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May 29, 2024
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by Alex Chhith, Star Tribune
Aditya Prabhu loved eating the peaches off the tree in the backyard of his mom’s house. The only problem was the plant produced only a few fruits a year because Japanese beetles in the hundreds would eat at the leaves, depleting the plant’s energy to make peaches.
“The tree would be completely covered by the Japanese beetles because of their preference of fruit trees and orchards,” the University of Minnesota computer engineering student said. “The whole point of growing them in the backyard was so we could do it organically, but we’d only have one to two peaches because the trees were so exhausted.”
Prabhu’s mother didn’t want to spray the tree with pesticides. So Prabhu, accompanied by his brother and armed with sticks, went the traditional route of knocking the invasive species off plants and into buckets filled with water and dish soap, killing the metallic-colored insects.
Prabhu wondered if there was an easier way to get rid of the beetles, while he was taking an entrepreneurship class this year. As he researched, he learned about pheromone traps that attracted Japanese beetles. But he also discovered that many of those traps can fill fast, leaving the remaining insects free to wreak havoc.
He, along with fellow student James Duquette, a finance major, designed a circular-shaped, double-netted trap with pheromones to attract Japanese beetles. When the insects step onto the net, covered with a type of insecticide, they become immobilized and fall into another net that catches them.
“If the beetles aren’t paralyzed right away and fly from the trap, they will die from the bit of solution that they touched. Plus, [the ingredients are] safe for humans and pets to be around and it’s ‘eco-friendly,'” Prabhu said.
And it solves the problem of having to change overflowing traps. When the trap fills with beetles, a gardener just has to dump them out and pick up the ones around it that didn’t fall into the netting, he said.
“The problem with traditional pheromone traps is the sheer quantity of Japanese beetles; those traps can fill up within days with hundreds of thousands of beetles. Our trap is really promising because you don’t have to [dump out] the traps as they get full,” he said. “This attracts and kills, instead of attracts and baits.”
Seems the university students aren’t the only ones who find that this idea has potential.
Prabhu and Duquette formed the company Alure LLC for their beetle trap idea and recently snagged funding for the start-up company at e-Fest, the “Shark Tank” style competition held this spring at the University of St. Thomas, the largest undergraduate student business plan competition in the world.
Elated with their success, the duo will put the funds into expanding their pilot program, Duquette said.
Next up, Prabhu and Duquette will take their creation on the road and test their models at several vineyards across Minnesota after partnering with farmers looking for more eco-friendly and cost-effective ways to manage the pests.
And, as Japanese beetles become active in late June and early July, the timing couldn’t be better.
According to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Japanese beetles are prevalent in the Twin Cities metro area and are known to consume plants like roses, grapes, apples, basswood and turf. They can also be a pest to soybeans and other agricultural crops.
At the core of it all, Prabhu takes pride in helping his mother solve such a pesky problem. When he was a kid, he’d help her in the garden and still does so when he goes back to Shakopee on college breaks. The product, he hopes, will help gardeners like her be able to produce fruits in abundance without having to spray large amounts of pesticides on their plants.
“I’m a huge plant lover, in large part because of her,” he said. “She’s really excited to see this in our backyard this summer.”
More information: Pilot program: alurellc.com
2024 StarTribune. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Nov. 13 2020, Published 1:41 p.m. ET
The ideas behind the tiny house movement are sound in environmental principle, at least at face value. Less space obviously means that you consume less energy, you have less stuff to collect and eventually throw out. Moving into a tiny house can absolutely reduce your environmental impact, it’s true, but are the difficulties associated with this lifestyle worth the benefit? More importantly, are the benefits of tiny homes as eco-friendly as they seem? 
Tiny homes are houses built to be no more than about 400 square feet in total; some have even been known to be as small as 60 square feet. Think of the smallest apartment you’ve ever imagined and take off a few hundred square feet, and that’s a tiny house. Many of these tiny houses are on wheels, which means they can be carted around to different places — sort of like a mobile home, only much more handsomely-appointed. 
The original tiny house thing was never meant to be the full-blown social movement it has become, and many who have chosen the lifestyle have done so for a number of interesting reasons. These reasons can be financial, environmental, or in an effort to simplify their life. Nevertheless, moving into a tiny home means a huge commitment to reducing not only your environmental impact but also your reliance on gathering material things. 
According to a study by Maria Saxton, a PhD candidate at Virginia Tech, moving into a tiny home can have one of the greatest effects on your individual environmental impact. Saxon surveyed 80 people who had moved from a full-sized home to a tiny home for at least a year prior to the study. By the end, she had concluded that those who downsized effectively reduced their energy consumption by 45 percent. 
Saxton used a number of data points to come to this conclusion. Her main calculation had to do with each person’s ecological footprint. This means how much space each of those people needed to sustain their current behavior. it included their housing requirements, transportation, food, goods, and services. It turned out that people needed far less space than they were currently living with in order to be happy.
Saxton’s study notwithstanding, tiny houses do present some environmental issues that you might not assume from just looking at them. For tiny houses that are not stationary, moving them is going to be a big task — far too big for something like a Prius or an electric car. You’ll most likely need to use a truck, potentially one with the horsepower necessary for such a task.
On top of that, since most tiny homes tend to be in rural areas, commuting to and from your place of work is likely to be more frequent than it was when you lived in the suburbs. So despite all the work you did lowering your carbon footprint, you still need to drive you and your new house around, and that takes gas.
Saxton’s study also noted an uptick in eating out among participants, mainly because the kitchen spaces were not conducive to frequent cooking. On top of that, a few participants actually admitted to recycling less since they moved into their tiny home. Their stated reasons for this were that they either did not have the space to store recyclables, or their new neighborhood lacked any sort of curbside recycling program. 
On top of all the facts mentioned above, tiny houses have some pretty obvious advantages when measured against the natural gas-guzzling, oil-burning, timber-intensive suburban mansions that stand like opulent soldiers in many suburban neighborhoods. First off, they are much smaller, requiring much less fuel and electricity to heat or cool, and far fewer natural resources to construct. 
It probably goes without saying that tiny houses are cheaper to buy, build, or relocate than your average house. Several companies are already jumping on the tiny house bandwagon and offering prefabricated tiny homes, but you can also get one built to custom specifications. On average, tiny homes can cost anywhere from $30,000 to $60,000, and they can go as high as $150,000 or as low as $8,000, according to Rocket Homes. 
Ultimately, the move to a tiny house will still come with its own ups and downs, even in terms of ecological friendliness. You will face challenges and you’ll have to make concessions that you might not have planned, but you may be better off for it. Many who have opted for this lifestyle have found the move to be both economical and cathartic. 
Until these minuscule manors become a bit more mainstream or until tiny home communities become more common in some areas, you’re likely to run into some of the same problems that many homeowners face in terms of reducing their environmental impact, albeit on a smaller scale. 
Take a Virtual Tour of IKEA’s New Sustainable Tiny Home
What Are the Most Eco-Friendly Building Materials?
Can Tiny Houses Solve Homelessness?
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Behind the climate-bond curtain – POLITICO  POLITICO
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Nathan Smith and his team achieved significant milestones by aligning various business lines within Cadmus to amplify their impact on climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience.
With decades of experience, they’ve cultivated an interdisciplinary firm capable of tackling global climate challenges. Their focus now is on leveraging these capabilities collectively to address climate issues in exceptional ways.
Cadmus recently achieved significant milestones by collaborating between its water and homeland security teams to support EPA in enhancing resilience in the water sector.
Additionally, the company used its climate resilience team to assist FEMA in preparing for and responding to more frequent and severe natural disasters caused by climate change. Furthermore, Cadmus has prioritized climate equity in global projects like the Jamaica Energy Resilience Alliance and the Reconnecting Communities Institute.
“Nathan Smith has been essential to Cadmus’ growth throughout his tenure, both as a business leader and as a subject matter expert,” said Cadmus President and CEO Ian Kline. “He brings exceptional insight and strategies to help our clients address the myriad complex challenges and opportunities presented by climate change and fosters an environment within his division that empowers rising leaders to do the same. His vision and steady leadership in the dynamic public sector market are invaluable as Cadmus expands, builds new connections between practice areas, and continues to strengthen our capabilities.”
Why Watch
In 2024, Smith’s team is focused on accelerating and maximizing the impact of critical clean energy, climate and resilience programs funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Through this work, they’re helping federal, state and local government clients develop programs that will have a lasting impact, creating a legacy that continues to positively benefit the U.S. and its citizens far beyond the present moment.
“It has become abundantly clear that climate change is not limited to a single industry or issue,” he said. “For real progress to be made in reducing the impact from climate change and building resilience going forward, climate considerations must be built into everything we do. That interconnectedness is the beacon guiding Cadmus strategy and growth and will continue to be essential to our vision in the future.”
Fun fact: A significant part of Smith’s work centers on sustainable transportation, which remains both a professional and personal passion for him. He’s dedicated to biking the 60-mile round-trip commute to the office once a week and using his electric vehicle for the remaining days.
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Opponents say the pool is a waste of water.
Opponents say the pool is a waste of water.

This story was written by Associated Press writer Jennifer Sinco Kelleher. We’re now publishing some AP stories under a new partnership that will also see Civil Beat stories distributed nationwide by the AP.
HONOLULU (AP) — A judge has halted plans for an artificial wave pool until developers can revise an environmental assessment to address concerns raised by Native Hawaiians and others who say the project is unnecessary in the birthplace of surfing and a waste of water.
In granting a temporary injunction Tuesday, Hawaii Environmental Court Judge Shirley Kawamura ordered a new review of concerns including impacts on water supply and anticipated growth in the area.
A group of Native Hawaiians and other residents filed a lawsuit last year challenging the Hawaii Community Development Authority’s approval of the 19-acre Honokea Surf Village planned for West Oahu, which found that it will have no significant environmental impacts.
Opponents of the project say the wave pool, with a capacity of 7 million gallons, isn’t needed less than 2 miles from the ocean and another existing wave pool.
Project backer and renowned Native Hawaiian waterman Brian Keaulana has said artificial waves are useful for competitive surfers to train on perfect breaks that are sometimes elusive in the ocean.
Customizable surf, he said, can also help create ideal conditions to teach surfing and lifesaving skills.
“Our goal of creating a place that combines cultural education with skill-based recreation must be done in a way that does not harm our natural resources,” he said Wednesday in a statement. “The court’s ruling allows us an opportunity to revisit the environmental concerns, especially our water resources.”
The judge said in her ruling that there was “insufficient evidence for the HCDA to determine whether there is a likelihood of irrevocable commitment of natural resources and whether secondary and cumulative impacts of water use, injection, land use changes and wildlife mitigation would likely lead to a significant impact, thereby favoring an injunction.”
The current assessment is “ambiguous as to the specific manner, time frame, and actual daily water use implicated by the initial and periodic filling of the lagoon,” the ruling said.
However, the development authority did make sufficient assessment of potential impact on historic preservation and burials, it added. The HCDA declined to comment Wednesday on the ruling.
Developers say the project would be drawing from a private water company separate from Oahu’s water utility, using a supply that was committed decades ago.
But the judge noted that they draw from the same underlying aquifer.
“Thus, additional analysis is needed to fully capture the potential cumulative impact of anticipated growth and subsequent increased competing water demand,” the ruling said.
The state attorney general’s office said it was reviewing the decision.
Healani Sonoda-Pale, one of the plaintiffs, called the ruling a “pono decision,” using a Hawaiian word that can mean “righteous.”
“Much has been made about Hawaiians being on both sides of the issue,” she said. “Building a wave pool is not a cultural practice. The threat of a wave pool … is so immense in terms of how many people it could affect.”
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KYODO NEWS – 12 hours ago – 10:38 | All, Japan
Japan faces growing risks to its food security due mainly to climate change and a rapid decrease in the number of domestic farmers, an annual government report on the agricultural industry said Friday.
Also citing factors such as an unstable grain supply following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and high competition in food procurement amid an increase in global population, the report said Japan’s food security is “at a historic turning point.”
According to the report, endorsed by the Cabinet on Friday, the number of people in Japan who mainly engage in agriculture was some 1.16 million in 2023 down by more than half from 2.4 million in 2000.
Of the total, only some 20 percent were under 60 years of age, it said, noting the need for measures to boost the number of farmers and introduce more advanced technology into the industry.
The report said that more than 90 percent of Japan’s agriculture, forestry and fisheries products as well as foods were transported by truck in fiscal 2023, which ended in March, and that the use of trains and ships has been enhanced in the current year.
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KYODO NEWS – 2 hours ago – 20:41 | All, Japan
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Our next vehicle purchase will affect the planet’s future so we need information, says the show’s former presenter
Top Gear could reinvent itself as an eco-friendly car show advising people on how to make the right environmental choices, Richard Hammond has suggested.
Hammond, who presented the show with Jeremy Clarkson and James May until the trio departed in 2015, said that buying a car is a decision that affects the planet’s future.
The BBC announced in November that Top Gear would not return for the foreseeable future following the crash which left Freddie Flintoff with serious injuries.
Hammond, Clarkson and May now present The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime Video, and Clarkson recently confirmed that the show will end after the next series.
Asked if the disappearance of both programmes meant the end of the road for driving shows, Hammond told Radio Times: “I very much doubt it. Top Gear was on hiatus when we took it on so it’ll come back one day, although in what shape I don’t know.
“The decision to buy our next car is probably the most significant contribution we can make, as individuals, to the future, so we need to be informed. Maybe that’s the route it could take?”
He went on: “As for shows like The Grand Tour, I don’t think the human desire for adventure is ever going to be sated. It’ll continue in different forms, modified to suit its time.”
In the interview, Hammond recalled his own life-threatening Top Gear accident in 2006, and a second high-speed crash in 2017 while filming The Grand Tour.
They did not put him off driving stunts, he said, because he views them as “learning experiences. If everything always goes well, you never learn how to cope when something goes wrong.”
Hammond is not the first Top Gear presenter to suggest that the show should shift its focus to environmental questions and whether we need to drive cars.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last year, James May said that there must be “another way of doing a show about cars that will embrace more fulsomely many of the questions being asked about cars that weren’t being asked about cars.”
He said that this could involve “greater scrutiny” of the way that cars are powered. “Like everything else in the world, cars are now under scrutiny: how they are used, how they are made, what they are made of, what they are used for, how we take responsibility for them, how they are powered.
“All these things make them a fascinating subject for this time.”
Clarkson, however, does not agree.
Writing in his column in The Sun, Clarkson said: “I sort of see what James is saying. But, naturally, I don’t agree with him. Because I think cars have never been more dull.”
He added: “The fact is that TV car shows appeal mostly to people who like cars. But it’s a struggle to like a modern car. It’s a struggle to review one as well because, if it’s electric, it’d be like reviewing a chest freezer.”
Clarkson said that driving is now a “chore” anyway, thanks to the spread of speed cameras, 20mph speed limits and Ulez charges.
In another column, Clarkson said “the problem with environmentalism” is that “it’s never rooted in reality”.
He explained: “They tell us to sell our cars and use a bicycle instead, which is fine if you’re going to the shops for a pint of milk but not if you’re going into town to buy a fridge freezer. Or if you’re going to Glasgow.”

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EXPERT OPINION
In defense of our legal system, the law that is developed in courts and legislatures quite regularly reflects the wisdom of the average citizen. When it does not, we should be skeptical.
May 30, 2024 at 02:44 PM
5 minute read
Environmental Law
In defense of our legal system, the law that is developed in courts and legislatures quite regularly reflects the wisdom of the average citizen.  When it does not, we should be skeptical.
For example, who should set national energy policy?  If you ask average citizens this question and give them a choice between the Hawaii Supreme Court or the U.S. Congress, I think you’d be hard pressed to find many people who would place that responsibility to five individuals in black robes sitting in a courtroom in Honolulu.
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Yale Climate Connections
In an empty wind-swept field in Richmond, California, next to the county landfill, a company called RavenSr has plotted out land and won permits to build a factory to convert landfill waste to transportation-grade hydrogen for powering vehicles. Six miles away, Moxion Power has laid the concrete foundation for a factory to make energy storage batteries for freight trucks and mobile uses.
RavenSR and Moxion Power are among more than 300 companies across the U.S. launching clean energy manufacturing projects with the help of tax incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act. Meanwhile, consumers have used the law’s tax credits to purchase 1.46 million climate-friendly electric, plug-in hybrid, or fuel cell cars.
The most far-reaching climate law in history, the Inflation Reduction Act is catalyzing a transition in the U.S. economy toward cleaner energy and cleaner transportation — a shift the International Energy Agency, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and others say must happen for the world to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases to the levels scientists say would avert the most catastrophic and irreversible climate chaos.
Those safeguard levels are a 50% reduction in emissions by 2030 from 2010 levels and net zero emissions by 2050 to limit global average temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius — a target that 195 countries agreed to in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The Biden administration’s Department of Energy estimates that the Inflation Reduction Act along with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will drive down U.S. emissions by 40% from 2005 levels by 2030, a conclusion also reached in an independent study in Science.
Combined with new Environmental Protection Agency rules restricting tailpipe emissions from future trucks and cars, limiting power plant emissions, and requiring capping of methane leaks from oil and gas exploration, as well as state and private sector action, the U.S. is on track to reduce emissions 50% by 2030, the Department of Energy forecasts.
But what happens if these climate laws are gutted or reversed?
2030 is less than six years away. What happens in the next four of them will affect our chances of avoiding the worst climate chaos, experts say.
That’s why 2024 is a climate election.
“Why this election is so important and why it is a climate election is because we are out of time,” said Lori Lodes, executive director and co-founder of Climate Power, a nonprofit working on protecting climate policy, speaking to reporters recently.
The climate is changing, and our journalists are here to help you make sense of it. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter and never miss a story.
Read: Checklist: How to take advantage of brand-new clean energy tax credits
“The choice in this election could not be more stark and the stakes could not be higher,” said Pete Maysmith, League of Conservation Voters senior vice president of campaigns, in an interview.
“Biden has taken 322 positive actions around climate and the environment. A recent one is the rules issued for power plants,” he continued. “Donald Trump basically auctioned off our climate and environmental laws — auctioned off our future — to the tune of $1 billion to oil executives when he met them in Mar-a-Lago.”
Maysmith was referring to a meeting Trump had with chief executives of major oil companies in which, according to the Washington Post, he told the executives that if they donated $1 billion to his reelection campaign, he would prioritize reversing President Biden’s environmental laws and rules once back in office.
In Trump’s first term as president, he overturned an estimated 100 environmental regulations and pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement. He shrank the EPA and required that the words “climate change” be removed from its website. On the campaign trail this time, he has repeatedly said one of his top priorities is to boost oil and gas production and free up more public land to “Drill, baby, drill.”
Not everyone gives Biden high grades for his climate work.
“Biden hasn’t been a climate panacea,” said Jeff Ordower, North American director of 350 Action, a part of the advocacy group 350.org, criticizing the Biden administration for allowing a record number of new oil and gas drilling permits and greenlighting of the Willow Project oil exploration in Alaska.
But Ordower emphasized that the presidential contest taking shape is not between Biden and some stronger environmentalist. It is between Biden and someone who would “walk us backwards” on climate progress and who blatantly dismisses climate science.
“We have an opportunity to really push for climate solutions at the scale and scope we need with an administration that’s been friendly towards solutions and that is persuadable towards pausing fossil fuels, versus an opponent who is not either of those, an opponent that pulled us out of the Paris Agreement and who will walk us back,” Ordower said in a telephone conversation.
It is not just warnings from environmental leaders that describe what could happen under a Trump second term. Trump’s own advisers and conservative economists and policymakers have spelled out a plan for a new Trump administration. Their Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project is a self-described playbook of what a new Trump presidency would do in its first 180 days.
Among Project 2025 priorities: “Support repeal of massive spending bills like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which established new programs and are providing hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies to renewable energy developers, their investors, and special interests, and support the rescinding of all funds not already spent by these programs.”
Regarding Department of Energy reforms, it would: “Unleash private-sector energy innovation by ending government interference in energy decisions,” as well as “Stop the war on oil and natural gas,” and “Refocus FERC on ensuring that customers have affordable and reliable electricity, natural gas, and oil and no longer allow it to favor special interests and progressive causes.”
As to the Environmental Protection Agency, Project 2025 states: “EPA’s structure and mission should be greatly circumscribed to reflect the principles of cooperative federalism and limited government. This will require significant restructuring and streamlining of the agency.” It calls for downsizing the agency.
Project 2025 calls for reversing the bans on exports of liquefied natural gas and on the use of hydrofluorocarbons or refrigerant chemicals that even manufacturers favor.
A recent report from Carbon Brief, an international clearinghouse of climate research, calculated that reelecting Trump to a second term would result in 4 billion tons of climate-warming gases added to the atmosphere by 2030 – an amount it said is equal to the yearly emissions of all of Europe and Japan combined.
“A second Trump term that successfully dismantles Biden’s climate legacy would likely end any global hopes of keeping global warming below 1.5C,” Carbon Brief said.
Given these dire predictions, a strange paradox exists in voting data. According to the Environmental Voter Project, a bipartisan get-out-the-vote nonprofit, people for whom climate change and the environment are top concerns are statically less inclined to participate in voting than the general population.
“In the 19 states we work in, we’ve identified 4.8 million individuals who are registered to vote and highly likely to call climate and environment their number one worry, but they are unlikely to vote in November,” said Executive Director Nathaniel Stinnett in an interview. “Why? Because we looked at their voting history and they didn’t vote in 2022 or in the last presidential election.”
So the Environmental Voter Project has been conducting a massive get-out-the-vote campaign, with volunteers going door to door convincing identified environmentalists to vote — but not advocating for any specific candidates.
Read: ‘Basic peer pressure’: The plan to turn out millions of pro-climate voters in the 2024 U.S. election
“We turn nonvoting environmentalists into consistent voters, that’s it. We are not in the mind-changing business, just in the behavior-changing business.” Stinnett said. He wants people who care about the climate and environment to go to the polls, for all elections — local, state, and federal — because time is of the essence.
We help millions of people understand climate change and what to do about it. Help us reach even more people like you.
Longtime journalist and communications specialist Barbara Grady is a freelance writer focusing on sustainability, the climate crisis, and what we can do about it. She returned to reporting after retiring… More by Barbara Grady

ACCESSIBILITY AT YALE

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Forrester received 278 client inquiries on sustainability from August 2022 to October 2023. While people sometimes use the term “sustainability” to encompass poverty, health, and other societal issues, all 278 of our client inquiries centered on environmental sustainability. This demonstrates not only a growing sense of urgency but also a collective acceptance that the primary focus of sustainability must be the environment. This report provides insights about inquiries across practices, people, technology, and the market. Sustainability leaders and risk pros can use this report to better understand the state and trajectory of the sustainability market, challenges clients face, and initiatives they are pursuing.
This report is available for individual purchase ($1495).

Forrester helps business and technology leaders use customer obsession to accelerate growth. That means empowering you to put the customer at the center of everything you do: your leadership strategy, and operations. Becoming a customer-obsessed organization requires change — it requires being bold. We give business and technology leaders the confidence to put bold into action, shaping and guiding how to navigate today’s unprecedented change in order to succeed.

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