How is NorCo Addressing Climate Change?

"Climate change" is commonly thought of as global warming brought about by our reliance on fossil fuels and wasteful agricultural and industrial practices. But more accurately, it's the term used to describe long-term shifts in weather pattens. Some of this has nothing to do with us. Some of it does. Ironically, the current global warming might actually throw us into an ice age, and sooner than you think. Some scientists predict that the gulf stream is about to collapse as a result of melting glaciers, and if that happens, temperatures here in North America will drop dramatically. There's little doubt that this "busy monster, manunkind" is the culprit. We like to play with "the bigness of our littleness." But what is our littleness doing in NorCo to combat climate change? Does it really matter? 

At last week's Energy Committee Meeting, Executive Lamont McClure outlined some of the small steps the county is taking.

1) Invested $9 million, with a $13 million local match, to preserve 3,599 acres of open space and environmentally sensitive land. 

2) Invested $11,744,162, with a $23 million local match, for livable landscape grants that include municipal parks, ecological restoration, trail parks, park recreation, open space plans.

3) Invested $4,642,862 with a local match of $1 million, to preserve 622 acres of environmentally sensitive land.

4) 256 farms preserved, with 22 easements in progress. 

5) Solar panels on the new forensic center.

6) Working on a project to bring hydroelectric power from the canal.

7) Plans to install solar panels on new county buildings.

8) Charging stations planned for parking lot. 

Fourth Insurance Company to Exit Florida

On Wednesday, I suggested you think twice about moving to Florida. I can understand a winter home there, but never understood why people would want to live in a climate that is unbearable most of the year. I pointed out that Farmers Insurance is leaving Florida. Some of you just denied anything is happening at all, and attacked me and CNN, although my source was USA Today. Others deemed it an attack on MAGAs because they are concentrated there. Climate change deniers came out in force as well. Without doubt, there are those who use this to score political points, but the only point I was making is that having a home located near a coastline is pretty much a bad idea. It makes no difference whether it is a red or a blue state. And now, AAA is joining Farmers as the fourth insurance company that will decline renewing auto and home insurance for some Floridians. 

How about sunny California? Insurance companies are leaving that state as well. AIG, Allstate and State Farm decline new customers because of the wildfires. 

I prefer a state with milder weather and four seasons. Like this state. In another 100 years or so, Easton might be a beachfront. 

The Rise of the Mosquito

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine the deadliest animal on earth. Many of you may think of a menacing great white shark, raging rhinoceros, ferocious grizzly bear, ill-tempered hippo or a sneaky snake. Everyone hates snakes. But the biggest killer by far is the tiny mosquito. It takes 725,000 lives a year. One child every 30 seconds. It is also responsible for Up until now, mosquitoes have been considered only minor irritants here in the U.S. That's about to change. Thanks to rising temperatures, expect to see the rise of the mosquito. Pestilence, one of the four horsemen mentioned in Revelation, is on its way. But is there any cause for concern here in the Lehigh Valley. The answer seems to be Yes. 

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), has just released final counts for its surveys of West Nile Virus (WNV). With the wet weather, 2018 was one of the worst years to date for mosquitoes carrying the virus. A sampling of Northampton County mosquito pools turned up 83 positive results compared to only 17 reported in 2017. In Lehigh County, there were 151 positive results compared to just 74 last year.

“We take any threat to public health seriously,” said NorCo Executive Lamont McClure in a statement informing the public of these results. “Northampton County is committed to preventing the transmission of West Nile Virus to humans. In 2019 we will reopen our Vector Control Department. Since 2016, the County has contracted with the Penn State Extension services for West Nile and Zika Virus. As of December 31st, Penn State will no longer run those programs.”

Across Pennsylvania in 2018, there were 115 human cases of WNV recorded, with 8 deaths. The DEP reported a total of 107 avian cases and 108 veterinary cases of the virus. No human, avian or veterinary cases of WNV were reported in Northampton County. But in Lehigh County, four people were infected. 

WNV was first detected in the U.S. in 1999 and affects birds, humans, horses and other mammals. In humans, 80% of the cases are asymptomatic and 20% involve non-neuroinvasive illness. Less than 1% of cases result in conditions such as encephalitis which can cause paralysis and even death. There were nationwide epidemics of the virus in 2003 and 2012.

Adult mosquito surveys are conducted from May through October, testing them for mosquito-borne diseases. Field Techs focus first on standing water, where mosquitoes lay their eggs, taking samples to test for the presence of the virus. Spraying does not take place until an action threshold, a high enough percentage of positive mosquitoes indicating a threat of humans, is reached.

This August, high numbers of positives were detected in the Lehigh Valley so spraying began in hot spots. Safety precautions are taken for any application of pesticides. Public notices are sent out in advance to residents, people with immune problems, and apiaries. Spraying is limited to targeted areas and done at night to avoid affecting honeybees; streams, ponds and rivers are avoided to prevent contamination of waterways.

Successful control of the mosquito population requires community effort. Homeowners should drain any source of standing water on their property, including turning over buckets and pools and tossing unnecessary items and trash. Toys, pots, cans, tire swings and plugged gutters make for excellent mosquito breeding habitats. Mosquitoes can breed in as small a space as a soda bottle cap.

The Lehigh Valley may wish to consider the approach being used by a Google company called Verily to rid Fresno of mosquitoes carrying infectious disease. For the past two years, the City has sent white vans into problem neighborhoods to release, of all things, millions of mosquitoes. They are male mosquitoes. Male mosquitoes don't bite. And these particular mosquitoes are shooting blanks, i.e. are sterile. When they mate with a female, she is unable to produce offspring. The result is less mosquitoes.

After two years of Debug Fresno, Google reports a 95% reduction in mosquitoes carrying infectious disease in Fresno. A similar project in Innisfail, Australia, resulted in a 80% decrease in mosquitoes.

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma: Wake-Up Calls to Easton's $130 MM Aquarium

Hurricane Harvey produced more rain - over 50" in some spots - than has ever been recorded in the continental United States from a tropical cyclone. So much rain fell that the earth's crust was pushed down two centimeters in Houston. Hurricane Irma, which is pounding its way to the Florida coast with sustained winds of 185 mph, is the most powerful Atlantic storm since satellite observations first began. The storm is actually larger than the state of Ohio. It has actually triggered seismometers, which are designed to measure earthquakes. Its eye - measured at 1,300 square miles - is the size of metropolitan Detroit. Though this is hurricane season, climate change has warmed the Atlantic Ocean enough to make these monster storms far more likely. This should be a wake-up call to hurricane-prone cities like Houston, which amazingly has no real zoning in place. It should also be a wake-up call to Easton, which is planning to build a $130 million aquarium smack dab in the middle of its flood plain.

According to Northampton County's Hazard Mitigation Plan, "Flooding is the most significant natural hazard in the Lehigh Valley." In Northampton County, it occurs during all seasons. In Easton, 433 residents and 21.8% of the City are already in the flood plain. Yet there are only 79 flood insurance policies in place. The hotel at which the Da Vinci Science Center has been proposed has been identified on the county's hazard mitigation plan as the most at-risk property, with 43.7% structure damage and 56.8% content damage in the event of a flood. The plan strongly recommends restrictive rezoning in the river corridor, along with enhanced floodplain requirements.

Between 1955 and today, Easton has experienced eight floods. Four of these have occurred since 2004. Three of the last four flooding events have been 100-year floods. Quite obviously, climate change is having an impact locally.

When she was Easton's Planning Director, Becky Bradley coaxed the City into moving voluntarily into a 500-year floodplain. Thus enables the City to regulate property that is 15-30 above what us called the base flood elevation. In addition, the sewage pumping station was elevated two floors.  Finally, a mobile station has been set up for public works, the one department the City needs most in the event of a flood.

Are these positive measures enough? I think not. Hurricane Harvey actually bent the earth's crust, and the storms in this area are simply more intense than they were 20 or 30 years ago. With just 18 inches of water, cars begin to float and can cause damage. Just an inch or two of water can sweep a person away.

The $130 million DaVinci Science Center is planned near the junction of both the Lehigh and Delaware river, that is most likely to be inundated and damaged in the next major flooding event. Even if the property can be raised through fill and freeboards, it will send water cascading onto other properties. I am hard pressed to think of a worse location.  

Just wait a few years. It will become an aquarium without having to spend a cent of public money.

Easton Mayor Sal Panto has already committed $30 million to this project, and Northampton County is being dunned for $15 million.

I could go for this if there were sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads. Otherwise, no.