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Vintage EPA photos reveal what New York City looked like before the US regulated pollution

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documerica nyc

New York City produces twice as much trash as any other mega-city on Earth, according to a recent study. The Environmental Protection Agency has described Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal as "one of the nation’s most extensively contaminated water bodies." And air pollution, coming largely from transportation and construction, remains a threat to residents.

But before the EPA formed in 1970, pollution in New York City was even worse.

Soon after the EPA's founding, the agency dispatched 100 photographers to capture America's environmental problems in a photo project called Documerica. It shows what the US, from California to Ohio to New York, looked like from 1971 to 1977. Of the 81,000 images the photographers took, more than 20,000 photos were archived, and at least 15,000 have been digitized by the National Archives.

Many of the photos were taken before the US regulated things like water and air pollution.

The Trump administration has already rolled back a number of environmental regulations and moved toward repealing the Clean Water Rule, which clarified the Clean Water Act to prevent industries from dumping pollutants into waterways and wetlands.  On Monday, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said the Trump administration plans to eliminate the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration's biggest initiative to fight climate change by curbing emissions.

Many reports suggest that Pruitt aims to kill environmental protections and dismantle much of the regulatory agency. If he succeeds, parts of the US could return to the state they were in before EPA regulations.

Here's a selection of Documerica photos of New York City that were taken between 1973 and 1974.

SEE ALSO: Photos show how California's fires gave Disneyland an apocalyptic glow

Many Documerica photos show scenes of general life in New York City in the 1970s, but several also document environmental issues.



In the first six months of 1973, more than 300 oil spills occurred in the New York City area. An oil slick creeps up on the Statue of Liberty in this 1973 photo.

More than 800 oil spills happened in the mid-Atlantic region during the same time period, according to a 1973 Coast Guard survey.

Source: The New York Times



Air pollution was also a huge issue in the city. As seen in this 1973 photo, smog obscures the George Washington Bridge.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Trump is quietly dismantling Obama's biggest legacy

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man hiker mountains lake outdoors

President Donald Trump has said he believes climate change is a hoax.

So it's no surprise that Trump's EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, has announced plans to roll back the Clean Power Plan— Obama's signature pollution-curbing legislation.

Since entering the White House, Trump's administration has made efforts to revoke or reverse 52 Obama-era environmental polices aimed at fighting the gradual warming of the planet.

Trump has called these polices "stupid" and claimed they are unfair to the fossil fuel industry. The administration's long string of regulatory rollbacks have also been accompanied by the green-lighting of several projects that Obama had blocked because of their potential negative impacts on the climate. Here are some of the most important:

SEE ALSO: The best US cities to live in to escape the worst effects of climate change

Rolling back and replacing the Clean Power Plan

What the rule did: The centerpiece of Obama's climate change policy was designed to curb pollution from coal- and gas-fired power plants. It would have required states to create comprehensive plans to reduce their emissions from energy generation, a strategy that researchers estimated would slash that type of pollution — which currently accounts for a third of all US carbon emissions— by 32% by 2030. 

Current status: In March, Trump issued an executive order instructing the EPA to reassess the plan, which has yet to take effect due to legal complications. In October, the EPA said it would repeal it.

 



Revoked a plan to require higher flood standards for highways and bridges

What the rule did: Required US government agencies to meet higher flood standards for new roads, bridges, and housing developments. Building trade groups and several Republican lawmakers said the rule was too costly. The Obama administration estimated it would have raised construction costs by 0.25% to 1.25%.

Current status: Revoked as of August.

 



Reversed the ban on new coal leases

What the rule did: Under Obama, the rule banned new coal leases on federal public land, a move the coal industry opposed. However, coal use and production has been declining for years for economic reasons — it is more expensive and less efficient in most parts of the country than natural gas and wind. Coal burning is also the largest source of carbon emissions from electricity generation in the country. 

Current status: Revoked as of March.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Why wildfire season is getting longer and more destructive

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sonoma napa fire wildfire 2017

  • The devastating wildfires in Northern California are just part of an already exceptionally destructive wildfire season.
  • While wildfires do naturally happen in the west, research shows that as temperatures have increased, wildfire season has gotten longer and larger fires have become more common. Human settlement in wildfire-prone areas also increases fire risks.
  • Researchers expect the trend of more destructive wildfire seasons to continue.

California is burning. The state is trying to contain what looks like one of the worst wildfire disasters in state history, with at least 31 dead, hundreds missing, and more than 3,500 structures burned as of Friday morning.

Throughout the west, it's been a disturbingly destructive and long wildfire season.

"This one in particular has been a longer season. It really hasn't stopped since the fall of 2016," Chris Wilcox of the National Interagency Fire Center recently told NPR's Linda Wertheimer on Weekend Edition. "We had a long fire season in the Southern states — Georgia, Florida, et cetera — and now it's continued to progress and move and migrate its way westward as the seasons have changed through the year."

For those who wonder whether or not wildfire season is really getting longer and more destructive, the data shows that it is.

Climate change is largely to blame for that, according to a number of different studies that indicate the lengthening and more destructive trends are likely to continue. But other human behavior plays a role too. Urban sprawl means that more people live closer to wildfire-prone forests than ever before, which increases the risks that human carelessness could spark a fire and puts more people at risk if there is a blaze.

October is normally wildfire season in California, and some of the factors that have made these fires particularly destructive, like the"Diablo" winds, are natural phenomena that can worsen fires at this time of year — no climate link is needed to explain that.

But human-caused climate change may have exacerbated the situation.

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The role of a warming world

As the LA Times editorial board recently wrote, there are a number of factors that authorities say contributed to the ongoing disaster: "winds so strong they knocked down power lines, extremely dry conditions, and an abundant supply of combustible material from a years-long drought that killed millions of the state’s trees or left them vulnerable to insect infestations."

And while California does naturally experience drought conditions, researchers have said that climate change exacerbated that years-long drought.

The end of that drought and significant precipitation in California last winter created an abundance of new growth that then dried out last summer — the warmest on record in California.

The National Weather Service's San Francisco Bay Area office said the five-year drought, winter rains, and then hot summer left behind a "bumper crop" of fuel that "literally exploded" after being ignited while at "all time record dry levels."

It'll be some time before researchers are able to assess how much of a role climate change played in this specific ongoing situation, but the link between global warming and worse wildfire seasons in general is clear.

The amount of land burned in the US since 1984 is double what would have been expected without the effects of climate change in that period, according to one study. And the average wildfire season in the west now lasts at least two and a half months longer than it did in the early 1970s, according to WXshift, a project of Climate Central.

According to WXshift, projections say that for each 1.8 degree F rise in temperature, the average area burned in the Western US could quadruple.

The burning doesn't just destroy forests. It has serious effects on air quality, making it unhealthy for many to be outside, particularly the very young or very old. It's incredibly expensive to battle — firefighting resources have been stretched thin by the non-stop fight against blaze after blaze, and both the National Guard and active duty soldiers have been called in to help. And it has a devastating effect on people's lives.

No one wants to talk about climate in the midst of an ongoing disaster. But if we don't deal with the warming problem, driven by greenhouse gas emissions, risks for future disasters of the same kind are likely to increase.

SEE ALSO: Vintage photos taken by the EPA reveal what America looked like before pollution was regulated

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: All blue-eyed people have a single ancestor in common

European hurricanes are exceptionally rare — but they could become more common

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Hurricane Ophelia, which on Friday was a Category 2 storm with sustained winds of 100 mph, is headed towards Europe.

If that news made you stop in surprise, you're not alone.

It might sound absurd — you don't often hear about named Atlantic storms hitting anywhere in Europe. But what's happening with Ophelia is not that uncommon. It is also possible that more named storms will start curving towards Europe in the coming years in a way that is exceptional compared to what storms usually do.

The National Hurricane Center predicts Ophelia will hit Ireland and the UK as a powerful post-tropical cyclone on Monday.

By the time Ophelia is over the cool water that far north, it'll lose the cyclonic structure that characterizes tropical storms and hurricanes. Instead, Ophelia will be a big weather system, leftover from a cyclone.

It will still be a strong storm. Already, Ophelia set a record for being the strongest an Atlantic hurricane has ever been this far east so late in the year. By the time it reaches Ireland it could still have hurricane-force winds, which would make it an exceptional weather event.

But post-tropical cyclones and the remnants of hurricanes curve up and hit Ireland and the UK fairly regularly — they just tend to arrive as stormy weather carried in that direction by the jet stream. The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang recently conducted an analysis of historical records and found that conservatively, this tends to happen about every 3.5 years or so.

This could start to happen more frequently, however. A study published in 2013 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters concluded that climate models of a warmer world predicted by ongoing global warming showed more storms could survive to hit Europe. Higher sea surface temperatures (which, along with weak wind shear, have helped Ophelia maintain its status so far) could help storms maintain that cyclonic structure as they travel towards Europe, causing the same sorts of storms that hit the US East Coast to hit western Europe.

"We anticipate an increase in severe storms of predominantly tropical origin reaching western Europe as part of 21st century global warming," the authors wrote.

Meteorologist Marshall Shepherd, writing in Forbes, recently noted that another 2014 study published in Nature found that storms were already starting to strengthen further away from the tropics.

Up until this point, the Atlantic hurricanes that tend to slam the Caribbean, Gulf Coast, and East Coast have mostly avoided Europe. Even Spain and Portugal on the Iberian Peninsula, at the southwestern corner of Europe, have largely been untouched (a tropical depression left by Hurricane Vince hit there in 2005 and another storm hit in 1842).

The overall effect of climate change on hurricanes isn't entirely clear. Many researchers think the number of Atlantic hurricanes may go down but the intensity of these storms could go up.

But if present models are correct, Europe may need to prepare for more of these storms in the future.

SEE ALSO: Vintage photos taken by the EPA reveal what America looked like before pollution was regulated

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NOW WATCH: A mysterious 'hole' larger than Maryland has reappeared in Antarctica after 42 years

Here are all the protected lands at risk of shrinking or changing under the Trump administration

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Roughly 4 million acres of land and several million square miles of ocean. That's how much territory Obama protected during his presidency. At the center of his efforts is a Roosevelt-era law called the Antiquities Act which allows presidents to designate "objects of historic or scientific interest" as National Monuments.

In September, the Trump administration recommended changes for 10 of these monuments. These alterations include either shrinking their size or opening them up to "traditional uses" like mining, timber farming, drilling, and commercial fishing. 

Federal lands at risk under Trump_03

SEE ALSO: Trump is quietly dismantling Obama's biggest legacy

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NOW WATCH: Animated map shows what would happen to Asia if all the Earth's ice melted

Hurricane Ophelia has killed 3 people as it batters Ireland with 118-mph winds

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Chunk of roof skitch

Hurricane Ophelia has killed three people in Ireland as it pounds the country with some of the most extreme weather it has experienced in decades.

The storm — now officially a post-tropical cyclone — has knocked two trees onto drivers, killing them inside their cars.

A third man, who was trying to clear a fallen tree from a road, inadvertently killed himself with his chainsaw. Police confirmed all three deaths.

Sea defenses have been breached, causing flooding, while powerful winds have ripped the roofs from buildings and knocked down countless trees. Roughly 360,000 people are without power.

The first victim was a woman in her 50s who was killed by a falling tree in County Waterford. The second was the man with a chainsaw, who died in County Tipperary. The third was a male driver killed in Ranvensdale, County Louth.

Ophelia tree

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Powerful winds have been widely recorded, with gusts measured at almost 120mph.

Coastal defences in Galway, on the west coast, were breached and sea water streamed through the streets:

Video on social media also showed roofs being ripped off buildings.

This one shows the nearby town of Passage West:

While this shows a school in the city of Cork:

Cork City's home football ground, Turners Cross, was also seriously damaged:

Here's where Ophelia is expected to travel over the course of the day:

Irish forecasters have warned people in at-risk areas to stay inside their homes to avoid the effects of the storm. Police and the coast guard have made repeated pleas for people to stay away from the coast because of rough seas.

Hospitals across the country cancelled thousands of non-essential procedures because of the bad weather. All schools in Ireland were closed on Monday, and will remain so on Tuesday.

Kerry Airport, which is close to the path of the storm, cancelled all flights on Monday and closed completely. Cork Airport, which is slightly further from Ophelia, remained open but still cancelled dozens of flights.

Wind speed measurements showed extreme highs of 118 mph at Fastnet Rock, a small island with a lighthouse four miles from the Irish mainland. On the mainland at Roches Point, County Cork, the wind speed was measured at 97 mph (156 kmph).

The storm is beginning also to be felt in the British territory of Northern Ireland. The symbolic Peace Bridge near the border between Ireland and the UK was closed due to the bad weather.

This graphic from the US National Hurricane Center shows the likely track of the storm, which will take it across the sea to parts of Scotland:

NHC storm track prediction

In most of England the weather was calm, but a secondary effect of the storm caused the upper atmosphere to fill with dust, casting an odd, reddish glow over much of the country.

SEE ALSO: European hurricanes are exceptionally rare — but they could become more common

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NOW WATCH: What fruits and vegetables looked like before we domesticated them

Trump's new environmental nominee claims carbon dioxide isn't a pollutant

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Kathleen Hartnett White

On Thursday, President Donald Trump nominated Kathleen Hartnett White to run the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the office in charge of promoting the improvement of the environment.

Like many Trump picks who came before her, Hartnett White is an outspoken climate skeptic. In an interview with the Washington Post last fall, she said, “Carbon dioxide has none of the characteristics of a pollutant that could harm human health.”

That’s not the only controversial thing Trump’s nominee has said about climate change. Previously chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Hartnett White was a candidate for head of the EPA before the position went to another climate skeptic, Scott Pruitt.

In a column published in Townhall in 2015, Hartnett White wrote that “industrialized nations that utterly depend on the consumption of fossil fuels have not amplified environmental degradation of the natural world.”

And in an op-ed last year, she suggested that CO2 “may not be the cause of warming but instead a symptom of it.”

As for what does impact our climate, Hartnett White has a theory: “What role does our sun play? The sun is the source of over 99 percent of the energy in the earth’s climate.”

SEE ALSO: The first 'negative emissions' carbon-capture plant is up and running

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NOW WATCH: Here's what that square patch on your backpack is actually used for

Leonardo DiCaprio just invested in the Bill Gates-backed veggie burger that 'bleeds' like beef — here's how it tastes

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leonardo dicaprio

  • Actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio announced that he is investing in the plant-based food startup Beyond Meat.
  • In a taste test of the Beyond Burger, it didn't fool me for beef, but it is a tasty vegetarian option that mimics the look and texture of a traditional patty.
  • Beyond Meat is one of several plant-based food companies aiming to disrupt the $48 billion meat industry by creating more eco-friendly meat alternatives.

When Beyond Meat, a company that makes plant-based alternatives to animal proteins, claimed it invented a vegetarian burger that tastes like beef, it sounded too good to be true.

But the Beyond Burger has grown in popularity since it was first sold at a Whole Foods in Boulder, Colorado last year. Since then, the product has become available in 350 more Whole Foods locations, over 280 Safeways, eight BurgerFi's locations, six TGI Fridays, and hundreds of other grocery stores, including Kroger — the largest grocery chain in the United States.

It has also been backed by a long list of investors, including Bill Gates, Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams, the meat company Tyson Foods, and the Humane Society.

Announced today, another high-profile investor is joining them: Leonardo DiCaprio.

In a statement, the Oscar-winning actor and environmental activist said he is backing Beyond Meat because of its mission of creating plant-based foods. Plant-based "meats" can have a lower environmental impact than real meat, because it doesn't rely on livestock that requires more land and water.

"Livestock production is a major contributor to carbon emissions," DiCaprio said. "Shifting from animal meat to the plant-based meats developed by Beyond Meat is one of the most powerful measures someone can take to reduce their impact on our climate."

"The company's ability to create appealing, healthy meat directly from plants will go a long way in helping everyday consumers take action on climate change."

DiCaprio has also invested in the sustainable seafood company LoveTheWild and in the plant-based snack company Hippeas. In 1998, he launched the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to promoting environmental causes, like wildlife preservation, marine life and ocean protection, indigenous rights, renewable energy, and reductions in carbon emissions. In September, he donated $20 million to more than 100 organizations through the foundation.

Beyond Meat would not disclose DiCaprio's exact investment.

beyond meat 2

Each package of Beyond Burgers comes with two four-ounce patties. It's usually sold for $5.99 — almost twice the price of beef per ounce.

When I tried the burger last year, the patties looked exactly like raw beef, but they're made mainly from pea protein, yeast extract, and coconut oil. They contain beet juice, which gives them a reddish color.

According to the nutrition label on the back, the Beyond Burger has more protein, sodium, and calories than a normal burger.

When I cooked my first patty, I threw it on a small skillet without oil. Unlike most vegetarian burgers I've tried, the Beyond Burger sizzled like meat. It didn't smell like beef, but more like a vegetable I couldn't identify. Peas, perhaps?

giphy (41)

About three minutes later, I flipped the patty over, and it was slightly browned.

After waiting about three more minutes, the burger was done. It generated a lot of liquid on the spatula, although it didn't really look like normal beef burger juices.

After I added lettuce, tomato, and ketchup, I took a bite. In a blind taste test, it definitely wouldn't fool me as beef, but its texture was shockingly close, and it was even pink in the middle. To make the patty taste more like a normal burger, next time I would use steak seasoning.

beyond meat 3Inside, bits of veggies mimicked the texture of ground beef. Overall, it was tasty and juicy.

Beyond Meat sells other plant-based burgers, but the Beyond Burger is the first that's not sold in the frozen food aisle. It sits next to real refrigerated beef at Whole Foods.

Beyond Meat aims to shake up the $48 trillion global meat industry by creating palatable alternatives. Since the Beyond Burger somewhat closely mimics a traditional burger, it may represent a step towards creating a more environmentally friendly patty.

Meat production can be harsh on the planet. Traditional livestock farming accounts for an estimated 18% of global greenhouse emissions, drains 70% of the world's water, and uses 47,000 square miles of land every year. 

Beyond Meat isn't the only company attempting to challenge the beef industry.

Another similar startup, Impossible Foods, has raised $273.5 million in VC backing. Beyond Meat has raised at least $17 million. The Impossible Burger has also received rave reviews, including one from world-renowned chef and Momofuku founder David Chang.

"Today I tasted the future and it was vegan: this burger was juicy/bloody and had real texture like beef. But more delicious and way better for the planet," Chang wrote in a Facebook post in 2016. "I can't really comprehend its impact quite yet...but I think it might change the whole game."

farming 5

Although Americans are among the highest per capita eaters of meat in the world, a growing number of people in the country are slowly cutting down.

Both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are riding that trend, but unlike many other vegetarian brands, the two startups are targeting carnivores.

It's hard to change habits, especially when it comes to enjoying a beef burger. But inconspicuous plant-based burgers like Beyond Meat's could be the key.

SEE ALSO: College students built this $250,000 home that has a hydroponic farm and indoor greenhouse

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NOW WATCH: The 5 most annoying changes in the new iPhone update — and how to fix them


An undercover investigation reveals air quality on a cruise ship deck could be worse than the world’s most polluted cities

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Following is a transcript of the video.

Thinking of going on a cruise for the fresh ocean air? Think again. A recent undercover investigation on P&O Cruises' ship Oceana revealed ultra-fine particles in the air emitted from burning fuel.

On deck, downwind of the smokestacks, the investigative team measured 84,000 particulates per cubic cm. Closer to the smokestacks, the numbers rocketed to 144,000.

Sometimes even peaking at 226,000. According to Dr. Matthew Loxham, a research fellow in respiratory biology and air pollution toxicology in University of Southampton, "These are levels that you would expect to see in the most polluted cities."

These pollutants can get lodged in the lungs. Over time, it can cause asthma and chronic lung disease. The risk for health problems is greatest among crew members but passengers should also be careful. 

Each day, the average cruise ship produces as much air pollution as one million cars.

P&O Cruises is currently taking action. It says it's installing cleaning systems to reduce exhaust. It also reports that since 2005, it has reduced fuel consumption by 28%.

That's good news for future cruise passengers.

When asked for comment, P&O Cruises responded with the following.

“We continue to invest heavily in environmental technology for Oceana and for all ships across the fleet. In keeping with this environmental strategy, EGCS will be fitted on Oceana in dry dock later this year. These EGCS will significantly reduce sulphur oxides (SOX), soot and particulate matter … We are actively engaging scientists and independent third party groups to carry out similar studies using accredited equipment and methods and once complete we will share these results with the industry in order to understand and execute best practice.”

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The world's first floating wind farm started generating energy today – here's how it was constructed

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The world's first floating offshore wind farm started producing electricity off the Scottish coast on Wednesday.

Hywind Scotland, as the project is known, consists of five huge linked wind turbines which float over deep ocean water while loosely tethered to the seafloor.

They were constructed on land in Norway, and dragged across the North Sea earlier this summer before being moored off the Aberdeenshire coast.

The wind farm is expected to generate enough power for 20,000 households at full capacity according to Statoil, the Norwegian state energy company behind the project.

Produced by Jasper Pickering. Original reporting by Alexandra Ma.

 

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14 brutal, beautiful images from this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest

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44 1280px Tony Wu  Wildlife Photographer of the Year

The winning photo from the 2017 Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest is dark and bloody: A black rhino lies dead on the ground in South Africa's Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park game reserve, its horn brutally sawed off.

Other winning photos showcase the beauty of nature — sharks circle in a column of water, a bear cub wrestles with its mother, and sperm whales gather to socialize.

The winners of the annual contest, which is produced by the Natural History Museum in London, were announced late Tuesday night. They were chosen from more than 50,000 entries submitted from 92 countries. A selection of preview images from the contest was released in September.

You can see the full gallery of winners and finalists on the museum's website, but we've published a selection of some winners and finalists below.

SEE ALSO: More from the 2017 Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest

This red fox dove into a snowdrift in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, while trying to capture a vole — unsuccessfully.



This male orangutan swung down to the ground for a snack in Gunung Palung National Park in Borneo.



A nesting leatherback turtle journeys back to the ocean in Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge on the island of St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

This abandoned Disney water park has been rotting for over 15 years

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When Disney River Country opened in 1976, visitors flocked to Orange County, Florida, to ride the winding slides and traverse the wooden bridges.

The park closed down 25 years later. After leaving the park empty and abandoned for 15 years, Disney finally drained and filled River Country's 330,000-gallon pool in 2016.

As the Orlando Sentinel reported, the Upstream Plunge pool was filled with concrete, since standing water can attract mosquitoes — a growing concern because of the Zika virus. Disney said that the work was not related to Zika and that it didn't plan to reopen the long-closed park, the rest of which is still decaying.

A Cleveland-based photographer who works under the pseudonym Seph Lawless documented the abandoned park in his photo series "Dismaland." (This is also the name of Banksy's 2015 art exhibition, a fake apocalyptic theme park near Bristol, England.)

Lawless captured ghostly portraits of the once busy attraction. Take a look.

SEE ALSO: The National Park Service turns 100 today — and Obama just protected 87,000 acres of Maine land

River Country in Orange County, Florida, was Walt Disney World's first water park.



It is one of just two Disney parks, along with Discovery Island in Orange County, to close permanently. Both parks were left to deteriorate.



Lawless took about 150 photos of the decaying park, he tells Business Insider.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

A 27-year study found the amount of insects flying in the air has declined 75% — but no one knows why

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  • 75% of the flying insects on protected lands in Germany seem to have died over the past 27 years.
  • Researchers aren't sure what's responsible for the decline, but say climate change probably isn't to blame.
  • Bird populations are now also on the decline.


Bug researchers in Germany are puzzled.

New data suggests the total population of flying insects there has declined a whopping 75% in the past 27 years. And no one knows why. 

A study released Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE details a longitudinal study by German researchers to measure "flying insect biomass"— the weight of all flying bugs — in 63 protected spots around the country.

The scientists surveyed places like dunes, grasslands, and forests, using trapping tents to collect over 118 pounds of bugs over the 27 year period. They were expecting to find some population decreases, but this extreme decline, they said, is "alarming". 

The most recent Living Planet Index (which measures biodiversity and population trends in fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals around the world) suggested that wildlife abundance on Earth decreased by as much as 58% between 1970 and 2012. Butterfly, bee, and moth populations have previously been shown to be in decline across Europe.

But this widespread insect death struck the researchers as extreme. At the peak of summer heat, when there are usually more bugs out than in the spring and fall, the drop was even more pronounced, and bug counts were down 82%, — that's 7% more than the average decline over the 27-year period.

The lack of insects, of course, also problematic for small critters who eat flying bugs and has ripple effects up the food chain. A majority (roughly 80%) of plants rely on insects for pollination, and birds gobble them for sustenance.  German birds are feeling the squeeze on their food supply — new research published Thursday shows that Germany lost 15% of its non-endangered bird population in the past 12 years.

The researchers aren't sure what's causing this precipitous fall. Across the diverse swath of German habitats studied, all spots saw similar declines, suggesting the decrease had nothing to do with landscape changes. And the scientists don't think shifts in weather, land use, or climate change are valid explanations either. If anything, rising global temperatures should increase bug populations, the authors argue, because insect biomass is "positively related" to temperature, according to their models.

Other experts have pointed out, however, that not all bugs thrive on a warming Earth. The Washington Post reports that an especially warm spring could bring some bugs (like bees) out early, only to starve when there's not enough food. 

But the German researchers are zeroing in on one possible explanation for their findings: "Pesticide usage, year-round tillage, increased use of fertilizers and frequency of agronomic measures... may form a plausible cause," they wrote. 

More research is needed to know the role the agricultural industry is playing, but the German Farmer's Union is already playing defense. The association's secretary general, Bernhard Krüsken, told Deutsche Welle that "considering that the insect count was done exclusively in protected habitats, this shows that it would be premature to quickly point at agriculture." 

Regardless of the cause, scientists worldwide have been sounding the alarm about declining insect populations for months. 

"If you're an insect-eating bird living in that area, four-fifths of your food is gone in the last quarter-century, which is staggering," Dave Goulson, an ecologist at the University of Sussex, told Science Magazine earlier this year. "One almost hopes" the German trend is unique, he said, and not reverberating around the globe. 

SEE ALSO: Insects could be a much more lucrative industry in the US if Americans moved past their aversion to bugs

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NOW WATCH: There are 950,000 species of insects on Earth — but a new discovery has scientists stumped

EPA cancels appearance by scientists at climate change conference

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FILE PHOTO - Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), speaks to employees of the agency in Washington, U.S., February 21, 2017.      REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has canceled plans for three of its scientists to speak on climate change at a conference in Rhode Island on Monday, an official said on Sunday.

Tom Borden, program director for the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, confirmed that the EPA had on Friday canceled the appearance by two employees and an EPA consultant. No other EPA staff or affiliates are now scheduled to speak at the event.

The New York Times first reported the cancellations on Sunday.

The EPA gave "no specific reason" for why the scientists were not allowed to speak, Borden said. The topics of the conference had not changed, he added.

The EPA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Narragansett Bay Estuary Program is one of 28 such programs funded by the EPA, according to the EPA's website. The organization is due to release a report on the state of the Narragansett Bay watershed and estuary on Monday.

The three scientists scheduled to speak included Autumn Oczkowski, an EPA research ecologist, who was due to deliver the keynote address at the meeting in Providence.

Rose Martin, an EPA postdoctoral fellow, and Emily Shumchenia, an EPA consultant, were due to speak on a panel about the biological implications of climate change, according to a program of the event published on Oct. 4.

EPA administrator Scott Pruitt has repeatedly expressed doubts about climate change and under his leadership the agency has moved to undo dozens of Obama-era climate regulations, including Obama's Clean Power Plan aimed at combating global warming.

 

(Reporting by Alwyn Scott; editing by Diane Craft)

SEE ALSO: Scott Pruitt is ending an EPA policy known as 'sue and settle' to give green groups less power

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Pollution is killing more people than wars, obesity, smoking, and malnutrition

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A policeman, wearing a mask to protect from severe pollution, secures the area near the Great Hall of the People before the opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing, China, March 3, 2016. Picture taken March 3, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

  • 9 million people died prematurely from pollution-related diseases in 2015, accounting for 16% of all deaths worldwide.
  • Almost all of the pollution-related deaths are happening in poor and developing countries.
  • This costs the world an estimated $4.6 trillion a year.

 

Dirty air, water, soil and work environments are killing people off at an alarming rate. Researchers who have tallied up these effects say environmental contamination is now among the top global killers, responsible for one in six deaths worldwide.

Pollution is more deadly than smoking, kills nearly 15 times more people than all the world's wars and violence combined, and is three times as deadly as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis all put together, killing a total of nine million people a year, according to a report released by The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health on October 19.

Air pollution is by far the worst offender, but add in contaminated water, dirt and unhygienic working conditions around the globe, and it becomes apparent that pollution is more dangerous to people than heart disease, the number one leading cause of death worldwide.

lancet pollution deaths 2015

"No one has ever pulled together, in one place, information on the toll of disease and death attributable to all forms of pollution," report author Dr. Philip Landrigan, who's been studying the effects of pollution on child health for decades, told The Lancet. He says the dangers of pollution are often hidden from the public eye, because information is folded into separate statistics.

The report authors say the new pollution numbers are "intimately" linked to climate change mainly because of air pollution, which is a major source of greenhouse gases. Fuel combustion of all kinds "accounts for 85% of airborne particulate pollution and for almost all pollution by oxides of sulphur and nitrogen," according to the authors.

Fossil fuels, inefficient cook stoves in the developing world, and slash and burn agriculture all contribute to bad air. The good news is that pollution rates from things like smoky cook stoves and unclean drinking water are going down, as low- and middle-income countries emerge from poverty.

But in many places, the deadly toll of pollution is only going to get worse unless cleaner energy sources are tapped, according to the report. As high-income countries continue to burn massive amounts of fossil fuels, rapid rates of development in poor and middle income countries compound the global air problem. Cities, responsible for 75% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, are especially deadly — nearly 90% of urbanites worldwide are breathing air that doesn't meet World Health Organization air quality standards, the report says.

Development efforts often mean more mining, higher rates of deforestation, increased use of insecticides, bigger electricity generation demands, and more gas-powered cars on the roads. This all comes at a cost, the authors say. Productivity losses from what they refer to as "unhealthy and unsustainable development" are prompting illness and death that rob the world economy of 2% GDP annually. 

It doesn't have to be this way. In the US, air pollution rates have dropped more than 70% since 1970 — the year the Environmental Protection Agency was founded — while the country's GDP has skyrocketed

The study authors argue that in the same way developing countries leapfrogged past landlines and dial-up to mobile phones and broadband, many countries could skip over smoggy versions of industrialization and tap into renewable energy sources like solar power and wind generation.

If not, the statistics will only get worse, with the number of deaths due to ambient air pollution on track to increase by more than 50% by 2050. 

SEE ALSO: Vintage photos taken by the EPA reveal what America looked like before pollution was regulated

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China has shut down up to 40% of its factories in an unprecedented move to curb pollution

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china smog

  • China is tackling its air pollution problem by temporarily closing up to 40% of factories across the country.
  • Estimates suggest officials from more than 80,000 factories have been charged with breaching emission limits.
  • Some factory officials are even being put in jail for polluting their communities.

 

China is in the midst of an all-out blitz on polluters flouting emissions standards, closing tens of thousands of factories in a massive effort to address the nation's catastrophic pollution problems.

Estimates of the crackdown suggest as much as 40 percent of China's factories have been temporarily closed by safety inspectors, with officials from more than 80,000 factories charged with criminal offenses for breaching emissions limits over the past year.

The months-long campaign coincides with China announcing this week at its Communist Party congress its plan to cut the concentration of hazardous fine particulate matter (called PM2.5) from 47 micrograms per cubic metre in 2016 to 35 micrograms by 2035.

"It will be very difficult to reach the goal, and we need to make greater efforts to achieve it," environmental protection minister Li Ganjie said at an event on Monday.

China's modern efforts to tackle domestic pollution date back to 2013, when the nation announced 10 measures to clean up the country's air, including reducing emissions from heavily polluting industries by 30 percent by the end of 2017.

To help hit its targets, China has ramped up factory and power plant inspections in the past two years across several provinces, to make sure thousands of companies aren't breaching emissions laws.

"[B]asically, you're seeing these inspectors go into factories for surprise inspections," supply chain consultant Gary Huang from 80/20 Sourcing told NPR.

"They're instituting daily fines, and sometimes – in the real severe cases – criminal enforcement. People are getting put in jail."

The moves – which could carry with them the risk of harming China's strong economic growth, despite the government's claims otherwise – won't just result in bluer skies.

It's hoped that by cracking down on polluters, China will also see cleaner water and enjoy a vast range of ecological benefits – plus of course, breathe easier.

"For those areas that have suffered ecological damage, their leaders and cadres will be held responsible for life," said deputy director of the Communist Party's Office of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs, Yang Weimin, told The New York Times.

"Our people will be able to see stars at night and hear birds chirp."

In previous winters, city officials have been directed to enforce closures for only a few weeks at a time, but with 2017's end-of-year targets just months away, China is shuttering polluters at a rate Li calls "unprecedented".

china smog beijing"These special campaigns are not a one-off, instead it is an exploration of long-term mechanisms," Li announced this week.

"They have proven effective so we will continue with these measures."

What this means for the industrial sector in China moving forward beyond 2017 isn't yet exactly clear.

Power plants and factories are still adjusting to the new, unflinching enforcement of the environmental regime, and while thousands of companies are experiencing hardship right now, many think the industry will adapt with better, smarter, and safer ways of doing business that ultimately don't endanger Chinese air – or the planet as a whole.

"It's a huge event. It's a serious event. I think many of us here believe it will become the new normal," exporter Michael Crotty from China-based MKT & Associates told NPR.

"The consumers of China don't want red and blue rivers. They don't want to see grey skies every day."

SEE ALSO: China wants to build a 'forest city' to tackle air pollution – here's how it could look

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Here's how climate change could hurt your local economy, based on the part of the US you live in

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wildfires golfers

  • The non-partisan Government Accountability Office says extreme weather events have cost the US government more than $350 billion over the last 10 years. 
  • The coming effects of climate change will hurt some areas of the US more than others.
  • The GAO says the Southeast, Midwest and Great Plains will be especially hard-hit as storms batter the coasts and high temperatures hurt crop yields.

 

Climate change is really expensive.

That’s the takeaway from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office’s new report, released Tuesday. The GAO found that over the past 10 years, extreme weather and fires have cost the US government over $350 billion dollars. And the analysts suggest those costs are only going to get worse — by later this century, they estimate the federal government could spend up to $112 billion per year on climate-related costs.

Across the country, higher temperatures are expected to lead to more deaths, fewer workable hours, and greater energy production demands.

But it’s not bad news for every region of the country — some farmers could even stand to gain from the weather changes.

This map shows the economic changes that the GAO expects various regions of the US will see (assuming we don't reduce emissions any more beyond current levels): 

GAO Government Accountability Office Climate Change effects US by 2100

 

By 2100, according to the GAO, there will likely be...

Fewer fish to catch in the Pacific Northwest.

Oceans pH levels are decreasing around the world as more carbon dioxide gets absorbed into the waters. In the Pacific Northwest, that could cause shellfish harvests to drop by 32-48%.

More Rocky Mountain blazes.

An additional 1.9 million acres of land could burn every year by the end of the century in the Rocky Mountains, drastically increasing the $34 billion the US government spent over the past decade on wildland fire management. The average wildfire season in the west is already lasting two and a half months longer on average than it did in the early 1970s, according to WXshift, a project of Climate Central.

Some farmers winning, while others lose.

Crop yields in the south could suffer major losses due to extreme heat, while in the north, longer, warmer growing seasons could help farmers make more money. Vermont, for example, could stand to increase its economic output by .8 to 4.5% a year, while Florida could lose 10.1 to 24% of its current annual economic output. Additionally, elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could lower the protein content in crops like rice, wheat, and barley, making them less nutritious. 

A more temperate climate that could save some lives.

Those living in the frigid corners of the country may see a benefit to rising global temperatures: fewer people will die in the cold. This could save lives in states like Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which have some of the highest rates of fatal hypothermia, according to the CDC. However, nationwide many more people will die from stifling extreme heat waves and bad air.

Coastal property owners taking a hit, especially in the southeast.

People who live and work on the coasts will spend $4 billion to $6 billion annually on property damages alone as sea levels rise and more intense storms hit the shores. After 2040, those costs could rise significantly, the GAO cautions. In Tampa Bay, Florida, for example, the damage to coastal property could amount to $2.8 billion a year by 2100.

Cost estimates from 2017's powerful hurricanes are already beating those government estimates by wide margins, though. One disaster modeler put the destruction from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico at $30 billion. Hurricane Irma could cost Americans $50 billion, and damages from Hurricane Harvey are estimated to be somewhere between $75 billion and $160 billion. 

SEE ALSO: Pollution is killing more people than wars, obesity, smoking, and malnutrition

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The world's winemakers are suffering their worst year since 1961

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winery fire wildfire sonoma napa 2017

  • The world's wine production is set to decline to its lowest level since 1961, according to a new report from the international wine body OIV.
  • The world's top three wine producers — Italy, France, and Spain — could see some of the sharpest declines.
  • Harsh weathe is the primary reason for the decline.

 

PARIS — Global wine production this year is set to fall to its lowest level since 1961 after harsh weather in western Europe damaged vineyards in the world’s largest production area, international wine body OIV said on Tuesday.

Global output is expected to fall to 246.7 million hectoliters in 2017, down 8 percent from last year, the Paris-based International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) said in its first estimates for the year.

A hectoliter represents 100 liters, or the equivalent of just over 133 standard 75 cl wine bottles.

The global decline reflects a plunge in output in the European Union, where the world’s top three producers — Italy, France and Spain — are each projected to see a sharp drop.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive, estimates the bloc’s wine grape harvest will shrink to a 36-year low in 2017 as adverse weather from spring frosts and summer heatwaves takes its toll.

In France, the weather has affected most of the main growing regions including Bordeaux and Champagne, and the government has projected production will sink to its lowest in decades.

The OIV’s projections, which exclude juice and must (new wine), put Italian wine production down 23 percent at 39.3 million hectoliters, French output down 19 percent at 36.7 million and Spanish production down 15 percent at 33.5 million.

Reduced global production may erode a surplus over demand seen in recent years, when consumption was curbed by the effects of a world financial crisis in 2008.

The OIV said it was initially assuming a consumption range of 240.5 to 245.8 million hectoliters based on medium and longer-term trends, but did not yet have firm demand data for 2017.

However, the impact of reduced production on actual market supply and prices depends on levels of stocks from previous years and the quality of wine in landmark regions.

In France, the world’s leading exporter by value, producers have pointed to the prospect of good quality wine.

Outside Europe, the United States, the world’s fourth-largest producer and the biggest consumer, was expected to see output remain little changed at 23.3 million hectoliters, down 1 percent, the OIV said.

Production in Australia was expected to rise 6 percent to 13.9 million hectoliters while Argentina was projected to post a 25 percent jump to 11.8 million after a weather-hit 2016, the OIV said.

The preliminary world estimates lacked data from some countries, notably China, for which the OIV provisionally assumed stable production compared with last year at 11.4 million hectoliters.

SEE ALSO: Before-and-after photos show how California's wineries have been devastated by fires

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There’s one reason not to completely freak out about Trump’s effort to reverse Obama-era climate change policies

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donald trump scott pruitt

  • The Trump administration's efforts to reverse Obama-era policies on climate change face limits. 
  • Advances in US energy markets have sharply lowered production costs associated with cleaner energy sources such as natural gas, wind and solar.
  • US carbon dioxide emissions in 2016 were 14% below their 2005 levels.
  • A carbon tax might be the most effective way to combat global warming, but it's not in the cards.

A new report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), a top government watchdog, says the yearly cost of climate change to the federal government is tens of billions of dollars and rising rapidly— yet US President Donald Trump still refuses to acknowledge basic science.  

The growing frequency and intensity of extreme climate events like hurricanes and wildfires, which many scientists have tied to a warming planet, are raising worries that the administration’s inaction could lead to irreversible damage.

However, as alarmed as climate experts remain about the speed at which oceans are warming and weather patterns shifting, public policy professor Joseph Aldy at Harvard's Kennedy School says there's reason to remain, if not optimistic, at least guardedly upbeat about the limits of what the Trump administration can do to reverse recent progress.

"The Trump Administration’s efforts to reverse the Obama Administration's [policies] represents a temporary aberration,” Aldy, whose research focuses on climate change, told Business Insider.

Recent strides have resulted from a mix of sound government policy and, in part, a result of innovation and market forces in the US energy industry, Aldy said.

"The economics of energy in the United States have transformed dramatically over the past decade," he said.

Coal in Trump's stocking

Consider these figures: US consumption of coal-generated power has slumped 42% in the last 10 years. In contrast, natural-gas-driven electricity use has risen 27% and wind power has surged 387%, Aldy said.

"Reflecting improvements in energy efficiency and conservation, electricity consumption so far this year is 7% lower than it was in 2008," he said. "Gasoline consumption has barely increased over the past decade. These all reflect long-lived investments.

"As a result, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions in 2016 were 14% below their 2005 levels. An executive order or a proposed regulation will not change this." 

That’s because economics will ultimately trump politics in firms’ decision making.

"The growth in natural gas reflects the dramatic declines in production costs," Aldy said. "This drove the shift from coal to natural gas in the power sector, and it reflects simple economics – utilities prefer cheaper sources to serve their customers."

At the same time, policies aimed at spurring wind and solar investments have produced a wide network of cheap, renewable power sources.

"Since the wind and sun are free, once these power plants are built, utilities will dispatch power from them when the wind blows and the sun shines," he said. 

"I think the economic fundamentals of the US energy system make it really difficult for the Trump administration to truly reverse course, raise the prospects for coal, and increase US carbon dioxide emissions."

Carbon tax 

That’s not to say Trump’s climate-denialism and sharp cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget will do no damage.

"They could slow down progress in lowering the carbon intensity of our economy," said Aldy.

Trump could and probably will try to slash investments in energy research and development and climate science. The president's aggressive anti-environmental stance is also clouding implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement, from which the administration has officially withdrawn.

If inaction on climate from the Trump camp is a given, what should policymakers be thinking about in the longer run to reduce emissions and potentially slow the pace of climate change?

Two words, says Aldy: carbon tax. 

"The most effective policies for combatting climate change are those that would put a price on carbon, such as a carbon tax," he said. "Firms can be very efficient in how they buy equipment, procure materials, and hire workers because each of these inputs to production represent real costs to the bottom line. Firms don’t have an incentive to reduce carbon pollution because they don’t face a cost for doing so. Taxing carbon would do that.

Yet as nation debates tax reform, taxing carbon is not even part of the discussion.

SEE ALSO: Severe weather has cost the US government $350 billion since 2007 — and climate change could make it much worse

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A 'bomb cyclone' is headed for the East Coast this weekend — here's what to expect

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 Two women try to hold on to their umbrellas in a wind soaked rainfall as Hurricane Sandy approaches October 29, 2012 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

  • A 'bomb cyclone' is headed for the East Coast this weekend.
  • People along the Eastern seaboard in Rhode Island and Massachusetts could get hit hard by the rapidly-intensifying cyclone.
  • Flash floods and damaging winds are in the forecast.


New England is bracing for a wind-whipped and rainy Sunday as a "bomb" cyclone heads for the Northeast.

The National Weather Service is warning people along the Eastern seaboard that flash flooding, heavy rains, and tropical-storm force wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour could be headed their way starting Sunday afternoon and continuing into the evening. 

The NWS expects that some of the worst damage could hit Rhode Island, extending north through Boston and along the entire Massachusetts shore line. There could also be some flood damage in western Massachusetts, but the forecast is still in flux, and everywhere from Maine down to Washington DC could get hit with some rain. New York City is also expected to get hit with some heavy rain, exactly five years to the day since Hurricane Sandy pummeled the city.  

 

NWS boston bomb cyclone

 

Bomb Cyclone?

The storm is being called a "bomb cyclone." 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says storm "bombogenesis" happens when low-pressure systems rapidly intensify. If the surface pressure falls at least 24 millibars in 24 hours, it's a bomb. 

This occurs frequently when two separate storms slam into each other (for example, if a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass) and together, they create one super-strong bomb system. 

The Weather Channel says this New England storm is getting its special boost from a tropical disturbance in the Caribbean which is helping fuel the system, which could dump more than four inches of rain in some spots:

NWS NE bomb cyclone sunday

 

Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts have been suffering through a "moderate drought" this fall, but they've already been hit with some rain over the past two days. On Thursday the National Weather Service in Boston said on Twitter that "recent rains have 'recharged' rivers to the point where more heavy rain may cause flooding."

SEE ALSO: 5 years after Superstorm Sandy, experts say no US city is remotely prepared for climate change

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