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Coming to you a little late this morning due to SBBM coverage (see below).
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 Skies
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Super Blue Blood Moon
If you didn't wake up early enough to catch the Super Blue Blood Moon this morning we've got you covered. (Scroll down for pictures and follow us on Twitter as we'll tweet out more as they come in.)
In case you hadn't heard the hype, this morning America and parts of eastern Asia and Australia witnessed the celestial phenomenon known as a super blue blood moon (say that 3X fast). A "blood moon" occurs as the moon slides behind Earth’s shadow during a lunar eclipse. The "blue" part is because this is the second full moon in the month of January, and the "super" part is because the moon is closer to Earth than usual (though the actual size doesn't appear much bigger).
Why This Matters: The last time we witnessed this lunar event was 1866 and it makes for some incredible photos!
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iPhoneX photo challenge (Photo: Sergei KrasnoukhovTASS)
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Some of the best shots of the moon came from the Philipines. This shot from Kris John Rosales is of the Mayon Volcano in Luzon.
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 Water
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A Swamp in the Atchafalaya Basin
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Controversial Pipeline Project Gets the Go-Ahead
A federal court in Baton Rouge, Louisiana refused to stop the construction of a controversial 163-mile pipeline that stretches across the state through the Atchafalaya Basin. Environmental groups had sued seeking to halt construction while the court considers the groups' challenge to the pipeline under the Clean Water Act. According to the groups, “the Basin is under siege, with numerous threats including poor management of water and sediment, construction of barriers, and the ‘death by a thousand cuts’ of habitat loss,” and “leading this charge is the oil and gas industry, whose activities have irrevocably degraded the Basin.”
The pipeline would eventually connect to the controversial Dakota Access pipeline carrying Bakken oil from North Dakota. The Atchafalaya Basin is the nation’s largest river swamp and includes roughly 880,000 acres of forested wetlands, according to the environmental groups’ lawsuit. In a court filing Monday, their lawyers described it as “one of the nation’s ecological crown jewels” and “an economic powerhouse, providing rich opportunities for commercial and sport fishing, recreation, and tourism.”
Why This Matters: The Louisiana pipeline is designed to have a maximum capacity of 480,000 barrels, or roughly 20 million gallons (75 million liters), of crude a day. And the oil going through it is some of the dirtiest crude out there. So a spill in this sensitive habitat would be nearly impossible to cleanup, not to mention imperil human health in the communities nearby.
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 Climate Change
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Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana in 2015 Photo: William Widmer/Redux for CNN
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Green Infrastructure Is Needed Now to Combat Climate Change
As we prepare to debate the President's infrastructure plan, the need for green infrastructure projects is nothing new to Louisiana. It is something they plan for. Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana is ground zero for climate change impacts in the U.S. -- since the 1950's the small community has been completely surrounded by rising waters. Coastal Louisiana since the 1930s, has lost about 1,900 square miles of land to the Gulf of Mexico (on average a football field an hour) and will likely lose up to another 4,000 square miles within the next 50 years. And the residents of Isle de Jean will be the first re-settled climate refugees in the U.S., but they will hardly be the last. Scientists predict up to 13 million U.S. climate refugees will need to be resettled before the end of this century.
There is an increasing call for green infrastructure -- and Isle de Jean Charles is also at the forefront of that debate as well. Louisiana has a "Master Plan" to fight the loss of coastal land, and an essential component of it is a series of controlled structures called sediment diversions. These projects will create breaks in the Mississippi River levees allowing the highly-controlled capture of the natural land-building potential of the river, and directing fresh water and sediment into targeted adjacent areas to rebuild and sustain functioning wetland habitat.
Why This Matters: Re-constructing some of the natural flows to the mouth of the Mississippi River won't be cheap -- cost estimates for the Master Plan are in the billions. But politicians in Louisiana on both sides of the aisle support this innovative natural approach. And in Louisiana they are on the leading edge of the green infrastructure wave.
To Go Deeper into the Bayou: Read this article in Wired about Isle de Jean Charles and the struggle to relocate the town.
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Amiya Brunet on the bridge that leads to her home that frequently floods in Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana.
JOSH HANER/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX
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 Energy
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Photo: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty
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Will Trump Solar Tariffs Help American Jobs?
Last week Donald Trump levied a 30% tariff on imported solar panels claiming that the tariff would create "a lot of jobs." But is that true?
Currently, 80 percent of the solar panels installed in America are made in foreign countries (mostly China which has invested $47 billion into incentivizing their industry). The US solar industry whose jobs lie primarily in installation and maintenance (with a very small percentage in manufacturing) has thrived in recent years by being able to cheaply buy panels from China--the tariff drives up their costs and lowers their profit margins which in states with nascent solar markets could push solar firms out of business.
As the Washington Post reports, "independent analysts, solar industry leaders and the industry’s national trade association say the tariff will price solar installation companies out of the game in places where their projects could be competing with wind or natural gas."
President Trump wants to create a boom in the solar manufacturing industry here in America but that likely won't happen because the term of the tariffs expires in 4 years. That's not enough time for foreign firms to move and invest in factories in the United States before the tariff expires and we can buy cheap panels from abroad once again.
GTM's Jigar Shah has a better idea--if Trump was earnest about wanting to create jobs he would use the $1.6 billion received annually from the tariff to incentivize a large-scale domestic solar panel plant. There's also an additional $1.6 billion sitting at the US Treasury from an Obama-era solar panel tariff. All this money "is more than enough to create cost-effective American solar manufacturing, provided that it’s faithfully and thoughtfully put to good use. It would be the incentive the industry needs to refocus on domestic manufacturing instead of taking advantage of cheap overseas panels."
Why This Matters: Solar World (which along with Suniva was one of the two companies to petition the ITC for trade protection) estimated that it would add just 200 jobs by the end of 2018. Unless the Trump Administration creates incentives for solar manufacturing in America, jobs aren't going to magically appear. In all likelihood, the move will cost the installation and maintenance sectors job growth. Solar World and Suniva are both foreign-owned companies, and according to Bloomberg, the biggest winners of the Trump solar tariffs could be their creditors (a group of investment houses from around the world).
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 Oceans
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The Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Before it Sank. Photo: U.S. Coast Guard/Reuters
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Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling Safety Rules Set to Be Loosened
The Trump Administration, in conjunction with its proposal to open virtually the entire U.S. coastline to oil and gas drilling, has also proposed to loosen some of the safety regulations put in place to deal with the issues that caused the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The short public comment period on the safety roll backs closed on Monday, and now the Department of Interior can promulgate the new rules at any time. E & E News reports that the new rules will eliminate the requirement that offshore rig operators receive third-party certification for the durability of their critical safety equipment. This would include extra oversight of blowout preventers, the massive units that must be able to cut and seal shut thick steel piping in a matter of seconds in extreme temperature and pressure conditions. Other changes would keep the government out of dictating maximum or minimum safe well operating pressures, leaving it to industry standards.
Why This Matters: When industry sets its own safety standards, the public unduly bears the risk. The Obama Administration put these safety rules in place for a reason. When the blow out preventer failed in the Deepwater Horizon spill, it took 87 days to devise a solution. The U.S. does not need to loosen its oil and gas safety rules for offshore drilling in order to achieve energy independence. So why take the risk? In a word, dominance. Today, the Interior Department celebrated "Energy Dominance Day" by releasing this video. We used to think our national parks made us great. Not any more.
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This infomercial for "Energy Dominance Day" is brought to you by the Department of Interior.
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 Animals
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Photo: Brian Skerry, Barcroft Media
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And We Thought He Hated Sharks
Last week sharks made news with the revelation that the President is not a fan. What a difference a week makes. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) decided on Monday to list the Oceanic White Tip Shark as a "threatened" species. After a two year study, the agency concluded that the oceanic whitetip shark, once the most abundant of shark species, has experienced significant historical declines of approximately 90% in the Atlantic, Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico over the past several decades, and these declines are likely ongoing.
But the agency stopped short of putting "teeth" in the listing because it decided not to issue any restrictions to protect the Oceanic White Tip from the threats they face, predominantly fishing. This type of shark is particularly vulnerable as bycatch in tuna fishing operations, and it is also highly sought after for its large and valuable fins. Their fins reportedly command up to $85 per kilogram in Hong Kong, the largest shark fin market. The Defenders of Wildlife, who requested the review, was pleased with the listing decision but disappointed that NOAA had not done more.
Why This Matters: Lots of people, not just President Trump, fear sharks. But sharks have much more to fear from humans than the other way around. Many shark species, not just this one, are threatened with extinction. And our oceans need these top predators to keep the entire ecosystem in balance.
To Swim Deeper With Sharks: Watch this episode of Shark Academy and learn about the oceanic white tip shark.
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Blue World TV's Shark Academy Explores One of the Most Feared Sharks in the World
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 Food
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Photo: Butchers Club Burger
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Investors Sink Their Teeth Into Meat-Free Protein
You may have heard of the Beyond Burger and noticed your grocery aisles displaying an increasing amount of meat-free proteins. Brands like Morning Star, Boca, Gardein, and Quorn have risen in popularity the last several years and US retail stores saw sales of meat substitutions climb 16 percent to $700 million in 2016. US sales are expected to reach $863 million by 2021 as more Americans make the switch to eat less meat for ethical and health reasons.
This trend is on the meat industry's radar, Chuck Jolley, president of the Meat Industry Hall of Fame, said plant-based meat will be one of the "six greatest ag challenges for 2018." In a survey of meat industry professionals, "pressure to reduce meat consumption" had the biggest impact on the industry in 2016.
Meanwhile, investment banks and other "Big Food" conglomerates are seeing this as an investment opportunity. As GreenBiz reported, "In 2017 alone, Big Food made a lot of big moves: Nestlé acquired Sweet Earth Foods; Dean Foods invested in and inked a distribution deal with Good Karma; and Maple Leaf Foods (Canada’s largest meat distributor) acquired both Field Roast and Lightlife Foods. While Walmart is asking its suppliers to produce more plant-based foods." Though 2018 has just begun, "TGI Fridays announced that the Beyond Burger soon would be available in all its 450 U.S. locations. The following day, Aldi and Sainsbury’s launched vegan product lines, and five days later, Tesco did the same." To top it off, Tyson Foods invested in "clean meat" startup Memphis Meats and Goldman Sachs invested $65 million in Ripple, a pea-based milk company.
Why This Matters: Worldwide, livestock accounts for between 14.5 percent and 18 percent of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. Making the switch to meat alternatives is one way to reduce our emissions. In fact, because Americans have been making the shift away from meat (eating 19 percent less beef since 2005), our emissions have decreased by 3 percent despite population growing by 9 percent. That's like removing the tailpipe emissions from 39 million cars!
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