 |
|
|
|||||
Remember the banana peels, apple cores, and leftover pizza you recently threw in the garbage? Today, your food wasteand your neighborsis emitting climate-warming greenhouse gases as it decomposes in a nearby municipal landfill. Buried food scraps and yard waste at 51 dumps across Colorado generate an amount of methane equivalent to driving 1 million gasoline-powered cars for a year. About 80 times as potent as carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas over a period of 20 years, methane accounts for 11% of global emissions that scientists say are warming the atmosphere and contributing to more intense and severe weather, wildfires, and drought. Landfills are the third-largest source of methane pollution in Colorado, after agriculture and fossil fuel extraction. Draft methane rules released last month by the states Department of Public Health and Environment would, for the first time, require some dump operators to measure and quantify methane releases and to fix leaks. The proposal mandates that waste managers install a gas collection system if their dump generates a certain amount of the climate-warming gas. It also addresses loopholes in federal law that allow waste to sit for five years before such systems are requiredeven though science has shown that half of all food waste decays within about three and a half years. The draft rule surpasses U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards in the amount of landfill area operators must monitor for emissions. Its set to be heard by the states Air Quality Control Commission in August. Proposed regulations require the elimination of open gas flaresburning emissions directly into the atmosphereand urge the use of biocovers and biofilters, which rely on bacteria to break down gases. The 70-page draft also calls for more routine and thorough monitoring of a dump surface with advanced technologies like satellites, which recently recorded large plumes of methane escaping from a Denver-area landfill. Weve had our eyes opened thanks to technology that has made the invisible, visiblenow we know the extent of the problem, which is much greater than what estimates have portrayed, said Katherine Blauvelt, circular economy director at Industrious Labs, a nonprofit working to decarbonize industry. When landfill operators fail to control leaks, we know harmful pollutants are coming along for the ride. Cancer-causing volatile organic compounds, such as benzene and toluene, escape with methane leaching from landfills. These chemicals also contribute to the formation of lung-damaging ozone pollution, an increasing problem for the 3.6 million people who live in the greater Denver metropolitan area. Indeed, the region along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains ranked sixth in the nation for the most polluted airwith unhealthy ozone levels reported on one out of every 10 days, on average, according to the American Lung Associations 2025 State of the Air report. The state is also woefully behind in its compliance with federal air quality standards. State officials and environmental advocates agree that reducing methane emissions from landfills, which are easier to mitigate than cow burps, for example, is one of the quickest and most efficient ways to slow warming in the short term. Waste deposited in landfills continues producing methane for decades as it breaks downand its one sector where Colorado has yet to directly take action to reduce these greenhouse gases, said Tim Taylor, a supervisor in the states air pollution control division, in an online hearing last February on the proposed landfill methane rules. Colorados draft regulations are similar to those in California, Oregon, Maryland, and Washington, he added. More than 10 landfills in the state are already required under federal rules to have gas collection and control systems. Yet even with such technology in place, disposal facilities routinely exceed federal methane emissions caps. The states health department has also identified a dozen municipal solid waste landfills, based on a preliminary analysis, that would be required to put such systems in place under the proposed rules, Zachary Aedo, an agency spokesman, said in an email to Capital & Main. Many of these facilities are operated by counties, some of which expressed concerns about their ability to pay for such systems. We are a small rural county, and a multimillion-dollar containment system is going to be more than we can build, testified Delta County Commissioner Craig Fuller at the February hearing. The financial equation of this whole thing is absolutely mind-bogglingwe are struggling as it is to provide health and human services. Other county officials embraced the proposed tightening of rules. Landfills across Colorado, including in Eagle County, are leading sources of methane pollution, said Eagle County Commissioner Matt Scherr in a March 6 statement. As a local elected official I support a robust rule that embraces advanced technologies to cut pollution, protect public health and help the methane mitigation industry thrive. For larger landfill companies, like Waste Management, which operates 283 active disposal sites nationwide, figuring out which technology works to best monitor emissions from a dumps surface is proving a complex challenge. The company is testing technologies at facilities with different topographies and climate fluctuations to understand what causes emissions releases, said Amy Banister, Waste Management senior director of air programs. Landfills are complicated, emissions vary over time, and we have emissions 24/7, said Banister at an online meeting last September of a technical group created by Colorado health department officials. Drones produced a lot of false positivesand we need more work understanding how fixed sensors can be applied in a landfill environment. State health officials suggested municipalities could offset the costs of installing gas collection systems at disposal sites by converting methane into energy. Several landfill operations in Colorado currently have such waste-to-energy systemswhich send power they generate to the states power grid. We are mindful of the costs of complying with this rule and how tipping fees may be impacted, said Taylor, an air quality supervisor, at the February hearing. Analyses conducted in other states of their landfill methane rules found there wasnt an increase in tipping fees as a result of regulations over time. Tipping fees are paid by those who dispose of waste in a landfill. If operators passed on compliance costs to households, a state analysis found, the yearly average annual fee would increase $22.90 per household. Colorados push comes as the EPA issued an enforcement alert in September that found recurring Clean Air Act compliance issues at municipal solid waste landfills that led to the significant release of methane, based on 100 inspections conducted over three years. Such violations included improper design and installation of gas collection and control systems, failure to maintain adequate cover integrity, and improper monitoring of facilities for emissions. To address gaps in federal regulations, which require operators to measure emissions four times a year by walking in a grid pattern across the face of the landfill with a handheld sensor, Colorados draft rules require third-party monitoring. Such measurements must be conducted offsite by an entity approved by the states air pollution control division that uses a satellite, aircraft or mobile monitoring platform. The infrequency of such grid walkswhich skip spots that operators deem dangerouscontributes to the undercounting of methane emissions from landfills, according to a satellite-based analysis. An international team of scientists estimated potent greenhouse gas emissions from landfills are 50% higher than EPA estimates. Satellites like one operated by nonprofit Carbon Mapper found large methane plumes outside the quarterly monitoring periods over the Tower Landfill in Commerce City, northeast of Denver. The satellite allowed scientists to see parts of the landfill not accessible with traditional monitoringmeasurements that found that such landfills are underreporting their methane emissions to state regulators, said Tia Scarpelli, a research scientist and waste sector lead at Carbon Mapper. Landfill emissions tend to be quite persistentif a landfill is emitting when its first observed, its likely to be emitting later on, she added. Scarpelli cautioned that its important for regulators to investigate with operators what was happening on the landfill surface at the time the leak was measured. Tower Landfills operator, Allied Waste Systems of Colorado, provided reasons for such large methane releases in a January 2024 report to the states health department, including equipment malfunctions. The fix for about 22 emissions events over the federal methane limits detected in August 2023 by surface monitoring: Soil added as cover maintenance. Like many dumps across Colorado and the nation, the Tower Landfill is located near a community thats already disproportionately impacted by emissions from industrial activities. These landfills are not only driving climate change, they are also driving a public health crisis in our community, said Guadalupe Solis, director of environmental justice programs at Cultivando, a nonprofit led by Latina and Indigenous women in northern Denver. The Tower Landfill is near nursing homes, clinics, near schools with majority Hispanic students. Physicians in the state warned that those who live the closest to dumps suffer the worst health effects from pollutants like benzene and hydrogen sulfide, which are linked to cancer, heart, and other health conditions. People living near landfills, like myself, my family and my patients, experience higher exposure to air pollution, testified Dr. Nikita Habermehl, a specialist in pediatric emergency medicine who lives near a landfill in Larimer County, at the February 26 public hearing, leading to increased rates of respiratory issues and headaches and asthma worsened by poor air quality. By Jennifer Oldham, Capital & Main This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.
Category:
E-Commerce
In less than two weeks, on June 9, Apple will kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), in which it will showcase the next versions of the operating systems that power its myriad devices. The centerpiece of that event will be iOS 26, the soon-to-be renumbered operating system that powers the companys flagship product, the iPhone. Yet, despite artificial intelligence being all the rage in the tech industry right now, reports say that with iOS 26 (formerly referred to as iOS 19see below), Apple will promote something visual instead of artificial. While some new AI features may be baked into the newly renumbered OS, the key feature of iOS 26 will be its complete visual redesign. In other words, your iPhones software is about to look strikingly different. Heres how. Welcome to the solariumand iOS 26 Two big changes are coming to the next iOS. The first is a naming rebrand. Historically, iOS versions were numbered sequentially, starting with “iPhone OS 1” for the original iPhone in 2007. With the iPhone’s 2010 operating systemits fourth versionApple shortened the name to “iOS 4.” However, Bloomberg reports that starting with the new iOS Apple will debut on June 9, the company will drop the sequential numbering of the operating system, and go with the year it will spill over into, just like carmakers do with vehicles. So, despite being the 19th version, the upcoming iOS will no longer be called “iOS 19” and will instead be called “iOS 26.” This change will be carried over to the numbering system on all of Apple’s other operating systems, too, and is reportedly being done to provide a more uniform numbering scheme for its various software products (currently numbered macOS 16, iPadOS 18, and visionOS 2, etc), and make it easier for consumers to identify if they are running the latest device software. However, the rebranded iOS naming scheme is a relatively minor change compared to what else Apple has in store for iOS 19sorry, iOS 26. That change is a radical visual redesign of the operating system. Most of what is currently known about iOS 26s visual overhaul comes from two sources: Bloombergs Mark Gurman and Jon Prosser, host of the Front Page Tech YouTube channel. Both have reported on iOS 26s major redesign, and their reports largely align, suggesting that they are, at least in part, accurate. So what will iOS 26 look like? Its internal codenamesomething Apple assigns to every software product in developmentgives us a big clue. That name is solarium, Bloomberg reported. If youre wondering what a solarium is, know that youve probably stood in one if you’ve ever been to an interior garden. It’s a room fitted with glass walls and ceilings, designed to let as much sunlight as possible filter in. Apple presumably chose the solarium codename for iOS 26 because the entire operating system will have a glass-like appearance. By glass-like, think of an operating system with elements like menus and toolbars that are partially transparentyou can see through them, and the colors and shapes of content behind them will show through, just like light shows through a solariums glass walls. If this sounds vaguely familiar to you, its because Apple has actually used similar transparency in one of its operating systems beforevisionOS, the software that powers the Apple Vision Pro. Indeed, reports suggest that iOS 19s design is inspired by visionOS. But visionOS powers a spatial computing deviceone that melds the physical world with the digital. That 3D interface relies heavily on digital drop shadows and other visual tricks to re-create the feeling of physical depth. However, an iPhones operating system runs on a 2D screen, so dont expect iOS 26 to feature heavy digital dropshadows. If you want to see how Apple will handle transparent elements on a 2D device, you dont have to wait until June 9. Instead, simply check out Apples new Invites app, which it launched in February. You can see a screenshot of it above. See how different the UI looks in the app from the UI of iOS 18 currently? Those glassy panes in the app give the best visual hint of what to expect system-wide in iOS 26. Another reported feature of the redesign is reflective buttons and other elements that shimmer when you move your phone. This shimmering isnt caused by real light hitting your iPhones screen. Rather, the software can tell, thanks to your iPhones gyroscope, when the device is moving and tilting in your hand, and will thus generate a reflective light effect across buttons to give the translucent objects more depth and form. It will probably be very similar to how the home screen icons in tvOS, the operating system that powers the Apple TV, appear to shimmer when you gently swipe them with your thumb using the Siri Remotes touchpad. iOS 26 is also expected to gain other major visual changes, including floating pill-shaped toolbars (replacing the fixed toolbars used at the bottom of iPhone apps now), thinner buttons, a glass-like keyboard, and potentially even rounder app icons. Whats behind the iOS 26 visual shakeup? Those who have reportedly seen builds of iOS 26 say the redesign that Apple is set to unveil in less than two weeks represents the most significant visual overhaul to the iPhones operating system since iOS 7 in 2013a design that has largely persisted through and to the current iOS 18. Indeed, Bloombergs Mark Gurman has called the redesign tranformative, stating that it is one of the most dramatic software overhauls in the companys history while noting that it will fundamentally change the look of iOS. But here’s one thing about change: most people hate itor are at least apprehensive about it. And Apple has a lot of people to contend with. It has more than two billion active devices around the world, used by hundreds of millions of users, and the switch isnt coming to just the iPhones operating system, but to the operating systems of all of Apples devices this fall, including the iPads iPadOS, the Macs macOS, the Apple Watchs watchOS, the Apple TVs tvOS, and the Vision Pros visionOS (all renumbered to “26,” too). But Apple reportedly feels it needs to deliver something this year with iOS and its other operating systems that is, quite literally, eye-catching. It needs something special to help reinvigorate device sales, particularly after the flagship feature of iOS 18, Apple Intelligence, has largely been met with indifference by the average consumer and disappointment by AI aficionados. In January, respected TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo stated that there was no evidence to suggest that Apple Intelligence was driving hardware upgrade cycles among consumers. In Apple’s most recent financial report, from its second quarter, iPhone revenue rose about 2% from the same period a year earlier, to $46.8 billion, but that growth may have been driven by U.S. consumers snapping up the device before Trumps tariffs make iPhones more costly, notes Sherwood. Putting a new digital coat of paint on iOS 26 and the companys other new operating systems is an easy way to make its devices feel fresh againand, if done right, it can go a long way to actually making the ever-increasingly complicated operating systems more straightforward to use and easier to navigate. By incorporating the same design language used in iOS 26 into its other products, the redesigned interface may make users feel more familiar with Apples other devices, which could help spur sales of Macs or Apple TVs to people who currently only own iPhones. The iOS 26 redesign may also help distract from the fact that Apple isnt expected to make any significant announcements regarding its AI platform, Apple Intelligence, at WWDC. Despite the early reports about iOS 26s visual changes, we wont know anything for sure until Apple unveils a preview of the upcoming operating system at WWDC on June 9. Speaking of that event: Apples logo for WWDC25 may be teasing the iOS 26 redesign in plain sight. If you check out the animated logo here, youll notice that the ends of the transparent, glass-like rainbow seem to show colored light reflecting through its surfacejust like youd see at a solarium.
Category:
E-Commerce
Hiring managers arent convinced that master’s degree holders perform better than candidates with two years of work experience, but they are still willing to pay them more. Thats according to a recent survey of 1,000 U.S. hiring managers conducted by Resume Genius. Fifty-two percent of respondents said the performance of those who earn the credential is the same as those with a bachelor’s degree plus two years of work experience. Another 10% believe its worse. A master’s degree simply isn’t experience; it’s knowledge, explains Resume Genius career expert Nathan Soto. So much practical know-how can only be learned by doing the job, and higher education doesn’t prepare people for work. It prepares them for even higher levels of academic study. The survey also suggests a significant discrepancy in how different generations view the degree, with more than double the proportion of Gen Z hiring managers29% in totalsuggesting it leads to stronger performance, compared with just 13% of Boomers. As Baby Boomers age out of the workforce, it suggests that the proportion of hiring managers who value master’s degrees is growing, Soto says. Despite the broad skepticism over its value, 72% of hiring managers say they offer master’s degree holders higher salaries. In fact, one in four say they offer 20% more to candidates with the degree. This may be reason enough to get one, Soto says. Wage premiums arent keeping up with tuition At the same time, Soto points out that the cost of higher education has more than doubled in the last 20 years. Coupled with a one- or two-year delay entering the workforce, he warns that getting a return on that investment is far from certain. If you can afford to complete a master’s degree without incurring a crushing amount of debt, then there are real benefits, he says. However, people in fields without strict master’s degree requirements would be better off entering their chosen profession and then deciding whether or not a master’s degree is essential to their own professional advancement. According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, those with a bachelor’s degree earn roughly 20% more in hourly wages than those without, and master’s degree holders earn an additional 20% on average. Real hourly wages have grown both for workers with just a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree by about the same amountabout 35% over the last 33 years, says Economic Policy Institute senior economist Elise Gould, explaining that her data set goes back to 1992. The differential between a master’s and a bachelor’s degree has been pretty constant as well. Workers with a master’s degree are paid about 20% more than a worker with only a bachelor’s degree. Gould adds that during that time the cost of obtaining a degree has skyrocketed, but the relative earning potential has remained relatively unchanged. The data are about averages. I think it is really about individuals, their resources, their time, what they’re going to study and their objectives, she says. All those factors should be taken into account. Not all master’s degrees are made the same On average, a slight majority of master’s degrees pay for themselves over time, however, positive returns are far less likely compared to other degree types, and depend more heavily on factors like field of study, institution, and location. According to a 2024 study by the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, or FREOPP, 57% of master’s degree earners experience a positive return on their investment, compared with 77% of bachelor’s, doctoral, and professional degree earners. That’s actually overstating the performance of master’s degrees, because the positive ROI is heavily concentrated in nursing, explains FREOPP founder Avik Roy. The average master’s degree outside of nursing has a negative ROI. According to the FREOPP studywhich compares College Scorecard data against wage, occupation, and geography data published by the Census Bureau in the American Community Surveythere is a significant discrepancy in return potential between master’s programs. Nearly 40% of MBA programs, for example, have negative returns, on average. However, there is a significantly higher chance of a positive ROI for those who attend a top-10 ranked business school. Technical programs, like engineering and computer science, were also more likely to offer a return on their investment than not. Humanities occupied the most spots on the other end of the spectrum, with film school standing out for offering the lowest median returns. If you’re pursuing a master’s degree in nursing, computer science, or engineering, the likely return on that is very positive, Roy says. If you’re outside of those fields of study, buyer beware.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||