New Study Defines Conditions for Long-Term Biodiversity Net Gain

New Study Defines Conditions for Long-Term Biodiversity Net Gain (Maria)

The author writes, “A new study identifying the ecological conditions needed for biodiversity offsetting to achieve conservation goals could provide important guidance for governments and industries as they expand biodiversity net gain and nature restoration policies. The research is published in the journal Conservation Biology. Biodiversity offsetting is increasingly used to compensate for environmental damage caused by development. It sees habitat loss in one location compensated through habitat restoration or protection elsewhere.”

Trump’s Threats To Revoke TV Licenses Get Serious (Reader Jim)

The author writes, “President Donald Trump’s threats against broadcast television licenses are suddenly less of a laugh line to the media world and more of a real danger. Trump’s broadsides Thursday night against NBC and ABC were just the latest occasion during the past nine years when he’s called for revoking the licenses of TV outlets that anger him, this time after the two networks declined to air his White House speech on election security. … But unlike Trump’s first term, when Republican leaders at the Federal Communications Commission disavowed any such reprisals, current Chair Brendan Carr has repeatedly opened probes and inquiries into the same TV networks that have drawn the president’s ire. And that has some policy veterans worried that the FCC may act this time, teeing up a constitutional fight.” 

Inside Israel’s Push To Clear Sea Munitions, Part of Global Push To Protect Waters (Reader Steve)

From the Associated Press: “Marking the coordinates on a handheld GPS, an Israeli diver threw an anchor into the water as another quickly chucked an orange buoy beside it. Cramped on the boat’s bow, the first team assembled their gear, put on wet suits and tested oxygen tanks before jumping in. But after hours of combing the Mediterranean seabed in search of yellow-painted mock mortar shells, the divers surfaced empty-handed. It was the team’s fifth diving trip in the yearslong experiment to help prepare Israel to clear part of the sea from unexploded grenades and other munitions in order to return beach area to residents. But on this day in June, the divers couldn’t find the dummy mortar and artillery shells they’d planted months prior, foreshadowing the challenges that lie ahead.”

Reflecting Pool Peeling Probably Caused by Application Flaws, Experts Say (Sean)

From The Washington Post: “The lining of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool peeled away in at least seven places along seams that were created when the material was applied in large rectangular sections, indicating likely problems in how it was installed, according to a Washington Post analysis of visuals and interviews with experts.” 

Why Is It So Expensive to Replace Lead Pipes in Chicago? (Laura)

From Inside Climate News, Grist, and WBEZ: “With more than 400,000 lead water service lines, Chicago has the largest known inventory of lead pipes of any city in the country. Officials say replacing each one costs about $31,000 on average — more than six times the Environmental Protection Agency’s national estimate of $4,700 a line. … Now, with a federal mandate to remove every lead pipe within roughly 20 years, Chicago is facing a daunting timeline and an astronomical price tag. Replacing the city’s inventory at the current rate will cost more than $12 billion.”  

Mysterious Compound Detected on Pluto and Titan (Dana)

The author writes, “A look at the dwarf planet Pluto and Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, baffled astronomers after the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) detected a chemical signature on their surfaces that does not match any recorded in spectroscopic databases. Researchers believe this is not an instrument error, but rather the signature of a compound whose identity remains a mystery — a mixture of materials never studied in a laboratory, or even a compound whose chemistry has not yet been characterized.”