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Oct. 6 to 12
Plastic Bags Making a Comeback?
“Here’s the best part of my energy master plan, you ready? At the supermarket, you’re getting back your plastic bags,” GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli said at an event in Nutley last week. The remark was greeted with a resounding round of applause from the crowd. He made a similar reference to getting plastic bags back in his speech at a North Wildwood rally.
Later his Democratic opponent, Mikie Sherrill, was asked about the remark and said, “I think we shouldn’t be using plastic bags.”
A new issue in the race for governor.
The plastic bag ban that Ciattarelli used to fire-up his already supportive audience is the result of a 2020 law that Gov. Phil Murphy signed and that went into effect in 2022. Once on the books, the issue largely faded from the political arena, with most people not complaining about it as a major inconvenience. It remains, however, a symbol of government interference in the free choice of individuals.
New Jersey joined eight other states that had passed prohibitions on plastic bag use. Colorado, Rhode Island and Washington joined as well. The environmental goal of reducing plastic waste, coupled with a desire to eliminate the dangers of the bags that blow into waterways and wetlands, was the impetus for the Garden State ban.
Although less discussed than it was a few years ago, the ban on single-use plastic bags has retained a partisan flavor. Of the 12 states that ban the bags, only one, Vermont, is headed by a Republican governor. Of the eight states that have laws prohibiting local jurisdictions from banning the bags, only one, Arizona, is headed by a Democratic governor. The choice of governor gives some limited insight into the political leaning of the state.
Last year the National Wildlife Federation reported that roughly two-thirds of the 430 million tons of plastic produced each year is used “fleetingly” and then discarded. Yet studies on the results of plastic bag prohibitions are inconclusive, with some arguing that the inability of the public to use the plastic bags for household trash leads to the purchase of more single-use plastic bags for home use.
AI Favored as a Tool for Seeking Info
According to a study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, AI is rapidly becoming the favored tool for seeking information. People are increasingly turning to AI to “research topics, answer factual questions, and ask for advice. They are, in essence, increasingly using it for tasks that were once the primary domain of search engines and, by extension, news publishers.”
News outlets like the Washington Post’s Arc XP, a platform for managing content for media companies, are noticing the change, reports Harvard’s Nieman Lab. The decline in search referrals is also linked to “a drop in direct traffic from young audiences.”
From Google’s AI-generated responses to search queries to more direct use of AI tools for information gathering and summarization, a full 61% of users in the United States say they have seen an AI-generated response to a search query in the past week.
More disturbing for news publishers is that among those who say they have seen AI answers for their searches, “only a third say they ‘always or often’ click through to the source links,” thus limiting the search referrals. In fact, 28% say they “rarely or never” do.
This means many user queries may now end on the search results page. That is a dangerous proposition for news outlets.
Of course, information seekers need to be knowledgeable enough to spot errors, inaccuracies and downright falsehoods in the summaries that AI produces. Studies have shown that AI-generated responses can be misleading due to a reliance on outdated information, a failure to present nuance and context, and inaccurate citations.
One study reports that AI-enhanced searches incorrectly cite sources over half the time. This makes verifying the information difficult. Of course that is less of an issue if users are not bothering to check the citations anyway. A Columbia Journalism Review study of eight AI search tools found incorrect answers to as many as 60% of news-related queries.
La Nina Is Back
This week the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the reappearance of La Nina, the weather phenomenon that is the flip side of an El Nino and that has a tendency to turbocharge Atlantic Basin storms and enhance drought conditions in the Southwest. La Nina was with us from January to April, and some scientists argue it had a contributory impact on the devastating southern California wildfires.
La Ninas form when the central Pacific Ocean experiences cooling below normal levels. It tends to weaken wind shear in the atmosphere and thereby contributes to strong storms in the Atlantic. It also historically contributes to dryer periods in the Southwest, even increasing drought conditions.
This La Nina is so far being seen by experts as weak and unlikely to last more than a few months. NOAA’s prediction is it will remain through December or at most early spring. The appearance of a La Nina does not guarantee stronger storms or added drying in parts of the country, but it increases the chances of certain weather patterns.
Meteorologists worry that La Nina could further worsen conditions that fueled the wildfires. The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that conditions in Southern California as similar to the drought conditions when the January firestorms occurred.
According to NOAA, El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is “a cycle of warm El Niño and cool La Niña episodes that happen every few years in the tropical Pacific Ocean. It is the most dramatic year-to-year variation of the Earth’s climate system, affecting agriculture, public health, freshwater availability, power generation, and economic activity in the United States and around the globe.”
Scientists also say that climate change is influencing changes in ocean temperatures, leading to more frequent and more extreme El Nino and La Nina events.
Week in Review
*Cape May County is one of the top second-home markets in America, but for the people who work here, stable year-round housing – either to buy or to rent – is nearly impossible to find.
*In a county where affordable housing is vanishing, Cape Hope is trying something new: It’s moving a house slated for demolition so a family in need can live there instead.
*A Vineland man has been arrested and charged with lewd behavior in the Higbee Beach section of Lower Township, south of the Cape May Canal.
*A large data center complex, consisting of six buildings at 220,000 square feet each – the equivalent in square feet to five Wildwood Convention centers – is nearing completion in Vineland.
*A Cape May County grand jury handed up 15 indictments Oct. 7.
*Lower Township is laying down the law for riders of e-bikes and e-scooters, as well as other powered bikes and low-speed vehicles, saying they’ll have to conform to traffic laws or face penalties.
*Two incumbent school board members and a third candidate who previously served on the board are running against three newcomers for three seats on the Upper Township school board in the Nov. 4 election.
*Hermit crabs have been part of the Jersey Shore for nearly three quarters of a century, but selling them in North Wildwood will now require more than two state licenses.
*There were no injuries to either humans or animals reported following a two-alarm fire that destroyed a barn in Belleplain Monday evening, Oct. 6, authorities said.
*Lauren Read, who has long served Lower Township as its chief financial officer, has been appointed the new CFO of Cape May.
*The Sunset Beach Sportsmen’s Club filed an appeal to the state Supreme Court on Thursday, Oct. 2. Two days earlier, the Appellate Division upheld a ruling by Superior Court Judge Dean Marcolongo that the club would have to vacate the state land upon which it sits.
*Stone Harbor is moving closer to initiating a boroughwide property reassessment.
*An appearance by gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli was the highlight of a three-hour Republican rally on the Wildwoods boardwalk that blended Christianity and politics ahead of the Nov. 4 election.
Spout Off of the Week
NJ needs to require a license and insurance for every motorized golf cart, scooter and bike for safety and accountability and if the state won’t Cape May County must!
Wildwood Crest
