Daily Quick Read - August 28, 2019

Riding the Colorado Into the Future

Photo: Oars

150 years ago an expedition traveled down the Green and Colorado Rivers.  In 1869, these two river basins were unknown territory.  The Powell expedition traveled for 1,000 miles along what is the major river system in the American southwest.  This year a new expedition was mounted to travel the rivers that are critical source of water for 40 million.

A century and a half is a mere blip in the life of the Colorado River, but much has changed in its basin since Powell’s expedition. Cities have bloomed in the desert, diversions and pipelines have been built and a complex web of regulations has been written to divvy the water to its 40 million users. What once was a large swath of unknown today encompasses five states, two basin districts, more than a dozen dams and 15 special-management areas. Add to that ever-increasing agricultural and energy development, a nearly two-decade-long drought and wild swings brought by climate change, and the picture of the Colorado River Basin is one of a riverway so overburdened it no longer reaches the sea.

Meet UW’s Sesquicentennial Colorado River Exploring Expedition, which set out on that May 2019 day to follow Powell’s arduous journey. Over 70 days and some 1,000 river miles this summer, its members retraced Powell’s route and mimicked other key aspects of his expedition — like collecting scientific data. But theirs was not to be a simple journey into the past. Instead the team set out with an eye toward the future and solutions for the river system’s modern-day problems. In this way, the expedition conducted a study not only of the geology or hydrology of the Colorado River Basin, but of Western economies, policies, climate, public lands and ideologies as they relate to the overtaxed river system.

Climate Driven Depression

Beside the damage to the planet, the climate crisis is also showing up as a factor in worsening mental health across the globe.  PTSD is common among survivors of large scale disasters.  But, so are symptoms like depression and more general anxiety. 

The climate crisis is manifesting as ever bigger wildfires, hurricanes, floods and heat waves, and cities are just starting to grapple with the mental impact of the emergency. A climate taskforce of the American Psychological Association, citing scores of studies over the last decades, reports that survivors of these human-enhanced disasters are experiencing dramatic increases in depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, suicide and suicidal thoughts, violent behavior and increased use of drugs and alcohol. A Rand study found that one-third of the adult survivors of California wildfires in 2003 suffered depression and one-quarter suffered PTSD.

The mental health effects of climate change have been known for quite some time now: a 1991 meta-study found that as many as 40% of those directly affected by climate-enhanced superstorms and fires suffer acute negative mental health effects, some of which become chronic. Puerto Rico, for example, has seen an epidemic of suicide, PTSD and depression after Hurricanes Irma and Maria. After Hurricane Katrina, some people referred to the sense of generalized anxiety and depression common to survivors as “Katrina brain”.

But it’s not just storms that impact mental health. An extensive 2018 Australian study established that extremes of both hot and cold are linked to suicide and mental illness, and the ensuing drought has contributed to a surge in deaths of Australian farmers. Even those not directly impacted by flood or fire can experience a sense of ecological loss termed “eco-anxiety” or “climate grief”.

Speaking of Depression 

Who wants to live in a world without chocolate?  This is really bad news for both producers and consumers.  No chocolate and coffee in danger as well  Yikes.

Picture this: a world where chocolate is as rare as gold. No more five-dollar bags of candy on Halloween. No more boxes of truffles on Valentine's day. No more roasting s'mores by the campfire. No more hot chocolate on a cold winter's day.

Who wants to live in a world like that?

Unfortunately, we all could be if our climate keeps changing.

So how will the climate crisis affect one of the world's most beloved culinary delights? The verdict doesn't look good for chocolate lovers worldwide — and more importantly, it's a threat to the farming communities that depend on cacao for their livelihoods.

Don’t Get Crabby

When supply doesn’t meet demand, then just lie about what’s really in your product.  As fisheries become more depleted more and more seafood products won’t be exactly what the label says.

Beginning in 2012 through 2015, Phillip R. Carawan, owner and president of Capt. Neill’s Seafood Inc., ordered employees to mislabel nearly 180,000 pounds of crabmeat imported from South America and Asia as a “Product of USA.” The retail value of the mislabeled crab products was estimated at slightly more than $4 million. A separate criminal case against Capt. Neill’s Inc. is ongoing.

Fraud is not uncommon when it comes to the prized shellfish. The blue crab, named for its azure-hued limbs, is a popular and iconic species in the Chesapeake Bay region; supply doesn’t always keep up with demand. In 2015, Oceana—a marine conservation nonprofit—tested the DNA of 90 crab cake samples sourced from restaurants in the Chesapeake Bay region and found that 38 percent labeled as locally sourced actually contained imported meat.

Speaking of Labelling Anomalies

There is one of industries great disruptors  – Elon Musk.  His decision to build a big, beautiful plant in Buffalo, New York, even with a massive government subsidy, is turning into a disaster.  When you depend on visionaries to save the world, you better give them an eye test first.

In public, Musk doesn’t talk much about Tesla’s factory in Buffalo—a place he once, in better times, dubbed Gigafactory 2. Gigafactory 1, of course, is Tesla’s much-hyped futuristic electric car plant outside Reno. Gigafactory 2, which is shrouded in silence and secrets, was a controversial side venture: a high-stakes move to dominate America’s growing market for solar energy. Tesla bought the factory’s main tenant, SolarCity, for almost $5 billion in 2016. The plan, in true Muskian hyperbole, was to turn the plant in Buffalo into what was billed as the largest manufacturing facility of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. SolarCity would build 10,000 solar panels per day and install them on homes and businesses across the country. In the process, it would create 5,000 jobs in an area that very much needed them. “This is one of the poorest cities in the country,” Scott says. “You get a big company here, and it’s a big deal.”

But three years after Tesla bought SolarCity, there are serious doubts as to whether the plant will ever fulfill its promises. The website CleanTechnica, which is mostly supportive of Musk, calls SolarCity “a disaster waiting to happen.” A potentially costly lawsuit alleges that Tesla acquired SolarCity at the expense of its own shareholders. And former employees want to know what happened to the massive subsidy Tesla received. “New York State taxpayers deserved more from a $750 million investment,” a laid-off employee named Dale Witherell wrote to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. “Tesla has done a tremendous job providing smoke and mirrors and empty promises to the area."