Land

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the remnants of Beryl would move south of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Monday. It said winds would fall below gale force during the night, but people on area islands should be alert for heavy rain that could cause flooding or mudslides. Puerto Rico Governor, Ricardo Rosselló, urged people without sturdy roofs to move in with relatives or one of 24 government shelters that had opened. Some 60,000 people still have only tarps for roofs.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific, Japan is being hammered with historic rains with landslides and flooding so severe that more than 90 people have been killed.  According to The Washington Post, the Japanese government ordered more than 1.6 million people to evacuate their homes, but many refused to leave.   And the Taiwan News reports that Taiwan is preparing for Super Typhoon Maria (this new storm is in the Pacific -- it just has the same name) to strike northern Taiwan on Tuesday (July 10), and the storm will take a full day to pass over the country, according to their Central Weather Bureau. 

Why This Matters: People in Puerto Rico are still struggling to get government grants to rebuild their homes nearly a year after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. It's estimated that 4,600 Americans died in Puerto Rico during last year's hurricane, largely due to an inadequate government response. Since hurricane season began June 1st it's critically important that preparedness and response to hurricanes are vastly improved so that no more lives are lost.  Alfonso Lugo, who lives in the southeastern Puerto Rico town of Humacao expressed the lingering fear people are still facing: 

"I'm praying for all the brothers who are still living under a plastic roof. They're the ones who are suffering the most now."

Lugo lost his roof and two walls to Maria and was waiting for volunteers to secure his new roof before Beryl.  And yet another superstorm Maria bears down in the Pacific this year -- hauntingly familiar -- but hopefully not nearly as deadly.

 Air

EPA Suppresses Formaldehyde's Link to Cancer 

Last week POLITICO reported that the EPA is suppressing evidence showing that people who are exposed to a significant amount of formaldehyde from personal care products, off-gassing from cars and wood floors and furniture are at risk of developing leukemia or other diseases. Most Americans inhale enough formaldehyde vapor in the course of daily life to put them at risk of developing leukemia and other ailments, a current and a former agency official told POLITICO.

The EPA's draft risk assessment, from the agency's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), is believed to confirm that the exposure outlined above can cause leukemia and nose and throat cancers and was completed last fall with the expectation that it would move on to the National Academies of Science for external peer review. But almost half a year later and there's been no move to release the report by recently-resigned EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt despite him telling a Senate panel that he believed the report was ready. As Vox noted, top advisers to Pruitt have been dragging their feet in order to protect the chemical industry from damning revelations that would prompt stricter regulations and possibly class-action lawsuits by cancer patients.

Why This Matters: The American Chemistry Council (the top lobbying group for the chemical industry) has been an immensely influential trade group with the Trump administration. Last year, Scott Pruitt appointed Kimberly Wise White to the EPA’s Science Advisory Board even as she remains a senior director at ACC. Additionally, Nancy Beck, who used to be on the industry council, is now a top deputy shaping the EPA’s policies on hazardous chemicals. Full disclosure, I (Miro) used to work at ACC in their sustainability division which aimed to better communicate the science behind the chemistries that allow people to use less energy, water, and resources in their daily lives. When I worked there the association worked to instill science-based standards in government decisions and with groups like the US Green Building Council and publically made chemical safety a central communications strategy. However, these efforts were made during the Obama Administration and as soon as Scott Pruitt became the EPA administrator and created an industry-friendly environment at the agency, ACC seemed to completely forget about rigorous science and the chemical safety that it used to preach--starting with the denial of hazards posed by formaldehyde. 

 Climate Change

Why This Matters:  The hottest places are getting hotter, but even the cool ones -- like Canada and Siberia -- will need to adapt to a warming future.  This means fires will be more common in places like Siberia and Scotland.  Hospitals will need to be prepared to treat more people suffering from heat-related illnesses.  The number of deaths related to heat will also likely increase. This is all hauntingly familiar to the headlines during the Australian summer months when it was so hot that the pavement melted -- and this was happening as the U.S. dealt with record snowstorms.  Climate change will require nearly everyone across the globe to adapt to greater temperature extremes.  

 People

• Wheeler worked for Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who authored "The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future."  The senator told NBC News recently that he talks to Wheeler almost daily. He is, according to The New York Times, a member of the "Inhofe Mafia." 
• The Senate confirmed Wheeler less than three months ago on April 12 by a vote of 53-45.  Three Democratic senators, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted in favor of Wheeler. Two Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, and John McCain, R-Arizona, did not vote.
• Before joining EPA, Wheeler served as a vice president of a 300-member coalition of coal interests called the Washington Coal Club and lobbied the Department of the Interior to open portions of the Bears Ears National Monument to uranium mining.
• Wheeler has not always been a fan of President Trump.  In a Facebook post from February 2016, Wheeler called him a bully and toxic and an unsuccessful businessman who doesn't understand how government works. See full post below.
• Wheeler seems to have an interest in environmental justice.  In an interview with Bloomberg, he said, "I don’t think the agency historically has done a consistent job of describing what the risk is that Americans face," Wheeler said, citing statements about air quality in New York after the 2001 terrorist attacks and the integrity of drinking water in Flint, Michigan. Wheeler said the burden falls disproportionately on the poor, "who often live the closest to facilities."

 Plastic

The terrorist group al-Shabaab, which has been accused of orchestrating a series of brutal attacks across East Africa in recent years, is instituting a plastic ban as a propaganda campaign to "improve" its image.  Radio Andalus, Al-Shabaab’s radio station, announced the ban on Sunday, saying discarded plastic bags “pose a serious threat to the wellbeing of humans and animals alike.”  The group also issued an immediate ban on the logging of native trees, according to a Somali website that has voiced support for the group. 

“Other East African governments have banned plastic bags and this ban is al-Shabaab’s attempt to show their people that they too can implement laws and govern like any legitimate ruler," said Raffaello Pantucci, a counter-terror expert at the Royal United Services Institute.  Al-Shabaab also outlaws western music, cinemas, satellite dishes, smartphones/fibre optic services in the areas of Somalia that it controls.  It is not clear how the bans will be implemented or enforced in areas under al-Shabaab’s control, but the militants’ indiscriminate use of violence usually encourages civilians to obey orders.  The group remains active around the country even though it was totally driven out of the Somali capital Mogadishu in 2011.

Why This Matters:  It is hard to imagine that al-Shabaab really cares about the environment given that it has used the illegal ivory trade to fund its terrorist activities across the Horn of Africa region.   Hopefully, this obvious propaganda campaign by this despicable group won't hurt legitimate efforts to ban single-use plastics around the world.

 Swamp Creatures