So, I may be a "doomsayer" (I consider myself a realist), but I'm always trying to see if there's a solution to getting us out of the mess we're in. Perhaps I would describe myself as an optimistic pessimist. Anyhow, based on my recent research, here are some of the solutions I think we (humanity) should pursue collectively...
Plug up the #MethaneLeaks! Seriously! That's a big part of the problem!
Make the price of #meat expensive! I remember when having meat was considered a special occasion -- not a daily occurrence.
Make things out of #RomanConcrete. Now that we've cracked the recipe, there's no excuse not to use it! Especially with rising sea levels (Roman concrete holds up better when exposed to water).
Manufacture stuff that lasts! No more #PlannedObsolescence -- items that can't be upgraded and/or repaired by a skilled user or a local repair shop!
Utilize new (and ancient) technologies to the max! #SolarPrisms, reflective white paint, building new structures with #skywells, #geothermal and other ways to cool/heat spaces without using #FossilFuels!
That's just a few off the top of my head. I think a lot of the solutions are right in front of us -- but #greed and #Oligarchy are keeping them from being implemented!
@LaNaehForaday Nice! Unfortunately, folks who live off the grid are not immune to #ClimateChange. My off-grid friends in Vermont were in the area that got hit bad. And don't get me started on #PFAS. It's freakin' everywhere now!
"On March 27th [2010] Citizens for Sludge-Free Land sent a letter to the #Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and US #EPA Region 3 that information provided to Virginia landowners about using sewage sludges as #fertilizer is deceptive. Land application permits are being granted in several Virginia counties without informing farmers of the serious risks associated with this practice. The VA code specifies, that to be valid, these permits can only be granted with the #InformedConsent of the landowner.
"The Federal #CleanWater Act defines sewage sludge as a #pollutant. Most of the pollutants that sewage treatment plants remove from wastewater concentrate in the resulting sludge. Exempt from #hazardous and solid waste laws, sludge is being spread on #agricultural land, despite mounting scientific evidence and field reports that using this contaminated waste as a cheap fertilizer is neither safe, beneficial, nor sustainable.
"The Virginia Cooperative Extension Service as well as Nutri-Blend Inc., the company that needs permits to spread sludge, are failing to provide landowners with the necessary facts, so they can make an informed decision whether or not to treat their land with sludge. The widely distributed Extension Service biosolids fact sheets-- although deceptively dated May 9, 2009-- provide out-dated, inaccurate, incomplete, and in some cases, misleading information. They overstate the alleged benefits and totally ignore the known risks and recent documented evidence of adverse health and #environmental impacts linked to sludge use. The fact sheets and brochures give the illusion that land applying sewage sludge, a complex and variable mixture of #HumanWaste and thousands of industrial #chemicals, many of which are #toxic and persistent, is a safe and normal agricultural practice.
"The information provided to landowners deceptively downplays the health risks of exposure to odors, odorant compounds, endotoxins, bacteria-laden dusts, and toxic gases at land application sites that can cause severe and permanent #lung damage. Nor are farmers told that typical sludges generated in industrialized urban areas contain not only pathogens, but also #PCBs, #dioxins, #carcinogens, #pharmaceuticals, flame retardants [#PFAS], and hormone disrupting chemicals that can damage developing organisms in parts per trillion. Many of these pollutants do not break down once they are applied to land. Worse, partial breakdown products are often more toxic than the parent material. Yet federal regulations require testing and standards for only nine toxic metals. Perhaps most important, the information provided to farmers fails to disclose that the National Academies of Science has indicated that while there are serious health concerns associated with many of the constituents of sewage sludge, there is too much uncertainty to scientifically predict the true health and environmental risks, when this complex waste mixture is applied to land.
"Finally, farmers are not told that sludge-exposure has been linked to illnesses, human deaths, livestock mortalities, groundwater pollution, and permanently degraded land. Unless there is a true and accurate disclosure of all the risks associated with this practice, there can be no true consent.
"Without informed consent, the state should not be issuing permits."
"This February, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki published a proposal that could lead to the world’s largest-ever clampdown on chemicals production. The plan, put forward by environmental agencies in five countries — Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden — would heavily restrict the manufacture of more than 12,000 substances, collectively known as forever chemicals."
I am at a scientific conference this week and PFAS are a big issue with fetal development and fertility in seminars. Drinking water increasingly contaminated with these pollutants. Luckily many water filtration systems can reduce levels.
“Health Canada and Environment Canada's review showed pregnant moms can transmit these substances through the placenta. Infants, it found, can be exposed to PFAS through breast milk.” #PFAS#pollution#environment#science#Canada
There is widespread human exposure to so-called 'forever chemicals' (PFAS) in Europe, with growing hotspots identified in Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, and Denmark, according to the results of Europe's largest-ever biomonitoring programme.
Industrial sites, airports, firefighting training centres, waste disposal facilities, and wastewater treatment plants are identified as the sources of PFAS contamination in these hotspots
Plant-based material can remediate #PFAS, new research suggests
Combining plants and fungi, an NIEHS-funded technology presents an environmentally friendly approach to clean up the 'forever chemicals.'
By Megan Boland, September 2022
"The new approach uses a plant-based material that adsorbs PFAS, and microbial fungi that literally eat up the so-called 'forever chemicals.' The findings, which were published July 28 in Nature Communications, could provide a powerful solution for finally getting rid of these contaminants.
"A certain kind of fungus known as 'white rot' has shown promise to degrade PFAS, but sustaining its growth and promoting PFAS breakdown has been challenging.
"To address these shortcomings, the researchers used an abundant and renewable component of dry plant matter called lignocellulose — to create a porous framework as a low-cost, efficient, and sustainable alternative for PFAS remediation. The framework, named Renewable Artificial Plant for In-Situ Microbial Environmental Remediation (RAPIMER), is made from the leaves, stalks, and cobs of corn plants left in the field after harvest.
"'The plant’s cell wall-based material serves as a framework to adsorb the PFAS,' said Dai. 'Then this material and the adsorbed chemical serve as food for a microbial fungus. The fungus eats them at the same time to eliminate the disposal problem. Basically, the fungus is doing the detoxification process.'
"In the new study, the researchers found that their platform successfully bound PFAS at higher concentrations than other currently available sorbents. After two weeks, more than 98% and 99% of #PFOA and #PFOS, respectively, were removed. According to the team, the findings suggest that the PFAS were being degraded biologically into less toxic products."
"PFAS in Food Packaging
The Department of Environmental Protection (Department) invites stakeholder comment on the attached department rule concept draft language which would prohibit manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors from offering for sale or for promotional purposes in Maine certain types of food packaging to which per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been intentionally introduced, as authorized by Maine Revised Statutes, Title 32, Section 1733(3-B).
Maine law authorizes the Department to prohibit the sale of a food package to which PFAS have been intentionally introduced in any amount greater than an incidental presence if the Department determines that a safer alternative to the use of PFAS in a specific application to a food package is readily available in sufficient quantity and at a comparable cost, and that the safer alternative performs as well or better than PFAS in the specific application of PFAS to a food package.
In February 2021, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Washington DOE) published the Per- and Poly-fluoroalkyl Substances in Food Packaging Alternatives Assessment, identifying 4 types of food packaging that meet Washington’s statutory criteria for a prohibition:
Food Packaging Type and Alternative Identified as Safer
Wraps and liners - Wax-coated alternatives
Plates - Clay-coated and reusable alternatives
Food boats - Clay-coated and reusable alternatives
Pizza boxes - Uncoated alternatives
In May 2022, Washington DOE published a second alternatives assessment report, Safer Alternatives to PFAS in Food Packaging, which modified their process in two ways: first, by adjusting the concept of food packaging application to be more focused on its function rather than the package’s name; second, by relying on marketability to demonstrate cost and availability rather than direct price comparison of final products. This report identified safer alternatives for all five of the food packaging applications reviewed:
Food Packaging Type and Alternative
Bags and sleeves - Densified paper and wax-coated options
Because language in Washington’s related law mirrors criteria for determination in Maine law, the Department proposes to rely on the conclusions in these reports that the safer alternatives identified perform as well as, or better, than PFAS in the specific applications of PFAS to the food package.
The Department requests written comment on this section of the Rule Chapter 80 Concept Draft by August 21, 2023.
The Department intends to initiate formal rulemaking with the Board of Environmental Protection this fall to amend the existing Chapter 80 to incorporate these prohibitions. This will be a major substantive rulemaking subject to review by the legislature before final adoption.
Please email Kerri.Malinowski@maine.gov with your name, affiliation, contact information, and comment in response to this request for stakeholder engagement."
So lassen sich PFAS-Chemikalien aus Trinkwasser filtern
PFAS, sogenannte "ewige Chemikalien", belasten weltweit das Trinkwasser. Kanadische Wissenschaftler haben nun eine Methode entwickelt, um das Problem zu lösen. Von Giselle Ucar.
@tagesschau
Schön wäre u.a. , wenn keine weiteren #PFAS in die Umwelt freigesetzt würden. .. bisher hauptsächlich durch Herstellung antihaftbeschichteter Beatpfannen o.ä.
Die "Ewigkeitschemikalien" können #Krebs verursachen und unfruchtbar machen. Sie werden in der Industrie bei der Herstellung vieler Produkte verwendet, ua in der #Autoindustrie
Die USA reagieren bereits, das #Chemieunternehmen DuPont musste kürzlich einem Krebskranken 1,6 Mio $ Schadenersatz zahlen
While the city’s mayor defends a new factory working with “forever chemicals,” residents organize to discuss Industrial Plastics Canada’s plastics factory, @KupermanLeah reports. #onpoli#PFAShttps://t.co/GepeY2AlTN
They falsely claim the pans are free from #PFAS. “The HexClad PFAS class action lawsuit is Didwania, et al. v. HexClad Cookware Inc., Case No. 2:23-cv-05110, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.”
The substances are long-range transported to the Arctic via the atmosphere and ocean currents. When they are released to the environment, PFAS is bio-magnified through the food chain. Predators at top of the food chain, therefore contain high PFAS concentrations, and the high levels in the indigenous population of East Greenland are originating from their food.
#PFAS sind gefährliche Chemikalien, die mittlerweile in vielen Böden und Gewässern nachweisbar sind. Es ist sehr aufwendig und kaum realisierbar, diese Chemikalien mit herkömmlichen Filtertechniken zu beseitigen.
Forschende des Fraunhofer IGB setzen im Verbundprojekt »AtWaPlas« erfolgreich auf eine plasmabasierte Technologie.
First official nationwide test of #PFAS in drinking water, known to cause cancer, thyroid problems & lower birth weight in offspring, reveals 45% of all US, including those with private wells, are consuming dangerous forever chemicals.
It should be noted iron filtration systems, and boiling water does not remove PFAS.
Wie Hersteller von Outdoor-Jacken mit Chemikalien-Risken umgehen
Die sogenannten "Ewigkeits-Chemikalien" PFAS sorgen auch dafür, dass Jacken wasserabweisend sind. Wegen Risiken für Umwelt und Mensch könnten sie verboten werden. Wie gehen Bekleidungshersteller damit um? Von Emal Atif.