus Living Laboratory. This will involve outreach with and general coordination among departments, instructors, classes, MHC organizations and public audiences.” Patterson said a central goal for her work is “to broaden MWCE’s reach across campus and the local community, which will first entail communicating our mission and the resources we have that can be creatively used to support various classrooms and organizations as well as independent projects and learning experiences. I envision the development of larger projects that can better integrate environmental data into the classroom, establish community science opportunities across the Campus Living Lab and utilize more innovative technology in the teaching of environmental sciences.”
Outside of her role at the MWCE, Patterson described her background in plant science with a focus in plant ecophysiology, which she described as “the study of the physiology of plants and their responses to changes in environmental conditions.” According to Feuerstein, Patterson studies trees’ adaptation to global warming.
As she reflected on why she chose this field, Patterson said she was inspired by a paper she read during graduate school at Columbia University. “We read a paper by Richard Pearson called ‘Climate change and the migration capacity of species.’ In the paper, they noted that the percentage of species ‘committed to extinction’ using climate change projections for 2050 was around 21-23 percent with unlimited dispersal with the percentage going as high as 38-52 percent if they had no ability to disperse.” She went on to explain that although plants are immobile organisms, they can still migrate via seed dispersal. While plant distributions across the world have been changing since the beginning of time, rapidly warming climates result in plants migrating up to ten times faster than they did before in order to survive. “I was interested in learning how trees in the Northeastern United States were responding to warmer temperatures and see if there was a physiological mechanism behind their responses and if those responses differed between plants that had historically different geographic range distributions (northern vs. central vs. southern ranged trees),” Angelica said.
Currently, her research involves measuring the photosynthetic and respiration rates of leaves. Usually, the leaves she wants to study are on the high top of the forest canopy, so she has had to come up with a way to collect these leaf samples. She explained that she “would go into the field and use a shotgun to shoot branches down from the top of the canopy. These leaves are usually growing in full sunlight, so by sampling canopy level branches, we could reduce the amount of variation we would find in their physiological responses to experimental treatments.”
Feuerstein explained that this practice “... led The Guardian to dub her ‘the shotgun scientist’ in a 2020 article.”
Patterson went on to describe the results of this process. “In summary, we found that northern ranged trees had the highest rates of respiration (or carbon loss) under elevated temperatures, whereas the central ranged trees, such as the red oak, had similar rates of respiration to southern ranged trees as temperatures elevated.” Patterson explained that these findings mean that central ranged trees — such as the red oak — may be at a disadvantage when it comes to sustaining reproduction and growth as the climate warms due to climate change.
This emotional connection to the forest is one of her reasons for coming to work at Mount Holyoke. When asked about her favorite place on campus, she answered,“I would be remiss if I did not mention the natural spaces that make a part of the Campus Living Laboratory as one of the most resourceful and favorite places at MHC. I especially enjoy the trails through Prospect Hill [among] the trees — a forested area, which always brings me peace and joy.”
Photo courtesy of Flickr.
Former Patagonia owner Yvon Chouinard has a long history of environmental conservation action.
By Catelyn Fitzgerald ’23
Science and Environment Editor
Yvon Chouinard, dubbed a “reluctant billionaire” by The New York Times in a Sept. 14 article, recently donated Patagonia, his multi-billion dollar outdoor clothing company, to help fund environmental initiatives. According to the New York Times article, the company will continue to operate under the new ownership, but all of its profits, equalling an estimated $100 million annually, will go towards protecting the environment.
The Times article explains that the company’s stock was donated to two organizations created specifically to manage Patagonia’s assets: the Patagonia Purpose Trust and the Holdfast Collective. The Patagonia Purpose Trust took only two percent of the company and is intended to hold the company to its commitment to being a “socially responsible business” as it operates going forward, The New York Times reported. The article went on to explain that the remaining shares of the company, equal to nearly $3 billion, will be given to the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit organization created to direct the money towards “nature-based climate solutions,” such as preservation efforts.
In the same New York Times article, Chouinard explained the inspiration behind his decision to give the company away, saying that his frustration with his own billionaire status was a major factor behind the decision. “I was in Forbes magazine listed as a billionaire, which really, really pissed me off,” Chouinard said in his interview for The Times. “I don’t have $1 billion in the bank. I don’t drive Lexuses.” he continued.
According to an article in Forbes Magazine, Patagonia has a long history of supporting climate initiatives. The article cites the donation of one percent of the company’s total sales to support grassroots activism, as well as the donation of $10 million, a sum saved from the lowering of corporate taxes by former President Trump in 2018, to climate change-focused organizations. The company has also made efforts to encourage long-term use of its products, Forbes said.
Coverage of Chouinard’s decision to donate Patagonia ranges from praise to criticism. Several news sources, including Axios, Bloomberg and Quartz, have called the move a tax-avoidance strategy.
According to Bloomberg, if Chouinard had decided to sell the company, he would have had to pay federal capital gains taxes that could have been more than $700 million. Bloomberg explained that by choosing to donate the company shares to the Holdfast Collective, Chouinard owes no capital gains taxes and is exempt from the gift tax, which he would have been subject to had the company been passed down to an heir. Bloomberg points out another key aspect of the Holdfast Collective — its status as a 501(c)(4) organization. 501(c)(4) nonprofits can make limitless political donations. With the addition of the family-run Patagonia Purpose Trust meant to help manage the company’s assets, the arrangement allows the family to continue to control the business while avoiding significant taxes, the article said.
Axios echoed this sentiment, calling the donation “the ultimate billionaire tax dodge” in an article published last week. The article predicted that Chouinard’s actions might create a blueprint for other billionaires looking to make large charitable donations while maintaining influence over how that money is used.
Quartz News interviewed New York University law professor Daniel Hemel on the subject, who agreed that the donation of the company’s voting shares to the Patagonia Purpose Trust was to ensure that the Chouinard family could continue “calling the shots” for the company. Hemel said the decision was made “to avoid taxes and use the money for political causes.”
He added that donating the company’s funds to support environmental causes was admirable, but “one doesn’t want a constructed tax system predicated upon everyone being like the Chouinards.” The article concludes with Hemel expressing that climate change is an urgent issue, but that doesn’t exempt billionaires from paying their fair share in taxes.
Photo courtesy of Flickr.
Hurricane Fiona caused flooding and property damage across Puerto Rico on Sunday, Sept. 18.
By Shira Sadeh ’25
Science & Environment Editor
Content warning: This article mentions mass death.
On Sunday, Sept. 18, Hurricane Fiona reached Puerto Rico from the southwest, causing environmental and infrastructure disasters, an Associated Press article reported. The island scrambled to evacuate and secure shelter for residents as high-speed winds ripped out the power grid, tore up roads and caused widespread flooding. According to AP News, forecasters are predicting record levels of rainfall up to 30 inches this Sunday and Monday, Sept. 25 and 26.
Puerto Rican Governor Pedro Pierluisi has called the effects of Hurricane Fiona “catastrophic,” according to an NPR article. “In many areas, flooding is worse than what we saw during Hurricane Maria,” Pierluisi said. Health Secretary Carlos Mellado explained to AP News that health centers are currently relying on generators, which have already failed at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, where many patients had to be evacuated.
According to a Washington Post article, Fiona comes just two days before the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Maria. Maria left Puerto Rico powerless and mourning the deaths of over three thousand people, The Washington Post reported. Although the federal government had set aside billions for recovery after Hurricane Maria, The Washington Post explained that much of that money has yet to reach Puerto Rico.
According to NPR, President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration on Sunday and authorized the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist in the disaster relief efforts. The Washington Post also stated that Pierliusi is coordinating recovery efforts with leaders in New York, New Jersey and California. Additionally, the National Guard has activated 600 soldiers throughout the island and has rescued approximately 1,000 people.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
California’s new car policy, approved by the California Air Resources Board, requires all new vehicles to run on hydrogen or electric starting in 2035.
By Catelyn Fitzgerald ’23
Science & Environment Editor
Traffic in California is no joke. The California New Car Dealers Association reported that the state had 1.6 million new light vehicle —car and light truck — registrations just in 2020, a low number in comparison to pre-pandemic years.
In a fossil fuel-driven world, more cars mean more gasoline. California accounted for 10 percent of the country’s total motor gasoline consumption in 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. However, a CNN article reported that California’s fuel consumption might drop to new lows over the coming decade, thanks to a new policy that could change transportation in the state and trigger harsher auto emissions laws across the country.
The policy, approved by the California Air Resources Board in late August, consists of a gradual ban on the sale of gasoline vehicles culminating in a total ban in 2035, a New York Times article stated. The report from CNN clarified that the ban only applies to new vehicles, meaning that used cars and trucks can continue to be sold after the policy takes effect.
According to a Los Angeles Times article, the policy will cut auto emissions in half by 2040. The article also reports that the policy will have positive health benefits, such as an estimated 1,400 fewer deaths from heart disease and 700 avoided asthma-related emergency room visits.
The effects of California’s new policy will extend far beyond the state's borders by paving the way for other states to enact similar legislation, a recent article in The Boston Globe said. California’s influence on environmental regulations goes back to the Clean Air Act, a federal law passed in 1970 that created national air quality standards and aims to address a wide range of air pollution sources, according to the EPA. Stipulations in the Clean Air Act prevent states from individually adopting air pollution regulations that are stricter than the national standard. As a populous state with ongoing air quality challenges, California is the exception to this rule and is allowed, by the Clean Air Act, to create tougher regulations. As soon as California’s policies are federally approved, any U.S. state is permitted to adopt them as its own.
Several states are already moving swiftly toward similar gas-powered vehicle bans. According to PBS, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington are among those states likely to assume California’s policy. For Massachusetts, California’s ban represents a continuation of ongoing efforts to reduce auto emissions rather than a drastic new policy, says The Boston Globe. The article cites Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s endorsement of a strikingly similar ban back in 2020, which can now become an official part of Massachusetts state law thanks to California’s path-clearing legislation.
An important step towards reducing air pollution in the state, an article in Science Magazine points out that California’s transition away from gasoline-powered cars will also pressure electric vehicle manufacturers to address the technology’s challenges. The article states that a common issue with EVs is their slow charging time, with even high-quality chargers taking over 10 hours to charge EV batteries fully. Improvements to either the EV chargers or the EV batteries themselves can and must happen to address this issue, the article said. Scientists have taken up the challenge, but it may be some time before quick-charging EVs are widely available. Science Magazine predicts that the rise in demand for EV batteries resulting from this ban will cause the market to “splinter,” meaning that consumers will someday have a choice between several battery types, each presenting unique characteristics such as high charging capacity or low cost.
The Los Angeles Times reveals that there is an additional flaw in the policy due to its reputation as a “zero-emission vehicle mandate.” The regulation’s nickname refers to the lack of emissions from vehicles’ engines as they drive but overlooks the emissions that occur during the production of EV batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. The article explains that depending on where a household’s electricity comes from, whether from renewable sources or burning coal, charging EV batteries may still create considerable emissions.
Other concerns surrounding the EV mandate question California's ability to provide large volumes of electricity, as illustrated by an opinion piece written for The Washington Post. Author Megan McArdle calls California’s electric grids “already fragile and prone to blackouts” and questions how they could support an additional rise in demand for a fully electrified auto industry. McArdle offers some solutions to the challenge, including charging cars using household solar panels or encouraging drivers to charge their vehicles overnight when electricity demand is lower. She concludes that without considerable improvements, California’s “overstretched grid” will struggle to support EVs during peak energy use.
The aforementioned Los Angeles Times article explored how the higher cost of EVs will play into California’s policy. In a discussion with the Times, the chair of the California Air Resources Board revealed that there are ways to address this cost disparity and make buying EVs accessible for low-income residents. Solutions include improving warranties for EVs so that they may become reliable used cars for a lower cost, as well as creating state programs that offer financial aid for EV purchases. Additional measures to ensure equitability in the policy include requiring apartment complexes to provide on-site EV chargers.
Photo courtesy of Flickr.
Officials in Jackson, Mississippi have appealed state and federal aid in managing their water crisis.
By Shira Sadeh ’25
Science & Environment Editor
Content warning: This article discusses environmental racism.
On Aug. 29, Jackson, Mississippi Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba released an emergency order declaring a water system emergency in the city. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency the same day, when the majority of the city’s 150,000 residents were left without access to running water, according to a Vox article. The report states that the crisis is a result of damaged infrastructure at the O.B. Curtis treatment plant and water pump issues at the secondary J.H. Fewell treatment facility.
The O.B. Curtis plant first experienced malfunction following high rainfall, which flooded the Pearl River, an Associated Press News article explained. The sudden influx of water slowed the plant’s treatment process, depleted water supply tanks and caused pressure to drop. According to AP News, city officials explained that the plant was already using backup pumps when this occurred, and stated that a rental pump had been installed to fix the pressure issue. Despite the restoration of pressure, many residents were still without access to clean water.
According to Vox, many residents had no access to water, while others observed polluted and discolored water trickling out of their faucets. This prompted the city to issue a water boiling advisory, instructing residents to boil water for one minute before using it.
As outlined in a Time article, issues of infrastructure upkeep have been plaguing Jackson for almost 80 years. Since the 1940s, mayors and city council members have been calling for more funding to repair failing facilities. Since the 1970s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has expressed concerns for the city’s disrepair and urged Jackson to invest more in protecting clean water access.
According to a BBC article on the issue, Jackson has struggled to provide citizens with safe and reliable water in more recent years as well. In the winter of 2020, when freezing temperatures caused a water plant to malfunction, parts of the city were without water for nearly six weeks. Since then, multiple infrastructure failures have caused repeated boiling advisories and extremely low water pressure in many areas of the city.
A Brookings article explained that due to a lack of steady economic growth and recent declines in median wages, municipalities and utility plants have been unable to generate revenue that covers infrastructure upkeep costs. The cost of fully repairing infrastructure not only to solve this crisis, but also to prepare for future flooding, would be approximately $2 billion. Jackson’s situation is similar to past, present and seemingly future cases in many predominantly Black metro areas, such as Flint, Baltimore and Detroit.
Time also described community members’ frustration with state and federal officials, calling them out for only attempting to address the issue now rather than implementing preventative measures before the crisis occurred.Currently, over 82 percent of the city’s population is Black, and almost a quarter live under the poverty line, another fact that many suggest is why Jackson’s infrastructure has been allowed to fall into disrepair. “We’re facing an environmental injustice and we have been ignored. Jacksonians and people around the area have been ignored by state leadership and now they want to swoop in — all hands on deck, fixing the problem — but we’ve been asking for help for years, not even just from this administration,” Maisie Brown, a community organizer, told Time.
