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Volcano erupts in Pacific, West Coast under tsunami advisory

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — An undersea volcano erupted in spectacular fashion near the Pacific nation of Tonga on Saturday, sending large tsunami waves crashing across the shore and people rushing to higher ground. A tsunami advisory was in effect for Hawaii, Alaska and the U.S. Pacific coast, with reports of waves pushing boats up in the docks in Hawaii.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or the extent of the damage because all internet connectivity with Tonga was lost at about 6:40 p.m. local time — about 10 minutes after problems began, said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis for the network intelligence firm Kentik.

Tonga gets its internet via an undersea cable from Suva, Fiji, which presumably was damaged. The company that manages that connection, Southern Cross Cable Network, could not immediately be reached for comment.

In Hawaii, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reported waves slamming ashore from half a meter (1.6 feet) in Nawiliwili, Kauai, to 80 centimeters (2.7 feet) in Hanalei. “We are relieved that there is no reported damage and only minor flooding throughout the islands,” the center said, describing the situation in Hawaii.

On Tonga, home to about 105,000 people, video posted to social media showed large waves washing ashore in coastal areas, swirling around homes and buildings, including a church. Satellite images showed a huge eruption, a plume of ash, steam and gas rising like a mushroom above the blue Pacific waters.

New Zealand’s military said it was monitoring the situation and remained on standby, ready to assist if asked.

The Tonga Meteorological Services said a tsunami warning was declared for all of the archipelago, and data from the Pacific tsunami center showed waves of 80 centimeters (2.7 feet) had been detected.

The explosion of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano was the latest in a series of spectacular eruptions.

A Twitter user identified as Dr. Faka’iloatonga Taumoefolau posted video showing waves crashing ashore.

“Can literally hear the volcano eruption, sounds pretty violent,” he wrote, adding in a later post: “Raining ash and tiny pebbles, darkness blanketing the sky.”

In Hawaii, Alaska and along the U.S. Pacific coast, residents were asked to move away from the coastline to higher ground and pay attention to specific instructions from their local emergency management officials, said Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator for the National Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska.

The first waves to hit the continental United States were measured at about 30 centimeters (1 foot) in Nikolski, Atka and Adak, Alaska. The wave was about 20 centimeters (.7 feet) at Monterey, California, the U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center said in a tweet.

The National Weather Service said there are reports of waves pushing boats in Hawaii. Sea level fluctuations were also beginning in Alaska and California, according to the National Tsunami Warning Center.

Beaches and piers were closed across Southern California as a precaution but the National Weather Service tweeted there were “no significant concerns about inundation.” Strong rip currents were possible, however, and officials warned people to stay out of the water.

Crowds gathered at the Santa Cruz harbor early Saturday to watch water slowly rise and fall, straining boat ties on docks. There was no obvious immediate damage. In 2011, after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, a series of surges cost $20 million of damage in the harbor.

“We don’t issue an advisory for this length of coastline as we’ve done — I’m not sure when the last time was — but it really isn’t an everyday experience,” Snider said. “I hope that elevates the importance and severity for our citizens.”

He said the waves already slamming ashore in Hawaii were just under the criteria for a more serious tsunami warning.

“The important thing here is the first wave may not be the largest. We could see this play out for several hours,” he added. “It looks like everything will stay below the warning level but it’s difficult to predict because this is a volcanic eruption and we’re set up to measure earthquake or seismic-driven sea waves.”

Residents of American Samoa were alerted of the tsunami warning by local broadcasters as well as church bells that rang territory-wide. An outdoor siren warning system was out of service. Those living along the shoreline quickly moved to higher ground.

As night fell, there were no reports of any damage and the Hawaii-based tsunami center canceled the alert.

Authorities in the nearby island nations of Fiji and Samoa also issued warnings, telling people to avoid the shoreline due to strong currents and dangerous waves. The Japan Meteorological Agency said there may be a slight swelling of the water along the coast, but it was not expected to cause any damage.

Tonga’s Islands Business news site reported that a convoy of police and military troops evacuated King Tupou VI from his palace near the shore. He was among the many residents who headed for higher ground.

Earlier, the Matangi Tonga news site reported that scientists observed massive explosions, thunder and lightning near the volcano after it started erupting early Friday. Satellite images showed a 5-kilometer (3 mile) -wide plume rising into the air to about 20 kilometers (12 miles).

More than 2,300 kilometers (1,400 miles) away in New Zealand, officials were warning of storm surges from the eruption.

The National Emergency Management Agency said some parts of New Zealand could expect “strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore following a large volcanic eruption.”

New Zealand’s private forecaster Weather Watch tweeted that people as far away as Southland, the country’s southernmost region, reported hearing sonic booms from the eruption. Others reported that many boats were damaged by a tsunami that hit a marina in Whangarei, in the Northland region.

The volcano is located about 64 kilometers (40 miles) north of the capital, Nuku’alofa. Back in late 2014 and early 2015, a series of eruptions in the area created a small new island and disrupted international air travel to the Pacific archipelago for several days.

There is not a significant difference between volcanoes underwater and on land, and underwater volcanoes become bigger as they erupt, at some point usually breaching the surface, said Hans Schwaiger, a research geophysicist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

With underwater volcanoes, however, the water can add to the explosivity of the eruption as it hits the lava, Schwaiger added.

Before an explosion, there is generally an increase in small local earthquakes at the volcano, but depending on how far it is from land, that may not be felt by residents along the shoreline, Schwaiger said.

In 2019, Tonga lost internet access for nearly two weeks when the same fiber-optic cable was severed . The director of the local cable company said at the time that a large ship may have cut the cable by dragging an anchor. Until limited satellite access was restored people couldn’t even make international calls.

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Associated Press writers Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island, Frank Bajak in Boston, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Fili Sagapolutele in Pago Pago, American Samoa, contributed to this report.

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US

Wildfire burns hundreds of homes in Colorado, thousands flee

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SUPERIOR, Colo. (AP) — Tens of thousands of Coloradans driven from their neighborhoods by a wind-whipped wildfire anxiously waited to learn what was left standing of their lives Friday as authorities reported more than 500 homes were feared destroyed.

At least seven people were injured, but there were no immediate reports of any deaths or anyone missing in the aftermath of the blaze that erupted outside Denver on Thursday and swept over drought-stricken neighborhoods with terrifying speed, propelled by gusts up to 105 mph (169 kph).

“We might have our very own New Year’s miracle on our hands if it holds up that there was no loss of life,” Gov. Jared Polis said, noting that many people had just minutes to evacuate.

By first light Friday, the towering flames that had lit up the night sky were gone, leaving smoldering homes and charred trees and fields. The winds had died down, and light snow soon began falling, raising hopes it could snuff out hot spots.

The fire erupted in and around Louisville and Superior, neighboring towns about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Denver with a combined population of 34,000. Residents were ordered to flee as the flames closed in and cast a smoky, orange haze over the landscape.

The wildfire broke out unusually late in the year, following an extremely dry fall and amid a winter nearly devoid of snow so far.

Cathy Glaab found the Superior home she shares with her husband, Richard, had been reduced to a charred and twisted pile of debris, the mailbox about the only thing still standing. It was one of seven houses in a row burned to the ground.

“Just hard. So many memories,” Glaab said, holding her head as she took in the scene. Despite the devastation, she said, they intend to rebuild the house, which had a view of the mountains from the back.

Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said more than 500 homes were probably destroyed. He and the governor said as many as 1,000 homes might have been lost, though that won’t be known until crews can assess the damage.

“It’s unbelievable when you look at the devastation that we don’t have a list of 100 missing persons,” the sheriff said.

The sheriff said some communities were reduced to just “smoking holes in the ground.” He urged residents to wait for the all-clear to go back, warning that it was still too dangerous in many neighborhoods because of fire and fallen power lines.

Sarah Owens, her husband, adult son and their dog got out of their Superior home within 10 minutes of learning about the evacuation from a Facebook post. But as everyone tried leaving by way of the winding streets of the affluent Rock Creek neighborhood, it took them 1 ½ hours to go 2 miles (3.2 kilometers).

Once they safely found their way to a pet-friendly hotel, their cellphones and computers could not provide them with the only thing they wanted to know: Was their house still standing?

“The good news is I think our house may be OK,” Owens said.

But from now on, she said, she plans to have a bag packed in case of another fire.

“I never thought a brush fire could cause this kind of destruction,” Owens said. “I want to stay here. No matter where you live, there are always going to be natural disasters.”

Mike Guanella and his family were relaxing at their home in Superior and looking forward to celebrating a belated Christmas when reports of a nearby grass fire quickly gave way to an order to leave immediately.

Instead of opening presents, Guanella and his wife, their three children and three dogs were staying a friend’s house in Denver, hoping their house was still standing.

“Those presents are still under the tree right now — we hope,” he said.

Sophia Verucchi and her partner, Tony Victor, returned to their apartment in Broomfield, on the edge of Superior, to find that it was spared any serious damage. They had fled the previous afternoon with just Victor’s guitar, bedding and their cat, Senor Gato Blanco.

“We left thinking it was a joke. We just felt like we were going to come back. At 5 o’clock, we thought, maybe we’re not coming back,” Verucchi said. But they got an email in the morning saying it was OK to return.

“Seeing the news and seeing all the houses burnt, we just feel very lucky,” Verucchi said.

The two towns are filled with middle- and upper-middle-class subdivisions with shopping centers, parks and schools. The area is between Denver and Boulder, home to the University of Colorado.

By late morning Friday, the blaze had burned at least 9.4 square miles (24 square kilometers) but appeared to be contained, the sheriff said.

Scientists say climate change is making weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

Typically, Colorado wildfires have not been as headline-grabbing as those in California that have destroyed thousands of homes. But last year, the state saw an unprecedented wildfire season, with three of the largest fires in state history. Those were primarily in mountainous areas, not in suburban subdivisions.

In anticipation of a long fire season this year, Colorado lawmakers set aside millions for more equipment and other resources, including extending contracts for air tankers and helicopters.

Colorado’s Front Range, where most of the state’s population lives, had an extremely dry and mild fall, and winter has been mostly dry so far. Denver set a record for consecutive days without snow before it got a small storm on Dec. 10, its last snowfall before the wildfires broke out.

Ninety percent of Boulder County is in severe or extreme drought, and it hasn’t seen substantial rainfall since mid-summer.

Guanella said he heard from a firefighter friend that his home was still standing Thursday night. But all he could do was wait.

“You’re just waiting to hear if your favorite restaurant is still standing, if the schools that your kids go to are still standing,” he said. “You’re just waiting to get some clarity.”

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Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Associated Press writer Brady McCombs contributed to this story from Salt Lake City.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/environment.

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US

Texas pipeline company charged in California oil spill

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Houston-based oil company and two subsidiaries were indicted Wednesday for a crude spill that fouled Southern California waters and beaches in October, an event prosecutors say was caused in part by failing to properly act when alarms repeatedly alerted workers to a pipeline rupture.

Amplify Energy Corp. and its companies that operate several oil rigs and a pipeline off Long Beach were charged by a federal grand jury with a single misdemeanor count of illegally discharging oil.

Investigators believe the pipeline was weakened when a cargo ship’s anchor snagged it in high winds in January, months before it ultimately ruptured Oct. 1, spilling up to about 25,000 gallons (94,600 liters) of crude oil in the ocean.

U.S. prosecutors said the companies were negligent six ways, including failing to respond to eight leak detection system alarms over a 13-hour period that should have alerted them to the spill and would have minimized the damage. Instead, the pipeline was shut down after each alarm and then restarted, spewing more oil into the ocean.

Amplify blamed the unnamed shipping company for displacing the pipeline and said workers on and offshore responded to what they believed were false alarms because the system wasn’t functioning properly. It was signaling a potential leak at the platform where no leak was occurring, the company said.

The leak, in fact, was from a section of undersea pipe 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) miles away, Amplify said.

“Had the crew known there was an actual oil spill in the water, they would have shut down the pipeline immediately,” the company said.

The Associated Press first reported last week that Amplify’s leak detection system was not fully functional. At the time, the company declined to explain what that meant.

AP in October reported on questions surrounding the company’s failure to respond to an alarm.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday that it was responding to a report of a sheen off the coast of Bolsa Chica State Beach but hadn’t determined the source and planned to fly over the scene Thursday morning.

The area is in the same general vicinity as that of the October leak, although the pipeline currently is out of service.

In that case, the first pipeline rupture alarm sounded at 4:10 p.m. Oct. 1, but the leak was not discovered until well after sunrise the next morning and reported about 9 a.m. Citizens on shore called 911 to report the strong smell of crude that first afternoon, and an anchored cargo vessel reported seeing a large sheen on the water before sunset.

Local authorities who went looking for a spill Oct. 1 didn’t find it. The Coast Guard said it was too dark to go out and search for the spill by the time they received a report about it. They went out after sunrise, finding it around the time the company reported it.

Just days after the spill, Amplify CEO Martyn Willsher had refused to answer questions at news conferences about the timeline surrounding the spill and a report that an alarm at 2:30 a.m. Oct. 2 alerted controllers about a possible spill. He maintained the company didn’t learn of the spill until a boat saw a sheen on the water at 8:09 a.m. that morning.

Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said the indictment validates residents who had detected the spill a day earlier and reported it.

“It’s terrible that they basically lied to the community during the press briefings and caused people to believe that what they saw with their own eyes or smelled or knew was actually not true,” she said. “What we know now is that the company knew this, and the alarms went off like they were supposed to, and nobody did anything.”

Even after the eighth and final alarm sounded, the pipeline operated for nearly an hour in the early morning, prosecutors said.

Pipeline safety advocate Bill Caram said the indictment paints a picture of a reckless company.

“I understand there are false positives on leak detection systems but this is our treasured coastline,” said Caram, director of the Bellingham, Washington-based Pipeline Safety Trust. “The fact that they kept hitting the snooze button and ignoring alarms, stopping and starting this pipeline and all the while leaking oil in the Pacific Ocean is reckless and egregious.”

Prosecutors also found that the pipeline was understaffed and the crew was fatigued and insufficiently trained in the leak detection system.

The indictment’s description of company personnel as fatigued pointed to a long-standing industry problem, said pipeline expert Ramanan Krishnamoorti with the University of Houston.

“Fatigue and overworked staff is old and trite and inexcusable,” he said. “This has been demonstrated over and over again as being the single most important vulnerability.”

It’s not clear why it took so long for the 1/2-inch (1.25-centimeter) thick steel line to leak after the apparent anchor incident, or whether another anchor strike or other incident led to the rupture and spill.

The spill came ashore at Huntington Beach and forced about a weeklong closure of the city’s beaches and others along the Orange County coast. Fishing in the affected area resumed only recently, after testing confirmed fish did not have unsafe levels of oil toxins.

If convicted, the charge carries up to five years of probation for the corporation and fines that could total millions of dollars.

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Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Associated Press reporter Amy Taxin contributed.

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US

Big California storm dumps snow, drenches parched regions

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A major storm hitting Northern California is expected to intensify and bring travel headaches and threats of flooding and mudslides after an abnormally warm fall in the U.S. West

December 13, 2021, 8:49 PM

4 min read

SAN FRANCISCO — Winter arrived early in Northern California with wind, rain and snow that was expected to intensify Monday as forecasters warned that mountain passes will probably be closed to traffic and areas burned by wildfires could face rockslides and mudslides following an especially warm and dry fall across the U.S. West.

The multiday storm, a powerful “atmospheric river” weather system that is sucking up moisture from the Pacific Ocean, raised the threat of flooding and was expected to dump more than 8 feet (2.4 meters) of snow on the highest peaks in California and Nevada and drench other parts of the two states before it moves on midweek, forecasters said.

“This is a pretty widespread event,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Anna Wanless in Sacramento. “Most of California, if not all, will see some sort of rain and snow.”

The storm will bring much needed moisture to the broader region that’s been gripped by drought that scientists have said is caused by climate change. The latest U.S. drought monitor shows parts of Montana, Oregon, California, Nevada and Utah are classified as being in exceptional drought, which is the worst category.

Most western U.S. reservoirs that deliver water to states, cities, tribes, farmers and utilities rely on melted snow in the springtime.

This week’s storm is typical for this time of the year but notable because it’s the first big snow that is expected to significantly affect travel with ice and snow on the roads, strong winds and limited visibility, Wanless said.

Drivers on some mountain passes on Sunday had to put chains on their tires and were warned of possible road closures in coming days.

“Travel will be hazardous and is highly discouraged,” the weather service office in Sacramento said on Twitter. Heavy rain could cause minor flooding and rockslides, especially in areas that scarred by wildfires, forecasters said.

Gusts were so strong in and around San Francisco that state transportation officials issued a wind advisory for the Bay Bridge that connects the city with Oakland and warned drivers of campers and trailers to avoid the 4.5-mile (7.2-kilometer) span late Sunday.

South of the San Francisco Bay Area, a 40-mile (64-kilometer) stretch of the iconic Highway 1 in California’s Big Sur area was closed as a precaution until Tuesday. The scenic coastal route frequently experiences damage during wet weather.

Nearby Monterey County residents who live close to burn scars from last year’s Dolan Fire were warned to be prepared to evacuate if rains loosen hillsides and cause debris flows.

In Southern California, the San Bernardino County sheriff’s department issued evacuation warnings for several areas, citing the potential for flooding, and Los Angeles County fire officials urged residents to be aware of the potential for mud flows.

Forecasters said strong winds accompanying the storm could lead to power outages. Karly Hernandez, a spokesperson for Pacific Gas & Electric, said crews and equipment are staged across the state to respond quickly if the power goes out.

The second storm predicted to hit California midweek shortly after the current storm moves on could deliver almost continuous snow in mountainous areas, said Edan Weishahn of the weather service in Reno, which monitors an area straddling the Nevada state line.

Donner Summit, one of the highest points on Interstate 80 and a major commerce commuter route, could face major travel disruptions or road closures, Weishahn said.

The weather follows a November that was unseasonably warm for California.

Vail Resorts’ three Tahoe-area ski resorts opened with limited offerings over the weekend after crews produced artificial snow. Spokeswoman Sara Roston said the resorts are looking forward to more of the real thing.

The Sierra Avalanche Center warned heavy snow and strong winds on top of a weak snowpack could cause large and destructive avalanches.

One man died Saturday in a backcountry area of the Crystal Mountain ski resort in Washington state when he was caught in an avalanche that temporarily buried five others.

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Weber reported from Los Angeles.

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World

Russia vetoes UN resolution linking climate change, security

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Russia has vetoed a first-of-its-kind U.N. Security Council resolution casting climate change as a threat to international peace and security

December 13, 2021, 8:11 PM

3 min read

NEW YORK — Russia on Monday vetoed a first-of-its-kind U.N. Security Council resolution casting climate change as a threat to international peace and security, a vote that sank a years-long effort to make global warming more central to decision-making in the U.N.’s most powerful body.

Spearheaded by Ireland and Niger, the proposal called for “incorporating information on the security implications of climate change” into the council’s strategies for managing conflicts and into peacekeeping operations and political missions, at least sometimes. The measure also asked the U.N. secretary-general to make climate-related security risks “a central component” of conflict prevention efforts and to report on how to address those risks in specific hotspots.

“It’s long overdue” that the U.N.’s foremost security-related body take up the issue, Irish Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason said.

The council has occasionally discussed the security implications of climate change since 2007, and it has passed resolutions that mention destabilizing effects of warming in specific places, such as various African countries and Iraq. But Monday’s resolution would have been the first devoted to climate-related security danger as an issue of its own.

Stronger storms, rising seas, more frequent floods and droughts and other effects of warming could inflame social tensions and conflict, potentially “posing a key risk to global peace, security and stability,” the proposed resolution said. Some 113 of the U.N.’s 193 member countries supported it, including 12 of the council’s 15 members.

But India and veto-wielding Russia voted no, while China abstained.

Their envoys said the issue should remain with broader U.N. groups, such as the Framework Convention on Climate Change. Adding climate change to the Security Council’s purview would only deepen global divisions that were pointed up by last month’s climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, the opponents said. The talks ended in a deal that recommitted to a key target for limiting warming and broke some new ground but fell short of the U.N.’s three big goals for the conference.

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia complained that Monday’s proposed resolution would turn “a scientific and economic issue into a politicized question,” divert the council’s attention from what he called “genuine” sources of conflict in various places and give the council a pretext to intervene in virtually any country on the planet.

“This approach would be a ticking time bomb,” he said.

India and China questioned the idea of tying conflict to climate, and they predicted trouble for the Glasgow commitments if the Security Council — a body that can impose sanctions and dispatch peacekeeping troops — started weighing in more.

“What the Security Council needs to do is not a political show,” Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun said.

The measure’s supporters said it represented a modest and reasonable step to take on an issue of existential importance.

“Today was an opportunity for the council to recognize, for the first time, the reality of the world that we are living in and that climate change is increasing insecurity and instability,” Byrne Nason said. “Instead, we have missed the opportunity of action, and we look away from the realities of the world we are living in.”

Proponents vowed to keep the council’s eye on climate risks.

“The force of the veto can block the approval of a text,” said Niger’s ambassador, Abdou Abarry, “but it cannot hide our reality.”

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World

Frustration, defiance in village to be abandoned to the sea

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FAIRBOURNE, Wales (AP) — Like many others who came to Fairbourne, Stuart Eves decided the coastal village in northern Wales would be home for life when he moved here 26 years ago. He fell in love with the peaceful, slow pace of small village life in this community of about 700 residents, nestled between the rugged mountains and the Irish Sea.

“I wanted somewhere my children can have the same upbringing as I had, so they can run free,” said Eves, 72, who built a caravan park in the village that he still runs with his son. “You’ve got the sea, you’ve got the mountains. It’s just a stunning place to live.”

That changed suddenly in 2014, when authorities identified Fairbourne as the first coastal community in the U.K. to be at high risk of flooding due to climate change.

Predicting faster sea level rises and more frequent and extreme storms due to global warming, the government said it could only afford to keep defending the village for another 40 years. Officials said that by 2054, it would no longer be safe or sustainable to live in Fairbourne.

Authorities have been working with villagers on the process of so-called “managed realignment” — essentially, to move them away and abandon the village to the encroaching sea.

Overnight, house prices in Fairbourne nosedived. Residents were dubbed the U.K.’s first “climate refugees.” Many were left shocked and angry by national headlines declaring their whole village would be “decommissioned.” Seven years on, most of their questions about their future remain unanswered.

“They’ve doomed the village, and now they’ve got to try to rehome the people. That’s 450 houses,” said Eves, who serves as chair of the local community council. “If they want us out by 2054, then they’ve got to have the accommodation to put us in.”

No one here wants to leave. While many are retirees, there are also young families raising a next generation. Locals speak proudly of their tight-knit community. And although the village center only consists of a grocer’s, a fish and chip shop and a couple of restaurants, residents say the pebbly beach and a small steam train draw bustling crowds in the summer.

Natural Resources Wales, the government-sponsored organization responsible for the sea defenses in Fairbourne, said the village is particularly vulnerable because it faces multiple flooding risks. Built in the 1850s on a low-lying saltmarsh, Fairbourne already lies beneath sea level at high spring tide. During storms, the tidal level is more than 1.5 meters (5 feet) above the level of the village.

Scientists say U.K. sea levels have risen about 10 centimeters (4 inches) in the past century. Depending on greenhouse gas emissions and actions that governments take, the predicted rise is 70 centimeters to 1 meter by 2100.

Fairbourne is also at the mouth of an estuary, with additional risks of flash floods from the river running behind it. Officials have spent millions of pounds in strengthening a sea wall and almost 2 miles of tidal defenses.

While there are flood risks in many other villages along the Welsh coast, decisions on which areas to protect ultimately boil down to cost. Officials say that in the case of Fairbourne, the cost of maintaining flood defenses will become higher than “the value of what we’re protecting.”

The effects of climate change that negotiators at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, are working to mitigate already are a reality here.

Catrin Wager, a cabinet member of Gwynedd Council, the local authority overseeing Fairbourne, stressed that while Fairbourne may be the first Welsh coastal village to be designated unviable due to climate change, it certainly won’t be the only one. There’s no precedent for how to develop policies for helping the villagers adapt, she said.

“We need more answers from the Welsh and U.K. governments, that’s my message going into this (U.N. summit),” Wager said. “We really need to get some guidance on not only mitigating the effects of climate change, but about how we adapt for things that are already happening.”

Across the U.K., half a million properties are at risk of coastal flooding — and that risk figure will jump to 1.5 million by the end of the 2080s, according to the Climate Change Committee, an independent advisory body set up under climate change laws.

Britain’s government, which is hosting the U.N. climate summit, needs to be much more upfront about such risks, said Richard Dawson, a member of the committee and professor of engineering at Newcastle University.

Ultimately, “difficult decisions” need to be made about many coastal settlements with disproportionately high numbers of older and poorer residents, he said, and officials need to prepare people for moving inland.

“Whatever happens at COP the sea level will continue to rise around the U.K., that’s something we absolutely need to prepare for,” Dawson said. “We have to be realistic. We can’t afford to protect everywhere. The challenge for government is that the problem is not being confronted with the urgency or openness that we need.”

In Fairbourne, a continuing standoff between villagers and officials underlines that challenge. Residents feel they have been unfairly singled out, and aren’t convinced there is a clear timeframe on how quickly sea levels will rise enough to threaten their homes. When and how will evacuation take place? Will they be compensated, and if so how much should it be?

There are no answers. The village vicar, Ruth Hansford, said many residents suffered “emotional fatigue” from years of uncertainty and negativity. Others simply decided to carry on with their lives.

Becky Offland and her husband recently took on the lease of the Glan Y Mor Hotel, going against the grain and investing in the village’s future. They’re hopeful their business will bring more visitors and financial support to Fairbourne.

“It’s like a big family, this place. It’s not a village, it’s a family,” said Offland, 36. “We’ll all fight to keep it where it is.”

Down the street, Fairbourne Chippy owner Alan Jones, 64, also said he has no plans to go anywhere.

“Until water actually comes in here, ’til we physically can’t work, we’ll carry on,” he said.

Eves said he and his son believe that “what will be, will be.” But he will mourn the inevitable disintegration of the village he loves.

“You can’t sort of take this village here, and put it over there and expect it to work again,” he said. “What you have here is a human catastrophe, albeit on a small scale.”

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Read stories on climate issues by The Associated Press at https://apnews.com/hub/climate

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World

Draft deal at UN climate talks calls for end to coal use

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GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Governments are considering calling for pulling the plug on coal power, the single biggest source of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, according to a draft deal under negotiation in U.N. climate talks.

The draft released Wednesday at the talks in Glasgow, Scotland, calls for accelerating “the phasing out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels,” though it sets no timeline.

The early version of the final document also expresses “alarm and concern” about how much Earth has already warmed and urges countries to cut carbon dioxide emissions by about half by 2030. Pledges so far from governments don’t add up to that frequently stated goal.

Some nations, especially island states whose very existence is threatened by climate change, warned that the draft didn’t go far enough in requiring action to limit increases in global temperatures or in helping poorer countries to pay for adapting to the warming and for losses from it.

“‘Urging,’ ‘calling,’ ‘encouraging,’ and ‘inviting’ is not the decisive language that this moment calls for,” Aubrey Webson, Antigua and Barbuda’s U.N. ambassador, said in a statement.

With time running out in the climate summit, a clear message had to be sent, he added: “To our children, and the most vulnerable communities, that we hear you and we are taking this seriously.”

Governments agreed in a landmark 2015 deal in Paris to jointly reduce emissions enough to keep the global temperature rise “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, with a more stringent target of trying to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) preferred.

That would require a dramatic reduction in emissions from the burning of coal, oil and gas that remain the world’s top source of energy despite the growth of renewables like wind and solar power. But setting deadlines for phasing out fossil fuels is highly sensitive to countries that still depend on them for economic growth, including China and India, and to major exporters of coal such as Australia. The future of coal is also a hot-button issue in the United States, where a spat among Democrats has held up one of President Joe Biden’s signature climate bills.

Greenpeace International director Jennifer Morgan, a long-time climate talks observer, said that the call in the draft to phase out coal and subsidies for fossil fuels would be a first in a U.N. climate deal, but the lack of a timeline would limit the pledge’s effectiveness.

“This isn’t the plan to solve the climate emergency. This won’t give the kids on the streets the confidence that they’ll need,” Morgan said.

European Union climate chief Frans Timmermans was more upbeat about the negotiations.

“Consider my sleeves rolled. We’re ready and willing to make sure we deliver on the highest possible levels of ambition, leading to prompt global action,” he said.

The draft is likely to change, but it doesn’t yet include full agreements on the three major goals that the U.N. set going into the negotiations: for rich nations to give poorer ones $100 billion a year in climate aid, to ensure that half of that money goes to adapting to worsening global warming, and the pledge to slash global carbon emissions by 2030.

The draft acknowledges “with regret” that rich nations have failed to live up to the climate finance pledge. Currently they are providing around $80 billion a year, which poorer nations that need financial help both in developing green energy systems and adapting to the worst of climate change say isn’t enough.

Papua New Guinea Environment Minister Wera Mori said given the lack of financial aid that his country may “rethink” efforts to cut logging, coal mining and even coming to the U.N. talks.

The draft says the world should try to achieve “net-zero (emissions) around mid-century,” a target that was endorsed by leaders of the Group of 20 biggest economies in a summit just before the Glasgow talks. That means requiring countries to pump only as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as can be absorbed again through natural or artificial means.

Highlighting the challenge of meeting those goals, the document “expresses alarm and concern that human activities have caused around 1.1 C (2 F) of global warming to date and that impacts are already being felt in every region.”

Separate draft proposals were also released on other issues being debated at the talks, including rules for international carbon markets and the frequency by which countries have to report on their efforts.

The draft calls on countries that don’t have national goals that are in line with the 1.5- or 2-degree limits to come back with stronger targets next year. Depending on how the language is interpreted, the provision could apply to most countries.

“This is crucial language,” World Resources Institute International Climate Initiative Director David Waskow said Wednesday. “Countries really are expected and are on the hook to do something in that timeframe to adjust.’’

In a nod to one of the big issues for poorer countries, the draft vaguely “urges” developed nations to compensate developing countries for “loss and damage,” a phrase that some rich nations don’t like. But there are no concrete financial commitments.

As the talks enter their final stage, Britain’s Alok Sharma, who is chairing the negotiations, acknowledged that “significant issues remain unresolved.”

“My big, big ask of all of you is to please come armed with the currency of compromise,” he told negotiators as they prepared for another long night of talks. “What we agree in Glasgow will set the future for our children and grandchildren, and I know that we will not want to fail them.”

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Associated Press journalists Ellen Knickmeyer and Helena Alves contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate. Follow Borenstein, Jordans and Ghosal on Twitter.



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Business

Solar developers tout multiple benefits

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By JOHN FLESHER and TAMMY WEBBER

November 4, 2021 GMT

MONTICELLO, Minnesota (AP) — Silflower was among native plants that blanketed the vast North American prairie until settlers developed farms and cities. Nowadays confined largely to roadsides and ditches, the long-stemmed cousin of the sunflower may be poised for a comeback, thanks to solar energy.

Researchers are growing silflower at nine solar installations in the Minneapolis area, testing its potential as an oilseed crop. The deep-rooted perennial also offers forage for livestock and desperately needed habitat for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

“We need a lot of plots spaced pretty far apart to measure silflower’s effects on pollinators,” said crop scientist Ebony Murrell of The Land Institute, a research nonprofit. “The solar industry is interested in restoring pollinator habitat. This seemed to be a good partnership.”

Solar is a renewable energy source that can help wean the world off fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases. But it also could benefit the environment and economy in ways not as well known.

As the industry grows, solar arrays will sprawl across millions of acres (hectares) — wasting farmland, critics say. But advocates see opportunities to diversify crop production and boost landowner income, while repairing ecological damage to ground plowed under or paved over.

“There’s lots of spaces where solar could be integrated with really innovative uses of land,” said Brendan O’Neill, a University of Michigan environmental scientist who’s monitoring how planting at a new 1,752-panel facility in Cadillac, Michigan, stores carbon.

Elsewhere, solar installations host sheep that reduce need for mowing. And researchers are experimenting with crop growing beneath solar panels, while examining other potential upsides: preventing soil erosion, and conserving and cleansing water.

LABS STUDY MIXED USES

The U.S. Department of Energy is funding a quest for best uses of lands around solar farms. The project, called InSPIRE, involves the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory and other partners conducting research at 25 sites nationwide.

The U.S. has about 2,500 solar operations on the electric grid, most generating one to five megawatts, according to the Energy Information Administration. A five-megawatt facility needs around 40 acres (16 hectares). While some occupy former industrial sites, larger installations often take space once used for row crops.

Depending on how quickly the nation switches to renewable electricity, up to 10 million acres (4 million hectares) could be needed for solar by 2050 — more than the combined area of Massachusetts and New Jersey, an analysis by Argonne found.

Solar developers and researchers hope projects with multiple land uses will ease pushback from rural residents who don’t want farmland taken out of production or consider solar panels a blight.

“We need healthy agricultural communities, but we also need renewable energy,” said Jordan Macknick, the renewable energy lab’s lead analyst for InSPIRE.

BUZZ AND FUZZ

At Cascadilla Community Solar Farm in upstate New York, sheep munch grasses among solar panels while bees and butterflies collect pollen from native flowers.

Cornell University researcher Niko Kochendoerfer says initial data from her three-year study shows light grazing produces abundant bees and wildflowers, while keeping plants from shading panels. Some rare bee species are turning up.

Farmers get $300 to $550 per acre yearly to graze sheep at solar sites, increasing farm income while sparing them the cost of renting or buying pasture, said Kochendoerfer, who owns about 400 sheep with her fiance, Lewis Fox. Grazing is less expensive than traditional site management, she said.

Fox has sheep at solar sites from southern Pennsylvania to Vermont.

“Certain times of the year … the sites will be like a butterfly house in a zoo — there’s just butterflies everywhere,” he said.

Sheep are feeding at solar installations in more than 20 states, said Lexie Hain, director of the American Solar Grazing Association and Fox’s business partner. It’s also happening in the United Kingdom, other parts of Europe, Uruguay and Australia.

VEGETABLES IN SOLAR SHADE

In Longmont, Colorado, Jack’s Solar Farm offers another example of solar meeting agriculture. Instead of wheat and hay as before, the farm’s 24 acres (about 10 hectares) host 3,276 panels, generating enough power for about 300 homes. Beneath them grow tomatoes, squash, kale and green beans.

Researchers are comparing vegetables grown under panels six or eight feet (about two to 2½ meters) off the ground with others in open sunlight. Results were mixed during the recently concluded initial season but shaded plants appeared to have a longer growing season.

“We don’t have to leave the soils underneath our solar panels across our country denuded or just left to weeds,” owner Byron Kominek said. “Elevating the panels a little bit more provides agricultural jobs as well as an opportunity to do more with the land.”

“Agrivoltaics,” or growing produce beneath panels, is especially promising in hot, arid regions, say experts who have planted cherry tomatoes and peppers beneath them at the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 laboratory.

Those crops usually match or exceed ones in a traditional environment, according to the team’s findings. With less direct sunlight, they lose less water to evaporation, reducing irrigation demand. And the plants keep panels cooler, boosting performance.

How widely such farming could happen remains to be seen, said Greg Barron-Gafford, a biogeography professor at Arizona. Large-scale agriculture requires mechanized planting and harvesting that might be difficult beneath panels.

“But the vast majority of farms across the country are small farms that are breaking even or losing money,” Barron-Gafford said, adding that leasing land for solar energy while still growing food could generate profits.

POLLINATOR HABITAT

While commercial prospects for agrivoltaics are unknown, scientists say it’s certain that solar grounds are ideal for native grasses and flowers that draw pollinators, many facing extinction.

A team led by Oregon State University researcher Maggie Graham reported this year that bees and other insects visit plants partly or totally shaded by panels. They also may pollinate crops in nearby fields, boosting yields.

Compared to farmland, solar sites planted with pollinator-friendly native vegetation would provide a three-fold increase in habitat quality for pollinators, a recent Argonne study concluded. Pollinator-friendly sites would have two-thirds more carbon storage potential, nearly one-fifth less water runoff and 95% less soil erosion than traditionally cultivated land, it said.

Some solar developers are resisting because plants for pollinators are more expensive than lawn used at many sites. But over time that’s offset by lower maintenance, said Reed Richerson, chief operating officer of U.S. Solar, a Minneapolis developer.

The popularity of saving bees and butterflies is attracting the likes of Walmart, which buys power from dozens of pollinator-friendly U.S. Solar installations.

More than a dozen states have standards or guidelines based on qualities such as ground cover density and diversity, and the amount of land involved.

“We wanted to avoid greenwashing — planting a little patch of clover and petunias and saying, ‘There’s my pollinator-friendly contribution,’” said Michael Noble, director of Minnesota-based Fresh Energy, which helped develop the standards.

Many more nature-based solar gardens are needed as global warming and species losses accelerate, said Rob Davis, spokesman for Connexus Energy.

Three years ago, he said, one of the Minnesota co-op’s solar projects risked rejection by a suburban planning commission until supporters brought up the pollinator benefits and their visual appeal.

“The technology of solar energy is unfamiliar and foreign,” Davis said. “But everyone understands what a meadow is.”

As solar energy becomes more commonplace around the world, millions of acres will be covered with sprawling collections of panels needed to generate electricity. While some worry about the loss of valuable farmland, others see an opportunity. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson)

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Tammy Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan. AP video journalist Brittany Peterson contributed from Longmont, Colorado. On Twitter, follow @JohnFlesher and @twebber02. Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.



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World

Why it’s so hard for world to quit coal

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By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL

November 1, 2021 GMT

DHANBAD, India (AP) — Every day, Raju gets on his bicycle and unwillingly pedals the world a tiny bit closer to climate catastrophe.

Every day, he straps half a dozen sacks of coal pilfered from mines — up to 200 kilograms, or 440 pounds — to the reinforced metal frame of his bike. Driving mostly at night to avoid the police and the heat, he transports the coal 16 kilometers (10 miles) to traders who pay him $2.

Thousands of others do the same.

This has been Raju’s life since he arrived in Dhanbad, an eastern Indian city in Jharkhand state in 2016; annual floods in his home region have decimated traditional farm jobs. Coal is all he has.

This is what the United Nations climate change conference in Scotland, known as COP26, is up against.

Earth desperately needs people to stop burning coal, the biggest single source of greenhouse gases, to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change — including the intense flooding that has cost agricultural jobs in India. But people rely on coal. It is the world’s biggest source of fuel for electric power and so many, desperate like Raju, depend on it for their very lives.

“The poor have nothing but sorrow … but so many people, they’ve been saved by coal,” Raju said.

Alok Sharma, the United Kingdom’s president-designate of the conference, said in May that he hoped the conference would mark the moment where coal is left “in the past where it belongs.”

While that may be possible for some developed nations, it is not so simple for developing countries.

They argue they should be allowed the “carbon space” to grow as developed nations have, by burning cheap fuels like coal, which is used in industrial processes such as steelmaking along with electric power generation. On average, the typical American uses 12 times more electricity than the typical Indian. There are over 27 million people in India who don’t have electricity at all.

Power demand in India is expected to grow faster than anywhere in the world over the next two decades as the economy grows and ever more extreme heat increases demand for air conditioning that so much the rest of the world takes for granted.

Meeting that demand will not fall to people like Raju, but to Coal India, already the world’s largest miner, which aims to increase production to over 1 billion tons a year by 2024.

D.D. Ramanandan, the secretary at the Centre of Indian Trade Unions in Ranchi said that conversations of moving beyond coal were only taking place in Paris, Glasgow or New Delhi. They had hardly begun in India’s coal belt. “Coal has continued for 100 years. Workers believe it will continue to do so,” he said.

The consequences will be felt both globally and locally. Unless the world drastically cuts greenhouse gas emissions the planet will suffer even more extreme heat waves, erratic rainfall and destructive storms in coming years, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

And a 2021 Indian government study found that Jharkhand state — among the poorest in India and the state with the nation’s largest coal reserves — is also the most vulnerable Indian state to climate change.

But there are roughly 300,000 people working directly with government-owned coal mines, earning fixed salaries and benefits. And there are nearly 4 million people in India whose livelihoods are directly or indirectly linked to coal, said Sandeep Pai, who studies energy security and climate change at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

India’s coal belt is dotted by industries that need the fuel, like steel and brick making. The Indian railways, country’s largest employers, earns half their revenue by transporting coal, allowing it to subsidize passenger travel.

“Coal is an ecosystem,” Pai said.

For people like Naresh Chauhan, 50 and his wife Rina Devi, 45, India’s economic slowdown resulting from the pandemic has intensified their dependence on coal.

The two have lived in a village at the edge of the Jharia coalfield in Dhanbad all their lives. Accidental fires, some of which have been blazing for decades, have charred the ground and left it spongey. Smoke hisses from cracks in the surface near their hut. Fatal sinkholes are common.

The couple earn $3 a day selling four baskets of scavenged coal to traders.

Families who’ve lived amid coal mines for generations rarely own any land they can farm and have nowhere else to go. Naresh hopes that his son would learn to drive so that he, at least, could get away. But even that may not be enough. There’s less work for the city’s existing taxi drivers. Wedding parties, who in the past reserved cars to ferry guests, have shrunk. Fewer travelers come to the city than before.

“There is just coal, stone and fire. Nothing else here.”

That could mean even harder times for the people in Dhanbad as the world eventually does turn away from coal. Pai says this is already happening as renewable energy gets cheaper and coal becomes less and less profitable.

India and other countries with coal-dependent regions have to diversify their economies and retrain workers, he said — both to protect the livelihoods of workers and to help speed the transition away from coal by offering new opportunities.

Otherwise, more will end up like Murti Devi. The 32-year-old single mother of four lost the job she had all her life when the mine she worked for closed four years ago. Nothing came of the resettlement plans promised by the coal company so she, like so many others, turned to scavenging coal. On good days, she’ll make a dollar. On other days, she relies on neighbors for help.

“If there is coal, then we live. If there isn’t any coal, then we don’t live,” she said.

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AP journalists Shonal Ganguly and Altaf Qadri contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.



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Business

India staring at power crisis with coal stocks down to days

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NEW DELHI (AP) — An energy crisis is looming over India as coal supplies grow perilously low, adding to challenges for a recovery in Asia’s third largest economy after it was wracked by the pandemic.

Supplies across the majority of coal-fired power plants in India have dwindled to just days worth of stock.

Federal Power Minister R. K. Singh told the Indian Express newspaper this week that he was bracing for a “trying five to six months.”

“I can’t say I am secure … With less than three days of stock, you can’t be secure,” Singh said.

The shortages have stoked fears of potential black-outs in parts of India, where 70% of power is generated from coal. Experts say the crunch could upset renewed efforts to ramp up manufacturing.

Power cuts and shortages over the years have subsided in big cities, but are fairly common in some smaller towns.

Out of India’s 135 coal plants, 108 were facing critically low stocks, with 28 of them down to just one day’s worth of supply, according to power ministry data released on Wednesday, the most recently available.

On average, coal supplies at power plants had fallen to about four days worth of stock as of the weekend, the ministry said in a statement. That’s a sharp plunge from 13 days in August.

Power consumption in August jumped by nearly 20% from the same month in 2019, before the pandemic struck, the power ministry said.

“Nobody expected economic growth to revive like this and for energy demand to shoot up so quickly,” said Vibhuti Garg, an energy economist at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

The shortfalls in supply were worsened by flooding of mines and other disruptions from unusually heavy rains, Garg said.

India mostly relies on domestically mined coal. With global coal prices at an all-time high, increasing imports is not an option, experts said.

The government has asked state-run Coal India Ltd. to increase production.

Coal prices in Indonesia, one of India’s suppliers, swelled to nearly $162 per ton this month from $86.68 in April, boosted by surging demand in China, where recent power cuts have forced factories to shut down and left some households in the dark.

“With the current prices, it is difficult for India to rely on external sources for coal as it’s about two or three times more than what we pay domestically right now,” said Swati DSouza, research lead at National Foundation for India.

With monsoon rains receding, coal deliveries have picked up and are likely to rise further, according to the power ministry. An official team is monitoring the situation and following up with Coal India Ltd. and the railways to improve supplies, the ministry said.

But the crisis has highlighted India’s need to develop more renewable energy resources given that demand is likely to keep increasing.

It should serve as a “turning point for India,” where there is ample renewable energy potential to help offset such disruptions, said Sunil Dahiya, an analyst at the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

“The situation shouldn’t be used to push for more coal — that is not the crisis. The solution going forward is to move away from coal and other fossil fuels,” he said.

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AP science writer Victoria Milko contributed from Jakarta, Indonesia.

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