Four centuries since the Mayflower shepherded the Pilgrims from England to Massachusetts, its artificial intelligence-powered namesake has become the first autonomous ship to traverse the Atlantic.
The Mayflower Autonomous ship docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia, this weekend after 40 days at sea, completing a 3,500-mile journey from the Pilgrim’s original launch point of Plymouth, U.K., Fast Company reported.
The ship is fueled by a solar-driven hybrid electric motor and a backup diesel generator and is steered by artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other technologies, according to the magazine.
After the ship’s team fixes a faulty generator starter on-board, the vessel will sail south to Plymouth, Mass., where the Pilgrims landed in 1620, before arriving to Washington, D.C., in July.
“The journey she made across was arduous and has taught us a great deal about designing, building, and operating ship of this nature and the future of the maritime enterprise,” MAS400 managing director Brett Phaneuf told Fast Company.
Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. We’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Send us tips and feedback. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.
On this World Oceans Day, we’ll look at the Biden administration’s new ocean conservation initiatives, followed by a call from Americans for more sustainable seafood. Then we’ll examine a Russian-Turkish proposal that could see 22 million tons of much-needed grain released from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
Marine sanctuary could line NY, NJ coast
The Biden administration announced a series of ocean conservation initiatives in honor of World Oceans Day on Wednesday — including a proposed marine sanctuary off the coast of New York and New Jersey, our colleague Zack Budryk reported for The Hill.
The potential sanctuary, in the Hudson Canyon, would help conserve the area’s rich marine wildlife while creating new research opportunities, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
What’s the Hudson Canyon? It’s the biggest underwater canyon along the U.S. Atlantic Coast — about 100 miles offshore from New York and New Jersey, around 2 to 2.5 miles deep and up to 7.5 miles wide, a news release from NOAA explained.
The canyon houses deep-sea, cold-water coral communities, as well as shipwrecks of freighters and U.S. military radar platforms that date back to the mid-19th century, according to a White House fact sheet.
The Hudson Canyon is also a reminder of the power of climate change. The upper portion of the canyon was submerged when a dam broke just before the last ice age more than 10,000 years ago, according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
A bigger preservation plan: President Biden’s announcement is part of a broader plan by the administration to preserve 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030, Budryk reported.
Details of the protections will be determined during a public comment period, at which time local fishing and offshore energy industries will be able to voice their opinions.
Community connections: “A sanctuary near one of the most densely populated areas of the Northeast U.S. would connect diverse communities across the region to the ocean,” Rich Spinrad, NOAA administrator, said in a statement.
“I am excited about how this amazing underwater environment can inspire shared interest in conserving our ocean,” he added.
SCRAPPING SINGLE-USE PLASTICS
The Biden administration’s Wednesday announcement also included a plan to phase out single-use plastics on public lands and in national parks by 2032, Budryk reported.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland likewise directed department staff to find biodegradable or compostable alternatives for these products.
Done with disposable: Single-use plastic products include food containers, straws, cups, cutlery and plastic bags that are designed for disposal, according to the Interior Department.
Majority of marine debris: The agency described the ocean as “downstream of all pollution sources,” stressing that it “bears the brunt of the impacts.”
Of the more than 300 million tons of plastic generated each year, at least 14 million tons end up in the ocean, while plastic makes up 80 percent of all marine debris, according to the Interior Department.
A call to do better: “As the steward of the nation’s public lands,” Haaland said in a statement, “we are uniquely positioned to do better for our Earth.”
Americans favor sustainable seafood, poll finds
Most Americans surveyed in a new poll voiced a preference for both sustainably sourced seafood and transparency as to where that food is being processed.
Respondents also expressed bipartisan support for enabling consumers to track their seafood throughout the entire supply chain, according to the poll, conducted by Morning Consult for the Walton Family Foundation.
Tracing the supply chain: In total, 72 percent of the 2,210 Americans surveyed at the end of May said that they are in favor of increasing this so-called “traceability” of seafood.
This measure gained the support of 81 percent of Democrats surveyed, 70 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of Independents.
Building resilient food systems: The Walton Foundation released the results of the poll on Tuesday, ahead of World Oceans Day, citing “near-universal agreement on the need to protect oceans” in an accompanying press release.
“The challenges of climate change intersect with building resilient food systems in our world’s oceans,” Moira Mcdonald, director of the foundation’s environment program, said in a statement.
Purchasing considerations: Survey respondents also specified which elements of the supply chain are most important to them when it comes to purchasing both seafood and meat.
- 91 percent cited price as an important consideration
- 70 percent cited sustainability of food
- 65 percent cited country of processing
- 65 percent cited wild versus farmed products
- 61 percent cited country of origin
- 61 percent cited legality of food production
When asked specifically about seafood, 60 percent of respondents said they would be less likely to purchase these products if slave labor was used to catch the fish, according to the poll.
Transparency, collaboration needed: “Americans want to know where the seafood they eat comes from and that responsible fishing practices are being used,” Mcdonald said.
“We need industry and government to work together to strengthen our systems so that fishers who are doing the right thing are not at a competitive disadvantage,” she added.
Turkey proposes path for grain bottled up in Ukraine
Russia and NATO-member Turkey suggested a draft plan on Wednesday that would secure ocean passage for 22 million tons of Ukrainian grain out to the wider world before it spoils.
The plan could mark a decisive turning point between survival and starvation for millions around the world.
Easing the backlog: Russia and Turkey expressed support on Wednesday for a plan that would allow 22 million tons of stored Ukrainian grain to be shipped out of Black Sea ports on Russian vessels, The Associated Press reported.
“As Turkey, we find this plan reasonable,” Turkish foreign affairs minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu told a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
An exploding offer: The disruption of those supplies by the Russian invasion has led to food prices spikes — and fears of political unrest — around the world, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
If left long enough, those supplies will simply rot, the CBC reported.
Food deferred: Ukraine exported 5 million metric tons of grain per month before the war, according to Radio Free Europe.
That’s about enough to feed 400 million people, per the World Food Program.
Looming starvation: Nearly 47 million people worldwide could be at risk of malnutrition and starvation as a result of the war, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
This added risk exacerbates an existing threat of starvation caused by climate “shocks” and other conflicts, NBC reported on Tuesday.
Blocked in: While millions of tons of grain are ready to go, Russian ships have blockaded Ukrainian ports — and Ukrainians have also placed explosive mines around them to deter Russian attack, Reuters reported.
The Turkish connection: Turkey — NATO’s largest military member behind the U.S. — also called for North America and Europe to ease sanctions against Russian farm exports, according to the AP.
Opening that maritime corridor through the Black Sea — and therefore through Turkish waters — would allow Ankara to continue to control a key grain supply, and would let Russia also export food and fertilizer, the AP reported.
Ukraine is skeptical: Kyiv and Ankara also discussed a safe sea corridor last week, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
But Ukraine demanded guarantees that its coastline would remain secure from Russian attack if it removed the mines, Reuters reported.
SPECIAL FEATURE
This week The Hill is exploring what’s next for electric and autonomous vehicles in the series “Driving Into the Future.“ Articles from Hill reporters and opinion contributors will be posted throughout the week here.
Efficiency a key component in cutting emissions
The leading international energy group has singled out energy efficiency as an “inexplicable” blind spot in world campaigns to reach net-zero.
Energy efficiency is “utterly essential” in cutting carbon emissions, Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, said in a statement on Wednesday.
What’s energy efficiency? It’s the ability to get more electric bang out of every buck of greenhouse gases.
Double the rate: By doubling the world’s annual increase in efficiency from 4 percent per year to 8 percent, the world can save 95 exajoules (that’s 95 followed by 18 zeros) of energy by 2030, according to IEA analysis.
In context: That’s equivalent to China’s annual energy use — and saving that much additional energy could get the world about a third of the way toward the emissions reductions needed to reach net-zero by 2050, the IEA found.
Added benefits: According to the IEA, doubling gains in efficiency could also
- Save households around the world $650 billion per year
- Free up four times the amount of natural gas the E.U. imported from Russia last year
- Reduce oil consumption by nearly 30 million barrels a day — about triple Russia’s average 2021 production
- Provide 10 million additional jobs in fields like retrofitting buildings
Missing the boat: While 20 nations are meeting today at the IEA to discuss a shared program to raise energy efficiency standards, the U.S. won’t be joining them, according to the IEA statement.
Water Wednesday
Drought rattles California and Utah, while shipwrecks play host to microbes.
California orders farms, cities to stop pumping water
- In the midst of a third year of drought, state regulators ordered thousands of Californian farmers, irrigation districts and municipal water agencies on Tuesday to stop pumping water from rivers and creeks, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, forcing users to find alternatives or go without water entirely.
If the Great Salt Lake goes, could Salt Lake City be next?
- Utah’s worsening drought, already the subject of a federal emergency disaster declaration, could lead to toxic arsenic-laced dust storms blowing off the remnants of a dried-out Great Salt Lake, The New York Times reported.
Sunken shipwrecks host to thriving communities of microbes
- The discovery of thriving communities of microbes on two 19th-century shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico suggest that the millions of wooden vessels docked on global sea floors could host treasure troves of tiny life — the building blocks of greater ocean biodiversity, according to a new study in Frontiers in Marine Science.
Please visit The Hill’s Sustainability section online for the web version of this newsletter and more stories. We’ll see you tomorrow.