Latest news with #Likens
Chicago Tribune
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
St. Charles to recommend Daniel Likens as Police Chief in September
St. Charles has announced its likely pick for police chief, according to a news release from the city on Friday. Daniel J. Likens is set to take over the post beginning in September, the city said. Likens comes from the Illinois State Police, where he served as a lieutenant colonel and the assistant deputy director for the Division of Criminal Investigations Statewide Investigative Command, according to the ISP's website. Per the release from St. Charles, he was also on the planning committee for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, leading operations for the event, and worked as the project lead for an initiative managing the installation of more than 500 license plate readers across the state. Former St. Charles Police Chief James Keegan — who had been on a personal leave of absence since November, the city has said — stepped down in March, according to past reporting. Deputy Police Chief Eric Majewski has been serving as interim chief while the department searched for a replacement. Since then, the city said it has been conducting a national search, which Mayor Clint Hull, members of the City Council and some city staff members participated in. In June, the city said they made an offer to a candidate, but the individual accepted a police chief job elsewhere, according to past reporting. Likens is set to be formally recommended for the role by City Administrator Heather McGuire at the Sept. 2 City Council meeting, the release said. He will assume the role on Sept. 15.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Which Industries Need AI Skills the Most?
AI is changing some industries more than others. A recent report by consulting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests that demand for AI skills has accelerated in three sectors in particular: IT and communications tech, professional services and finances. AI skills requirements in 'physical industries,' meanwhile, are lagging behind as those sectors still consider their best path forward for adoption, said Scott Likens, global chief AI engineer at PwC. READ ALSO: Amazon Ups Its AI Infrastructure Ante and JPMorgan Chase Patent Tackles Synthetic Data Bias The industries where demand for AI skills is high were quickly introduced to the 'first wave' of generative AI that occurred in 2022, he said. They are 'so exposed to AI,' he said, 'just because of the nature of the work they're doing,' which includes tasks that GenAI is very good at: 'Those industries really stand out as the ones that can immediately tap into information, which immediately can provide value on the other end.' Sectors such as manufacturing, oil and gas and healthcare, meanwhile, are still trying to figure out where AI fits in, said Likens. Advancements are occurring in areas such as robotics and embodied AI, he noted, but the change 'hasn't hit the jobs yet.' AI's rapid development, meanwhile, has created a gap between the talent available on the market and what enterprises need, said Likens. Education has yet to catch up to the shift. 'It's not a well-worn technology where we've got grads and undergrads coming out of school with experience,' said Likens. 'We're still changing the university curriculums, let alone having people with 10 years of experience in this area.' So how can enterprises reckon with the skills scarcity? A combination of upskilling and talent acquisition, he said. Along with educating workforces on how to get the most out of AI deployments, organizations need to seek out the 'new thinkers' that are capable of leading those transformations. One challenge is finding people that are 'bilingual': fluent both in the language of AI and the specific industry that an enterprise is operating in, said Likens. Finding a tax accountant who's also an AI expert, for example, is harder than finding someone who's good in either area individually. 'This is not just about technologists,' said Likens. 'There's not enough of those people to fill the need.' This post first appeared on The Daily Upside. To receive cutting-edge insights into technology trends impacting CIOs and IT leaders, subscribe to our free CIO Upside newsletter. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientist says crisis once thought solved may return due to government action: 'An awful way for the country to go'
The United States could see the return of toxic acid rain, an environmental problem thought to have been solved decades ago, due to the White House's rollback of pollution protections, according to an expert. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to eliminate or weaken 31 regulations that protect clean air and water. Gene Likens, the 90-year-old scientist who discovered acid rain in North America in the 1960s, has warned that if rules curbing toxic pollution from power plants, cars, and trucks are scaled back, acid rain could return to harm our environment. "I'm very worried that might happen, it's certainly not impossible that it could happen," Likens told The Guardian. His long-term rainwater monitoring project, which has tracked acidity levels since 1976, recently had its funding cut. "If we don't have the funding for research to look at what's happening, we are just blind," Likens said. "It's an awful way for the country to go." Acid rain forms when pollution from coal-fired power plants reacts with water and oxygen in the atmosphere. When it falls to Earth, it damages entire ecosystems, hurting plants, wildlife, and human health. In the 1980s, rainfall in the U.S. was 10 times more acidic than normal, per the EPA. Lakes became too acidic to support fish, nutrients were stripped from the soil, and rain damaged trees, plants, and buildings. While acidity levels have fallen by 85% since their peak in the 1970s, as The Guardian observed, soil in many areas remains degraded. Heavier pollution also means breathing dirtier air and drinking potentially contaminated water. With these rollbacks, increasingly clear skies could again be filled with smog in cities across America. Do you worry about air pollution in and around your home? Yes — always Yes — often Yes — sometimes No — never Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. The 1990 update to the Clean Air Act that targeted acid rain by reducing power plant pollution passed with strong bipartisan support. "Acid rain is an example of a major environmental success story — the public spoke up and the politicians listened," Likens told The Guardian. Staying informed about environmental policy changes can help protect this progress, and contacting your representatives to voice your support for clean air standards can encourage efforts to safeguard crucial laws and regulations. At home, reducing your power consumption and choosing clean energy sources can decrease the pollutants that cause acid rain. A full return to acid rain is perhaps unlikely because cleaner renewable energy sources now make up a percentage of power production and coal is being phased out in many areas. But supporting these cleaner energy alternatives can help maintain the air quality improvements we've achieved over the past decades. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
US could see return of acid rain if pollution rules are quashed, says scientist who first discovered it
The US could be plunged back into an era of toxic acid rain, an environmental problem thought to have been solved decades ago, due to the Donald Trump administration's rollback of pollution protections, the scientist who discovered the existence of acid rain in North America has warned. A blitzkrieg launched by Trump's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) upon clean air and water regulations could revert the US to a time when cities were routinely shrouded in smog and even help usher back acid rain, according to Gene Likens, whose experiments helped identify acidic rainwater in the 1960s. While drastic improvements in America's air quality have seemingly consigned acid rain to a problem belonging to a bygone era, Likens said if rules curbing toxic emissions from power plants, cars and trucks are aggressively scaled back, the specter of acid rain could again haunt the US. 'I'm very worried that might happen, it's certainly not impossible that it could happen,' Likens, 90, told the Guardian. Likens is still involved in a long-term monitoring project, stretching back to 1976, to sample rainwater for acidity but this program has just had its funding cut by the Trump administration. 'I hope we don't go back to the old days, so these rollbacks are very alarming,' Likens said. 'I care about the health of my children and grandchildren, I want them to have clean air to breathe. I care about clean water and clean and healthy soil, I want them to have that too.' It was in 1963 when Likens, as a young scientist, sampled rainwater in the Hubbard Brook Experimental forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and found that it was 100 times more acidic than expected. 'That was really an 'a-ha!' moment that led us to question what was happening,' he said. Years of subsequent study by Likens and other scientists ascertained that pollution wafting from coal-fired power plants in the American midwest was being transported by the wind, primarily to the eastern US and Canada. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the pollution reacted with water and oxygen to form sulfuric and nitric acids, combining with water to fall to the ground as acid rain. By 1980, the average rainfall in the US was 10 times more acidic than normal, having a devastating environmental impact. Lakes and streams became too acidic to support fish and amphibians, nutrients were stripped from soil and the rain damaged plants, trees and even buildings. A national outcry about acid rain, with newspaper cartoonists depicting people's umbrellas dissolving and mounting evidence presented by Likens and others in public talks eventually spurred political action. In 1990, an update to the Clean Air Act targeting acid rain by reducing power plant pollution was passed resoundingly by Congress and signed by President George HW Bush, a Republican. 'Every city in America should have clean air,' Bush said as he signed the bill. 'With this legislation I firmly believe we will.' 'Acid rain is an example of a major environmental success story – the public spoke up and the politicians listened,' said Likens. Recent sampling of rainwater and soils in the White Mountains region shows acidity levels have fallen by 85% since a peak period in the 1970s, although Likens said the soil remains degraded and any return of acid rain to ecosystems in this fragile state would be disastrous. 'If the Trump administration starts releasing controls on emissions we are going to destroy that success story,' he said. Related: Greenpeace loss will embolden big oil and gas to pursue protesters: 'No one will feel safe' The plan by the EPA to eliminate or weaken 31 regulations, a move called a 'dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion' by the agency's administrator, Lee Zeldin, risks many thousands of extra deaths and a litany of heart, lung and other illnesses, according to the EPA's own estimates of the rules' benefits. However, the exact scale of the rollbacks will probably take several years and various court battles to become fully apparent. The US, too, is a very different country from the one before the EPA's foundation in 1970, when rampant air pollution blotted out the skies in cities such as New York and Los Angeles and rivers were so polluted they caught fire. Major air pollutants have plummeted in recent decades, due to regulations as well as technological upgrades to power plants and vehicle catalytic converters. Coal, meanwhile, has declined as a power source in favor of cleaner-burning gas and renewables, although Trump has sought to stymie clean energy and help resurrect coal, the dirtiest of fossil fuels. 'I don't think it's likely we will see acid rain again because I don't think there will be a comeback for coal – the main beneficiary of a relaxation in regulations will probably be gas,' said William Reilly, who was EPA administrator in 1990 when the federal action on acid rain was taken. Reilly said the Clean Air Act amendments were a 'home run' victory for public health and a high point in bipartisan cooperation between Republicans and Democrats on the environment. He added the Trump administration was now seeking to take the US in a radically different direction. 'I do think this administration will take us back to a pre-EPA world,' Reilly said. 'That will mean unbreathable air, places where there is pollution that you can see, rivers that burn. That is what it was like before and that is what it could be like again if enforcement is cut back.' There is a viewpoint now that scientists are the bad guys, that the science is corrupt – things that just aren't true Richard Peltier Other scientists said a return of acid rain was possible, although it would be gradual rather than immediate. 'It's not like you'll wake up tomorrow and it will be 1975 in terms of acid rain but we could move in that direction,' said Richard Peltier, an environmental scientist at the University of Massachusetts. 'It would take a number of years but why would we want to do that? It's frustrating because we know improved air quality is good for the public. There is a viewpoint now that scientists are the bad guys, that the science is corrupt – things that just aren't true.' Several of the rules targeted for reversal by Trump's EPA are aimed at slashing large amounts of sulfur dioxide, among other pollutants, such as standards around coal plant emissions. 'We aren't sure how far back Mr Zeldin is thinking of taking this,' said Murray McBride, a crop and soil scientist at Cornell University. 'It would take a dramatic rollback to allow that much sulphur dioxide, but it's possible.' After alerting Americans to the dangers of acid rain, Likens founded the Institute of Ecosystem Studies (now the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies) to conduct further research. At Cornell University he then set up a separate monitoring system, near New York's Finger Lakes, which has been running since 1976 but had its funding cut this month by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) as part of a Trump administration effort to shrink the size of government. 'There was no explanation given why they cut the funding and I'm not sure if we can keep the project going,' said Likens, who conducts this work himself alongside two technicians. 'If we don't have the funding for research to look at what's happening, we are just blind. It's an awful way for the country to go.' Related: 'Protect our future': Alaskan Indigenous town fights 'destructive' uranium mine project Likens continues to conduct lectures, often to people who were not born when acid rain was a major problem in the US. 'I try to explain to them that this was one of the few environmental success stories that we have,' he said. 'To see that get turned around is just sad. It makes me extremely sad.' An EPA spokesperson did not answer questions about a potential return of acid rain or how the agency will ensure more people won't become sick or die because of the regulatory rollbacks. 'The US can protect the environment and grow the economy at the same time,' the spokesperson said, adding that the rollbacks were 'the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in American history.' 'This is a very important change from the previous administration's attempts to shut down American energy and make our citizens more reliant on foreign fossil fuels, resulting in worse environmental outcomes globally, billions in fresh funding to many of our nation's adversaries at the expense to all Americans, and economic pain on those who can least afford it.'
The Guardian
27-03-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
US could see return of acid rain if pollution rules are quashed, says scientist who first discovered it
The US could be plunged back into an era of toxic acid rain, an environmental problem thought to have been solved decades ago, due to the Donald Trump administration's rollback of pollution protections, the scientist who discovered the existence of acid rain in North America has warned. A blitzkrieg launched by Trump's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) upon clean air and water regulations could revert the US to a time when cities were routinely shrouded in smog and even help usher back acid rain, according to Gene Likens, whose experiments helped identify acidic rainwater in the 1960s. While drastic improvements in America's air quality have seemingly consigned acid rain to a problem belonging to a bygone era, Likens said if rules curbing toxic emissions from power plants, cars and trucks are aggressively scaled back, the specter of acid rain could again haunt the US. 'I'm very worried that might happen, it's certainly not impossible that it could happen,' Likens, 90, told the Guardian. Likens is still involved in a long-term monitoring project, stretching back to 1976, to sample rainwater for acidity but this program has just had its funding cut by the Trump administration. 'I hope we don't go back to the old days, so these rollbacks are very alarming,' Likens said. 'I care about the health of my children and grandchildren, I want them to have clean air to breathe. I care about clean water and clean and healthy soil, I want them to have that too.' It was in 1963 when Likens, as a young scientist, sampled rainwater in the Hubbard Brook Experimental forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and found that it was 100 times more acidic than expected. 'That was really an 'a-ha!' moment that led us to question what was happening,' he said. Years of subsequent study by Likens and other scientists ascertained that pollution wafting from coal-fired power plants in the American midwest was being transported by the wind, primarily to the eastern US and Canada. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the pollution reacted with water and oxygen to form sulfuric and nitric acids, combining with water to fall to the ground as acid rain. By 1980, the average rainfall in the US was 10 times more acidic than normal, having a devastating environmental impact. Lakes and streams became too acidic to support fish and amphibians, nutrients were stripped from soil and the rain damaged plants, trees and even buildings. A national outcry about acid rain, with newspaper cartoonists depicting people's umbrellas dissolving and mounting evidence presented by Likens and others in public talks eventually spurred political action. In 1990, an update to the Clean Air Act targeting acid rain by reducing power plant pollution was passed resoundingly by Congress and signed by President George HW Bush, a Republican. 'Every city in America should have clean air,' Bush said as he signed the bill. 'With this legislation I firmly believe we will.' 'Acid rain is an example of a major environmental success story – the public spoke up and the politicians listened,' said Likens. Recent sampling of rainwater and soils in the White Mountains region shows acidity levels have fallen by 85% since a peak period in the 1970s, although Likens said the soil remains degraded and any return of acid rain to ecosystems in this fragile state would be disastrous. 'If the Trump administration starts releasing controls on emissions we are going to destroy that success story,' he said. The plan by the EPA to eliminate or weaken 31 regulations, a move called a 'dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion' by the agency's administrator, Lee Zeldin, risks many thousands of extra deaths and a litany of heart, lung and other illnesses, according to the EPA's own estimates of the rules' benefits. However, the exact scale of the rollbacks will probably take several years and various court battles to become fully apparent. The US, too, is a very different country from the one before the EPA's foundation in 1970, when rampant air pollution blotted out the skies in cities such as New York and Los Angeles and rivers were so polluted they caught fire. Major air pollutants have plummeted in recent decades, due to regulations as well as technological upgrades to power plants and vehicle catalytic converters. Coal, meanwhile, has declined as a power source in favor of cleaner-burning gas and renewables, although Trump has sought to stymie clean energy and help resurrect coal, the dirtiest of fossil fuels. 'I don't think it's likely we will see acid rain again because I don't think there will be a comeback for coal – the main beneficiary of a relaxation in regulations will probably be gas,' said William Reilly, who was EPA administrator in 1990 when the federal action on acid rain was taken. Reilly said the Clean Air Act amendments were a 'home run' victory for public health and a high point in bipartisan cooperation between Republicans and Democrats on the environment. He added the Trump administration was now seeking to take the US in a radically different direction. 'I do think this administration will take us back to a pre-EPA world,' Reilly said. 'That will mean unbreathable air, places where there is pollution that you can see, rivers that burn. That is what it was like before and that is what it could be like again if enforcement is cut back.' Other scientists said a return of acid rain was possible, although it would be gradual rather than immediate. 'It's not like you'll wake up tomorrow and it will be 1975 in terms of acid rain but we could move in that direction,' said Richard Peltier, an environmental scientist at the University of Massachusetts. 'It would take a number of years but why would we want to do that? It's frustrating because we know improved air quality is good for the public. There is a viewpoint now that scientists are the bad guys, that the science is corrupt – things that just aren't true.' Several of the rules targeted for reversal by Trump's EPA are aimed at slashing large amounts of sulfur dioxide, among other pollutants, such as standards around coal plant emissions. 'We aren't sure how far back Mr Zeldin is thinking of taking this,' said Murray McBride, a crop and soil scientist at Cornell University. 'It would take a dramatic rollback to allow that much sulphur dioxide, but it's possible.' After alerting Americans to the dangers of acid rain, Likens founded the Institute of Ecosystem Studies (now the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies) to conduct further research. At Cornell University he then set up a separate monitoring system, near New York's Finger Lakes, which has been running since 1976 but had its funding cut this month by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) as part of a Trump administration effort to shrink the size of government. 'There was no explanation given why they cut the funding and I'm not sure if we can keep the project going,' said Likens, who conducts this work himself alongside two technicians. 'If we don't have the funding for research to look at what's happening, we are just blind. It's an awful way for the country to go.' Likens continues to conduct lectures, often to people who were not born when acid rain was a major problem in the US. 'I try to explain to them that this was one of the few environmental success stories that we have,' he said. 'To see that get turned around is just sad. It makes me extremely sad.' An EPA spokesperson did not answer questions about a potential return of acid rain or how the agency will ensure more people won't become sick or die because of the regulatory rollbacks. 'The US can protect the environment and grow the economy at the same time,' the spokesperson said, adding that the rollbacks were 'the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in American history.' 'This is a very important change from the previous administration's attempts to shut down American energy and make our citizens more reliant on foreign fossil fuels, resulting in worse environmental outcomes globally, billions in fresh funding to many of our nation's adversaries at the expense to all Americans, and economic pain on those who can least afford it.'
