This Week on Earth: Oct 2-8
A raccoon skulks around the entrance to Foster Walker Complex. (Jonathan Zhao/ION)
Nepal
More than 200 people are dead after a series of massive floods hit Nepal last weekend. Over the course of two days, the Kathmandu area was inundated by 10 inches of rainfall, which is almost a fifth of the city’s monthly average. Overflowing rivers washed away buildings and covered the ground with thick mud, leaving many without homes or livelihoods.
Climate change is partly to blame, according to Pawan Bhattarai, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Tribhuvan University in Kirtipur, Nepal.
“Extreme weather events are occurring more frequently and the rainfall pattern is becoming increasingly unpredictable,” Bhattarai says.
Rain isn’t the only threat to Nepalese communities, though. When glaciers melt, they can form glacial lakes that burst unpredictably and trigger flash floods. Global warming is accelerating the formation of such lakes, spurring the Nepalese government to monitor and drain the lakes that are potentially dangerous.
Europe
Last Wednesday, the European Commission announced that the implementation of a new deforestation law would be postponed by a year. The proposed legislation will ban the sale of products and raw materials sourced from recently deforested areas. Major overseas producers of affected goods lobbied for the delay, arguing that they need more time and guidance to prepare for the new regulations.
To some officials, the delay is a blow to anti-deforestation efforts.
“By undermining one of the key achievements of the European green deal, this decision casts serious doubt on [Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s] commitment to delivering on the EU’s environmental promises,” said Anke Schulmeister-Oldenhove, a senior forest policy officer at the World Wildlife Fund.
Others are in favor of a balance. Peter Liese, a member of the European Parliament, believes the plan currently suffers from serious logistical difficulties and supports the delay.
The EU must combat deforestation “the right way and get those affected by the law more involved,” says Liese.
The law is now set to go into effect on December 30, 2025.
United States
The Supreme Court is preparing to review a ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on the legality of a proposed nuclear waste dump in Texas. The lower court ruled that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not have the authority to license such storage facilities.
In Nevada, Texas and New Mexico, the construction of nuclear waste storage sites has been opposed by environmental groups, politicians and citizens alike.
“Texas will not become America’s nuclear waste dumping ground,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted last month.
Due to the lack of permanent storage facilities in the U.S., most nuclear waste, almost 90,000 metric tons, is kept near reactors. This type of temporary storage will be safe for the next few decades but may cause environmental damage over the thousands of years that the material remains radioactive.