Transcript

10.9.25 · Science Show KY

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Radio Wise Diary of Science and Nature. Your
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reader's Kelly Taylor. I'll have articles on the topics of
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science and nature, But first a reminder that radioi is
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a reading service intended for people who are blind or
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have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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From Wired magazine, we have an article that is headlined
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why US power bills are surging. This is from October fourth.
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Like most Americans this month, your most recent power bill
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may have given you a shock. Residential electricity rates have
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risen fast across the United States, more than thirty percent
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on average since twenty twenty, and almost double the rate
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of inflation in the past year, with no end in sight.
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It's not great for anyone's budget, whether you're a renter
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or an industrialist. High electricity prices ripple beyond consumers and
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throughout the whole economy, disrupting manufacturing, construction, transportation, and more.
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And of course, electricity prices are a huge political issue.
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President Donald Trump campaigned on cutting energy prices in half,
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and now that they're moving in the wrong direction, he
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has taken to blaming renewables the cheapest sources of new
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generation and promised six hundred and twenty five million dollars
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to the ailing US coal industry. Power bills are becoming
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a hot button in local politics too, like the New
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Jersey governor's race, and you'll likely see them featured in
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more political ads. Given how fast and how high electricity
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prices have jumped, just how worried should we be? Is
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this a crisis, something that's going to put more households
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in danger of getting their power shut off while driving
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up inflation and slow in growth. Or is this a
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return to normal after an era of unusually low prices.
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There are several dynamics driving the current power price spike.
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Rising electricity demand, volatile fuel prices, inflation, tariffs, a slow
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down in transmission line construction, and long delays in adding
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new generators to the power grid are all conspiring to
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create more expensive utility bills. And these variables aren't changing
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direction anytime soon, so unfortunately, your bills will likely rise further. Quote.
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All of those factors are combining to create a scenario
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in which there could be long lived, year over year
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increases in electricity prices, it says John Quigley, a senior
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fellow at the Kleiman Center for Energy policy at the
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University of Pennsylvania. High electricity prices hit the poorest households
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the hardest, since they spend a larger share of their
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money on their power bills. Power shut offs you to
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non payment. We're already rising. At the beginning of the year,
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close to eighty million Americans have to trade off between
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paying their electricity bills and other expenses like healthcare and housing,
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and utilities are asking their regulators to raise rates further.
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Quote to a big segment of households, lower income even
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moderate income households. It's already a crisis, quickly said, but
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there is some important context you have to consider, and
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some of the big picture trends are actually working to
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help us spend less on energy and reduce our impact
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on the environment. How quickly this happens, though, will depend
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on policy decisions in the near term. One thing to
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keep in mind is that electricity is just one form
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of energy that you use. You may also have to
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pay for natural gas for heating and cooking, as well
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as gasoline for your sedan or pickup truck. But many
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American homes are electrifying, trading gas furnaces for more efficient
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heat pumps, gas burners for induction stoves and V eight
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engines for electric motors. Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit
4:18
think tank, dubbed this combined basket of household electricity and
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fuel spending as the quote energy wallet end quote, using
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it as a way to track how these trends are
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changing over time while accounting for fuel switching. Last month,
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EPRI released a report calculating that in twenty twenty four,
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the average annual US energy wallet spending was five five
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hundred and thirty dollars per household. Gasoline was the largest
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slice of that pie at twenty nine hundred and thirty
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dollars per household, while electricity was eighteen hundred and fifty dollars.
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Adjusting for inflation, overall energy spending as actually he held
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fairly steady since two thousand and Prior to twenty twenty four,
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electricity spending was mostly level as well. Perhaps it's more
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remarkable that overall energy spending was so stable for so long.
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Now electricity prices are surging in addition to all of
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the uncorked demand from the COVID nineteen pandemic. When the
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global economic slow down and pressure from policy makers kept
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a lid on utility bills. Quote. I think if we
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were to repeat this analysis for next year, there would
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probably be a little bit of an uptick this year,
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But the data that I'm looking at doesn't suggest a
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really significant increase in the historical context. That's Jeffrey Blandford,
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lead author of epri's report. But there isn't just one
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story unfolding across the country. The US has a particularly
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chaotic energy system. How much people pay to light their home,
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stay warm, and get around varies a lot from state
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to state and even among neighbors. For example, Texas households
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tend to spend a larger share of their budgets on
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keeping their pickup trucks running, while families in Massachusetts spend
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a greater portion on staying warm. So, no, we're not
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in an energy crisis, but it's unlikely that your power
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bills will come down anytime soon. There is some good
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news though, In the years ahead, Americans are actually poised
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to spend a smaller share of their incomes on energy overall,
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as technology makes it more cost effective to shift away
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from fossil fuels quote. In our forward looking scenarios, one
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of the key drivers for change is electrification particularly like
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neuty vehicles. Blanford said this tends to actually reduce the
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energy while in in real terms per household over time,
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even as you're spending more on electricity. Though electric car
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sales have slowed down in the US, they are still
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rolling into more driveways, and as homes and appliance has
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become more efficient, that will help reduce energy bills as well.
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Based on current trends, the average US household energy wallet
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will shrink by thirty six percent by twenty fifty, with
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state level declines anywhere from ten to fifty percent, according
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to the report looking ahead to the upcoming winter. There
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are also things that policymakers can do to soften the
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blow of higher electricity rates for the most vulnerable families.
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One is to bolster initiatives like the Low Income Home
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Energy Assistance Program and initiative Trump wanted to eliminate. Another
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is to impose generation requirements on major new power users,
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like data centers to run AI models so they aren't
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competing with households for existing electrons on the grid. Quote
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these dats, which are kind of ground zero of all
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the angst about increasing costs, they should be without question
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required to bring their own power quickly said, and there
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needs to be a major push to deploy more generation
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and upgrades to the power grid as particularly energy storage.
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Grid scale batteries have seen breathtaking growth in the past
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few years, but there's still a small segment of the
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energy mix. Quote. There needs to be a huge push
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to foster battery deployment. Quiggly said, the quickest way to
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bring on new generation is to look at solar and
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storage in quote. We're still facing chaos in the energy industry,
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and the Trump administration isn't making things easy for utilities,
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power providers, and even the fossil fuel industry. But we
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have many of the tools we need to manage higher
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utility prices if we're willing to invest in them. For
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US normal people, the US Department of Energy recommends tactics
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like conducting a home energy audit, using energy efficient appliances,
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installing double pane windows and ceiling gaps indoors. Now we'll
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switch to a sort of related article from Reuter's News agency.
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This is October seventh, and its headlined global renewable power
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output overtakes coal For the first time, renewable energy sources
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generated more electricity than coal globally for the first time
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in the first half of twenty twenty five, driven by
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rapid growth in China and India. A report by think
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tank Imber showed on Tuesday, curbing coal power generation, which
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emits around double the amount of carbon dioxide as gas generation,
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is regarded as vital by most scientists to meeting global
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climate targets. Renewables such as wind and solar supplied five thousand,
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seventy two tarot wa hours of electricity globally between January
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and June, surpassing coal's four thousand, eight hundred ninety six
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tarrawat hours. Quote. We are seeing the first signs of
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a crucial turning point, says Malgorzata Viatros Mattoya, senior electricity
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analyst at Ember. Quote. Solar and wind are now growing
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fast enough to meet the world's growing appetite for electricity
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in quote. Global electricity demand increased two point six percent,
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or three hundred and sixty nine tarawatt hours in the
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first half of twenty twenty five, compared with the same
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period in twenty twenty four, which was more than met
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by a three hundred and six tarrawat hour increase in
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solar power and a ninety seven tarawat hour in wind
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power output. The shift to renewables was driven largely by
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China and India. China, the world's largest electricity consumer, reduced
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fossil fuel generation by two percent, while its solar and
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wind generation grew by forty three percent and sixteen percent, respectively.
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In India, there were increases in wind and solar generation
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of twenty nine and thirty one percent, respectively, which helped
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the country reduce coal and gas use by three point
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one percent. Fossil Fuel generation, however, rose in both the
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United States and European Union during the same period, as
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stronger demand growth and weaker wind and hydropower output forced
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greater reliance on coal and gas. In the US, coal
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generation rose by seventeen percent as gas generation fell by
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four percent, while in Europe, gas fired power generation rose
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by fourteen percent and coal by one percent. US President
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Donald Trump, a climate change skeptic, earlier this year, signed
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executive orders aimed at boosting coal production, and last month
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also pledged support for coal fired power plants. Well, let's
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turn out to National Geographic this article dated October sixth
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as the following headline, how a warming planet is wreaking
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havoc on your skin. As dermatologist Mario hy Wei Why
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or Way Anyway, biked to her University of California San
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Francisco clinic one day in November of twenty eighteen, she
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looked up at the white flakes drifting from the sky.
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She quickly realized it wasn't snowfalling but ash. Quote. It
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was ash from the twenty eighteen campfire, which was one
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hundred and seventy five miles away, says Way. I was
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wondering what the impact was on my lungs, and then
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I questioned what about my skin? Ute Way saw the
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effects her stand over the next few weeks, her clinic
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at the University of California, San Diego, San Francisco treated
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a spike in patients reporting skin issues. She saw cases
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of eczema sore in San Francisco, along with clinic visits
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for psoriasis and general complaints about itchiness. Climate change is
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making the planet hotter and worsening air pollution caused by
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natural disasters such as wildfires. But how do these changes
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affect the largest organ on your body, your skin? And
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can you actually build a skin care routine that shields
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your skin from the extremes of a warming planet. Quote.
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The effects of climate change are more powerful than any
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skin care product, says Harvard Medical School dermatologist Arion Shoddy Kuroche.
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Here's what dermatologists say you can do and what won't
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make it difference when it comes to protecting your skin.
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As global temperatures rise, excessive heat is causing existing skin
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conditions to become inflamed, increasing skin cancer risk. Skin is
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our largest organ and it's the primary interface with our environment,
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says Eva Parker, dermatologist at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Tennessee.
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A twenty twenty four review by the International Exema Council
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showed that severe heat and sweating can make people scratch more,
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aggravating exima symptoms, which Parker sees in her patients in Tennessee.
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Extreme heat and sweat also exacerbate psoriasis and facial flushing
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from lupus, says Parker. She adds that these issues are
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appearing earlier in the spring and later into the fall
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because hotter days are beginning earlier in the year and
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lasting longer into the fall. Third year Harvard medical student
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and study author Natalie Baker has also seen how heat
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affects skin conditions in Boston clinics during unusually hot summers.
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One patient with cutaneous T cell lymphoma, a type of
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cancer that can cause rashes and scaly skin, told Baker
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in her clinic visits the itching was absolutely unbearable during
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the summer. Patients suffering from hydradenitis superativa, a condition that
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causes painful abscesses on the skin, also reported more severe
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symptoms during periods of heat and humidity, which creates a
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breeding ground for bacteria and can cause skin irritation as
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the abscesses create friction against clothing. I have patients in
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the clinic who say, I'm on the edge of my
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seat all summer, just waiting for myself to flare again,
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says Baker. Here's a tip, keep cool and high. Dermatologists
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recommend staying as cool as possible to prevent exacerbating these
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skin issues when outside during heat waves. Broad grimmed hats,
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long sleeved ultra violet protection factor shirts, and staying in
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the shade when possible both keep the body cool and
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protect the skin from sun damage. De Hydration from fluid
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loss through sweating can also make the skin dryer and
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more irritated, so staying hydrated is key. As climate change
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makes wildfires more frequent and intense, the air quality effects
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are far reaching. Just like the flaky white debris wheat
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Wiy saw in California seven years ago, Many, if not all,
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inflammatory diseases will be affected by air pollution, including wildfire smoke,
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says Whey. When wildfires burn, they release pollutants like fine
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particulate matter, which can trigger oxidative stress damaging the skin.
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Since the skin its barrier function is already impaired in
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EXEMA patients, air pollution is more easily able to enter
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the pores of the skin and cause irritation. In Sarrias's patients,
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air pollution causes an inflammatory response, where the body's immune
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system releases inflammatory chemicals into the bloodstream that trigger a
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skin flare up, says way Kuoche also noticed an unusually
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high number of patients with EXIMA flare ups when Canadian
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wildfires shrouded Boston and Smoke in June of twenty twenty three.
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Exima's peak season is typically the winter months when the
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air is drier, so a flood of EXIMA patients in
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June was unexpected. The clinic would normally see under twenty
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patients in a summer month for eczema, but during wildfires
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the number jumped to one hundred and sixty. Even more surprising,
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Kuoche says, patients who never dealt with skin issues were
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suddenly reporting irritation. Way's team in San Francisco saw the
18:02
same thing in twenty eighteen, so they tracked online searches
18:06
in the region before, during, and after the campfire, observing
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a sharp increase in searches about itching, coordinated with the
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spike in dermatologists visits. Koch explains that when issuing public
18:20
recommendations to stay indoors and use an air purified during
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the Los Angeles wildfires early this year, she thought of
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many of her own patients who couldn't afford or access
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these preventative measures. They may not have resources, says Kurochi.
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Their job may require day labor outdoors, they may not
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have that luxury to stay inside. People without access to
18:46
indoor filtration systems, for example, are more likely to have
18:50
existing skin conditions and allergies triggered by wildfire smoke. According
18:55
to a preprint published earlier this year that reviewed forty
18:59
recent study on climate impacts and skin health, but routine
19:04
exposure to periods of smoke may also cause long term
19:08
damage to the skin. Way's research team at University of California,
19:12
San Francisco is reviewing studies around the world on skin
19:17
cancer and firefighters, and although the analysis is not yet completed,
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Way estimates there's about a two to threefold increase in
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the risk of skin cancer in firefighters compared with the
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rest of the population. There's another tip use antioxidants, sunscreen,
19:37
and moisturizer for a skincare routine that considers air pollution.
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Corroch recommends starting the day with a serum that includes antioxidants,
19:46
followed by a moisturizer with seramides and a mineral based sunscreen.
19:52
Minerals in some sunscreens, like zinc, titanium, and iron oxide,
19:56
don't just protect against sunlight, but also provide a shield
20:00
against pollution. Algae and green tea leaves are trending in
20:04
the world of anti pollution skin care for their anti
20:08
inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Products that contain vitamin C also
20:15
claim to prevent collagen degradation that may be caused by
20:18
air pollution, and studies have found that some plant extracts
20:22
like from Gensen. Camelia and brown algae do protect against
20:28
oxidative stress. For your nighttime skin care routine, Corro suggests
20:34
using a cleanser to wash pollution off the skin, followed
20:37
by a moisturizer with seramides to restore the skin's barrier,
20:42
which may have been degraded throughout the day. There's some
20:45
debate about whether using moisturizers provides an extra barrier against
20:50
pollutants or whether it traps pollutants to be stuck on
20:53
the skin. This area needs further study. Gut health is
20:59
linked to skin health, and probiotic treatments are becoming more
21:04
popular to treat skin conditions, says Parker, although research is
21:09
still emerging on the connection and the effectiveness of probiotics
21:13
to treat air pollution damage. Dermatologists say monitoring air quality
21:20
and preventing damage during these poor air quality days is
21:24
key to protecting your skin. Keep windows shut and wear
21:29
a mask and protective clothing. If you go outside, well,
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we're going to turn down to the Los Angeles times.
21:39
Majestic wild horses are trampling Mono lakes other worldly landscape.
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The FEDS plan around up. This is October seventh, several
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dozen horses calmly grays along the shores of Mono Lake,
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a sparkling saline expanse spread out before the jagged Sierra
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Nevada Mountains. The September sun is blazing. A pair of
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brown horses come up side by side and stare intensely
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at an approaching visitor. These wild equines soon may disappear
22:16
from beside the ancient lake. The prospect is stirring emotional
22:20
disagreement over the future of the herd, which has surged
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to more than three times what federal officials say the
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land can support. These horses deserve a place to rome
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and be free, but around Mono Lake is not the place,
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said BArch Miller of the Mono Lake Committee, an environmental nonprofit.
22:42
Earlier this year, the US Forest Service and Bureau of
22:45
Land Management approved a plan to round up and remove
22:49
hundreds of wild horses roaming beyond the roughly two hundred
22:52
thousand acres designated for them along the California and Nevada border.
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No date has been set, but it could be as
23:00
soon as this fall. It would be a relief for
23:03
some environmentalists say the horses are degrading the otherworldly landscape
23:08
at Monolate, including bird habitat and its stained tufa textured
23:14
rock columns that would look at home on Mars. Ranchers
23:18
say the animals are gobbling down plants needed to sustain
23:22
their cattle. Federal officials highlight the safety hazard posed by
23:26
horses that have wandered on the highways. Others see the
23:30
move as a travesty. One method to house the horses
23:34
would use helicopters to drive them into a trap, which
23:38
animal welfare groups say creates dangerous, even deadly situations for horses.
23:44
A pending federal bill would ban the practice. Local tribes
23:49
and nonprofits have partnered to fight the roundup plant, arguing
23:53
that the indigenous community should be tapped to manage the
23:57
animals that roam their ancestral land. A separate group of
24:02
plaintiffs has sued the government, claiming it's reneging on its
24:06
duty to protect the horses. We're all living spirits, said
24:12
Ronda Koch, member of the Mono Lake Kutsaduka tribe, and
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it's sad that people just don't care about another living
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thing because they think it doesn't belong there. For thirty
24:25
six years, Dave Marquart was part of a small team
24:28
that monitored wetlands rimming. Mono Lake places so inaccessible even
24:33
four wheel drives can get stuck flung out far on
24:37
the landscape. Only wildlife could enjoy them. The area was
24:41
a major nesting site for yellow headed blackbirds, red winged blackbirds,
24:46
marsh rens, sorahs, and Virginia rails. Quote. There weren't a
24:51
lot of people that saw the transition that I saw
24:54
from healthy wetlands to completely trampled and devastated wetlands, says Marquart,
25:00
who was an interpretive naturalist for the Mono Lake State
25:04
Natural Reserve until he retired in twenty nineteen. Marquart recalled
25:09
a time when he'd encounter fewer than fifty horses. They
25:13
bolt when they saw his vehicle coming. That fear faded
25:16
and the ranks grew over time. He said. They stamped
25:20
ponds and urinated and defecated in the water. The birds
25:25
stopped showing up. Before retiring, Marquart said he helped organize
25:30
a field trip involving the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management,
25:35
and state parks to showcase the impacts. Everybody saw that
25:40
it was an issue and felt that something needed to
25:42
be done. He said to day's sizeable mounds of horse
25:47
manure dot warm springs. A remote area along the eastern
25:52
shore of Mono Lake that Marquart had raised the alarm
25:55
about during his tenure. White bones of fallen equals rest
26:00
in the alkaline meadows. Chestnut fir gleamed on a hoof
26:05
attached to a leg bone. Miller, the Mono Lake Committee's
26:09
Eastern Sierra Policy Director, and Jeff McQuilkin, the executive director,
26:15
led the way to a burbling spring rimmed by innumerable hoofprints.
26:21
Surrounding vegetation was nibbled to nubs. Wildlife compete for the
26:26
limited water here. The birds that would have a safe
26:30
haven in that spring or be hidden away from raptors
26:32
and predators overhead, don't have that opportunity anymore. Mquilkin sin
26:38
The pair first remembered the horses showing up in remote
26:42
areas around the lake in twenty fifteen, as the state
26:45
was gripped by drought. By twenty twenty one, as they
26:49
pushed west, they landed at South Tufa, where tourists congregate
26:53
to gaze at the limestone columns. In the spring of
26:56
twenty twenty three, horse carcasses emerged along the shores of
27:00
South Tufa and nearby Navy Beach as the snow from
27:04
a winter of biblical proportions melted. Quote. The recent deaths
27:08
of these horses provide further evidence that the size of
27:12
this herd cannot be supported by the landscape which they
27:15
are expanding on to, says Lisa Cox, spokesperson for the
27:20
Inyo National Forest. On a pleasantly cool day in September,
27:25
Raina salk Stared transticks at a group of roughly fifty
27:29
wild horses not far from her tribe's reservation. They're the
27:33
town of Benton. Salki, vice chairwoman of the Paiute tribe,
27:39
draws a parallel between ousting the horses and the historic
27:42
persecution of her people. Quote, they're going to run them
27:46
down with helicopters and genocide them, just like they ran
27:50
down us, she said through tears. Well that's all for
27:57
this week's Diary of Science and Nature. Your reader was
28:01
Kelly Taylor. Now stay tuned for further programming on RADIOI