The Environment in Focus

Tom talks with Gertrude's restaurant owner John Shields about his newest book ----The New Chesapeake Kitchen,---- which makes the case that we should all make our eating habits more sustainable.

This month, the U.S. Senate will be considering legislation that threatens to reverse historic progress in cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.On July 19, the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives voted 213 to 202 – largely along partisan lines – to pass a budget amendment that would prohibit the federal Environmental Protection Agency from penalizing states that fail to meet pollution limits for the bay imposed by EPA in 2010.The lead sponsor was Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, an ally of the farm lobby, which went to court to contest the federal Bay pollution limits.“The EPA cannot be allowed to railroad the states and micromanage the process,” Goodlatte said. “With this amendment, we are simply telling the EPA the important role that states play in implementing the Clean Water Act and preventing another federal power grab.”

A weekly perspective on the issues and people changing Maryland's natural world

According to the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, more than 40 percent of mammal species have experienced severe population declines over the last century, meaning that their range has shrunk more than 80 percent.Almost 200 species of vertebrates have gone extinct over the last 100 years, a rate of about two extinctions per year. That’s 100 times the historic rate. Previous mass die-offs have been caused by asteroids, volcanos and other natural catastrophes. But this one has been triggered by human population growth, development, and climate change, scientists have concluded.

A weekly perspective on the issues and people changing Maryland's natural world

Dean Naujoks fires up the engine of his boat at the Bell Haven Marina in Alexandria, Virginia, and heads out to his version of an office cubicle: the wide, windy, greenish-gray currents of the Potomac River.“This is the Woodrow Wilson Bridge,” Naujoks says as he guides the boat on a sunny morning. “And then right over here is Jones Point Lighthouse. This is the oldest riverine lighthouse in the country.”For the last three and a half years, Naujoks – a 49-year-old veteran environmental activist and son of a tool-and-die maker from Eastern Pennsylvania – has worked as the Potomac Riverkeeper, leading a nonprofit organization that advocates for cleaner water.

When he was on the campaign trail, Donald Trump promised to impose new rules to keep lobbyists out of government. “If I’m elected president, we are going to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.,” Trump proclaimed.But he didn’t ban the hiring of lobbyists to his administration – far from it. On January 28, 2017, he signed an executive order that simply requires any lobbyists hired by his administration to refrain -- for two years -- from participating in discussion of any issue areas on which they lobbied for industry.This question became relevant last week when EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned amid multiple investigations of his mismanagement and misspending. His replacement as acting EPA Administrator is Andrew Wheeler, a longtime former lobbyist for the coal and energy industries.

A weekly perspective on the issues and people changing Maryland's natural world

It’s almost impossible to walk into a convenience store, pass a bus stop, or even to watch You Tube videos these days without being assaulted with ads for vaping or electronic cigarettes.This online ad features a cool-looking young actor on the beach, with the surf crashing behind him. “Blue e-cigs,” the narrator says. “Blue lets me enjoy smoking without it affecting the people around me because it’s vapor, not tobacco smoke. That means there’s no ash. And best of all, no offensive odor.”But is that really true – that vaping does not affect the people around you? That it’s harmless, creating no indoor air pollution?“No,” said Ana Maria Rule, assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “It is definitely not smoking, that’s a good distinction to make. However, I don’t know where people get this idea that (vaping) is harmless because the chemicals that are being heated up from the liquid are not harmless chemicals.”

On Sunday evening, another rainstorm drenched the Baltimore area, turning gutters into rivers and streams into muddy torrents.A day earlier, heavy rainfall caused the worst flooding in two decades along the Rappahanock River in Virginia, inundating several homes.And on May 27, flash floods devastated historic Ellicott City, Maryland, for the second time in as many years, flipping cars and killing a National Guard sergeant.May turned out to be the third rainiest in Maryland history, with eight inches falling, more than twice the average for that month, according to National Weather Service monitoring at BWI airport. So far in June, almost 5 more inches of rain have fallen – about a third more than is normal for a June.