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Malynndra Tome was helping to map livestock ponds in the Navajo Nation when she saw something that inspired her to act. An elderly woman was filling milk jugs with water at the back of a gas station in the Native American reservation, where about 30% of people live without running water. How can we be living in the United States of America one of the most powerful countries in the world, and people are living like this here? asked Tome, a citizen who grew up in the community of Ganado, Arizona, in the nation’s largest Native American reservation at 27,000 square miles (69,930 square kilometers) in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. A report published Tuesday identifies ways historically neglected communities most vulnerable to climate change, like Tomes, can create resilient water and wastewater systems. Its highlights include nature-based solutions, tailoring approaches to each community and using technology all the while recognizing barriers to implementing them. What we hope to do with this report, what I hope, is that it actually gives people hope, said Shannon McNeeley, a report author and senior researcher with the Pacific Institute, which published the report with DigDeep and the Center for Water Security and Cooperation. In spite of some of the major federal funding sources becoming uncertain and possibly not available, I think people will find other ways. Climate impacts and the Trump administration Weather extremes made worse by climate change have disrupted peoples access to water. In September, more than 100,000 residents in western North Carolina were under boil-water notices for nearly two months after Hurricane Helene destroyed much of a local water system. In January, several water providers declared their drinking water unsafe after wildfires roared through Los Angeles. One utility in Pasadena, California, sent out its first notice since it began serving water more than a century ago. Aging water systems leak trillions of gallons, leaving residents in some of the countrys poorest communities with a substantial financial burden to fix them. An estimated 30% of the population in the Navajo Nation lives in homes that dont have running water, and many residents drive long distances to get water from public spigots, according to the Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The report also notes that some federal resources and funding have become unavailable since Donald Trump returned to the White House. The Trump administration has cut or paused funding for critical water infrastructure projects, touted a reversal of diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and eliminated environmental justice policies meant to protect the communities the report centers on. Greg Pierce, director of the Human Right to Water Solutions Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the report comes at a very depressing moment where we’re not going to see federal action in this space, it doesn’t seem, for the next four years. Solutions come with challenges The report synthesizes existing literature about water, climate change and solutions. Its authors reviewed academic studies, government and private reports and interviewed experts to identify ways low-income and communities of color can build water and wastewater systems to withstand extreme weather. The report highlights technology like rainwater harvesting and gray water reuse systems that can decrease water demand and increase resilience to drought. But it adds that implementing and maintaining technology like it can be too expensive for poorer communities. The report also advocates nature-based solutions such as wetlands, which studies find can reduce the length and severity of droughts, provide flood control, reduce or remove pollutants in water and protect water supplies. Communities across the country are increasingly recognizing the benefits of wetlands. In Floridas Everglades, for example, officials have spent billions of dollars to build engineered wetlands that clean and protect a vital drinking water source. The report argues for government-funded water assistance programs to help poorer households pay water and sewer bills, like the Low Income Household Water Assistance Program launched during the COVID-19 pandemic. But some are benefiting communities Gregory Moller, a professor in the soil and water systems department at the University of Idaho, notes that some approaches are too complex and expensive for smaller or poorer communities. Our innovations also have to be on a scale and stage that is adaptable to small systems, he said. And thats where I think some of the most serious challenges are. Some solutions the report highlights are benefiting communities. In the Navajo Nation, hundreds of solar-powered home water systems have brought running water to more than 2,000 people. Kimberly Lemme, an executive director at DigDeep, which is installing the systems, said it can be a complex and lengthy process. But it shows that solutions do exist. Water is a basic human right, said Tome, whose encounter with the elderly woman inspired her to pursue a doctorate in water resources. And in order for people to live productively, to have healthy lives, I think water is a big part of that. Dorany Pineda, Associated Press The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of APs environmental coverage, visit apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.
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A gust of wind sweeps over bare soil, kicking up enough dirt and dust to cut visibility to nearly zero, and for drivers, the dust storm seems to come out of nowhere. Such conditions resulted in a pileup on Interstate 70 last week in western Kansas involving dozens of cars and trucks that left eight people dead. Blinding dust also prompted New Mexico’s transportation department to close Interstate 25 from the Colorado border southwest to Las Vegas, New Mexico. Hazy or dust-darkened skies have recalled the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, when millions of tons of blowing soil buried farms and coated towns across the Great Plains. Lesser storms occur every year, particularly in the western U.S., particularly when farmland hasn’t been planted yet in the spring. Some scientists worry that many motorists don’t take them seriously enough. We have a very low level of public awareness of a dust storm and what damage it can cause, said Daniel Tong, an associate professor of atmospheric chemistry at George Mason University who is among the authors of a 2023 paper on dust storm deaths. Dust storms have a history of causing fatalities The High Plains Museum in Goodland displays a photo of a tractor buried in blown soil in the 1930s, a reminder of the consequences of a severe drought across the Great Plains that came after farming had destroyed native grasses. The fatalities Friday near Goodland were the first in the area in a dust storm since 2014, said Jeremy Martin, the Weather Service meteorologist in charge there. But they came less than a month after an 11-car pileup on I-25 left three people dead, with heavy dust cited as a factor, according to Albuquerque TV’s KRQE. Similarly, a dust storm on I-55 between St. Louis and Springfield, Illinois, in 2023 led to a fatal pileup involving dozens of vehicles. In 1991, 17 people died in an accident involving more than 100 vehicles on I-5 in California’s San Joaquin Valley, blamed on blowing dust. Tong and four co-authors concluded in their paper published in 2023 in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society that there were 232 deaths from windblown dust events from 2007 through 2017, far higher than the number recorded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association data. In January, he and four colleagues concluded that the economic damaged caused by wind erosion and dust is four times higher than previously calculated and more than $154 billion a year. A cold front carries dust through western Kansas Martin said a cold front moved through the area of the pileup after it had been warm and dry for six hours. Winds that reached 70 miles per hour (113 kph) kicked up dust that then became trapped in the cold front. That’s when you get that classic wall of dust,” he said. As blowing dust cut visibility on the road to almost zero, drivers slowed down, causing collisions, authorities said. A preliminary investigation found that 71 vehicles were involved, said Kansas Highway Patrol spokesperson April McCollum. Aerial photos showed at least 10 were semis. It was hard to even keep your eyes open outside because there was so much dust in the air, said Jeremy Martin, the National Weather Service meteorologist in charge in Goodland. It kind of stung to even breathe out in it. Similar conditions in eastern Colorado prompted the Colorado State Patrol to warn drivers: Zero visibility due to high winds and blowing dirt. You couldnt see, said Jerry Burkhart, the fire and emergency services chief in Lamar, Colorado. The best thing to do is get way off the road in a parking lot or something like that. A lack of visibility is not the only problem Martin said it’s hard to tell how thick dust is from a distance, so motorists often don’t know they won’t able to see until they’re in it. Weather Service forecasters also said some of the advice for motorists in a dust storm is counter-intuitive. Michael Anand, a NWS meteorologist in Albuquerque, said motorists should pull off the road as safely as possible, turn off all lights and never use their high beams. You dont want people behind you to think youre going in the road, Martin said. That light from your tail light might be the only thing they can see. Theyre thinking the road suddenly curves. High winds make cars harder to control, and a dust storm coats the road with fine particles that slow breaking, and drivers panic, Tong said. He said dust storms are frequent and widespread enough across the U.S. that states should test prospective drivers on what to do in a dust storm on license exams. That could be, actually, a very easy way to educate drivers, he said. John Hanna, Associated Press Associated Press writer Janie Far contributed.
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Lidar has long been considered the gold standard of self-driving technology. Most car companies use the technology, alongside cameras, radar, and AI, to fully assess a vehicles’ environment. Except for one notable exception: Tesla. Elon Musk has always had it out for Lidar, calling it a a crutch, a losers technology and too expensive. After experimenting with Lidar in early autonomous driving prototypes, Musk went a different direction. He ditched radar from Tesla’s production models in 2021, against the criteria of his own engineers, opting instead for his camera-based AI Tesla Vision system, which relies on cameras and AI alone. This has proven to be one of his biggest mistakes when it comes to Tesla’s future. Lidar, which works by firing laser beams to capture a cars surroundings in three dimensions as a way to assess its environment, is widely used in the autonomous vehicle industry because it provides precise depth perception, even in poor visibility conditions. Radar is also needed to detect obstacles further away and calculate their speed…and yet, Musk insisted that vision-based AI aloneusing only cameras, like human eyesis sufficient. As of December 2024, Tesla remains committed to its camera-only Tesla Vision system. We are confident that this is the best strategy for the future of Autopilot and the safety of our customers, the company says on its webpage. But as this video by Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer-turned-YouTuber, demonstrates, Tesla Vision may not be the safest option both drivers and pedestrians. Rober designed an experiment inspired by the classic Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons to compare Teslas Autopilot with Lidar-based systems. He created a polystyrene wall with an image of a road printed on it and placed it in the middle of a real street to evaluate the reaction of the sensors in his own Tesla Model Y, which relies only on cameras. For comparison, Rober also tested a Lexus RX equipped with Lidar under the same conditions. In the initial tests, both the Tesla and the Lexus successfully stopped in front of a stationary dummy and another dummy in motion. But the Teslas camera-based system, which struggles in poor visibility, failed when adverse conditions were introduced. It could not detect the same dummy in fog and rain, while the Lexus Lidar identified it without issue. The ultimate test was the painted-wall experiment. In Chuck Jones classic cartoons, Wile E. Coyote often paints a fake tunnel on a wall, making it appear as though the road continues. The Road Runner always escapes by running through the illusion, while the Coyote, baffled, inevitably crashes into the obstacle. Thats exactly what happened to Robers Tesla, which kept driving until it smashed into the wall. The vehicles artificial intelligence trusted what its cameras saw: an uninterrupted road. The Lexus, on the other hand, stopped immediatelyits laser beams detected a solid wall, regardless of the image painted on it. Some have dismissed the test as a gimmick, but it highlights a fundamental flaw: Teslas system cannot reliably distinguish real objects from illusions. It misinterprets reality because it relies solely on optical sensors. As seen in the dummy test under rain and fog, poor visibility leads the cars AI to make dangerous misjudgments. While Lidar scans the environment in 3D regardless of an objects visual appearance, Teslas cameras only process flat images, making them vulnerable to visual deception. This is a well-documented issue in AI systems, as multiple studies have shown. More concerning is that this test was conducted under ideal conditionsbroad daylight, with no rain or fogyet the Tesla still failed to recognize the obstacle, exposing a fundamental flaw in its technology. This technology has not changed since 2022, when sensor company Luminar conducted a similar test with a child-sized dummy, and Tesla failed in poor visibility conditions. Another Musk mistake This isnt the first time Teslas disastrous design choices have called its products viability into question. Elon Musks obsession with only using cameras goes against the strategy of his competitors. As a result, Teslas Autopilot has remained stuck at Level 2 autonomyrequiring constant driver supervisionfor a decade, while Waymo and Mercedes have reached Level 4, and Chinese manufacturer BYD has reached Level 3, meaning their cars can drive autonomously without human intervention. Waymo, Alphabets autonomous vehicle subsidiary, has demonstrated that its self-driving system allows vehicles to travel 17,311 miles between human interventions. In contrast, Teslas misleadingly named Full Self-Driving (FSD) software requires corrections every 71 miles. Waymos cars are not perfect, but they are light-years ahead of Teslas. In 2024, Tesla purchased Lidar sensors from Luminar, leading some to speculate that Musk was reconsidering his stance. But the reality was different. The sensors were only used for reference data collection, not for integration into Teslas vehicles. In fact, Musk recently claimed that Tesla no longer needs Lidar for testing. This confirms that he remains committed to his camera-only approach, despite overwhelming evidence of its limitations. Rather than admitting his mistake, Musk is doubling down. He has been promising full self-driving since 2014, repeatedly claiming the technology would be ready next year. Just months ago, he pitched the idea that Tesla would launch autonomous Cybercab taxis by 2026while Waymo already operates robotaxis in multiple U.S. cities, and brands like Mercedes and BYDhave secured certification for driverless operation on roads in Germany and China. After watching Robers test, the notion that Tesla can catch up to its competitors without using Lidar seems as viable as Wile E. Coyotes plans to catch the Road Runner.
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