It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, December 30, 2021
Warren Buffett Refuses Bernie Sanders Request to Intervene in Labor Dispute
(Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett is not going to get involved in labor disputes of any company he owns, despite a request from Senator Bernie Sanders.
The Vermont independent asked Buffett to support a group in a labor strike within Precision Castparts Corp., a company Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. purchased in 2016 that makes equipment for aerospace and energy industries.
“I am personally requesting that you intervene in the negotiations between Steelworkers Local 40 and Precision Castparts to make sure that the workers are treated with dignity and respect and receive a fair contract that rewards the hard work and sacrifices they have made,” Sanders wrote to Buffett in a letter dated Dec. 28.
Buffett responded saying Berkshire’s companies deal with their labor and personnel decisions individually, enclosing a copy of the company’s 10-K explaining its operating businesses are managed on an “unusually decentralized basis.”
“I’m passing along your letter to the CEO of Precision Castparts but making no recommendation to him as to any action. He is responsible for his business,” Buffett, who is worth about $109 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, wrote back to Sanders.
U.S. board impounds ballots in union-removal vote at Exxon refinery
FILE PHOTO: An Exxon gas station is seen in Houston
Wed, December 29, 2021 By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON (Reuters) -The U.S. National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday impounded ballots that will decide whether the United Steelworkers (USW) continues to represent workers at an Exxon Mobil oil refinery in southeast Texas.
The NLRB said it sequestered the ballots while it reviews unfair labor practice complaints filed by the union representing workers at Exxon's Beaumont, Texas, complex. The USW alleged that a worker lockout, after contract talks failed to produce a new agreement, was an attempt to break the union and that Exxon improperly aided a union-removal campaign.
It may be several weeks "before we have the results or know what the next steps are," NLRB spokeswoman Kayla Blado told Reuters.
Exxon expects the allegations will be dismissed once the investigation is completed, said company spokesperson Julie King. "Exxon Mobil remains confident that it has acted in accordance with the law at all times."
The union charges "not only prevented our employees' voice from being heard but also denied them an opportunity to end the lockout," she said.
USW International Representative Bryan Gross said the union has provided the NLRB with information and affidavits to support its stance. "We hope this lets the company know they need to get back to the bargaining table," Gross said.
Exxon locked out union members from the 2,700-acre refinery and lubricant oil packaging plant on May 1. The facility produces fuels and Mobil 1 motor oil, and has continued to run with managers and replacement workers.
The eight-month-long lockout will end if union-represented workers sign a petition to remove USW local 13-243 or accept the company's last contract offer, Exxon said. Union members rejected the contract offer in October.
The refinery has continued to operate with managers and supervisors from around the nation at its controls. Exxon has said the 369,024 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery is operating at maximum capacity.
Ousting the union would require a 50%-plus-one share of votes cast.
Exxon proposed a contract with terms it said would allow the plant to be competitive in low-margin environments. The union has said it wants to keep provisions that give workers a say in job assignments.
Negotiators have agreed to some parts of a possible contract, including a six-year term and pay increases that would match those to be set by national USW contract talks that begin in January.
Workers were locked out at Beaumont because of a strike notice issued by Local 13-243 that could not allow for safe, continuous operations, Exxon has said.
The union said Exxon was preparing to lock out workers before the strike notice, pointing to portable housing for replacement workers installed inside the Beaumont complex in the weeks prior to the lockout.
During the lockout, the number of workers at the refinery represented by the USW has dwindled from 650 to about 580, as workers took jobs at other refineries or chemical plants in the region, people familiar with plant operations said.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Chris Reese and Richard Chang)
U.S. can get to 100% clean energy with wind, water, solar and zero nuclear, Stanford professor says
Stanford professor Mark Jacobson sees a way for the U.S. to meet its energy demands by 2050 with 100% wind, water and solar.
His models use no fossil fuels, carbon capture, direct air capture, bioenergy, blue hydrogen or nuclear power.
Jacobson’s roadmap is different from many clean-energy proposals, which advocate using all technologies possible.
LADWPs Pine Tree Wind Farm and Solar Power Plant in the Tehachapi Mountains Tehachapi Mountains on Tuesday, March 23, 2021 in Kern County, CA. Irfan Khan | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
A prominent Stanford University professor has outlined a roadmap for the United States to meet its total energy needs using 100% wind, water and solar by 2050.
Transitioning to a clean-energy grid should happen by 2035, the study advises, with at least 80% of that adjustment completed by 2030. For the purposes of Jacobson’s study, his team factored in presumed population growth and efficiency improvements in energy to envision what that would look like in 2050.
This recent update of that 2015 work has a couple of notable improvements.
First, Jacobson and his colleagues had access to more granular data for how much heat will be needed in buildings in every state for the coming two years in 30-second increments. “Before we didn’t have that type of data available,” Jacobson told CNBC.
Also, the updated data makes use of battery storage while the first set of calculations he did relied on adding turbines to hydropower plants to meet peak demand, an assumption that turned out to be impractical and without political support for that technology, Jacobson said. Reliability of four-hour batteries
In the analysis, Jacobson and his team used battery-storage technology to compensate for the inherent intermittency of solar and wind power generation — those times when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.
The Achilles’ heel of a completely renewable grid, many argue, is that it is not stable enough to be reliable. Blackouts have become a particular concern, notably in Texas this year and during the summer of 2020 in California.
That’s where four-hour batteries come in as a way to generate grid stability. “I discovered this all just because I have batteries in my own home,” Jacobson told CNBC. “And I figured, oh, my God, this is so basic. So obvious. I can’t believe nobody has figured this out.” Mark Jacobson’s garage where his four batteries are located.
Two cars are currently charging, too. Photo courtesy Mark Jacobson
Jacobson said that he observed his batteries stayed charged if they weren’t plugged in when they are off.
To get more than four hours of charge, multiple four-hour batteries can be stacked to discharge sequentially. If a battery needs more charge output at one time than the battery can provide, then the batteries need to be used simultaneously, Jacobson told CNBC.
With this observation, Jacobson and his colleagues at Stanford produced scenarios showing it is possible to transition to a fully renewable system without any blackouts or batteries with ultra-long-duration battery technology.
That’s key because technology for ultra-long-duration batteries that would hold energy for several days have yet to be commercialized. Start-ups like Form Energy are working to bring such batteries to market.
Planning, of course, is also key to keeping the grid stable. “Wind is variable, solar is variable,” Jacobson said. “But it turns out, first of all, when you interconnect wind and solar over large areas, which is currently done, you smooth out the supply quite a bit. So it’s because, you know, when the wind is not blowing in one place, it’s usually blowing somewhere else. So over a large region, you have a smoother supply of energy.”
Similarly, wind and solar power are complimentary. And hydropower “is perfect backup, because you can turn it on and off instantaneously,” he said.
Also, there needs to be changes in pricing structures to motivate customers to do high energy demand activities at off-peak times.
“Demand response is a very big component of keeping the grid stable,” Jacobson said. “It’s used some today. But a lot of places a lot of states in the US right now, the electricity price is constant all day ... and that’s a problem.”
Calculating the breakdowns
So far, Jacobson and his team have run simulations for the all renewable, four-hour battery roadmaps for six individual states – Alaska, Hawaii, California, Texas, New York and Florida, and the contiguous 48 states taken together. (For the rest of the states, Jacobson has approximate simulations, which are available here.)
According to his models, California’s energy mix would include 14.72% on-shore wind energy, 18.28% off-shore wind, 21.86% solar panels on roofs, 34.66% solar panels operated by a utility, 5.32% hydropower, 2.91% geothermal electricity and 0.25% wave energy.
Texas would be 37.66 on-shore wind, 14.77% off-shore wind, 20.87% roof solar, 23.85% solar panels operated by a utility, 0.1% hydropower and 0.19% wave energy.
Jacobson and his colleagues use three types of models for the calculations.
First, they use a spreadsheet model to project business-as-usual energy demand in each sector in each state to 2050 and then to convert the business-as-usual energy demand in 2050 to electricity provided by wind, water and solar.
Second, they use a weather model to predict the wind and solar fields in each state every 30 seconds. This weather-prediction model runs on a supercomputer and is written in Fortran computing language.
And the third component of his modeling matches the 2050 energy demand with the weather modeling of energy that can be supplied from wind, water and solar every 30 seconds. The third component is also written in Fortran, but this portion of the process can run on virtually any computer.
The resulting models use no fossil fuels, carbon capture, direct air capture, bioenergy, blue hydrogen or nuclear power.
And in that, Jacobson’s roadmaps are different from many clean-energy proposals, which advocate for using all technologies possible.
“So we’re trying to eliminate air pollution and global warming, and provide energy security. So those are the three purposes of our studies,” Jacobson told CNBC. And that “is a little different than a lot of studies that only focus on greenhouse gases. So we’re trying to eliminate air pollution as well, and also provides energy security.”
Nuclear innovation is “pushed mostly by the industry people, people like Bill Gates, who has a huge investment in small modular reactors,” Jacobson said. “He has a financial interest. And he wants to be known as somebody who tries to help solve the problem.”
Gates addressed the criticism that he’s a “technocrat” looking to solve climate change with new innovations, instead of with political legislation supporting technology like wind and solar which already exists, in an interview with Anderson Cooper on CBS’ “60 Minutes” earlier in the year. “I wish all this funding of these companies wasn’t necessary at all. Without innovation, we will not solve climate change. We won’t even come close,” Gates said.
Also, the timeline for getting some of these technologies to commercialization is too long to be useful. Gates’ advanced reactor company, TerraPower, announced in November that it has chosen the frontier-era coal town Kemmerer, Wyoming, as the preferred location for its first demonstration reactor, which it aims to build by 2028.
“Even if it’s seven years, that’s just a demonstration plant,” Jacobson said. “That’s not even close to a commercial plant and on the scale we need.”
TerraPower CEO Chris Levesque said the technology, specifically the Natrium nuclear reactor, will make a meaningful difference in combating climate change.
“The Natrium technology was chosen as the first mover of TerraPower’s technologies because we believe it will be operational in time to offer significant benefit toward the country’s decarbonization goals,” Levesque said in a statement.
Winning over clean-energy skeptics afraid of blackouts is a challenge, but Jacobson believes he can convince people to accept that a future like he has modeled is possible.
Renewable solutions for long-distance ships and aircraft are not available yet, he said. “But those are on the drawing board. And we know technically it can be done just as those haven’t been commercialized.”
Education is a key hurdle, as Jacobson sees it. “I am optimistic. But the thing I find that’s the biggest difficulty is the fact that it is an information issue, because most people are not aware, most people are not aware of what’s possible,” he said.
Europe ‘can eradicate energy poverty’ by quitting fossil fuels: EU official
By Frédéric Simon | EURACTIV.com Dec 22, 2021 With clean energy and climate policy reforms, the EU "can actually address energy poverty at the core and get rid of it once and forever," said Adela Tesarova, an official at the European Commission’s energy department. [EURACTIV / YouTube]
While EU member states provide financial support to poor households affected by rising energy bills, the European Commission is focusing on long term solutions like energy efficiency and renewables, which have the potential to “eradicate energy poverty” once and for all, an EU official dealing with the issue has said.
Energy poverty is “a pre-existing problem” to the current energy price hike, which is linked to the inability of people to pay their fossil fuel bills, said Adela Tesarova, an official at the Commission’s energy department.
The ongoing energy price crisis has put energy poverty in the spotlight, with EU governments scrambling to alleviate the burden on the most vulnerable households with short-term measures such as direct income support.
Direct income support schemes, such as France’s energy vouchers, are supported by the European Commission, which put forward a “toolbox” of measures in October to address rising energy prices in the short term.
For the long term, the Commission tabled “structural measures” to boost energy efficiency and renewables, which will reduce Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels, Tesarova said.
“Moving away from fossil fuels is a way to eradicate energy poverty,” the official said, citing EU programmes helping people to insulate their homes and other initiatives to boost renewables.
The European Commission unveiled on Wednesday (13 October) a “toolbox” of measures EU countries will be able to draw from when responding to rising energy prices in the short term, while pointing to an upcoming gas market reform for measures to be considered in the long term.
Despite this, the EU’s response to rising energy prices is creating divisions among EU member states.
EU leaders discussed the topic at a summit earlier this month but could not reach a common position because of disagreements over the bloc’s carbon market, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
“The ETS doesn’t work,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said after last week’s EU summit, adding that higher carbon costs “are very dangerous” because they push up manufacturing costs and consumer prices.
Pawel Cioch, vice-president of Polish state-owned electricity company PGE, said high energy prices are a major driver of energy poverty.
“This is why the ‘Fit for 55’ package should not only enable the achievement of new European climate targets but also mitigate the negative effect that proposed changes will have on consumer bills,” Cioch said, referring to the EU’s package of clean energy and climate laws tabled earlier this year, which aims for a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
In the case of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, energy expenditure already exceeds 20% of the average household budget, Cioch pointed out. And in the case of Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria, the share of energy expenditure is around 15%, he told participants at the EURACTIV event.
If green reforms at the EU level are not accompanied by financial support, he said, energy companies will have no choice but to increase prices in order to secure funding for new investment in clean energy.
“The price increases must take into account the social impacts and should be introduced gradually,” Cioch said. “This is why a reasonable pace towards a climate neutrality which reflects national conditions is of crucial importance, especially now when electricity and gas prices in the EU are very, very high”.
Talks between European Union country leaders on energy policy ended with no agreement on Thursday (16 December), as states squabbled over how to respond to record-high carbon prices and upcoming green investment rules
Niels Fuglsang, a Danish lawmaker from the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in the European Parliament, agrees that something must be done to prevent the green transition from pushing up energy prices.
“I believe also as a social democrat that if you don’t do it in a socially just way you will have no green transition at all,” he told participants at the EURACTIV event. “We’ve seen examples of that in France most prominently, with the Yellow Vests protesting against climate policies” which pushed up petrol and diesel prices at the pump, he reminded.
Baiba Miltovica, a rapporteur on the EU Renovation Wave for the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), an EU consultative body, warned against pushing green policies without at the same time providing financial assistance for people to insulate their homes and switch to clean heating systems.
“Of course we need to exit from fossil fuels,” she said. “But on the other side, there is society” and people who “already faced energy poverty before the energy price crisis,” she cautioned.
Plans to extend the EU’s carbon market to transport and buildings would be “politically suicidal” and risk triggering social unrest similar to the 2018 Yellow Vests movement in France, warned French MEP Pascal Canfin last week. EURACTIV France reports.
Energy poverty: a systemic issue
According to Dimitri Vergne from consumer organisation BEUC, the whole discussion on energy poverty needs to be reframed.
“Too often the problem of energy poverty is approached as a social policy issue and our point as a consumer group is that it is first and foremost a systemic problem” involving the whole energy system and its infrastructure.
By focusing only on social policy, the EU will mitigate the social impact of rising energy prices on poor consumers but it “will never really tackle the root causes of energy poverty” and give a long-term perspective to solve the problem at its roots, he said.
According to Vergne, the Commission’s proposed ‘Fit for 55’ package of energy and climate laws is the right way forward to achieve that.
“We don’t think that the ‘Fit for 55’ package is a risk to increase energy poverty. What we think is rather the opposite – the ‘Fit for 55’ package is the best opportunity we have to tackle the causes of energy poverty” with ambitious programmes to renovate buildings and switch to clean heating systems.
Speaking on behalf of the European Commission, Adela Tesarova could not agree more.
“We cannot resolve the underlying social issues with energy policy but we can actually address energy poverty at the core and we can get rid of it once and forever,” Tesarova said.
“So let’s do it and let’s use this opportunity we have now when everybody talks about it,” she concluded.
> Watch the full EURACTIV debate on YouTube:
How a future U.S. president helped avert nuclear disaster near Canada's capital
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Jimmy Carter was told work in Chalk River, Ont., meant he
A sign from inside Atomic Energy Canada Ltd., located at Chalk River, Ont., from the 1950s. (CBC Archives)
A viral post from the Historical Society of Ottawa is illuminating a part of the region's past that few in the area — or the country — have ever heard before.
Ben Weiss, co-ordinator of the society's Facebook page and speaker series, recently posted about the world's first nuclear reactor meltdown. And while Chornobyl, Fukushima and Three Mile Island often come to mind when nuclear incidents are brought up, this one happened less than 200 kilometres from the Canadian capital.
Even more interesting is catastrophe was averted, in part, with help from future U.S. president Jimmy Carter.
In December 1952, an experimental nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ont., about 180 kilometres northwest of Ottawa, "experienced mechanical problems and operator error that led to overheating fuel rods and significant damage to the NRX reactor core," according to a Government of Canada page.
That page goes on to say it was the world's first nuclear reactor incident, but little else about what actually happened.
Using details from an article written by journalist and author Arthur Milnes, Weiss had posted about the Chalk River meltdown last Tuesday night.
"The next morning … I took a look. And all of a sudden, I realize this story has been on fire all night. I assumed people slept at night," he said. "But it was very extraordinary. And it resonated with people."
The historical society's posts generally garner views in the thousands, Weiss said, but this has been "by far" the most-viewed post he's ever put up at close to one million views — and that's just on Facebook.
Milnes, who also published a book about Carter and his wife Rosalynn, said the former U.S. president takes a lot of pride in his involvement in the Chalk River event.
"It's not a topic that most American journalists or anything had much interest in. So when President Carter found out that I wanted to talk about Chalk River, he was just really eager," Milnes said.
"He got to the point where I ran out of questions."
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, right, is seen inside the home of author and journalist Arthur Milnes in Kingston, Ont., during a past visit to Canada. (Submitted by Arthur Milnes)
What happened?
The partial meltdown at the facility brought explosions and it was flooded with hundreds of thousands of gallons of water, prompting the Canadian government to turn to its neighbour to the south for assistance.
Carter, a U.S. Navy lieutenant who was working on a nuclear submarine project in Schenectady, N.Y., at the time, was called upon to head north.
"We had the dubious distinction of having one of the first nuclear accidents. And the Americans, obviously, were very interested and … worried," Milnes said.
A view inside the labs at Chalk River, Ont., in the 1950s. (CBC Archives )
Carter led a team of men on the mission, which required the reactor to be shut down, taken apart and replaced. An exact replica of the reactor was built at a playground nearby, with Carter and his troops practising taking it apart and putting it back together as quickly as possible.
When it came time to work on the actual reactor, the men worked in shifts of 90 seconds — the high radioactivity made anything longer extremely dangerous.
"By today's standards, there's no way that would have happened," Milnes said.
"In [Carter's] case, at least, he was lowered into the building … with his wrench, and he had to run over to the reactor casing and he had one screw to turn. That was all the time he had. And then, boom, back up."
Milnes, right, and Carter are seen in Plains, Ga., at the launch of Milnes' book, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: A Canadian Tribute. (Submitted by Arthur Milnes)
Milnes said Carter remembered the after-effects of the experience decades later.
"He talks about [it] today. He had radioactive urine for many weeks afterwards. They were tested continuously," he said. "He was told it was likely that he would never have children."
Carter has four children.
After the story was shared so widely, Weiss said people across Canada and North America were reaching out, commenting and following the historical society's Facebook page.
So why does he think it caught so many people's attention?
"Jimmy Carter was the president who saved the day when he was a younger man; it definitely, definitely resonated," Weiss said.
"So they practise everything. And then, as they were actually going in, risking their lives … they were also keeping track of what they were doing on the replica in the playground, as well.
New Report Calculates Cost of the Most Destructive Climate Disasters of 2021
By IANS
2 days ago
TWC India
Cyclone Yaas triggered a flood situation at Sankrail in Howrah district.
(TOI, BCCL, Kolkata)
A new report by Christian Aid—Counting the cost 2021: A year of climate breakdown—identified 15 of the most destructive climate disasters of the year.
They include some of the disasters that hit rapidly, like Cyclone Yaas, which struck India and Bangladesh in May and caused losses valued at $3 billion in just a few days. Ten of those events cost $1.5 billion or more. These estimates are based only on insured losses, meaning the actual financial costs are likely higher.
Among them is Hurricane Ida, which struck the US in August, costing $65 billion and killing 95 people. July floods in Europe cost $43 billion and killed 240, while floods in China's Henan province caused $17.5 billion of destruction, killed 320 and displaced over a million.
While the report focuses on financial costs, which are usually higher in more affluent countries because they have higher property values and can afford insurance, some of the most devastating extreme weather events in 2021 hit poorer nations, which have contributed little to causing climate change.
Yet, in addition to the financial cost, these extreme weather events have caused severe human suffering from food insecurity, drought and extreme weather events, causing mass displacements and loss of life.
South Sudan has experienced terrible floods, which has seen more than 850,000 people forced to flee their homes, many of whom were already internally displaced. At the same time, East Africa continues to be ravaged by drought, highlighting the injustice of the climate crisis.
Other events took months to unfold, like the Parana river drought in Latin America, which has seen the river, a vital part of the region's economy, at its lowest level in 77 years and impacted lives and livelihoods in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
Four of the ten most costly events occurred in Asia, with floods and typhoons costing a combined $24 billion. But the impact of extreme weather was felt all over the world.
Australia suffered floods in March, which displaced 18,000 people and saw damage worth $2.1 billion, while floods in Canada's British Colombia led to $7.5 billion in damage and 15,000 people having to flee their homes.
Insurance and financial loss data on the recent tornadoes in the US is incomplete, so it is not included in this report but may be included in next year's study.
Worryingly such climate devastation is set to continue without action to cut emissions. Insurer Aon warns that 2021 is expected to be the sixth time global natural catastrophes have crossed the $100 billion insured loss threshold. All six have happened since 2011 and 2021 will be the fourth in five years.
The report also highlights slow-developing crises such as the drought in the Chad Basin that has seen Lake Chad shrink by 90 per cent since the 1970s and threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions of the world's poorest who live in the region.
These extreme events highlight the need for concrete climate action. The Paris Agreement set the goal of keeping temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, yet the outcomes from COP26 in Glasgow do not currently leave the world on track to meet this goal which is why much more urgent action is required.
**
The above article has been published from a wire source with minimal modifications to the headline and text.
“Today’s event is a symbolic reminder that we have ended coal-fired power generation in Scotland, as we work in a fair and just way towards becoming a Net Zero nation by 2045.” First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said, right after pushing the button that set off the explosives. “Our goal is to generate 50% of overall energy consumption from renewable sources by 2030, and Scotland’s energy sector is well placed to deliver on the key investments in renewables, hydrogen and energy storage required to achieve this.”
The tallest part of the power plant, called Longannet Chimney, stood over 600 feet tall, and was the largest free-standing structure in Scotland. At one point, it was also the largest power generating station in all of Europe. While other stations have since outclassed it, it remained the largest coal-fired station in Scotland all the way until 2016, when it closed down. For the next 5 years, it stood like a ghost of coal power over the country until ScottishPower rigged it with explosives for a controlled demolition.
On December 9th, 700 kilograms (1500 lb) of explosives brought the tower down, officially making coal history in Scotland. Since 2016, ScottishPower has been making only renewable energy from wind and solar farms in the country.
“At COP26 in Glasgow, we were proud to show the world that Scotland has already made coal history. As a 100% energy company, we are committed to helping the UK end its reliance on fossil fuels.” said Keith Anderson, Chief Executive, ScottishPower. “For half a century, Longannet’s chimney has dominated the Firth of Forth skyline. We bade farewell to that landmark today – however this is a landmark day for Scotland too. Watching the chimney of Scotland’s last coal-fired station fall today represents a real milestone, as the UK moves away from the large polluting power stations of the past and accelerates down the road to net zero emissions. We already know the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is essential to minimise the worst impacts of global warming and address the climate emergency.”
The Longannet plant ran for over 47 years, burning coal from around the world. Typically, it consumed 4 million tonnes of coal per year and at full production could produce enough electricity to power two million homes. Coal came from Scotland, but also came from as far away as Russia to feed the plant’s needs.
Prior to the demolition, the company projected the Global Warming Stripes onto the chimney, and also projected “Make Coal History” on to the smokestack to make it clear to the public that they weren’t just demolishing an old power station, but did so as part of a larger effort to clean up the country’s act in the face of an existential threat.
In other words, it marks something a whole lot more important than just one smokestack or one power station. Scotland is committed to clean, renewable energy and isn’t about to turn back now.
Featured image by ScottishPower.
UPDATE
Scan of mummy reveals damage, repair, amulets and treasure
The scan revealed that amulets of scarabs, snails, serpent heads and the Eye of Horus in gold, clay and stone were arranged around the body
Author of the article:Joseph Brean Publishing date:Dec 28, 2021 •
A computed tomography scan of the face of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep I,
who died in 1504 BCE
PHOTO BY SAHAR SALEEM AND ZAHI HAWASS
Undisturbed for three millennia, the last unwrapped pharaonic mummy has given up secrets to the modern science of computed tomography. A new scan reveals an amulet over the heart of Amenhotep I, a girdle of 34 golden beads at his lower back, and evidence that his earthly remains were damaged and fixed up by ancient Egyptian priests four centuries after his death in 1504 BCE.
The CT scan also produced an image of his face, revealing a slightly bucktoothed 35-year-old man with a narrow chin, sunken cheeks, small eyes and a pierced left ear. His brain remains in place, shrivelled onto the back of his skull. He was circumcised. Amulets of scarabs, snails, serpent heads and the Eye of Horus in gold, clay and stone are arranged around the body. There is an incision on his left flank through which he was eviscerated. Alive, he was short, probably about five foot six and a bit, and he is now the earliest known mummy of the New Kingdom golden age of Egyptian pharaohs whose arms are crossed at the chest.
No cause of death was obvious, but postmortem damage was revealing. A complete decapitation at the neck is held back in place with a linen band. There is resin patched into fractured vertebrae. The left shoulder is dislocated, but wrapped in place. Only three fingers remain. A defect in the abdominal wall is patched with linen treated in resin, with two amulets underneath.
One conclusion of a report published Monday in the peer-reviewed Frontiers in Medicine is that this physical disruption, probably in two separate rewrappings by priests of the 21st Dynasty after 1100 BC, reflects an effort to protect and preserve this king’s body after grave robbery, because by then he was the subject of an important funerary cult.
The location of the damage at the neck and limbs lend credence to the view that tomb raiders were after jewelry, and “hacked the abdomen wall in search of amulets inside the body cavity,” according to the report.
Lead author Sahar Saleem, an Egyptian radiologist who has previously scanned the body of King Tutankhamun and found a knife wound in the throat of Ramesses III, suggestive of murder, told the National Post on Monday from Cairo that “unwrapping” Amenhotep I’s earthly remains without disturbing them was “like the thrill one gets unwrapping a gift.”
Saleem, who started her career in paleoradiology while studying medicine at Western University in Ontario before joining Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities in 2006, said this is the latest of the 40 mummies she has scanned since 2005. Her co-author is Zahi Hawass, an Egyptologist who also served as minister of antiquities under Hosni Mubarak.
Scanning the mummy of Amenhotep I is a special opportunity. It is the only royal mummy that has not been physically unwrapped in modern times. This is due to its unique “beauty and perfect preservation,” Saleem said, with obsidian crystals in the eyes on the face mask, a carved cobra on the forehead with inlaid stones, and floral garlands draping down.
Amenhotep I was a king in the 18th Dynasty who succeeded his father as a boy in 1525 BCE and ruled for 21 years, leading military campaigns and building important structures including a temple at Karnak.
The famous Egyptian Book of the Dead, the body of writing that describes the Egyptian afterlife and is often found on papyrus scrolls ceremonially entombed with royals, is thought to have been completed in his reign, as it first appears in the tomb of his successor.
Amenhotep I was the first pharaoh to build a tomb separate from a mortuary temple, possibly to deter grave robbers. This set a new burial trend and made him the subject of a funerary cult, with many statues found in his likeness and records of feast days.
His coffin was moved and reburied by priests of the 21st Dynasty, four centuries after his death, and ended up in the great royal cache at Deir-al-Bahri, a disorganized collection of royal mummies, with some even in others’ coffins.
Amenhotep I was discovered there in 1881, in a coffin that detailed in hieroglyphs the efforts of priests to rewrap the mummy after damage by grave robbers.
“Gaston Maspero, the director of antiquities in Egypt at that time, decided to let the mummy remain untouched because of its perfect wrapping completely covered by garlands and its exquisite face mask,” the paper reports. “When the coffin of Amenhotep I was opened, a preserved wasp was found, possibly attracted by the smell of garlands, and was trapped.”
“This study may make us gain confidence in the goodwill of the reburial project of the Royal mummies by the 21st dynasty priests,” it says.
Saleem said CT scanning can answer or inform nearly every question about a mummy, including age, sex, health, diseases, cause of death, style of mummification, artifacts, and so on. But there remain questions about the chemistry of embalming materials, which newer developments in CT imaging might help with.
At least 18 peaceful environmental protesters jailed in UK this year
Ten Insulate Britain activists spent Christmas in jail as campaigners decry ‘power grab’ over right to protest
Jailed Insulate Britain activists including Ben Taylor (top row, fourth from left) and Oliver Roc (bottom right). Photograph: Insulate Britain/PA
At least 18 peaceful environmental protesters have been sent to prison this year, with 10 spending Christmas Day behind bars.
As concern about the climate crisis grows, activists have been jailed after blocking roads, disrupting court proceedings and in one case climbing on top of an aeroplane in an attempt to draw attention to the escalating emergency.
Campaigners fear their “heavy-handed treatment” is part of a concerted effort by the state to crack down on the right to protest, with the government’s controversial police, crime, sentencing and courts bill criticised by human rights activists as “a dangerous power grab”.
Ten members of the environmental protest group Insulate Britain spent Christmas serving prison sentences for contempt of court for breaching injunctions banning their road block protests, which demanded the proper insulation of the UK’s housing stock. Seven more have suspended sentences.
At least eight other environmental activists have served prison sentences in 2021 for contempt of court actions, according to Extinction Rebellion, including livestreaming from court and gluing themselves to the dock.
Six activists who occupied a tunnel close to Euston station in London in protest against the HS2 high-speed rail link earlier this year narrowly avoided a jail sentence after charges were dismissed by a judge.
The jailed Insulate Britain protesters have sent unrepentant messages from behind bars.
“Locked in my cell for twenty-three and a half hours each day, I miss my family, I miss my friends, I miss nature,” said Oliver Roc, 41, who is serving a four-month sentence at HMP Thameside in south-east London.
“But when I think about the future we are facing I feel a deep conviction that [what] we have done is right, that this is the best place.”
The activists vowed to continue until the government agreed to a programme of insulating all Britain’s draughty and energy-inefficient homes by 2030 – or until they were sent to prison.
The latest to be jailed was Dr Diana Warner, 62, a retired GP from Bristol.
After a spree of activism, including being found not guilty over a 2019 Extinction Rebellion action at Canary Wharf, and then skipping her contempt of court trial to block a train headed for the Drax power station in North Yorkshire, Warner said she was finally sleeping well.
“The first thing I think about is no longer the climate and environment emergency because I know I’ve done my best and can take a bit of a breather,” she told the Guardian from HMP Bronzefield in Ashford, Surrey.
“Being in prison for climate activism seems very odd. But in such a disjointed world it feels to me like the right place to be.”
Ben Taylor, 26, is serving the longest sentence. He was jailed for six months after telling judges if they freed him he would “go out and block the highway at the earliest opportunity” and would keep doing it until the government acts.
He said life at Thameside was mostly boring. “I was treated a bit rough at first, made to feel alienated, vulnerable and powerless, but I’m on a good wing now and have made a few friends. It’s really not that bad for me.”
James Brown, the Paralympian released this month after being jailed for gluing himself to a plane in an XR action in 2019, said it was important for those spending Christmas in prison to remember they had “done the right thing”.
Brown, who spent 10 weeks in Wandsworth prison in London, said: “It is tough for them and their families at Christmas but it is necessary ... Most of the positive, radical changes we have seen have come about because of peaceful protest and civil disobedience and that is what we need to tackle the climate and ecological crisis. In the end, if you are not resisting then you are complicit.”
Emmanuelle Andrews, the policy and campaigns manager at the human rights group Liberty, said: “Protest is not a gift from the state, it’s a fundamental right, and one that has been attacked for years by a government that wants to make itself untouchable. The heavy-handed treatment – both by police and the government – of protesters over the past year follows a long-term trend seen for several years from a government that has sought to threaten protesters into silence.
“The government and police already have extensive powers to detain and criminalise protesters. But the policing bill is an attempt to take this even further. It is an attack on the rights of everyone who has a cause they believe in, from climate activists to grieving families looking for answers and justice.”
UK shoppers shun plastic bags to save pennies not the planet, study finds
Analysis of 1m loyalty card transactions suggests decline is mostly down to levy on single-use bags
Wales introduced the UK’s first levy on single-use plastic bags in 2011, followed by Northern Ireland in 2013, Scotland in 2014 and England in 2015. Photograph: Gill Allen/Rex/Shutterstock
PA Media Mon 27 Dec 2021
Shoppers have been shunning single-use plastic bags to save pennies rather than the planet, a “big data” study of more than 10,000 consumers has found.
The research by Nottingham University business school’s N/LAB analytics centre of excellence suggests the massive decline in plastic bag use in the UK may have little to do with shoppers’ concern for the environment.
The study drew on more than 1m loyalty card transactions to explore the psychological and demographic predictors of single-use bag purchases.
Researchers found bags are most likely to be bought by younger shoppers who are often male and less frugal but whose environmental concerns do not affect their decisions to buy or not.
The findings emerged with plastic bag consumption at its annual peak during the festive period, despite all retailers in England being legally required to charge 10p per bag.
The study co-author Dr James Goulding, N/LAB’s associate director, said: “Until now very little was known about the people who still regularly buy plastic bags – or those who don’t.
“Previous research has tended to focus exclusively on consumers’ personalities or motivations not, crucially, on whether an individual’s beliefs actually translate into action in the real world.
“Our approach recognises that people today leave in their wake a substantial amount of data that can help do social good and shed significant light on how they really behave in practice.”
Identified from the original dataset of 1,284,825 transactions at 1,222 stores, more than 10,000 consumers participated in a questionnaire exploring their circumstances, traits and environmental opinions.
Their survey responses were linked to their purchasing data, and a machine-learning algorithm was then used to determine the factors that actually predicted bag-buying behaviour.
The survey included questions about views on environmental considerations in general and climate change in particular, but these were found to have little influence on purchasing decisions.
Dr Gavin Smith, an associate professor in analytics, said: “We expected our findings would show infrequent bag-buyers are at least partly motivated by a desire to save money.
“But what we didn’t expect, not least given environmentalism’s role in underpinning the levy on plastic bags, was that environmental concerns wouldn’t predict consumption at all.
“This suggests future campaigns to further reduce plastic bag consumption might benefit from different messaging. It’s a matter of understanding whom to target, how and when.”
Amid growing concerns over the contribution plastic bags make to pollution and litter, Wales introduced the UK’s first levy in 2011, with Northern Ireland following in 2013 and Scotland in 2014.
In 2015, the year after its seven biggest supermarkets gave away more than 7.6bn single-use bags, England introduced its own 5p levy, which doubled to a minimum of 10p in May this year and was extended to all retailers.
