Toxic Ash Disposal, the Middle Class Dream and a Group Effort: What I’m Reading This Week

I’ve shaken up my routine a bit this week. I had to make some adjustments to my schedule, but it meant meeting up with a friend for tacos—on a Tuesday. What a treat!

Sometimes, when I’m having trouble focusing, I move to another room, or work from a coffee shop or library for a couple hours. (I learned the habit when I worked in an open office, and my colleagues and I regularly worked in conference rooms or the kitchen.) Usually, that’s all it takes. It’s easy to ignore the impact our environment or routines have on us.

I believe cleaning up your desk, going for a walk or striking up a conversation with co-workers is a form of self-care. So, too, is reading the Lifestyle section of The Wall Street Journal. How often do we learning or do something, not for the sake of efficiency or productivity, but for their own sake? Probably not enough. I tend to get my best ideas while I’m doing something completely different, completely unrelated to the task at hand.

That’s what prompted me to start this column all these years ago. Because I believe in the power of surprise and delight. I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as I enjoy researching and writing them. If nothing else, I hope they provide fodder for small talk or maybe, just maybe, give you a sense of awe for all the wonders on Earth.

Until next time, stay safe, be well and be kind!

Toxic Ash Disposal

On April 9, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposal to amend several provisions of the federal regulations governing the disposal of Coal Combustion Residual (CCR) requirements. The proposed revisions would weaken oversight of toxic coal ash disposal.

Lisa Friedman, reporting for The New York Times, explains that coal ash is the waste left behind after coal is burned for electricity. This waste contains a “toxic mix of metals and other pollutants, including lead, arsenic, cadmium, chromium and mercury, which can contaminate groundwater if not properly stored.”

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin described the changes as “commonsense” and in line with the agency’s commitment to “energy dominance.”

As expected, many environmental groups are objecting to the changes. A 2022 report issued by Earthjustice and other environmental groups found that more than 90% of coal plants were contaminating water across 43 states.

But perhaps most unexpectedly, it wasn’t until 2015 that coal plants in the U.S. were first required to report these contamination levels along with other inspection and monitoring requirements.

The EPA’s proposal would revert much of the oversight to states, which also includes a provision to let local permitting agencies bypass national standards on a case-by-case basis.

Read more here.

The Middle Class Dream

Economists, politicians and the like often talk about the middle class. But what exactly does it mean to become middle class? That’s what Lauren Weber and Te-Ping Chen sought to learn in a recent piece for The Wall Street Journal.

The authors profile five people across the country who have risen out of poverty and into the middle class. Each story is different, but they are also the same. These are individuals who had been trying to make it work with the deck of cards they’d been dealt. There were lucky breaks and setbacks.

One woman worked two jobs in college because of a fear of instability. Another remembers being homeless. They all have dreams of a better life, and they worked hard to get where they are today.

They are driven, and they are persistent. They have completed training and education. They have found steady employment or started their own businesses. They have stable housing, saving accounts and families. They want to help others climb the same ladder and give a better life to their kids.

This story reminded me what it’s all about. I hope you read it here.  

A Group Effort

I watched the first episode “All Creatures Great and Small” earlier this week. In it, a female cow has labor complications, and the young veterinarian must intervene. It got me thinking about how other mammals give birth. When I read this beautiful story from The New York Times, I knew I had to share.

In July 2023, scientists were on a boat in the Caribbean studying sperm whales. They ended up witnessing and capturing a whale birth in the wild.

Half of the whales attending the birth were not related to the mother, suggesting that “social reciprocity,” not just genetic survival, may play a role in the participation. Hearteningly, the laboring whale’s own mother was present and particularly attentive to the newborn calf. Sperm whale calves cannot immediately swim after birth, so many of the whales present took turns lifting the newborn to the surface for air. The calf was usually touched by at least two whales simultaneously.

These scientists’ experiences were analyzed in two recently published studies. They add to a growing body of findings that suggest humans aren’t the only species that offer mothers help during and after birth. The experience has, and will continue, to give scientists much to consider (or reconsider) what they understand about the labor and delivery process in other species.

“Aside from science, I think of it as a great lesson for us humans,” said Alaa Maalouf, one of the authors and witness to the birth. “At least in the most vulnerable times, it’s nice to stick with each other and help each other rather than being against each other.”

Read the full story here.