February 24, 2020

Cleaning up air pollution has made winters milder Research reveals that cleaner skies allow more of the sun’s energy to reach the earth’s surface and have altered high altitude wind patterns

February 17, 2020

South Sudan: "The oil rich area around Paloch, a city in Upper Nile state, is dotted with exposed pools of toxic water. A chemical junkyard in Gumry town, about 45 minutes from Paloch, was strewn with overflowing containers of black sludge that seeped into the ground and were surrounded by toxic waste" - AP

February 10, 2020

...Coal provides more than a third of the world’s electricity  ....

February 3, 2020

from Colorado: Denver among top 10 worst US cities for hazardous air pollution, 2 new studies say Denver residents have been inhaling hazardous air pollution at elevated levels on more than 260 days a year for the past two years, federal records show, as two new studies released this week ranked metro Denver among the top 10 worst U.S. cities for air quality.

January 27, 2020

This week, Malta: “The NAPCP on page 44, table 2 says that in the scenario ‘with measures’ Malta will emit a total of 4.9 kilotons of NOx when the limits are only 2kt. With so called ‘additional measures’ proposed in the draft action plan emissions go down marginally to 4.5kt...

January 20, 2020

US 9th Circuit Dismisses Climate Change Lawsuit While UNSG Guterres Flies to Lisbon Again

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon, Thread Video
Honduras - The Source - The Root - etc

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Jan 17 – A major climate change lawsuit has been shot down by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. From their summary in JULIANA V. UNITED STATES: "The panel reluctantly concluded that the plaintiffs’ case must be made to the political branches or to the electorate at large. District Judge Staton dissented, and would affirm the district court.  Judge Staton wrote that plaintiffs brought suit to enforce the most basic structural principal embedded in  our system of liberty: that the Constitution does not condone the Nation’s willful destruction.  She would hold that plaintiffs have standing to challenge the government’s conduct, have articulated claims under the Constitution, and have presented sufficient evidence to press those claims at trial."

During the trial that convicted Tony Hernandez, the brother of Honduras' president Juan Orlando Hernandez (JOH), on all four counts of guns and narcotics trafficking and false statements, the drug ledgers of one Nery Orlando López Sanabria a/k/a Magdaleno were used by the SDNY prosecutors.

  Here is an Inner City Press tweeted photo of notebook mentioning "JOH," in Spanish. Inner City Press repeated asked the United Nations, in New York and Geneva, for  comment. Now since November 2 the UN's "human rights" office in Honduras has refused to even confirm receipt.  Funding should be cut off to Guterres' UN - now he's getting Chapo's money. And, relatedly, refusing to answer Press questions about the release of Chapo's son, here.

  While UNSG Antonio Guterres has refused to answer any of banned Inner City Press' questions about Honduras after he praised JOH after meeting with him in September 2019, saying the two had met not about corruption but climate change, now on December 2 both will be in Madrid for United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP25).

The event was moved due to protests in Santiago, Chile of which Guterres took note while ignoring those in Honduras. Guterres spent days in Lisbon on the public dime, after flying there on Air Chapo (with money from thence) - while on Novmeber 29 his spokesmen did not answer even one of Inner City Press' written questions. Guterres is corrupt. We'll have more on this.

January 13, 2020

There is unlikely to be much respite of the air pollution shrouding Greater Bangkok this weekend. And the PM is urging people to inform a hotline of any vehicles belching smoke and fumes into the Bangkok sky.  The Pollution Control Department says the smog, which saw just about all of the 50 air quality stations hitting levels of PM2.5 over ’50’ yesterday (the upper limit for safe pollution levels as determined as ’25’ by the World Health Organisation), will continue over the weekendJanuary 6, 2020

A Washington University study shows that St. Louis residents in poor, segregated neighborhoods are at a greater risk of cancer from air contaminants. Christine Ekenga, an assistant professor at the school and the study’s lead author, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the pollutants that conferred the greatest dangers were traffic-related. The findings support the university’s other recent research that details how St. Louis is plagued by inequalities. The city’s stark racial divide makes it one of the most segregated in the U.S. and contributes to differing outcomes that include asthma rates, exposure to lead and inadequate access to healthy food.

December 30, 2019:

On environmental in the US federal courts, we note Massachusetts v. Exxon Mobil Corp., D. Mass., No. 1:19-cv-12430, and the motion filed 12/26/19.

December 23, 2019

 Honeywell International filed a $4 million  settlement with the state Department of Natural Resources in federal court in Atlanta.  The money will cover cleanup costs related to the former LCP Chemicals plant.  It will also pay the state for lost fishing opportunities from chemicals polluting nearby marsh and waterways.  The site is currently under the federal Superfund law. Honeywell and Georgia Power Co. in 2016 agreed to pay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency $29 million to clean up marshland.

December 16, 2019

The Tennessee Air Pollution Control Board issued a Technical Secretary’s Order and Assessment of Civil Penalty (“Order”) to Nissan North America, Inc., (“Nissan”) for alleged violations of an air permit. See Division of Air Pollution – Case No. APC19-0119.  The Order states that Nissan operates an engine machining process at a facility (“Facility”) in Decherd, Tennessee.

December 9, 2019

How are area of London affected and which are the worst boroughs when it comes to poor air quality.  The new data compares how many cigarettes breathing a location's air is equivalent to.  Newham - 159 -  Westminster - 157  Kensington and Chelsea - 156  Islington - 156  Waltham Forest - 156  Many of the worst areas outside London are, incidentally, also very close to the capital.   Slough - 145  Dartford - 144  Portsmouth - 142   Medway - 142  Luton - 140

December 2, 2019

According to Air Quality Index, Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, is ranked worst as the most polluted city in the world.

November 25, 2019

At some stages in recent days, the state capital of Sydney reached as high as No. 8 on the Air Visual global rankings of cities with the worst air pollution in the world, ahead of Jakarta and Shenzhen and only just behind Mumbai. 

November 18, 2019

HR 5120, authored by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), is the “Safe, Accountable, Fair and Environmentally Responsible (SAFER) Pipelines Act of 2019.” The bill will give the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) (part of the Department of Transportation) strong direction to act in the safety interests of citizens living in both urban and rural areas, including by requiring new rules to prevent, detect, stop and report methane emissions.
November 11, 2019

  "Thousands of companies around the world are now reporting climate-related financial exposures to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) under the guidelines of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures." That's Lael Brainart; in other news, no follow through on ensuring that FOIA requests related to mergers are ruled on before the Fed closes comment periods. Also, problems with HMDA availability from CFPB: isn't this as much in the Fed's wheelhouse and area of responsibility?

November 4, 2019

 One thing we can say is that Antonio Guterres' brand of "climate action" is a fraud that when questions, is not or cannot be defended, see here.

October 28, 2019

A group of scientists selected by the EPA to advise it on air pollution standards couldn’t reach consensus on whether the standards should be tightened or stay  the same, a development that may complicate ongoing effort to update them.  The Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee was examining the current environmental rules for fine particulate matter, akaPM2.5, during a two-day meeting that ended Oct. 25. Four of the committee’s six members said the current rules are acceptable, while two others said they should be lowered to better protect public health.

October 21, 2019
 
  So why isn't The Bronx, or even NYC, at least as of October 19, 2019 on https://insights.sustainability.google/?

October 14, 2019

MN: Twin Cities residents interested in the air quality of their neighborhoods can now find out with the click of a mouse on a state website.  The new mapping tool is part of an urban air-quality monitoring project at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) aimed at understanding the relationship between common air contaminants and public health effects, such as asthma and early deaths, broadening the state’s effort to tackle the issue known as health equity. 

October 7, 2019

The shipping industry is yet another industry where the burden put on the environment is not being reduced as much as it’s being shifted and concealed. Experts warn this could have a terrible, devastating effect on wildlife in British waters — and, remember, water goes everywhere.  Global shipping companies are rigging vessels with “cheat devices,” even to the tune of billions of dollars, to create a false impression. By circumventing new environmental legislation, they are simply dumping pollution into the sea to protect the air. Seems a case of cutting off one’s foot instead of one’s hand, metaphorically

September 30, 2019

Environment and the courts: A settlement in the Hawaii linchpin case that was to anchor a U.S. Supreme Court review of whether the federal Clean Water Act mandates cleanup of pollution carried via groundwater to regulated water bodies now could leave the dispute out of what justices will consider....

September 23, 2019

UN Guterres Leers At Youth Climate Summit While Covers Up Child Rapes and Flies to Lisbon Censoring Press

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT Video

UN GATE, September 21 -- Who gets to decide which media can enter the United Nations to cover this week's United Nations General Assembly meeting, for example the September 21 "Youth Climate Summit"? It's Antonio Guterres, who as Secretary General has covered up child rapes by UN peacekeepers and his many jet flights to his real home in Lisbon, and has banned Inner City Press which asks about both for 445 days now.

 On September 21Guterres sat leering in the UN Trusteeship Council Chamber, trying to co-opt the youth energy against corporate polluters.  His Climate Envoy Luis Alfonso de Alba was lurking around the UN at midnight smoking a cigarette and joining in Guterres' censorship of Press. His Youth Envoy is not young, and partners with Saudi Prince MBS who had journalist Jamal Khashoggi killed. Guterres is killing the UN.

September 16, 2019

UN Guterres Flies To Bahamas Noting Haitians Whom He Cheats After UN Cholera Killed 10000

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT Video

UN GATE, Sept 14 -- Who gets to decide which media can enter the United Nations to cover this month's United Nations General Assembly high level week?

  The answer in today's UN, not unlike in any dictatorship whether China or Cameroon, is one man and his small circle of yes-men and a yes-women, with no due process, no right to appeal, no judicial oversight.   

  In this case the man is Antonio Guterres, and the new yes-woman is Melissa Fleming. She previously served as his spokesperson during his tenure at the UN refugee agency UNHCR. Guterres parlayed that into the top UN job by showing great deference to China on its refoulement to North Korea for torture.

 And what does Guterres do as Secretary General, beyond seeking a second term include by censoring the Press? He flew down to the Bahamas and said this: "it's important to say I just visited a reception center in which the overwhelming majority of the population is not Bahamian it’s Haitian."

  So he flew all those miles at cost to the public and the environment and noted people from Haiti whom he has ensured receive not a penny after the UN killed 10,000 of them with cholera, citing the same immunity / impunity he uses to have the Press roughed up and banned. His empty statements are issued by Stephane "French Whine" Dujarric lamenting summer wines while Haitians like the Anglophones in Cameroon are ignored, abused and used by the UN.  Dujarric too in a censor. And Lowcock for some reason hasn't made even the cursory financial disclosure the system of which Guterres is destroying for his own (Gulbenkian) reasons.

September 9, 2019

Hurricane Dorian Garners UNSG Guterres Empty Statement While He Bans Press From UNGA

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT Video

UN GATE, September 2 -- Who gets to decide which media can enter the United Nations to cover this month's United Nations General Assembly high level week?

  The answer in today's UN, not unlike in any dictatorship whether China or Cameroon, is one man and his small circle of yes-men and a yes-women, with no due process, no right to appeal, no judicial oversight.   

  In this case the man is Antonio Guterres, and the new yes-woman is Melissa Fleming. She previously served as his spokesperson during his tenure at the UN refugee agency UNHCR. Guterres parlayed that into the top UN job by showing great deference to China on its refoulement to North Korea for torture.

 And what does Guterres do as Secretary General, beyond seeking a second term include by censoring the Press? He issues empty statements about storms, like this one: "Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General – on Hurricane Dorian     The Secretary-General is deeply saddened by the terrible devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian, which is still impacting the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.      The Secretary-General expresses solidarity with the people and the Government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.     The United Nations will continue supporting the Government-led ongoing rescue and relief efforts.   Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General  New York, 2 September 2019." Dujarric too in a censor.

  Guterres took money from Lisbon-based Gulbenkian Foundation during the year after he left UNHCR. Then once despite his feminist rhetoric Guterres shouldered out women candidates to take over the UN with China's support, Guterres omitted these Gulbenkian payments from the UN public financial disclosure he filed covering 2016.  

  When Inner City Press which while reporting daily from inside the UN also covered the UN bribery trial of CEFC China Energy's Patrick Ho in the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan asked Guterres about that case, Guterres refused to answer.    

   Worse, Guterres pretended through his spokesman Stephane Dujarric to not have even heard Inner City Press' question when called on at the UN Security Council stakeout about Cameroon and his closeness with 37 year president Paul Biya.   

September 2, 2019

Siemens Refuses To Pay To Ship 177 Wind Turbine Blades From China To Texas And Gets Sued

By Matthew Russell Lee

SDNY COURTHOUSE, August 29 – To ship 513 wind turbine generator blades from Shanghai to Corpus Christi, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy said it would pay BBC Chartering Carriers $2.7 million. Then after having paid for only 336 blades, Siemens stopped paying. BBC Chartering Carriers sued and appeared on August 29 before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Gregory H. Woods.

   Judge Woods asked each side what law should apply. The two lawyers said they had both worked in maritime law for some time; Siemens said it wants to file a motion to dismiss. Judge Woods set a schedule and said he was looking forward to construing the contract.

August 26, 2019

Children living in a central Zambian mining town are still exposed to high levels of toxic lead 25 years after the mine closed... Decades of lead mining have left Kabwe, around 150km  north of Lusaka, severely polluted, with serious health implications for residents..

August 19, 2019

UN Climate Corruption Includes Antonio Guterres And UNDP Global Environment Facility Felony

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFTracker  Q&A

UNITED NATIONS GATE, July 29 – The corruption in the UN system under UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres ranges from impunity for sexual abuse and harassment to lack of financial disclosures and audits to outright double-dipping of benefits, whistleblower UN staff have repeatedly complained to Inner City Press.

A fish rots from the head, and it is Guterres (now missing without explanation for two weeks) who is responsible. But why then is Guterres given a pass in an increasingly rare selective take-down of part of the UN climate scam by Foreign Policy, a publication whose UN embed UNchecked by headquarters never wrote a word as investigative Inner City Press would evicted from its UN office, then roughed up and banned now 408 days? In terms of their recent piece, the scam of the Global Environmental Fund goes further back than they say, reported exclusively by Inner City Press for example here, regarding Tatiata Gorlatch and others.

  And now consider this, from March: Rastislav Vrbensky just left UNDP having allowed his wife to earn over a million dollars in contracts from UNDP offices that report to him in the Istanbul Regional Office of UNDP in breach of UNDP's Ethics Rules. And it looks like there is more. All staff have been too scared to report for past 2 1/2 years.   He is a senior UNDP official and Deputy Director of UNDP in Europe in CIS region. He left the organization with no official announcement from the Adminstrator (Achim Steiner), no official announcement from the Europe & CIS Bureau Bureau Director (Mirjana Spoljaric Egger) and no official announcement from anybody in UNDP.  Vrbesnky reported to Spoljaric who reports to Steiner.  Out through the back door ...

Back door Tony. We'll have more on this.

August 12, 2019

  The elitism of the environmentalism, so called, of UN Sec-Gen Antonio Guterres is exemplified by his robo-celebrating while flying to parts unknown of the luxury yacht trip: Greta Thunberg · Jul 29 Good news! I’ll be joining the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, COP25 in Santiago and other events along the way. I’ve been offered a ride on the 60ft racing boat Malizia II." Who else can afford this? Guterres is a fraud...

August 5, 2019

An environmental study graded conditions at over 204 beaches that touch the Long Island Sound, including North Shore beaches. Beaches in both NY & Connecticut  received high marks for water quality, welcome news to beachgoers.     Save the Sound, a bi-state organization dedicated to protecting the waters and shorelines of the Long Island Sound, released the report on Friday. They have offices in Mamaroneck, NY and New Haven, CT.     Among the top ten beaches in New York State on the Long Island Sound were Northport’s Hobart Beach, Port Jefferson’s East and West Beach and nearby Belle Terre Beach, and Iron Pier Beach and Mattituck Breakwater Beach, both in Riverhead.

July 29, 2019

There are no fewer that four big oil cases pending against the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The cases involve arbitration awards and various oil fields; a backdrop includes longstanding human rights abuses by and allegations of corruption in Nigeria's oil sector.   

Back on July 16 Inner City Press sought to attend and cover a status confernce in one of the cases, Statoil and Texaco v. NNPC, 18-cv-02392 before SDNY Judge Richard M. Berman. But the matter was put over until July 23 at noon.    When Inner City Press arrived at noon, both the plaintiffs and defendants tables were full; the courtroom was otherwise empty.   

The law firm for Texaco and Statoil, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer US LLP quickly told Judge Berman that the proceeding should be off the record and "in camera."   

Judge Berman said "we have a member of the press in the courtroom, a blogger," and asked the parties to say what they could in open court. The request, in essence, was for a stay of the proceedings, such as similar cases before SDNY Judges Stanton and Kaplan have been stayed. (SDNY Judge William Pauley has pushed one of the four cases forward, on which we intend to report more.)   

  The Freshfields counsel told Judge Berman that a six months stay would avoid for the court "the burden of heavy discovery and motion practice."  

 Judge Berman replied, "That's why we're here, it's not really a burden for us."   

The law firm for the Nigerian state oil company, Chaffetz Lindsey LLP, repeated the argument for secrecy. In a July 18 letter to Judge Berman marked "MEMO ENDORSED" the firm wrote "on behalf of all parties to respectfully request that the status conference scheduled for next Tuesday, July 23, take place in camera and that any transcript of the proceedings be placed under seal."   

Judge Berman to his credit declined to taken things off the record. He told the parties that he was granting their request for a stay, until January 14, 2020 at 11 AM but that it is "very likely there will be no further stay."    

Will the same apply to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation cases before SDNY Judges Stanton and Kaplan? Watch this site. The full case name is Statoil (Nigeria) Limited and Texaco Nigeria Outer Shelf Limited v. Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, 18-cv-02392 (RMB).
July 22, 2019

Officials in the Kurdistan Region's province of Duhok warned on Thursday that electric generators, industrial facilities, and the increasing number of vehicles pose a serious threat to both the environment and residents' health.  "In comparison to the previous four years, Duhok's environment this year has seen increasing amounts of pollution," Mohammed Taher, the director of Duhok's Environment Protection Department said...

July 15, 2019

DC's big rains have led to high bacteria levels in the Potomac River, Anacostia River and Rock Creek...

July 8, 2019

In China, large demonstrations against construction of a polluting waste incinerator plant have rocked Wuhan, central China.  A week of large street protests began in Yangluo, an outer sub-district of Wuhan, on June 28, when around 10,000 local residents marched against construction of the Chenjiachong waste-to-energy plant (incinerator) which has sparked widespread safety concerns. Yangluo has a population of over 300,000.  Marchers chanted “give us back the green mountains and clear waters” and “garbage burning plant get lost from Yangluo.”

July 1, 2019

In the UK, Drivers who leave their engines running while stationary will face £100 fines.  The penalties could be even higher for parents who leave their motors ticking over while parked outside schools.   Transport Secretary Chris Grayling is launching a consultation this summer as figures show vehicle idling causes the equivalent of 150 balloons filling with harmful chemicals including cyanide each minute.

But at the UN, Antonio Guterres leaves 7 limousines idling outside his mansion for hours. Disgusting hypocrisy.

June 24, 2019

Barbados stands to suffer severe consequences if there is no improvement soon in the declining coral reef stock in the region.  In addition, local authorities have expressed grave concern about overfishing, littering and indiscriminate dumping, which they say could cause further damage to an already fragile ecosystem.  The issue of protecting the underwater ecosystem and the general environs came up for discussion on Friday as officials gathered at the UN House in Christ Church for the Barbados Ridge to Reef