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Pollution

Dutch students devise carbon-eating electric vehicle

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Sept 14 (Reuters) – The sporty all-electric car from the Netherlands resembles a BMW coupe, but is unique: It captures more carbon than it emits.

“Our end goal is to create a more sustainable future,” said Jens Lahaije, finance manager for TU/ecomotive, the Eindhoven University of Technology student team that created the car.

Called ZEM, for zero emission mobility, the two-seater houses a Cleantron lithium-ion battery pack, and most of its parts are 3D-printed from recycled plastics, Lahaije said.

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The Zero Emission Mobility (ZEM) car, that captures more carbon dioxide (CO2) than it emits, is powered by a lithium-ion battery pack and made mostly from recycled plastics, is pictured at the Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands in this undated handout image. Bart van Overbeeke/Handou via REUTERS

The target is to minimize carbon dioxide emitted during the car’s full lifespan, from manufacturing to recycling, he added.

Battery electric vehicles emit virtually no CO2 during operation compared with combustion-engine vehicles, but battery cell production can create so much pollution that it can take EVs tens of thousands of miles to achieve “carbon parity” with comparable fossil-fueled models. read more

ZEM uses two filters that can capture up to 2 kilograms (4.41 lb) of CO2 over 20,000 miles of driving, the Eindhoven team estimated. They imagine a future when filters can be emptied at charging stations.

The students are showing their vehicle on a U.S. promotional tour to universities and companies from the East Coast to Silicon Valley.

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Reporting by Dan Fastenberg and Hussein al Waaile in New York; Writing by Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Richard Chang

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Filed Under: BUSINESS Tagged With: Carbon Dioxide, Detroit, Models, Netherlands, New York, Plastics, Pollution, Production, Recycling, Reuters, Silicon, Silicon Valley, Students, technology, Universities, York

Asthma Cases Are Getting More Severe In The U.S.

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It’s Asthma Peak Week, and recently, a record number of Americans are visiting hospitals, or even dying, from severe cases.

A record number of asthma sufferers are dying. 

“It’s the highest increase in the death rate from asthma in 20 years,” said Kenneth Mendez, president and CEO of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. “It grew to over 4,100 people, and it’s hovered around 3,600 in prior times.”

A new report from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America ranked cities by asthma prevalence, ER visits and asthma-related deaths. It found 19 of the top 20 worst cities for asthma are in the eastern half of the U.S., or the Midwest. Detroit, Michigan ranked at the top.

Dr. Kathleen Dass treats patients there.  

“Asthma is incredibly common actually,” Dr. Dass said. “It’s every other patient I’m seeing right now.”

The major drivers are air quality, poverty and climate change.  

“It’s gotten a lot worse, and that’s because of climate change and increased allergy seasons, greater pollution, more carbon dioxide — those are all irritants,” Mendez said.

Experts tell Newsy asthma patients are breathing in more air pollution and carbon dioxide. Heat waves, wildfires, extreme thunderstorms and hurricanes are also making asthma patients sicker.  

More flooding is causing more indoor mold, and warmer temperatures are triggering attacks more frequently. They’re also causing higher pollen counts and a longer ragweed season.

Related StoryWildfires Worse For COVID-19, Asthma and AllergiesWildfires Worse For COVID-19, Asthma and Allergies

Plus, more wildfires and their smoke means more tiny air particles will reach the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Wildfire smoke is much more toxic to children’s lungs than air pollution from other sources. One cumulative study found increases in ER visits were 10 times higher for air pollution from wildfire smoke than from other air pollution sources.

Pediatrician Dr. Naomi Bardach cares for patients in San Francisco, California.

 “[What] I’m most concerned about all of the effects of climate change is actually we know it’s going to impact our children’s health now, and it will in the future,” said Dr. Naomi Bardach, a pediatrician in California.

CDC data shows asthma is the most common pediatric disease. It accounts for half a million ER visits each year.

This third week of September is “Astha Peak Week,” which is when asthma episodes, attacks and hospitalizations for both children and adults tend to spike, just as kids return to school with the beginning of fall.

Dr. Bardach says the standard treatment is inhaled steroid medication, and says that patients should follow up after an ER visit to help manage asthma, if they have access.  

“There’s other things people can do at home to try and control their asthma, but it’s generally not going to be as effective as making sure that you have access to medications,” Dr. Bardach said. “The easiest way to get that is through a primary care doctor, but I know there’s a lot of barriers to being able to do that. It’s also on insurance companies and hospitals and public health systems to try and help improve that care.”

Source: newsy.com

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Filed Under: TRENDING Tagged With: Air Pollution, Allergies, California, Carbon Dioxide, Children, Children's health, Cities, Climate change, COVID-19, Detroit, Flooding, Health, Hospitals, Hurricanes, Insurance, Michigan, Pollution, Poverty, San Francisco, Wildfires

In Parts Of The Mideast, Power Generators Spew Toxic Fumes 24/7

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The pollutants caused by massive generators add to the many environmental woes of the Middle East.

They literally run the country. In parking lots, on flatbed trucks, hospital courtyards and rooftops, private generators are ubiquitous in parts of the Middle East, spewing hazardous fumes into homes and businesses 24 hours a day.

As the world looks for renewable energy to tackle climate change, millions of people around the region depend almost completely on diesel-powered private generators to keep the lights on because war or mismanagement have gutted electricity infrastructure.

Experts call it national suicide from an environmental and health perspective.

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“Air pollution from diesel generators contains more than 40 toxic air contaminants, including many known or suspected cancer-causing substances,” said Samy Kayed, managing director and co-founder of the Environment Academy at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.

Greater exposure to these pollutants likely increases respiratory illnesses and cardiovascular disease, he said. It also causes acid rain that harms plant growth and increases eutrophication — the excess build-up of nutrients in water that ultimately kills aquatic plants.

Since they usually use diesel, generators also produce far more climate change-inducing emissions than, for example, a natural gas power plant does, he said.

The pollutants caused by massive generators add to the many environmental woes of the Middle East, which is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to the impact of climate change. The region already has high temperatures and limited water resources even without the growing impact of global warming.

The reliance on generators results from state failure. In Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere, governments can’t maintain a functioning central power network, whether because of war, conflict or mismanagement and corruption.

Lebanon, for example, has not built a new power plant in decades. Multiple plans for new ones have run aground on politicians’ factionalism and conflicting patronage interests. The country’s few aging, heavy-fuel oil plants long ago became unable to meet demand.

Iraq, meanwhile, sits on some of the world’s biggest oil reserves. Yet scorching summer-time heat is always accompanied by the roar of neighborhood generators, as residents blast ACs around the clock to keep cool.

Repeated wars over the decades have wrecked Iraq’s electricity networks. Corruption has siphoned away billions of dollars meant to repair and upgrade it. Some 17 billion cubic meters of gas from Iraq’s wells are burned every year as waste, because it hasn’t built the infrastructure to capture it and convert it to electricity to power Iraqi homes.

In Libya, a country prized for its light and sweet crude oil, electricity networks have buckled under years of civil war and the lack of a central government.

“The power cuts last the greater part of the day, when electricity is mostly needed,” said Muataz Shobaik, the owner of a butcher shop in the city of Benghazi, in Libya’s east, who uses a noisy generator to keep his coolers running.

“Every business has to have a backup off-grid solution now,” he said. Diesel fumes from his and neighboring shops’ machines hung thick in the air amid the oppressive heat.

The Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people rely on around 700 neighborhood generators across the territory for their homes. Thousands of private generators keep businesses, government institutions, universities and health centers running. Running on diesel, they churn black smoke in the air, tarring walls around them.

Since Israel bombed the only power plant in the Hamas-ruled territory in 2014, the station has never reached full capacity. Gaza only gets about half the power it needs from the plant and directly from Israel. Cutoffs can last up to 16 hours a day.

Related StoryU.N. Health Agency Releases Air Quality GuidelinesU.N. Health Agency Releases Air Quality Guidelines

WAY OF LIFE

Perhaps nowhere do generators rule people’s lives as much as in Lebanon, where the system is so entrenched and institutionalized that private generator owners have their own business association.

They are crammed into tight streets, parking lots, on roofs and balconies and in garages. Some are as large as storage containers, others small and blaring noise.

Lebanon’s 5 million people have long depended on them. The word “moteur,” French for generator, is one of the most often spoken words among Lebanese.

Reliance has only increased since Lebanon’s economy unraveled in late 2019 and central power cutoffs began lasting longer. At the same time, generator owners have had to ration use because of soaring diesel prices and high temperatures, turning them off several times a day for breaks.

So residents plan their lives around the gaps in electricity.

Those who can’t start the day without coffee set an alarm to make a cup before the generator turns off. The frail or elderly in apartment towers wait for the generator to switch on before leaving home so they don’t have to climb stairs. Hospitals must keep generators humming so life-saving machines can operate without disruption.

“We understand people’s frustration, but if it wasn’t for us, people would be living in darkness,” said Ihab, the Egyptian operator of a generator station north of Beirut.

“They say we are more powerful than the state, but it is the absence of the state that led us to exist,” he said, giving only his first name to avoid trouble with the authorities.

Siham Hanna, a 58-year-old translator in Beirut, said generator fumes exacerbate her elderly father’s lung condition. She wipes soot off her balcony and other surfaces several times a day.

“It’s the 21st century, but we live like in the stone ages. Who lives like this?” said Hanna, who does not recall her country ever having stable electricity in her life.

Some in Lebanon and elsewhere have begun to install solar power systems in their homes. But most use it only to fill in when the generator is off. Cost and space issues in urban areas have also limited solar use.

In Iraq, the typical middle-income household uses generator power for 10 hours a day on average and pays $240 per Megawatt/hour, among the highest rates in the region, according to a report by the International Energy Agency.

The need for generators has become ingrained in people’s minds. At a recent concert in the capital, famed singer Umm Ali al-Malla made sure to thank not only the audience but also the venue’s technical director “for keeping the generator going” while her admirers danced.

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TOXIC CONTAMINANTS

As opposed to power plants outside urban areas, generators are in the heart of neighborhoods, pumping toxins directly to residents.

This is catastrophic, said Najat Saliba, a chemist at the American University of Beirut who recently won a seat in Parliament.

“This is extremely taxing on the environment, especially the amount of black carbon and particles that they emit,” she said. There are almost no regulations and no filtering of particles, she added.

Researchers at AUB found that the level of toxic emissions may have quadrupled since Lebanon’s financial crisis began because of increased reliance on generators.

In Iraq’s northern city of Mosul, miles of wires crisscross streets connecting thousands of private generators. Each produces 600 kilograms of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases per 8 hours working time, according to Mohammed al Hazem, an environmental activist.

Similarly, a 2020 study on the environmental impact of using large generators in the University of Technology in Baghdad found very high concentrations of pollutants exceeding limits set by the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization.

That was particularly because Iraqi diesel fuel has a high sulphur content — “one of the worst in the world,” the study said. The emissions include “sulphate, nitrate materials, atoms of soot carbon, ash” and pollutants that are considered carcinogens, it warned.

“The pollutants emitted from these generators exert a remarkable impact on the overall health of students and university staff, it said.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

Source: newsy.com

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Filed Under: TRENDING Tagged With: 24, Air Pollution, American University, Associated Press, Business, Carbon Dioxide, Chemicals, Climate change, Coffee, Country, Earth, Economy, Elderly, Energy, Environment, Environmental Protection Agency, Financial crisis, Gas, Gaza, Gaza Strip, Global Warming, Government, Health, Homes, Hospitals, Infrastructure, International Energy Agency, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Light, Middle East, National, Natural Gas, Noise, Oil, Parking, Plants, Pollution, Rain, Renewable energy, Roofs, Running, Solar power, Space, State, Students, technology, United States, Universities, Urban Areas, Waste, Water, Wells, World Health Organization, Yemen

King Charles III Takes The Throne As Britain Honors Queen Elizabeth II

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Charles has been preparing to take the throne for decades. At 73, he will be the oldest monarch to ascend the throne.

King Charles III has spent a lifetime in the public eye. 

He became heir apparent when he was just 3 years old, when his grandfather King George VI died and his mother became queen in 1952. 

After attending several boarding schools, he studied archeology, anthropology and history at Trinity College. He was the first heir apparent to earn a degree.  

Charles spent five years in military service that included aviation training in the Royal Air Force. As he ended his service, he created the Prince’s Trust, a charitable organization.  

He was an early environmentalist. In 1970, he delivered a warning about what he called “the horrific effects of pollution in all its cancerous forms.”

Related StoryQueen Elizabeth II Dead At 96 After 70 Years On The ThroneQueen Elizabeth II Dead At 96 After 70 Years On The Throne

Charles has advocated sustainability across the board in urban design, corporate production, organic farming and energy generation. And he’s keenly aware of the effects of climate change. 

“As I’ve tried to indicate for quite some time, the climate crisis really is a genuine emergency and tackling it is utterly essential for Cornwall, the country and the rest of the world,” he said.

King Charles III has also been an outspoken critic of modern architecture.    

The funding of his many charities came under scrutiny in July with reports one organization accepted a donation from Osama bin Laden’s family, and another received $3 million from a Qatari billionaire. 

Related StoryReport: Prince Charles' Charity Got Donation From Bin LadensReport: Prince Charles’ Charity Got Donation From Bin Ladens

His 1981 marriage to Diana Spencer was a global media event with hundreds of millions of people watching the ceremony on television. Their two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, were born soon after. But the marriage didn’t survive amid intense media coverage and rumors of infidelities. The couple eventually divorced in 1996. 

A year later, Princess Diana died in a car crash. Charles traveled to France with Diana’s sisters to bring her body back to England. He walked with his sons in her funeral procession.    

Related StoryPrincess Diana's Global Impact 25 Years After Her DeathPrincess Diana’s Global Impact 25 Years After Her Death

Several years later, he married Camilla Parker Bowles. 

In February, the Queen announced Camilla would become queen consort when Charles became king.

Source: newsy.com

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Filed Under: TRENDING Tagged With: Anthropology, Architecture, Charities, Climate change, Climate crisis, Country, Design, Energy, England, Family, Farming, France, History, Marriage, Media, Military, Osama bin Laden, Pollution, Prince, Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Prince William, Production, Schools, Television, The Queen

Illinois Town’s $13 Million Water System Will Remove All Toxic PFAS

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Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, don’t degrade over time, which causes harm to humans when ingested through water or other products.

Freeport is a small industrial city of 24,000 in northwest Illinois. For a price tag of $13 million, it’s building a new water system to tap deep into new, uncontaminated water sources.

“The most important room is… the filter room,” said Rob Boyer, Freeport public works director, while visiting the construction site. “It is designed to produce approximately 2 million gallons per day of potable drinking water.” 

Boyer says when the “enormous” project is completed sometime in 2023, the city’s drinking water will be entirely free of so-called forever chemicals.

“This is critical to life and health issues in the city and for its residents, and that’s why it’s prioritized,” Boyer said, noting that there’s no contamination in the source water where the new well and plant are being built.

About 10 years ago, the EPA found high levels of forever chemicals in two wells that produced about a third of Freeport’s drinking water.  

Boyer says he can only speculate what the source of the contamination could have been, but that speculation points him to the prevalence of industry in general there.

Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are nicknamed forever chemicals because they don’t degrade over time. This group of man-made chemicals have been used in many consumer and industrial products since the 1950s.

“There are over 200 different use categories, ranging from dental floss to clothing to carpets to compostable cookware to all kinds of plastics,” said Linda Birnbaum, former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

The chemicals were pioneered by conglomerates 3M and Dupont. They’ve been popular because of their resistance to water, stains, heat and oil. 

Since they don’t break down, the are now omnipresent in our environment — and even in our blood. 

“I would say that everyone in our country has them in their bodies,” Birnbaum said. 

Scientists are now linking these chemicals to potential harmful health effects, such as kidney and testicular cancers. But back in 2014, the chemicals’ potential negative impacts were not as well-known.

Still, Freeport officials quickly shut down the two wells with the most contamination. Soon after, they put in motion plans to drill the new well and build the new treatment plant. 

“It is protecting our lives here, and it’s protecting the residents’ lives here,” Boyer said. 

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According to the advocacy nonprofit the Environmental Working Group, more than 200 million Americans may be drinking water contaminated with the chemicals. 

Freeport officials tell Newsy their decision to completely revamp the city’s drinking water system puts them on the leading edge of the national fight against forever chemicals, but at what cost? 

Like hundreds of impacted cities nationwide, Freeport is considering joining ongoing litigation against 3M, Dupont and other PFAS manufacturers.

But for now, it’s the residents who bear the health and financial costs caused by pollution most people don’t even know exists.

Source: newsy.com

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Filed Under: SCIENCE/TECH, TRENDING Tagged With: 24, Blood, Chemicals, Cities, Country, DuPont, Health, Illinois, Industry, National, Oil, PFAS, Plastics, Pollution, Water, Wells

Israel to ban Boeing 747s, other 4-engine planes amid environmental concerns

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A Boeing 747-400 aircraft takes off from a runway at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, Russia, October 2, 2015. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo

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JERUSALEM, Sept 4 – Israel will ban Boeing 747 and similar aircraft with four engines as of March 31, 2023 to reduce noise and air pollution, its airports authority said on Sunday.

As part of a broader plan under development to improve the surrounding environment, the authority said that it had already told airlines they would not be able to land large airplanes at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv as of the 2023 summer season.

The directive is mainly for cargo aircraft since most, it not all, carriers have stopped using 747 and other four-engine planes on routes to Israel.

Flag carrier El Al (ELAL.TA) has already retired its fleet of 747s and uses twin-engine Boeing 777 and 787 planes on long-haul routes. Competitors also use those Boeing planes or comparable Airbus (AIR.PA) ones to Ben Gurion, although the 747s are still used by some for cargo.

Operation of aircraft with four engines will be allowed in exceptional cases and only with a special permit.

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Reporting by Steven Scheer

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Filed Under: BUSINESS Tagged With: Air Pollution, Airports, Boeing, Engines, Environment, Israel, Noise, Pollution, Reuters, Russia, Summer

Why Does U.S. Life Expectancy Rank Poorly?

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Life expectancy is a key metric used to determine the heath of a country. The World Bank says it’s improving around the world.

How long will you live? It could be an inspiring or scary question.  

But to a demographer It’s neither. It’s a key metric that says a lot about the health of a country.  

In 1960 the average American’s life expectancy was almost 70 years old, according to the World Bank. 

The U.S. ranked 189th in the world. 

Today the nation has made progress, with an average life expectancy of 77. 

But other countries have made greater strides. As of 2020, the U.S. was ranked 61st out of  237 nations. 

Why have other countries surged ahead? And how could the U.S. improve? 

To answer these questions we’re focusing on three countries: the U.S., the richest country in the world, according to the World Bank; Japan, the third richest; and Chile, ranked 43rd.  

We spoke to Joseph Chamie. He’s the former director of the United Nations Population Division. 

“The U.S. was doing very well right after World War II in 1950, ’55, relative to those countries,” said Chamie. 

During the post-war boom, Americans benefited from medical advances, like penicillin and open heart surgery.  

Japanese men had a life expectancy of 24 during the war, thanks in part to combat and food shortages. 

“Japan’s life expectancy was lower than the U.S. in the early fifties. Of course they have to rebuild their societies,” said Chamie. 

The new Japanese government passed 32 health laws between 1946 and 1955 aimed at regulating doctors and nurses, requiring school lunches, reducing pollution and preventing infectious disease.  

Japanese life expectancy shot up 14 years between 1947 and 1955, according to government data.  

“In the case of Chile, it was even more remarkable,” Chamie said.  

Chileans’ life expectancy was 54 years old in 1950. 

“Chile in particular saw a dramatic increase in life expectancy. They were able to provide health care systems, developing that preventive care, dropping infant mortality rates,” Chamie said.  

Meanwhile in 1961, Japan established universal health insurance.  

The government covered half of everyone’s medical costs.  

“But there are many factors in Japan that were contributing to a lower mortality. One of them, of course, was diet and obesity. Eating more fish and more vegetables than the American diet,” Chamie said.

Americans lived longer as the 20th century progressed, but we also developed some unhealthy habits. 

“In the U.S. the diet started increasing with greater and greater reliance on prepared foods, commonly called junk foods, fast foods. More and more people involved in work and doing less exercise.”

“In the U.S., many people are lacking health care systems in place, so they are not taking preventive action early enough to deal with illnesses. Especially the last 20, 30 years, drug addiction, opioids have gotten a become an epidemic level proportion. Obesity has also gotten much higher,” said Chamie. 

“Chile and Japan, they’re providing health care systems, and also supporting people so they feel integrated in society,” Chamie said. “They did some comparisons of Japanese who went to Hawaii and California. And you find that they changed their diet, increased obesity and also lower life expectancy because of that diet change.”

“We’re spending a great deal of money on our health care and doing not as well as many other countries, including China, Japan and Chile,” he continued. “Individual responsibility is certainly one area. Second, providing health care systems and adequate services to assist people so that they will live to old age.”

So many factors determine how long we’ll live. But Chamie says learning from other countries’ successes might help us improve longevity here at home. 

Source: newsy.com

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Filed Under: TRENDING Tagged With: 24, California, Chile, China, Country, Doctors, Exercise, Fish, Food, Government, Hawaii, Health, Health Care, Health insurance, Infant Mortality, Insurance, Japan, Life expectancy, Longevity, Men, Money, Obesity, Opioids, Pollution, Population, Shortages, Society, United Nations, World Bank

How Social Media Has Fueled The ‘Clean Eating’ Movement

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Clean eating can mean different things for different people, but the influence of social media on diet trends is ever-changing, from gluten to dairy.

Social media has a big influence on food trends and what humans eat. 

A study funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that social media actually helps young adults choose healthier foods. One survey of over 1,200 young people ages 14 to 24 found that more than half were familiar with the term “clean eating” from social media, other online sources or their peers.

The hashtag #EatClean has more than 61 million posts on Instagram. But, how exactly did this trend become so popular, and what does it mean to “eat clean?”

The meaning of the term “eat clean” can vary by person. Generally, it means eating foods that are as close to their natural state as possible by avoiding processed foods and added preservatives.

Diets have been a trend for several decades. Counting calories dates back to the 1910s and Weight Watchers emerged in the 60s. The Atkins diet and other low-carb diets became popular in the 90s and early 2000s.

Our modern idea of clean eating can be traced back to popular books like “The Eat-Clean Diet” in 2007 and “Clean,” which came out in 2009. These books promoted more than a diet but a lifestyle — the idea that eating these foods was a more holistic way of living. Over the last decade, more people started cutting a lot of things out of their diets.

Sondra Kronberg is a licensed clinical nutritionist, certified eating disorder specialist and founder of Eating Disorder Treatment Collaborative. She’s seen a lot of diet trends evolve over the years, and she’s seen the impact social media has on diet trends today.

“There’s enormous pressure to eat right, to look right, to fit in to this culture — never used to be like that,” Kronberg said. “I mean, there was a cluster of people who thought eating was so important and what you eat. But now everything — the chemicals, where it comes from, the pollution — I mean, there’s a lot of value on what food you eat.”

Between 2009 and 2014, the number of Americans who stopped eating gluten, even though they didn’t have celiac disease, more than tripled. The lead researcher on that study thinks one reason for this is because being gluten-free became trendy for health-conscious people. There were also more people stepping away from dairy and substituting regular milk for almond or oat milk. Sales for those other regular milk alternatives grew by more than 60% between 2012 and 2018.

During the pandemic, there was a surge in plant-based diets. In 2021, the plant-based food market value rose to an all-time high of more than $7 billion, growing by more than 50% in three years.

Experts say part of this could have been because of COVID-19. Some people may have wanted to eat healthier to improve their immune response. Harvard researchers found that plant-based diets could decrease the risk of getting a severe case of the virus. 

On social media, more influencers promoting their plant-based lifestyles have emerged. People like Tabitha Brown blew up on TikTok during the pandemic with her tasty-looking, vegan-inspired foods. She now has more than 4 million followers on Instagram and Tik Tok and has a cookbook coming out.

There are also celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, actor and founder of wellness brand “Goop,” who are known for talking about and promoting clean and vegan eating. Brooklyn Nets player Kyrie Irving claims his plant-based diet has made him a better player.

It’s an easy option for celebrities and influencers, and it’s likely these trends will show up on the plates of higher-income people. That’s because healthy foods are expensive. Consumer Reports says organic foods cost about 40% more than non-organic foods.

In the past several years, natural and organic foods have made the jump from special health food stores to more traditional grocery stores, but that only does so much for “food deserts” — neighborhoods that lack access to grocery stores to begin with.

Some nutritionists warn that the idea of clean eating can create or worsen stigmas attached to certain foods that aren’t especially bad for you, like anything that’s not clean eating can become “dirty.” But, some nutritionists say that’s not necessarily true because healthy eating is subjective, and you should figure out what works for you with the help of a licensed professional, rather than turning to social media for advice. “Trainers working out in the gym are giving out nutritional advice, and the guy who makes the smoothie is giving out nutritional advice,” Kronberg said. “Everybody thinks they know something from their own experience, and I will give them credit for having their own experience. But that is your own experience.”

Although 71% of young adults surveyed defined clean eating as healthy, it has the potential to become dangerous. When people are on strict diets, they can develop an eating disorder called orthorexia. It can cause people start avoiding certain events and eating with friends out of fear that they won’t be able to find the right food.

“So if somebody is older, they’re eating, they’re dieting, and they’re trying to manipulate their body and size, the weight, in a stillman’s way, let’s say,” Kronberg said. “They and the younger generation are eating all clean and pure and healthy and the salmon from Alaska, so based on what’s going on in the culture that becomes part of the eating disorder. You can eat as whole and as fresh and as raw as possible, but sometimes you have to be able to eat something that’s not.”

One study found that among young adults, the higher use of Instagram is associated with developing Orthorexia, so while social media has the power to introduce people to healthier eating options, it can also do the exact opposite.

As more people continue to change their diets because of social media’s influence, the question is how to move beyond the current trends.

“I think it’s going to take a while,” Kronberg said. “But I do think — just like other movements that are occurring now where people are saying we don’t all have to be the same, and in fact we’re not all the same — we all need to come to our own inner way of taking care of ourselves.”

Source: newsy.com

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Filed Under: TRENDING Tagged With: 24, Agriculture, Alaska, Books, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Nets, Celebrities, Chemicals, Consumer Reports, COVID-19, Culture, Food, Friends, Gwyneth Paow, Health, Instagram, Lifestyle, Media, Milk, Pollution, Social Media, State, TikTok, Weight, Young people

Scientists Say New Climate Law Is Likely To Reduce Warming

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By Associated Press
August 16, 2022

Scientists say new climate investment will have some beneficial effect on global warming, but the U.S. has a way to go.

Massive incentives for clean energy in the U.S. law signed Tuesday by President Joe Biden should reduce future global warming “not a lot, but not insignificantly either,” according to a climate scientist who led an independent analysis of the package.

Even with nearly $375 billion in tax credits and other financial enticements for renewable energy in the law, the United States still isn’t doing its share to help the world stay within another few tenths of a degree of warming, a new analysis by Climate Action Tracker says. The group of scientists examines and rates each country’s climate goals and actions. It still rates American action as “insufficient” but hailed some progress.

“This is the biggest thing to happen to the U.S. on climate policy,” said Bill Hare, the Australia-based director of Climate Analytics which puts out the tracker. “When you think back over the last decades, you know, not wanting to be impolite, there’s a lot of talk, but not much action.”

This is action, he said. Not as much as Europe, and Americans still spew twice as much heat-trapping gases per person as Europeans, Hare said. The U.S. has also put more heat-trapping gas into the air over time than any other nation.

Before the law, Climate Action Tracker calculated that if every other nation made efforts similar to those of the U.S., it would lead to a world with catastrophic warming — 5.4 to 7.2 degrees (3 to 4 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial times. Now in the best case scenario, which Hare said is reasonable and likely, U.S. actions, if mimicked, would lead to only 3.6 degrees (2 degrees Celsius) of warming. If things don’t work quite as optimistically as Hare thinks, it would be 5.4 degrees (3 degrees Celsius) of warming, the analysis said.

Even that best case scenario falls short of the overarching internationally accepted goal of limiting warming to 2.7 degrees warming (1.5 degrees Celsius) since pre-industrial times. And the world has already warmed 2 degrees (1.1 degrees Celsius) since the mid-19th century.

Other nations “who we know have been holding back on coming forward with more ambitious policies and targets” are now more likely to take action in a “significant spillover effect globally,” Hare said. He said officials from Chile and a few Southeast Asian countries, which he would not name, told him this summer that they were waiting for U.S. action first.

And China “won’t say this out loud, but I think will see the U.S. move as something they need to match,” Hare said.

Scientists at the Climate Action Tracker calculated that without any other new climate policies, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions in 2030 will shrink to 26% to 42% below 2005 levels, which is still short of the country’s goal of cutting emissions in half. Analysts at the think tank Rhodium Group calculated pollution cuts of 31% to 44% from the new law.

Other analysts and scientists said the Climate Action Tracker numbers makes sense.

“The contributions from the U.S. to greenhouse gas emissions are huge,” said Princeton University climate scientist Gabriel Vecchi. “So reducing that is definitely going to have a global impact.”

Samantha Gross, director of climate and energy at the Brookings Institution, called the new law a down payment on U.S. emission reductions.

“Now that this is done, the U.S. can celebrate a little, then focus on implementation and what needs to happen next,” Gross said.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

Source: newsy.com

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Filed Under: POLITICS, TRENDING, US Tagged With: Associated Press, Brookings Institution, Carbon Dioxide, Chile, China, down payment, Energy, Europe, Focus, Gas, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Joe Biden, Law, Next, Policy, Pollution, Princeton University, Renewable energy, Summer, Tax, United States

President Biden Signs Massive Climate And Health Care Legislation

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President Joe Biden signed Democrats’ landmark climate change and health care bill into law on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden signed Democrats’ landmark climate change and health care bill into law on Tuesday, delivering what he has called the “final piece” of his pared-down domestic agenda, as he aims to boost his party’s standing with voters less than three months before the midterm elections.

The legislation includes the most substantial federal investment in history to fight climate change — some $375 billion over the decade — and would cap prescription drug costs at $2,000 out-of-pocket annually for Medicare recipients. It also would help an estimated 13 million Americans pay for health care insurance by extending subsidies provided during the coronavirus pandemic.

The measure is paid for by new taxes on large companies and stepped-up IRS enforcement of wealthy individuals and entities, with additional funds going to reduce the federal deficit.

In a triumphant signing event at the White House, President Biden pointed to the law as proof that democracy — no matter how long or messy the process — can still deliver for voters in America as he road-tested a line he will likely repeat later this fall ahead of the midterms: “The American people won, and the special interests lost.”

“In this historic moment, Democrats sided with the American people, and every single Republican in the Congress sided with the special interests in this vote,” President Biden said, repeatedly seizing on the contrast between his party and the GOP. “Every single one.”

The House on Friday approved the measure on a party-line 220-207 vote. It passed the Senate days earlier with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a 50-50 tie in that chamber.

“In normal times, getting these bills done would be a huge achievement,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said during the White House ceremony. “But to do it now, with only 50 Democratic votes in the Senate, over an intransigent Republican minority, is nothing short of amazing.”

President Biden signed the bill into law during a small ceremony in the State Dining Room of the White House, sandwiched between his return from a six-day beachside vacation in South Carolina and his departure for his home in Wilmington, Delaware. He plans to hold a larger “celebration” for the legislation on Sept. 6 once lawmakers return to Washington.

The signing caps a spurt of legislative productivity for President Biden and Congress, who in three months have approved legislation on veterans’ benefits, the semiconductor industry and gun checks for young buyers. The president and lawmakers have also responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and overwhelmingly supported NATO membership for Sweden and Finland.

With President Biden’s approval rating lagging, Democrats are hoping that the string of successes will jump-start their chances of maintaining control in Washington in the November midterms. The 79-year-old president aims to restore his own standing with voters as he contemplates a reelection bid.

The White House announced Monday that it was going to deploy President Biden and members of his Cabinet on a “Building a Better America Tour” to promote the recent victories. One of President Biden’s trips will be to Ohio, where he’ll view the groundbreaking of a semiconductor plant that will benefit from the recent law to bolster production of such computer chips. He will also stop in Pennsylvania to promote his administration’s plan for safer communities, a visit that had been planned the same day he tested positive for COVID-19 last month.

“In the coming weeks, the President will host a Cabinet meeting focused on implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, will travel across the country to highlight how the bill will help the American people, and will host an event to celebrate the enactment of the bill at the White House on September 6th,” the White House said in a statement.

Republicans say the legislation’s new business taxes will increase prices, worsening the nation’s bout with its highest inflation since 1981. Though Democrats have labeled the measure the Inflation Reduction Act, nonpartisan analysts say it will have a barely perceptible impact on prices.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., on Tuesday continued those same criticisms, although he acknowledged there would be “benefit” through extensions on tax credits for renewable energy projects like solar and wind.

“I think it’s too much spending, too much taxing, and in my view wrong priorities, and a super-charged, super-sized IRS that is going to be going after a lot of not just high-income taxpayers but a lot of mid-income taxpayers,” said Thune, speaking at a Chamber of Commerce event in Sioux Falls. The administration has disputed that anyone but high earners will face increased tax scrutiny, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen directing the tax agency to focus solely on businesses and people earning more than $400,000 per year for the new audits.

The measure is a slimmed-down version of the more ambitious plan to supercharge environment and social programs that President Biden and his party unveiled early last year.

President Biden’s initial 10-year, $3.5 trillion proposal also envisioned free prekindergarten, paid family and medical leave, expanded Medicare benefits and eased immigration restrictions. That crashed after centrist Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said it was too costly, using the leverage every Democrat has in the evenly divided Senate.

During the signing event, President Biden addressed Manchin, who struck the critical deal with Schumer on the package last month, saying, “Joe, I never had a doubt” as the crowd chuckled.

Though the law is considerably smaller than their initial ambitions, President Biden and Democrats are hailing the legislation as a once-in-a-generation investment in addressing the long-term effects of climate change, as well as drought in the nation’s West.

The bill will direct spending, tax credits and loans to bolster technology like solar panels, consumer efforts to improve home energy efficiency, emission-reducing equipment for coal- and gas-powered power plants, and air pollution controls for farms, ports and low-income communities.

Another $64 billion would help 13 million people pay premiums over the next three years for privately bought health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Medicare would gain the power to negotiate its costs for pharmaceuticals, initially in 2026 for only 10 drugs. Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket prescription costs would be limited to $2,000 annually starting in 2025, and beginning next year would pay no more than $35 monthly for insulin, the costly diabetes drug.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., a powerful political ally to President Biden, noted during the White House ceremony that his late wife, Emily, who battled diabetes for three decades, would be “beyond joy” if she were alive today because of the insulin cap.

“Many seem surprised at your successes,” Clyburn told President Biden. “I am not. I know you.”

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

Source: newsy.com

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Filed Under: POLITICS, TRENDING, US, WORLD Tagged With: Air Pollution, Associated Press, Benefits, Breaking, Business, Chuck Schumer, Climate change, Communities, Computer Chips, Coronavirus, Country, COVID-19, Delaware, Democrats, Diabetes, Dining, Drought, Drugs, Elections, Energy, Energy efficiency, Environment, Family, Finland, Focus, Health, Health Care, Health insurance, History, Industry, Inflation, Insurance, Janet Yellen, Joe Biden, Joe Manchin, Kamala Harris, Law, Medicare, Nato, Next, Ohio, PAID, Pay, Pennsylvania, Plants, Pollution, Ports, Production, Productivity, Renewable energy, Russia, Senate, South Carolina, State, Sweden, Tax, taxes, technology, travel, Ukraine, Washington, Wind

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