CLICK HERE - THE STATE OF BIODIVERSITY IN THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY - A Review of Progress Towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets (120 page .PDF report)

caricom.org - October 30, 2018

The publication provides key information given the relative lack of baseline data and related time-bound objectively quantifiable targets for the sub-region, and is of particular value given the dependence on natural resources for livelihoods and well-being, and thus exposure to disruption and environmental disasters, of communities in many SIDS and developing countries in the region. The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and UN Environment stand behind the CARICOM Secretariat and its partners in the regional ACP MEA initiative, and we hope that this assessment provides a basis for actions to protect biodiversity as it underpins the sustainable development of the Caribbean region.

Cristiana Pa ca Palmer, PhD – Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity

A damaged home in Puerto Rico in September, a year after Hurricane Maria hit.  Credit Carlos Barria/Reuters

nytimes.com - by Emily Cochrane - April 1, 2019

The Senate on Monday blocked billions of dollars in disaster aid for states across the country as Republicans and Democrats clashed over President Trump’s opposition to sending more food and infrastructure help to Puerto Rico.

Opposition came from both parties for different reasons . . .

. . . It was unclear late Monday how lawmakers would overcome that impasse and end the delay in disbursing the disaster aid.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLES WITHIN THE LINK BELOW . . .

CLICK HERE - Billions Of Dollars In Disaster Aid Stuck In Congress, As Both Parties Balk At Relief Legislation

Flooding in San Juan after the storm. SGT. JOSE AHIRAM DIAZ-RAMOS/PRNG-PAO

CLICK HERE - NRDC - THREATS ON TAP: DRINKING WATER VIOLATIONS IN PUERTO RICO - May 2017 (7 page .PDF document)

atlasobscura.com - by Sarah Laskow - March 5, 2018

. . . For months after the hurricane, without electricity, surrounded by damaged infrastructure, Puerto Ricans struggled to find clean water after sewage, gasoline, and more was swept up in floodwaters. But the island’s underlying geography, along with a history of poor investment in the water system, have made contamination a long-standing problem in the island territory. Researchers are trying now to understand and measure just how much the storm exacerbated these issues.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

drought.gov

Drought in Puerto Rico from 2000 - 2019

The U.S. Drought Monitor started in 2000. Since 2000, the longest duration of drought (D1-D4) in Puerto Rico lasted 80 weeks beginning on May 5, 2015 and ending on November 8, 2016. The most intense period of drought occurred the week of September 1, 2015 where D4 affected 24.89% of Puerto Rico land.

The U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) is a map that shows the location and intensity of drought across the country. The data is updated each Tuesday and released on Thursday.

CLICK HERE - Drought in Puerto Rico - https://www.drought.gov/drought/states/puerto-rico

bread.org - March 1, 2019

CLICK HERE - Fact Sheet: Hunger and Poverty in Puerto Rico (2 page .PDF document)

Even before Hurricanes Irma and Maria struck Puerto Rico, hunger and food insecurity were much more common among Puerto Ricans than among their fellow U.S. citizens in the 50 states.

Before the hurricanes, 1.5 million Puerto Ricans were food insecure. The child food insecurity rate was 56 percent — nearly triple the average for the rest of the United States.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ALSO SEE RELATED INFORMATION WITHIN THE LINKS BELOW . .

CLICK HERE - USDA - Household Food Security in the United States in 2017 - September 2018

CLICK HERE - USDA - National Institute of Food and Agriculture - Puerto Rico

A runner tries to navigate a flooded section of sidewalk underneath the Longfellow Bridge in Cambridge, Mass.  Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe

statnews.com - by Kate Sheridan - February 15, 2019

. . . the potential risks of climate change — and the attendant increase in natural disasters — stand to outstrip any … incremental gains, as the companies described in recent risk assessment reports to the British nonprofit CDP.

Hurricanes and superstorms, power outages and flooding all threaten manufacturing facilities and research sites, particularly when animals are involved. Droughts, too, threaten critical water supplies. Forest fires, even if remote from a given plant or research facility, bring smoke and air pollution that can similarly disrupt the day-to-day work for drug makers and their supply chain . . .

. . . STAT surveyed the risk assessment plans for more than a dozen major pharmaceutical companies and spoke with officials at labs that survived extreme weather events and others who are planning to avoid their repercussions. All emphasized that the risks are already real — and underscored how hard the industry is working to prepare to meet the challenge.

Photo by Fluor Corporation, Public Domain

CLICK HERE - PREPA’s draft 2019 Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) (310 page .PDF document)

pv-magazine-usa.com - by Christian Roselund - February 7, 2019

PREPA’s draft IRP calls for rapid deployment of solar and batteries, including the installation of as much battery storage as is currently online in the entire United States over the next four years, in a system broken up into “minigrids”. However, it stops short of utilizing behind-the-meter PV and storage . . .

 . . . PREPA’s final IRP is scheduled to be published on February 12.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - Puerto Rico Energy Bureau - Critical Projects - Documents

But the definition of circular economy remains unhelpfully broad.

fastcompany.com - by Adele Peters - February 5, 2019

When Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport remodeled a terminal, it didn’t buy light bulbs; instead, the company signed a contract for “light as a service” from Signify, the company formerly known as Philips Lighting. Signify owns the physical lights, giving it the incentive to make products that last as long as possible and that can be easily repaired and recycled if anything breaks.

The service is one example of a shift to a circular economy model. Rather than just mining materials and manufacturing products that ultimately end up in landfills, companies are increasingly trying to figure out how to use resources in closed loops.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

A Sept. 7, 2017, satellite image from NOAA shows the eye of Hurricane Irma, left, just north of the island of Hispaniola, with Hurricane Jose, right, in the Atlantic Ocean. Six major hurricanes formed in the Atlantic in 2017, including Harvey, Irma and Maria.  (Photo: AP)

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Dominant effect of relative tropical Atlantic warming on major hurricane occurrence

usatoday.com - by Doyle Rice - September 27, 2018

The catastrophic 2017 hurricane season – which included such monsters as Harvey, Irma and Maria – was fueled in part by unusually warm ocean water, a new study suggests.

And because of human-caused global warming, the study said similar favorable conditions for fierce hurricanes will be present in the years and decades to come . . .

 . . . "We show that the increase in 2017 major hurricanes was not primarily caused by La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean, but mainly by pronounced warm sea surface conditions in the tropical North Atlantic," the study said.

New solar flow battery with a 14.1 percent efficiency. Photo: David Tenenbaum, UW-Madison

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Chem - 14.1% Efficient Monolithically Integrated Solar Flow Battery

theverge.com - by Angela Chen - September 27, 2018

Solar energy is becoming more and more popular as prices drop, yet a home powered by the Sun isn’t free from the grid because solar panels don’t store energy for later. Now, researchers have refined a device that can both harvest and store solar energy, and they hope it will one day bring electricity to rural and underdeveloped areas.

The problem of energy storage has led to many creative solutions, like giant batteries. For a paper published today in the journal Chem, scientists trying to improve the solar cells themselves developed an integrated battery that works in three different ways.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Image via Upworthy

CLICK HERE - The GrowHaus

upworthy.com - by Sam Dylan Finch - August 31, 2018

How do you get healthy food on the table when you can't find any?

This is a question that Ortilia Lujan Flores had grappled with many times before.

She wanted affordable, nutritious food, but lived in a neighborhood that didn’t have an accessible grocery store.

Flores couldn't drive, which limited the few food options she had. "There was nowhere to go," she explains.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Figure 1. Average estimated annual residential rooftop PV market capacity potential from 2017 – 2030 (Source: NREL)

sepapower.org - by Jeffrey Cook - August 16, 2018

If the solar industry reaches this Department of Energy (DOE) target, it could dramatically alter the energy market and present a future where residential PV becomes a standard, cost-effective home installation, versus a luxury or long-term investment. A recent NREL report — Cost-Reduction Roadmap for Residential Solar Photovoltaics (PV), 2017-2030 — models a set of pathways that the industry could follow to realize this future. The analysis focuses on two key markets for residential PV cost reduction: installing PV at time of roof replacement and installing PV at time of new construction. These two market segments were selected because each offers significant cost reduction opportunities while representing a 30 gigawatt (GW) annual market nationwide (see Figure 1).

Congressman Darren Soto and staff reach out to Puerto Rican evacuees in a lobby in a Florida Super 8 motel in Kissimmee, Florida, earlier this month. Photograph: Staff/Reuters

For the more than 300,000 people who fled after Hurricane Maria the Sunshine State proved to be no Disney World but they are poised to have an electoral impact in the midterms

theguardian.com - by Richard Luscombe - August 9, 2018

 . . . As of the end of June, more than 600 Puerto Rican families were still living in cramped, single-room accommodation in Florida hotels, two-thirds of them in central Florida’s Orange and Osceola counties and relying on the temporary shelter assistance program paid for by the federal emergency management agency (Fema).

And with the Orlando/Kissimmee/Sanford area third in the US for its dearth of affordable housing options, low-cost rentals are especially hard to come by, forcing even more to remain in $60-a-night hotel rooms in rundown areas, especially along the US 192 highway in Kissimmee . . . 

Ben Bostick, from Columbia University, and a Cuny intern, Alondra Cruz Portillo, test water collected in the northern town of Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Photograph: Angel Valentin for the Guardian

CLICK HERE - Small Water Systems in Puerto Rico Badly Affected by Maria

CLICK HERE - Government of Puerto Rico - Desirability and Convenience Study - Optimizing PRASA’s Metering Infrastructure and Customer Service Experience - March 2018 (93 page .PDF report)

Ten months after Maria hit water quality still seems inconsistent, and local residents aren’t taking any chances